Original subtitles

We are not enemies, but friends.

We must not be enemies.

Though passion may have strained it,

must not break our bonds of affection.

The mystic cords of memory stretching from every

battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and

hearthstone all over this broad land will yet swell the

chorus of the Union when again touched,

as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

During the middle of July,

1863, General Lee's bloodied Army of Northern Virginia

limped back into central Virginia and the Army of the

Potomac, despite President Lincoln's frustration,

let Lee's force escape.

While those events in Virginia dominated the public's

attention through the press, another Confederate force in

Charleston, South Carolina tried to hold off a powerful

Federal force from capturing the "cradle of the Rebellion."

The Confederate general commanding that defense

was the famous P.G.T. Beauregard,

the hero of First Manassas and one of the south's

best engineering officers and strategists.

Dozens of miles of earthworks surrounded the northern and

southern approaches into the Confederate city but the

greatest of efforts was directed

along the southern approaches.

Commanding one of those passages into the harbor was

Fort Wagner and it was deemed necessary to take this fort

by direct assault.

The officer assigned to lead the attack was Brigadier

General George Strong, who would get his white regiments

ready for this dubious offering;

but would be joined by another new to this theater of

warfare, the 54th Massachusetts Infantry.

This regiment, raised in Massachusetts by Governor John

Andrew with the consultation of Frederick Douglass and

other abolitionists, was the first northern black regiment

sent to the war.

It was comprised of highly recruited individuals from

several northern states and was intended as a model

regiment to demonstrate before the people of the country,

Lincoln's administration and the world.

It's colonel was a wealthy young man by the name of

Robert Gould Shaw, whose abolitionist parents

were his inspiration.

This was a regiment further comprised of highly skilled

and highly educated colored men,

which included even Frederick Douglas' son,

Lewis, who was appointed by Shaw as the sergeant-major of

the regiment, and he would be another key participant

in the attack.

The attack was ordered for July 18, 1863.

The 54th, approximately 600 men,

were split into halves or a column of wings of the

regiment, Shaw commanding in front and Lt. Colonel

Edward Hallowell commanded the rear wing.

The left flank was nearly touching the marsh on the left

and the right nearly in the wake of the ocean.

The attack rolled forward and within a few hundred yards of

the fort, the Confederate small arms and artillery

combined to make the narrow land passage towards the fort

a very difficult place to pass alive,

let alone in a military formation.

The 54th did not waver, and as the men were in the moat,

Colonel Shaw, near his colors, launched up and upon the

parapet where he was heard to call out,

"come on 54th!"

and fell immediately after; but his men were infused with

his spirit and hurled themselves

at the Confederate defenders.

Bayonets and clubbed muskets were the weapons of choice in

the sand parapets.

The 54th, unsupported, could take but not hold the parapet.

The brave black regiment begrudgingly gave way back out

of the fort and held the dunes through darkness.

The 54th's national colors were saved from capture by

Sergeant William Carney, who despite being wounded in his

leg, arm, chest, and face, crawled several hundred yards

to safety telling his comrades,

that "the old flag never touched the ground" and would

eventually win the medal of honor.

As far as the remainder of the regiment,

they did in fact do the job that they were asked to do.

But, the cost was staggering, for the regiment lost 272 men,

killed, wounded, and missing,

including sergeant-major Douglass.

Approximately 30 men were killed outright and almost

double that number would die of their wounds.

The other regiment sustained significant casualties and

Fort Wagner was never taken.

Months later it was abandoned.

Charleston would hold out until 1865.

The summer of 1863 was indeed an active period

of campaigning on all fronts.

In the middle of the country, Federal forces attempted to

drive a wedge into the Confederacy

through central Tennessee.

This would first be realized in the little known

Tullahoma Campaign.

The Federal commander of the Army of the Cumberland,

General William Rosecrans, looked to confront the

Confederate Army of Tennessee under General Braxton Bragg,

and engage in a locked campaign to prevent more troops from

the theater from going to help fight against Grant

in Mississippi.

It was in fact a brilliant campaign in which the Army of

the Cumberland outflanked and pushed off Bragg's men from

very strong defensive positions.

It was a campaign that started an ongoing series of

engagements in which this theme of Confederates who were

strongly entrenched would be outmaneuvered

by a Federal army.

During the late summer, Bragg was reinforced by the

Army of Northern Virginia.

In a harrowing series of train rides,

General James Longstreet with two divisions of his vaunted

1st Corps of Lee's army was sent to assist Bragg and other

operations in eastern Tennessee and northern Georgia.

This was a rare instance of the eastern and western armies

shifting troops effectively but it did give Bragg a slight

numerically superiority and also a set of proven field

commanders in Generals Hood and McLaws who led those two

divisions with Longstreet.

The famed Texas brigade was a part of that command and one

of those soldiers, J.B. Polley of the 4th Texas Infantry,

would describe that ride in his memoirs. He wrote:

At what date the Texas brigade took the

train at Richmond cannot be stated.

It started, and made the journey down to Georgia,

in unseated flat and box cars - I slept on the floors and

tops of these as best I could - and subsisted on hardtack

and uncooked bacon.

Safe at Wilmington, North Carolina,

where it stayed a day and a night and made its only change

of train, it had no relief between Richmond and Atlanta

for the constant joltings of springless freight cars

running over roadbeds made rough by consistent usage,

and seldom ever been repaired.

The great Battle of Chickamauga was opened on the

morning of the 19th with a series of skirmishes around

Reed's Bridge where it fell under the Federal tactical

command of the 14th Corps commanded by

General George Thomas.

This officer, a Virginian, was a loyal Unionist

and a solid officer.

At length the enemy closed in upon us as if like a

flame, or a rushing tide, they would lap us up;

they were on our right, front, and rear,

and we had to cut our way out the best we could.

My losses were dreadful to contemplate. 750 men.

Reinforcements came too late for my brave boys.

They too were struck as a whirlwind

and hurled into disorder.

There were two days of epic,

large-scale fighting with the Confederates pushing the

Federals hard, and Rosecrans' boys buckeld

after a proud effort.

Near the end of the fighting, General Rosecrans rode from

the battle and into Chattanooga.

He wanted to organize the troops who would be pouring

into the town from the Chickamauga battlefield.

He wanted Thomas to hold his ground,

protect the road northward and cover a retreat.

Not only did Thomas perform this task,

but his defense inflicted thousands of casualties into

the late evening of the 20th.

This performance would endure with a nickname for George

Thomas, forever known as "The Rock of Chickamauga."

After darkness the fighting died off and within a few

hours Thomas had his plan for retreating put into effect.

The Federals still would hold Chattanooga and would

eventually draw on another fight outside the defenses

of the city.

This tactical victory was the greatest bloodshed in the

western theater, with over 34,000 combined casualties.

The war was getting bloodier as both armies were getting

better at killing on these battlefields.

Following The Army of the Cumberland's retreat

into Chattanooga, Bragg slowly followed up this victory,

but would eventually besiege his enemy around Chickamauga.

The Army of Tennessee would hold the high ground near

Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain

and both sides were fortified.

Throughout October and into November both sides skirmished

and stared at one another across the picket lines.

With Generals Sherman, Hooker and Burnside dispatched to

assist the Union effort in Chattanooga,

various fighting took place along the line but after the

beginning of November as Federal movements would begin

to increase, General Bragg sent off Longstreet's

Divisions to drive Burnside from Knoxville,

and had also sent off his cavalry commands.

Longstreet's loss was a key loss and if the Federals

attacked, those men would be sorely missed.

Grant would see to it that he would not wait all that long

and prepared to hit Bragg's men.

One soldier on that hill, Lt. Joshua Calloway,

discussed his sentiments on this situation

in a letter home to his wife. He wrote:

My dear darling wife... I have not

received any letter from you since the last time I wrote

you, and I merely write you to merely kill time,

which is the greatest burden I have.

I am almost dead to see you and be with you.

My patience is worn entirely out by this war.

I am perfectly miserable; but god knows if I could see any

prospect for peace, even a year hence,

I could manage to bear it.

...the sun is up just above the top of Missionary Ridge,

shedding golden light all over the valley,

which is variegated with ten thousand autumn tints.

And the Yankees tents are so thick that their camps look

like a vast cotton field in the distance.

By the third week in November,

Grant put his war machines in motion after a comprehensive

planning system that involved Sherman making a flanking

movement to the north.

Things moved quickly.

On November 23rd Federal soldiers under General Thomas

Wood advanced on Confederate positions at Orchard Knob,

and then on November 24th captured Lookout Mountain.

It seemed as if the moment was right to test Bragg.

On November 25th both Sherman and Hooker met obstinate

resistance and gained little ground.

By the afternoon Grant wanted to push up the middle and that

fell upon the Army of the Cumberland.

As if on impulse, Thomas' men rolled onward like a wave,

seemingly with a desire to lock with

the Army of Tennessee.

Men scrambled up the hillsides in broken order,

following flags and shooting as they went.

The volleys of Confederates followed by the rebel yell was

heard distinctly and then followed by the deeper roar of

the Yankee Huzzah.

Thomas' men overran the advance pits and soon there

was a confused mass of firing and hand to hand fights,

with some prisoners being sent down the slopes.

Federal flags were seen crowning the eminence,

including one 19 year old Arthur McArthur of the 24th

Wisconsin Infantry, who clambered up the slope making

himself conspicuous to the enemy yelling "ON WISCONSIN!"

For this he would be promoted, awarded the medal of honor,

and significantly inspire his son to pursue a military

career of his own fame.

The troops of the Army of the Cumberland splintered the

lines of the Army of Tennessee.

Bragg could not hold his lines and ordered a retreat.

For the major armies in the east and west,

the year of 1863 ended in a similar way,

with the Federals on the hunt for a chance to crush a

wounded and weakened Confederate Army.

The Army of the Potomac under General George Meade made its

camps between Brandy Station and Warrenton,

Virginia and was in fine spirits.

As for the Army of Northern Virginia,

they were weakened but still dangerous.

There was an overall symptom of depression that oozed from

the units in Lee's command and religious revivals popped up

from camp to camp where men would look to God for

assistance and guidance in the hardships of continuing to be

motivated in fighting.

Lee himself felt like he could hold the Federals off in every

turn but wanted more opportunities

for the offensive.

Grant was promoted to commanding officer of all

Federal armies and chose to keep his headquarters in

Virginia where he would see to the plans for three armies

operating there come the end of winter.

Sherman was promoted to command all those forces that

had been consolidated at Chattanooga and participated

with the army at Missionary Ridge.

He would plan for an advance towards Atlanta in conjunction

with other Federal armies driving through and into the

Confederacy at other locations.

Grant's larger plan was to put all the troops of the Union in

motion at once, a half of a million men in the field with

a mission to wear the Confederate armies down.

In the west, Bragg was replaced and General Joe

Johnston was put in command, and he would be the one that

would be assigned to confront the aggressive Sherman as he

began to make movements southward once the roads dried

out and allowed for an army to move.

The Army of the Potomac would retain Meade,

but Grant had a new and more specific mission for the army,

and that was to hound, engage, and fight Lee to the death.

To assist this operation in Virginia two other armies were

put into the fight simultaneously to Meade's

operation along the Rapidan.

Franz Sigel would command a small army in the Shenendoah

Valley and was ordered to destroy any force there,

to place upon Lee's rear if possible,

and curtail supplies for Lee's army.

In addition to this was a larger force under General

Benjamin Butler that would be placed below Richmond and look

towards an assault on Richmond,

as well as perform the vital task of disrupting the

communications between North Carolina and Virginia.

To many in Lee's Army, the religious revivals,

the warmth of spring, and the return of so many wounded men

may have sprung them into some semblance of order,

but only the fight would tell the truth of that.

Colonel E.P. Alexander and his artillery battalion

would be in the heart of this new fight.

Alexander wrote of this attitude about Grant

and the 1864 campaign:

We all knew of the tremendous

preparations of the enemy, and enormous odds we would have to

face, under their new general who had beaten all of our

people in the west, and we knew that rivers of blood

must be poured out in this struggle.

But we were only anxious for it to begin.

We wanted to see Grant introduced to the Army of

Northern Virginia, and to let him have a smell

of our powder.

For we knew that we simply could not be driven off

a battlefield and that whatever force Grant brought,

with luck would have to accommodate itself

to that fact...

General Lee was curious about what action

Grant would take into this 1864 campaign,

and from atop a lookout station at Clark's Mountain,

he was surveying the options.

If Grant moved southward from his camps he would expose his

rear to harassment by Stuart, Moseby,

and various infantry movements,

not to mention uncovering routes into Washington.

Lee correctly judged that Grant would have the Army of

the Potomac push through the Wilderness near the old

Chancellorsville battlefield, and when through,

attempt to secure some open land and force Lee into a

pitched battle where numbers and artillery

could make a difference.

Lee would want to hit Grant amongst the trees in the

Wilderness where his lesser numbers and infantry

reputation for close in action would come into play.

The Army of Northern Virginia was in an interesting

situation that first week in May, 1864, and the armies always

knew when a campaign was going to begin.

General Robert McAlliser of New Jersey wrote a brief note

to his wife Ellen and their children:

It is now quite late, and we are all ready

to move tonight at midnight.

In four hours we will be on the move and no doubt engage

the enemy soon.

I think it is a general move.

You will hear of battles, perhaps before this reaches you.

God grant that we may be successful... I hope and pray

that God will give me mind and judgment to manage the Brigade

and enable me to do my whole duty to my country.

On May 5th the pickets and skirmishers of

both sides knocked into one another along the

Orange-Fredericksburg Turnpike.

These forces, the leading elements of Warren's 5th Corps

and portions of other commands,

probed up the road and would find

that their path was blocked.

The 2nd Corps, under Ewell, was closest to Grant's push

southward, still holding some of its defenses until Warren was

discovered turning his flank from the Rapidan River

crossing at Germanna Ford.

Ewell then moved his men by the right flank into the path

of Warren's veteran 5th Corps.

One soldier, Sergeant John Worsham of the 21st Virginia

Infantry, was in the front lines of this confrontation.

He wrote of this initial fight:

All knew that Grant had crossed the Rapidan,

and soon the tumult of battle would begin.

The march continued and command "Close up,

soon the order, "Halt, load your guns!"

then "shoulder, arms, march!"

Soon the battle line was formed... we broke the enemy's

line in front, and made no halt in our advance,

on we went shooting as fast as we could load.

Suddenly I was confronted by a gun, resting on a big stump,

and behind the stump we saw a yank.

We hallooed to him to lay down his gun,

several of us took aim at him; he started to rise,

but before he could do so, a little crack of the gun and

the yank fell dead!...we advanced to a dense pine

thicket and halted, every man falling flat on the ground

at once for protection!

The men could not see very much of the enemy and

the fighting got close and because of this,

melees erupted everywhere, volleys were shot in the

direction of the enemy musket flashes,

and there was generally much confusion.

One soldier of the Vermont Brigade,

Sergeant Nelson Cole, wrote of this clash:

We went by flank into line on the double quick

but did not get into line before they fired a volley into us.

There was not over 150 yds. away.

This volley thinned our ranks in a fearful manner.

Capt. Wales, my Captain, was seriously wounded.

He was shot through the lung.

About that time we had orders to fall back and the enemy

opened another volley but we got him out all right.

A shot went through my blouse pocket and tore a bunch of

cartridges to pieces and another went through my pants

leg but they did not draw blood.

...We cut a slash and built breast works and lay behind

them until the next day the picketts were driven in.

The Rebs advanced in three lines.

When the 1st line got through the slack,

we gave them another which stopped them.

The dead and dying were in every shape.

We then charged and brought in a lot of prisoners.

They fell back and we formed a new line of picketts.

The loss in the Vermont Brigade was staggering

but they bought the army time, and eventually the 2nd Corps

came up and held the line.

The 2nd Corps and Hill's Confederate 3rd Corps would

then begin a fight that was a tangled mess.

Getty's 6th Corps Division and then elements of Hancock's men

attacked Hill's lines.

The Confederate Division of Henry Heth and then troops

under Brigadier General Cadmus Wilcox did some superb

fighting through the darkness, holding their ground,

a tenuous hold.

On the morning of May 6, the fighting along both lines

would become general as all the troops arrived in the

field, with the Federal 5th Corps holding the right flank

supported by elements of the 6th,

Burnside's 9th engaged in the center,

playing on A.P. Hill's flank and rear,

and Hancock's stalwarts held the left against Hill.

Lee seemed to be tearfully jubilant,

and as he rode amongst the famed Texas Brigade,

he intended on going forward into the attack with them.

The soldiers started calling out to him,

"Lee to the rear! Lee to the Rear!!"

Lee, seeing that he was slowing their advance,

complied with their demands and the Texans,

along with other veteran troops of Longstreet's Corps,

plunged into the Hancock's 2nd Corps.

One of the last actions on May 6 was Brigadier General John

Gordon's attack on the right flank of the Federal army

which pounced on some elements of the 6th Corps there,

rolling them up and capturing two Union generals.

This almost caused a panic amongst the men

at Grant's head quarters.

Grant told them to stop worrying about what Lee would

do and keep focused on what they would do to fight him.

It was a telling moment as Grant was not Hooker and was

in no way intimidated by Lee, as the rest

of the campaign would show.

Perhaps Grant would be outgeneraled on a few

occasions, but was never scared of Lee.

By the morning of the 8th the Army of the Potomac was put in

motion, Meade and Grant, were surely frustrated by the

jumbled mass of confusion in the forrests.

Lee had bested Grant on the first meeting,

the Army of the Potomac sustaining over 17,000

casualties and the Army of Northern Virginia lost somewhere

between 8,000 and 11,000 men.

The race would soon begin for the rolling hill country

towards Spotsylvania Court House.

Due to some great engineering and cavalry usage,

Lee's men won the race and would force Grant to attack at

the Battle of Spotylvania.

It was known and promoted that Grant made a declaration

that the press loved.

U.S. Grant stated that he intended on

"fighting it out on this line if it takes all summer"

in this upcoming battle.

Grant was absolutely locking horns with Lee and he would in

fact not let up the pressure.

No where would that fighting be more brutal and ghastly

than at Spotsylvania.

Lee's veterans had fought a major engagement,

held back the big Army of the Potomac,

and within days they were finding themselves

beginning another slaughter.

This fight would begin on May 8,

when troops under General Richard Anderson,

Longstreet's replacement, relieved the hard pressed

cavalry from a blocking position,

they through up works and took on troops of Warren's 5th

Corps and Sedgwick's 6th Corps at Laurel Hill with the

Spindle Farm between the lines bearing mute testimony to the

carnage that renewed itself soon after the Wilderness.

Wave after wave of Union infantry hurled themselves

against Anderson and were cut down to the point that

officers and men had to consider mutiny if asked to

try it another time.

It was at this location that the beloved "Uncle John"

Sedgwick, commander of the 6th Corps,

was hit by a Confederate sharpshooter early on the 9th.

His men had little time to mourn his loss and they were

soon up against more Confederate defenses.

Before more action could be thrown against the troops of

Anderson, Ewell came around and occupied Anderson's right

flank, continuing the line, and immediately digging in.

This line would be continued on the 9th and both sides

brought up the remainder of their armies.

Lee was allowing his army to dig in and take on the

assaults of the Army of the Potomac and Meade and Grant

had him stationary as they had wanted when the campaign

began, but Lee's men were getting efficient at erecting

fortifications over night and by the 10th were solidly in

line around the McCoull and Harrison houses.

Among the 6th Corps was a veteran officer,

Colonel Emory Upton, a regular army officer who had commanded

the 121st New York Infantry and a brigade.

His plan was a deep formation of several lines that could

sweep over the works of the Confederates and turn up and

down the lines, opening a breech for others to exploit.

Grant liked the idea and allowed 12 picked regiments

to be a part of it.

The command went in three regiments across,

four regiments deep.

It was an impressive formation.

One New Yorker, corporal Clinton Beckwith of Upton's

regiment, wrote of the attack:

We were ordered to fix bayonets, to load and cap

our guns and to charge at right shoulder, shift arms.

No man was to stop and succor or assist a wounded comrade.

We must go as far as possible, and when we broke their line,

face to our right, advance and fire lengthwise of their line.

Colonel Upton was with our regiment

and rode on our right.

He instructed us not to fire a shot,

cheer or yell until we struck their works.

It was nearly sundown when we were ready to go forward...

The officers were shouting "forward" and breaking into a

run immediately after we got into the field a short distance.

As soon as we began to run the men,

unmindful of, or forgetting orders,

commenced to yell, and in a few steps farther the rifle

pits were dotted with puffs of smoke,

and men began to fall rapidly and some began to fire at the

works, thus losing the chance they had to do something when

they reached the works to protect themselves.

We were broken up some getting through

the slashing and abatis.

By this time the rebels were beginning to fire a second

time, and rapid but scattering fire along the works which

were reached in another instant.

One of our officers in front of us jumped on the top log

and shouted, "Come on men,"

and pitched forward and disappeared, shot.

As I got up on top some rebs jumped up from their side and

began to run back.

Some were lunging at our men with their bayonets and a few

had their guns clubbed.

Jim Johnston, Oaks, and Hassett,

were wounded by bayonets.

Upton's assault broke the Confederate lines

for about a quarter of a mile.

The attack was staggered by severe counterattacks but not

before Upton pulled off with several hundred prisoners.

For his efforts, Grant promoted Upton

to Brigadier General.

The attack was successful in demonstrating that an attack

in depth could not be stopped as it had too much momentum

and the Federal army would become the masters of this

tactic with their clear advantage in numbers.

This organized style of Upton's was respected by

Grant, who devoted to further attack this "Mule Shoe"

with even more men.

Through May 11th Grant and Meade prepared for an attack

on the center of the "Mule Shoe" line.

Hancock's men were readied and assembled,

with elements of the 5th, 6th,

and 9th Corps to assist on left and right flanks of

Hancock's supposed breech of the lines.

The attack was planned for the pre-dawn hour of May 12,

and approximately 15,000 men were led through the misty

damp morning towards the Confederate salient.

Within a few hundred yards the Confederate skirmishers fired

and then the mighty roar of all those Federal soldiers

provided a constant cheer of HURRAH! HURRAH!

Up and over the works they went.

Thousands of Confederates were captured, generals and all.

It happened in the space of minutes.

Brigade after brigade of Confederate troops

were thrown into the breech.

General Lee, near the McCoull house behind the breakthrough,

was attempting to lead one of these counterattacks and again

had to be discouraged by calls of "Lee to the Rear."

The Confederate troops drove much of the Federal columns

back to the works.

No troops fought harder or accompished more to keep the

Yankees at bay than McGowan's South Carolina Brigade and

Harris' Mississippi Brigade.

One Mississippi soldier, David Holt of the 16th Mississippi

Infantry wrote of the carnage at the Mule Shoe as the

fighting entered its several hour mark and the ongoing rain

just added misery to the efforts of the soldiers:

The breastwork was in a bog,

and to make a charge in such a place against a line

of fierce men close up,

who have no idea of giving way,

was more than these gallant yankees could do.

Many of them were shot dead and sank down on the

breastworks without pulling their feet out of the mud.

Many others plunged forward when they were shot and fell

headlong into the trench among us.

Between the charges we cleared the trench of the dead and

wounded and loaded all of the guns we could get a hold of

for the next charge.

I was shooting seven guns myself.

We stacked them up against the breastwork with the butts in

the trench, and when the yanks came,

we picked them up one by one and fired and set them down

again... the blood shed by the dead and wounded in the trench

mixed with the mud and water.

It became more than shoe deep, and soon it was smeared

all over our clothes.

The attacks ran out of steam and once again Lee

had held his positions, though he lost many good officers and

men, especially the approximately 3,000 men

who were captured there.

It was carnage as never seen by even the most rugged

veteran on either side, with men from both sides rescuing

wounded from either army.

They were drowning in the water and the blood filled ditches.

It was ghastly, but all the way into the night of the 12th

the shooting continued.

By 4am on the morning of the 13th,

the Mule Shoe salient was evacuated and Confederates

wearily pulled back to a new fortified position on the high

ground beyond the Harrison farm.

It was almost 24 hours of continuous fighting on one

line, not soon forgotten by those veterans who were there.

The Army of the Potomac was stopped in their attempt to

place a crushing blow against the Army of Northern Virginia.

This situation was one that would normally have the Army

of the Potomac retreat, encamp and figure out a new strategy,

perhaps even changing the command of the army.

But Grant was different, as he would continue to attempt to

get between Lee and Richmond and force

Lee's army to attack.

The men in blue saw that Grant continued on and despite the

losses, they were elated that they would

continue the fighting.

The Battle of Spotsylvania resulted in approximately

18,000 Federal casualties and 12,000 Confederate casualties.

The sum losses for Grant so far in his campaign were over

35,000 men, or approximately 1/3 of his army.

But he could and would replace those men

whereas Lee could not.

Grant was in fact winning the war in this methodology,

though tactically losing to Lee in these fortified battles.

While fighting raged around the Mule Shoe at Spotsylvania,

General Sheridan, who was brought east with Grant to

command the Army of the Potomac's Cavalry Corps,

wanted to launch a raid against Richmond and force

a confrontation with Stuart.

On May 11, Stuart blocked Sheridan's troopers near the

old and abandoned Yellow Tavern,

in the distant northern suburbs of Richmond.

It was a classic fight of charge and countercharge,

but Stuart's 4,500 men were outnumbered by the nearly

10,000 Federal cavalry.

In addition to being outnumbered,

Stuart's men had to begin facing the Federal cavalry who

had been equipped with Spencer repeating carbines.

In the end the bold Confederate cavalier was shot

down and his brigades defeated.

Lee would not only be without his trusted subordinate but

Sheridan and his subordinates would hereafter outclass

anything the Confederacy could thrown up against the

Army of the Potomac's cavalry.

A more conventional campaign was at the same time being

enacted in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

The great valley of the Commonwealth was a definite

breadbasket for the Army of Northern Virginia.

It was filled with great farms of tall grains and thriving

swine and cattle.

It had been defended and protected in 1862 by the

legendary Stonewall Jackson.

The Federal army was content with small raids from its base

at Winchester, and that post was obliterated by Ewell's men

in the first stages of the Gettysburg Campaign.

In the spring of 1864 Grant assigned General Franz Sigel

to command a small army to damage Confederate efforts in

the Valley and possibly divert troops from Lee.

The fiery John C. Breckinridge, the once Vice President

of the United States, was placed in command of a hodgepodge army

of 4,000-5,000 men that included a battalion of VMI cadets.

Breckinridge, an inspiring figure and a veteran of many

fights in the western theater, was an aggressive officer and

though outnumber by more than double, he went after Sigel.

Skirmishing occurred between the two sides,

but the main action would occur just outside New Market,

just west of the Valley Turnpike on May 15.

The fighting took place during a rain and thunder storm,

which gave a surreal canopy to the landscape

and the imagery of war.

The infantry and artillery fighting was a back and forth

affair, with the Confederate forces not being able to make

a gain on Sigel's position.

A gap opened on the line and it seemed as if the

Confederates were getting the worst of the fighting.

It was at this point that General Breckinridge had to

turn to his reserve, the 257 VMI cadets commanded by 24

year old Colonel Scott Shipp.

The battalion took an advance on Captain Henry A. du Pont's

United States Artillery Battery across the field.

Shipp was struck by the concussion of an artillery

shell and awoke in time to see his battalion swarming across

the Federal guns and driving back

the 34th Massachusetts Infantry.

From this impetus Sigel decided to retreat from the field.

The Battle of New Market was fairly won by Breckinridge's

small command but much honor should be afforded to the boys

of the academy, who lost 10 of their number killed

and 48 more wounded.

The victory cleared the valley of a Federal presence for

several weeks and allowed Lee not to worry

about his left flank.

Also in Virginia at this time of both Meade's and

Sigel's commands was that of General Benjamin Butler's

newly dubbed Army of the James,

consisting of approximately 30,000 men.

Butler's men would face many of the same troops that they

had faced in Charleston and in the Carolina theater of

operations, ultimately facing off against General Beauregard.

The lesser known battles of Port Walthall,

Swift Creek, Chester Station, Ware Bottom Church,

and Drewry's Bluff were quite severe fights,

with Butler's men consistantly being repulsed

at most instances.

As this "Overland Campaign" moved in to June and got

closer to Richmond, the stakes would be much higher for Lee,

then operating in the shadow of the capital itself.

It was as if 1862 was replaying all over again,

until Cold Harbor...

The Battle of Cold Harbor was the perfection of modern

trench warfare on two levels.

The first of which was Lee's veterans and engineers knowing

how to lay out lines of concentrated

and overlapping fire.

The second was the speed in which the Army of Northern

Virginia could entrench.

The battles at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania,

and the North Anna were a university to this learning.

Grant attacked headlong into Lee's men and achieved nothing

but the loss of thousands of his men.

It seemed as if the campaign was a deadly repetition of the

same cycle for the Army of the Potomac, attack and die.

It quickly became obvious that Richmond would not be taken in

this manner, as Lee's force was too strong,

so Grant, convinced that he would move by the left flank

with impunity did so again, using Butler's force at

Bermuda Hundred as a covering force.

Grant, though seriously defeated at Cold Harbor,

refused to pull out and lived by his pledge about fighting

it out if it would take all summer.

Lee's army stretched but never broke and by the later winter

of 1864 his army was defending a front of almost 40 miles.

The commander of the Army of Northern Virginia knew Grant's

policy was working.

For Lee and his army, it was just a "matter of time."

One of the most striking and saddest parts of Grant's

strategy in early 1864 was the stopping

of the prisoner exchange.

Federal soldiers would remain in disgusting southern prison

pens for years rather than for months.

The most notorious of these places was Camp Sumter,

Georgia, otherwise known as Andersonville.

Approximately 45,000 men would be sent through the sprawling

compound in southern Georgia, and more than

12,000 would die there.

The camp was not intended for that many men but due to

the stopping of the prisoner exchange and several

Confederate victories resulting in large amounts of

Federal prisoners the compound grew to over 26 acres.

Though that plot of land seems big,

it was choked with the pathetic forms of what were

once strapping northern youth, the embodiment

of American bravery.

There were many reasons for the ill treatment of Union

prisoners there, ultimately coming back upon the

responsibility of the camp commandant,

Captain Henry Wirz, who would wind up being hung

for war crimes.

Andersonville was not the only prison that systematically

destroyed life, as prisoner of war camps on both sides had

very similar issues, usually falling upon the commander

of the post.

It could be said that there were shortages in the south

and food was scarce, as were medical and clothing supplies,

but that could not be said about the northern camps.

The most noted of these camps, in Elmira, New York,

was what a Confederate prisoner of 1864 called "hellmira."

The camp contained approximately 12,000

prisoners and almost 3,000 of them died from exposure,

poor sanitation, and lack of medical supplies.

The commander of the post was often noted as being proud of

his contribution to the war by his inmates dying

under his care, or lack thereof.

Other prisoner of war camps, Point Lookout,

Fort Delaware, Camp Douglass, etc. all had hordes of

Confederates die from one cause or another.

It was a long standing shame but in the end,

no northern officers were brought to trial for negligence.

Washington D.C., August 18, 1864:

Soldiers - You are about to return to your homes

and your friends, after having,

as I learn, performed in camp a comparatively short term

of duty in this great contest.

I am greatly obliged to you, and to all who have come

forward at the call of their country.

I wish it might be more generally and universally

understood what the country is now engaged in.

We have, as all will agree, a free Government,

where every man has a right to be equal with every other man.

In this great struggle, this form of government and every

form of human right is endangered

if our enemies succeed.

There is more involved in this contest

than is realized by every one.

There is involved in this struggle the question whether

your children and my children shall enjoy the privileges

we have enjoyed.

I say this in order to impress upon you,

if you are not already so impressed,

that no small matter should divert us

from our great purpose.

There may be mistakes made sometimes;

things may be done wrong while the officers of the government

do all they can to prevent mistakes.

But I beg of you, as citizens of this great Republic,

not to let your minds be carried off from the great

work we have before us.

This struggle is too large for you to be diverted from it by

any small matter.

When you return to your homes rise up to the height of a

generation of men worthy of a free government,

and we will carry out the great work we have commenced.

I return to you my sincere thanks, soldiers,

for the honor you have done me this afternoon.