All language subtitles for The.Ultimate.Civil.War.Series.S01E05.Not.War.But.Murder.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

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.