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00:03It's the summer of 1863, and the North is in a celebratory mood.
00:08Robert E. Lee has just been defeated at Gettysburg in the East.
00:12In the West, General Ulysses S. Grant has equaled that feat with a hard-fought victory at Vicksburg.
00:19And in Tennessee, Union General William Rosecrans has the Confederate General Braxton Bragg on the run.
00:26But even Abraham Lincoln sends his trouble. He wants Rosecrans to finish off Bragg's rebel army.
00:32He's pushing Rosecrans. You must move. You must move.
00:35When those two armies finally collide, it will set off the war's second bloodiest battle, Chickamata.
00:41And in its aftermath, one general will be stripped of his leadership, while another will ascend to new heights.
00:49Today, they are vast, tranquil stretches of farm field, forest, and protected land.
00:55But once, these landscapes witnessed the horror of war.
00:59This is their story. This is Battlefield America.
01:12It's two years into the war, and William Rosecrans has managed to bring much of Tennessee under Union control.
01:19But he hasn't been able to deliver a knockout blow.
01:22In fact, he has let Bragg's Confederates slip away toward Georgia.
01:26While Lincoln fumes over what he perceives to be Rosecrans' passiveness, the general carefully plans his next move.
01:33He's going to move on Chattanooga. Sitting in the southern Appalachians, Chattanooga is an important railroad junction for the Confederacy.
01:42If you don't control these rail junctions, you cannot have a functioning army, because you won't be able to get
01:48the army, the ammunition, the ordnance, all those supplies that it needs.
01:53It's so much more efficient than kind of using the muscle energy of draft animals or human beings actually just
01:59carrying stuff.
02:01Chattanooga also happens to be squarely in the middle of a pro-Union section of the state.
02:06Toward the end of August, with his supplies and logistics in order, Rosecrans finally makes his move.
02:12And it's a bold one.
02:15He intends to drive his 60,000 men into the North Georgia mountains, cutting off any escape Bragg's 40,000
02:22Confederates might attempt.
02:24Rosecrans imagines that Chattanooga will be a replay of the Siege of Vicksburg, with Bragg trapped and forced to surrender.
02:31By September 8th, Bragg realizes he is in trouble and moves his Confederate army out of Chattanooga.
02:38But he is not retreating.
02:41In fact, while the Union army was slowly making their plans for this campaign, the rebels were quietly being reinforced.
02:49Bragg's army has grown to 70,000 men, and now it is Rosecrans who is in peril.
02:55His strategy has left his army overextended, scattered across more than 40 miles of unfamiliar mountainous terrain.
03:03Rosecrans' army begins to fall back towards Chattanooga, and when it reaches the banks of Chickamauga Creek, it finds a
03:10massive rebel force waiting for it.
03:12The Chickamauga is a difficult battlefield in part because we still have rolling hills, higher ground, and we have a
03:18lot of woods, which makes things much more confusing.
03:21For much of the United States, it hadn't been mapped.
03:23Without maps, local knowledge becomes essential.
03:26It's another source of intelligence. As long as they supported the Confederacy, we'd be happy to show you where this
03:31road exists, or this bridge is still intact,
03:34or about how you might get to someplace on the flank of the enemy without being seen.
03:39But while the Confederates hold the home field advantage, many see their leader, Braxton Bragg, as a liability.
03:47Famously difficult personality, hated by his troops for being a ferocious disciplinarian, disliked by his subordinates.
03:55Nevertheless, by this point, a conflict somewhere near Chickamauga Creek appears inevitable.
04:02How will the U.S. forces perform in unfamiliar territory?
04:05Had Rosecrans waited too long to engage?
04:07On the rebel side, will Braxton Bragg be able to salvage the rebel position in the West, and salvage his
04:14own reputation?
04:16Early on the morning of September 18th, Bragg sends his infantry marching towards Reeds and Alexander's bridges.
04:22He's trying to surprise the U.S. forces by hitting their flank at Lee and Gordon's mills.
04:29Instead, he finds Federal horsemen barring the way.
04:33At 11 a.m., en route to Reeds Bridge, General Bushrod Johnson's Confederate infantry collides with Union Colonel Robert Minty's
04:42cavalry brigade.
04:43Fighting flares up, forcing Minty back, but he gives ground slowly, repeatedly forcing Johnson to deploy before fading back again.
04:54Johnson doesn't cross Chickamauga Creek until mid-afternoon, and Minty doesn't quit the field until after 4 o'clock p
05:02.m.
05:03Over at Alexander's Bridge, it's a similar story, with Union Colonel John T. Wilder's brigade of mounted infantry trying to
05:10control the river passage.
05:12Here, Rebel General William Walker's reserve corps attempts to force a crossing.
05:18But Wilder's men have something that the rebel fighters don't.
05:22Spencer repeating rifles.
05:24With these new weapons, a skilled marksman can fire off about seven rounds in the same amount of time it
05:30would take his rival to fire off one.
05:34The rebels are sent back reeling. Walker will need to change course and find a crossing downstream.
05:42So it starts innocently enough with the Confederates making presses at a couple of bridges, Reed's Bridge, Alexander's Bridge.
05:49But ultimately, the Confederate army will cross Chickamauga Creek, and that's when it all gets real.
05:54As darkness creeps in, another battle erupts along a nearby farm lane,
05:59pitting the rebel infantry against the Union's 21st Corps.
06:05Alerted to the trouble brewing to his north, Rosecrans meets with his most trusted subordinate, George Thomas, head of the
06:1214th Corps, and a Virginian by birth.
06:16Rosecrans sends Thomas north along the Lafayette Road.
06:19The intent is to preserve the U.S. Army's line of retreat to Rossville and Chattanooga in case they come
06:25to need it.
06:26The troops march through the night, destined for a small clearing on Elijah Kelly's farmstead.
06:33The march is an ordeal.
06:36Drought has turned the road to dust, thickening the air, coating the soldiers' uniforms and lungs.
06:43All around them, the gauzy glow of campfires helps guide their path.
06:48Thomas barely reaches his position at Kelly Field before he learns that an enemy brigade is in the woods to
06:54his east, cut off from their army and vulnerable.
06:58Thomas sends General John Brannan's division to investigate.
07:03Absalom Baird's division goes along in support.
07:06At 7.30 that morning, Brannan's lead brigade stumbles into Nathan Bedford Forrest's Confederate cavalry.
07:14Nathan Bedford Forrest, never one to shy away from a fight, orders his men into line and sends for help.
07:21Confederate infantry arrives and the fighting spreads.
07:26Bragg has 25,000 men poised to attack.
07:30But with a federal battle force to his north, Bragg wants his flank secure before launching his main assault.
07:39He decides to send all of Walker's Reserve Corps, as well as General Ben Cheatham's division of Polk's Corps, to
07:45help.
07:48By 11 o'clock a.m., the fighting is surging back and forth across Winfrey Field.
07:54Rosecrans hurries in troops from the 20th and 21st Corps to support Thomas.
08:01By noon, both divisions are in action, driving at Walker's Confederates.
08:08Cheatham's command is large.
08:10More than 7,000 Confederate soldiers across five brigades.
08:14They hurry into the expanding fight, deploying in a wide arc around the east and south edges of Bragg Field.
08:22Their advance is cut short by the Federals.
08:25The contest appears to be heading toward a bloody stalemate.
08:33Both sides have spent the morning feeding men into a fight neither commander planned for.
08:39The Union fought at a massive disadvantage at the Battle of Chickamauga.
08:44Mainly because the Union Army didn't expect a fight, and that made them throw troops into every position where the
08:50Confederates were attacking, or where they might attack.
08:53So far, the action has been confined to the trees and a few clearings east of the Lafayette Road.
08:59Neither army commander can see the fight, only the smoke and dust rising above the distant woods.
09:08Communications would play a major role in the outcome of the Battle of Chickamauga.
09:15When we think about communications in the American Civil War, we really have three kinds.
09:18There's telegraph, but that's largely at the operational and strategic level.
09:21An army commander talking back to Washington, D.C.
09:25The next way you have is you have the beginning of the Signal Corps.
09:28They communicate largely with signal flags, or at night they use torches.
09:31But if there's a lot of trees, that becomes much more difficult.
09:35We're left to very rudimentary communications, which is to send a runner or a courier with a note.
09:40And because battlefields are extremely dangerous, if you really had a note to get through, you would send a courier,
09:45let him go about a minute, and then you would send another one.
09:48And then you would send one more with the expectation that they're not all going to make it.
09:52You are sending men on horseback with often verbal orders, and sometimes those orders are to attack that wood line,
09:58that hill, get around that stream.
10:01But you're going to ride around in a half circle, and all of a sudden there's two wood lines, and
10:05there's three hills, and there's different streams.
10:07It is absolutely confusing for the messengers, for the generals, and all they're doing is trying to bring in all
10:12the information they can from their staffs, and from their keen sense of what things sounded like.
10:18Is the battle going our way? Do we hear the Union huzzah, or do we hear that rebel yell?
10:25Rosecrans now commits General Jefferson C. Davis' division near the Vineyard Farmstand, sending him forward in hopes of finding a
10:32rebel flank and turning it.
10:35But here, there is no Confederate flank to turn. Instead, Davis is heading toward the very heart of Bragg's massed
10:43assault column.
10:43The only thing Davis can do is call for help.
10:47Rosecrans responds, and the two sides proceed to fight around Vineyard Field the rest of the day.
10:54Eight Federal brigades face off with seven Confederate brigades in the day's bloodiest fighting.
11:00The field will change hands four times before the exhausted combatants break off the action, west of Brockfield.
11:07Another rebel division replaces Cheatham's tired troops.
11:11General A.P. Stewart's three brigades slam into a U.S. Army line, driving them back as well.
11:17And by 4 p.m. across the Lafayette Road, Rosecrans realizes that his center is in crisis.
11:23His army is nearly split in two.
11:27George Thomas plugs the gap using troops from the Union left.
11:30These are Brandon and Baird's men, who are still recovering from the morning fight.
11:36Then, Rosecrans also commits his last reserve.
11:39General James Neckley's division.
11:42Stewart's Confederates are finally pushed back.
11:45By dusk, after nearly 12 hours of continuous bloodletting, the two sides appear ready to back down.
11:53But then, Bragg's decision to transfer General John Breckenridge from the south to the north end of his line produces
11:59one last assault.
12:00And with that, the ghastly days fighting comes to an end.
12:06Before long, news from the front lines would reach President Lincoln.
12:10Civil War armies enjoyed speed of light communications.
12:13You could have telegraphic communications from the Chickamauga battlefield or very close to it all the way back to Chattanooga
12:21and thence back to Washington, D.C. instantly.
12:25So people often talk about that Abraham Lincoln lives in the telegraph office because he's dying to get information about
12:32what's happening out on the field.
12:33But in most cases, as we know from most battlefields, first reports tend to be wrong.
12:38And they all tend to be delayed.
12:40Because if you have a commander who's fighting a battle, his first responsibility is to fight the battle.
12:46Whether or not Lincoln chose to inject himself into the battle, he was at least keeping track of his army's
12:52progress and his general's performance.
12:56Back in Georgia, both sides sleep on their arms, but night brings no comfort.
13:028,000 comrades have fallen so far.
13:06The temperatures plunge below freezing, and with the enemy so close, both sides prohibit fires.
13:13Thousands had dropped their packs at the opening guns and now find themselves without blankets.
13:20U.S. Army General Rosecrans calls a council of war.
13:24He and his generals cluster in a nearby cabin to recap the day's events and try to predict what the
13:31next day will bring.
13:33Thomas, worried about the gap between his left flank and his forces to the north, repeatedly urges Rosecrans to strengthen
13:40the left.
13:42Thomas also asks for the return of his last division under Negley.
13:47Rosecrans agrees, but in doing so, threatens to expose his right flank.
13:52On the other side of the field, Bragg decides against calling a council of war.
13:57Such gatherings have failed him in the past.
14:00However, he will enter the next day with a surprise for the Union Army.
14:05General James Longstreet has made his way from Gettysburg and is nearing the field.
14:10Bragg decides to divide his army into two wings, six divisions under Longstreet and the remaining five assigned to Leonidas
14:18Polk.
14:19The battle plan remains unchanged.
14:21The army will attack and drive the Federals south, away from Chattanooga.
14:26Bragg intends to begin at dawn.
14:29General D.H. Hill's corps will lead the rebel attack with divisions under Breckenridge and Claiborne.
14:36But before the first shot is fired, there is a problem.
14:39The Confederates' communications break down.
14:43Hill never received Bragg's message.
14:50Consequently, Bragg, in the saddle at first light, doesn't hear the sounds of Hill's men.
14:57The rebel plans have miscarried.
15:00Rosecrans is also up early.
15:03In fact, he's been up all night.
15:06He's everywhere on the field.
15:08You could see him trying to do too much himself.
15:10And one thing he sacrifices is sleep.
15:12And many of us can go without sleep for some period of time.
15:15But none of us is as sharp that next day.
15:18At 6.30, he meets with Thomas, who again asks for Negley.
15:22Moving Negley's position will take some effort.
15:25Negley is in the Union line and must be replaced before he can move.
15:29Finding those replacements will take precious time.
15:33While they wait, the men in the ranks start building breastworks.
15:37At 9.30, the Confederates attack with two-thirds of Hill's corps.
15:42They are bloodily repulsed.
15:44But two of the brigades overlap Thomas' line and turn the Union left, just as Thomas had feared.
15:50They strike out into Kelly Field and for a moment, the whole Union army is in peril.
15:55But then the Federals push back the assault.
15:58Reinforcements hurry northward at last.
16:02At 11.30, Hill's rebels fall back.
16:06For Thomas, though the danger is averted, the crisis only increases his desire for reinforcements.
16:14Rosecrans establishes a new headquarters on a knoll overlooking the dire orchard.
16:19It is one of the few areas on this heavily wooded field that offers any vantage point.
16:24Getting his lines in order proves frustrating for the Union commander.
16:30Rosecrans then orders Tom Wood's division into line.
16:34Wood, with only two brigades, asks for a third and cautions that artillery is of little use among the dense
16:40trees.
16:42Meanwhile, to the east, 10,800 rebels await the order to advance.
16:49These are James Longstreet's men assembled into an attack column five lines deep.
16:54They know nothing of the confusion plaguing the Union fighters west of the Lafayette Road.
17:00Indeed, they have their own communication difficulties to work through.
17:04Bragg's orders are overdue, but Longstreet is experienced and uses that extra time well, fine-tuning his columns.
17:12Bushrod Johnson's men will again spearhead the Confederate assault.
17:17The sounds of battle to the north draw nearer.
17:21At 10.45, the U.S. Army's Tom Wood receives an urgent dispatch.
17:25Rosecrans orders him to close up on the left and link up with General Joseph Reynolds' division.
17:32The Army commander is trying to close a gap he thinks has been opened when General John Brannan's men pull
17:38out at the behest of George Thomas.
17:41In reality, there is no gap.
17:44Once again, poor communications are wreaking havoc on the battlefield.
17:48And now Wood is caught having to decide between an order from his superior and knowing what he knows in
17:54his gut to be true.
17:55He realizes that if he moves, he will open a new gap in the Union line.
18:01But McCook urges Wood to move and promises to fill the resulting gap himself.
18:07Wood departs just as Longstreet sends his column forward.
18:10The timing of his maneuver is disastrous.
18:14The last of Tom Wood's brigade is caught in the move and overrun.
18:20Union General Jefferson C. Davis' already battered division, next in line to the south, stands no chance.
18:27His command is crushed by a Confederate force five times its size.
18:32Half a mile to the rear, Philip Sheridan's Union division is the next to shatter under the impact.
18:39Within an hour, a third of the Union army is driven off the field.
18:43The soldiers, including William Rosecrans himself, flee to Chattanooga.
18:50The Confederates soon learn that many Union troops are still on the battlefield.
18:54On a high bridge near the modest farm of George Snodgrass, scattered Union troops begin to coalesce into a defense
19:01around the leadership of Generals Thomas, Wood and Brennan.
19:06If these last defenders are dislodged, then the Union disaster will be complete.
19:12A first Confederate assault fails, and more rebels are sent to add weight to the next effort.
19:19Thomas, realizing the crisis of the battle is at hand, establishes a new headquarters behind the Snodgrass cabin.
19:26At 2 o'clock p.m., Union reinforcements arrive.
19:30These are Gordon Granger's men of the Union Reserve Corps, who have been holding Rossville.
19:36With the battle raging to the south, Granger had decided to march toward the sound of the guns.
19:41His arrival couldn't be better timed.
19:44His men repulse a second assault on what is now being called Horseshoe Ridge, scrambling up one side of the
19:51heights while rebels race for the top from the other.
19:54They meet at the top of the crest, amidst a terrific roar of musketry.
19:59More rebel assaults are flung back.
20:02One Union soldier described Thomas' impact on the field by declaring that he seemed to transform men into whole platoons.
20:10This will be Thomas' moment.
20:12This will be what will make him famous.
20:15He will be remembered for the Battle of Chickamauga.
20:20At 4 p.m., Longstreet commits his last reserve, Preston's Division.
20:26It, too, is checked, but now the Union is critically short of ammunition.
20:32George Thomas, later nicknamed the Rock of Chickamauga, realizes he cannot resist any further, and despite the pleas of some
20:39subordinates, decides he must retreat to Rossville.
20:43That retreat begins in Kelly Field, where a lull has set in.
20:47As the Federals pull back, however, Polk's right wing pushes forward in a final effort.
20:55Russian-born Union General John Turgeon leads his brigade in a daring counterattack, opening an escape route for the remaining
21:04four Union divisions clustered around the Kelly Farmstead.
21:07Most of those Federals will get away, but rebel pincers will close on elements of Absalom Baird's division, already suffering
21:15badly from the previous day's effort.
21:19Hundreds of U.S. Army soldiers are captured.
21:25On Horseshoe Ridge, a similar situation unfolds.
21:30Preston's Confederates make a final effort to take the hills just as the Union retreat begins.
21:37In the very center of the Union line, the forgotten 22nd Michigan, 21st and 89th Ohio are overrun by two
21:46Confederate brigades.
21:50It is now dark.
21:52The rest of Thomas' force, elements of seven Union divisions, slip away to Rossville, taking up strong new positions on
22:00Missionary Ridge.
22:02The Battle of Chickamauga is finally over.
22:08So the Battle of Chickamauga consequences are several fold.
22:13First of all, it's the second bloodiest battle of the Civil War.
22:16It takes place in September of 1863.
22:18That's the fall after Gettysburg and Vicksburg when we thought in the Union that the war might be over.
22:23Instead, the Confederates earn a glimmer of hope, and the Union side is left wondering what happened.
22:30And William Rosecrans is absolutely exhausted at the time when the great emergency comes, right when he needs his mental
22:37acuity the most, and that will leave a black mark upon his career.
22:4035,000 men have fallen, killed, wounded, or missing.
22:4718,500 in rebel uniforms, and another 16,500 wearing those of the U.S. Army.
22:55Over the next two days, the Union Army retreats back into Tennessee.
22:59Although he won the battle, Braxton Bragg is criticized for allowing his reeling adversaries to escape.
23:07Abraham Lincoln, meanwhile, continues to follow the action from a distance.
23:11While he tries to leave the battle planning to his generals, there is one move he will now make that
23:16will directly change the outcome of the war.
23:18Lincoln knows who he wants at Chattanooga.
23:21He wants the victor at Fort Donaldson.
23:23He wants the victor at the Battle of Shiloh.
23:25He wants the victor who had captured Vicksburg, Mississippi.
23:28He wants U.S. Grant.
23:31This is the final straw for Abraham Lincoln to now bring Ulysses S. Grant east and make him the commanding
23:37general of all armies,
23:38to be promoted to lieutenant general the first since George Washington.
23:42Whether he deserves the credit or not, things happen after Grant arrives.
23:45The siege is lifted, the Union win battle after battle, engagement after engagement, in and around Chattanooga.
23:52And the Confederates are pushed back into Georgia.
23:54Abraham Lincoln has found his man.
23:57From here, the battlegrounds will move eastward.
24:00But there is still some 18 months of difficult combat to come.
24:04Fighting that will see tens of thousands more young Americans killed, maimed, or injured.
24:10While civilians struggle to maintain their will as they await the next dispatch from the front lines.
24:331864. The American Civil War has entered its fourth year.
24:39The previous year's fighting saw major U.S. military victories at Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and in Tennessee.
24:47And now, Abraham Lincoln aims to maintain Union momentum by entrusting the command of all U.S. armies to one
24:54man, Ulysses S. Grant.
24:59Grant has been victorious throughout the West, but some question how he will perform on the rebel-held battlegrounds of
25:05Virginia,
25:05and against the Confederacy's legendary general, Robert E. Lee.
25:11That question will be answered during the bloodiest phase of the entire war.
25:16Six weeks of constant fighting that will come to be known as the Overland Campaign.
25:22The Overland Campaign was a brutal grind of a campaign.
25:27Both sides had gotten very good at the business of killing one another.
25:32But amidst this bloodshed, one side will finally take control of the war.
25:45Ulysses Grant, now the highest-ranking general since George Washington, comes to the nation's capital with a plan to win
25:53the war.
25:54It is immediately rejected by President Abraham Lincoln.
25:59Grant originally wanted this kind of more raiding kind of strategy that would have gone through southwest Virginia.
26:06And when he goes to Washington, D.C. to get his promotion, he realizes that that's not going to fly
26:10with the Lincoln administration.
26:12Lincoln promoted Grant because he had shown himself to be a savvy strategist and a relentless fighter.
26:19Grant's revised plan falls more in line with Lincoln's expectations.
26:24He's come up with a comprehensive plan on how they're going to win the war, which includes everything from a
26:29line of effort moving towards Mobile,
26:31William Sherman moving towards Atlanta, Ben Butler coming up the peninsula on the back door of Richmond,
26:37Franz Siegel going down the Shenandoah Valley, and Grant, who will travel with the Army of the Potomac, headed towards
26:42Richmond.
26:43Grant's plan highlights one of the key advantages the Union Army has over its rebel counterparts.
26:48The Union will only tap into about 40% of its draft-aged available males. So the Union Army is
26:55healthy.
26:56For the Confederacy, they tap into 80% of their draft-aged available males.
27:00They're running out of manpower, and maybe more importantly, they're starting to run out of leadership to lead those men
27:05in battle.
27:07Civil War generals were expected to physically lead their soldiers into battle, often on horseback.
27:13This made them ready targets for their opponents.
27:16When we think just about the Battle of Gettysburg and all the generals that are there, Union and Confederate,
27:21by the time the war is over, 82% of them will be killed or wounded.
27:25Nevertheless, the Confederates are buoyed by one important detail.
27:31The Confederates have the guy they want in command, General Robert E. Lee, who has emerged as not only the
27:36most important Confederate general,
27:37but probably the most important Confederate thing. Lee came to embody the Confederacy and was seen as the hope for
27:45victory.
27:47Even with their desperate supply situation and their army outnumbered nearly two to one, Lee understands that there is a
27:54way to end the war in the Confederacy's favor.
27:56If he can trap Grant in a drawn-out, messy fight, he might imperil Lincoln's 1864 re-election chances.
28:04That election is just months away.
28:07Now, for President Lincoln and for Grant, when Grant launches the Overland Campaign in early May of 1864,
28:15neither of them really want the press to be hot on their heels, just because Grant has an idea for
28:21how that campaign might go
28:22and the kinds of aggression and, honestly, the kinds of bloodshed that's going to come.
28:27Grant had been criticized for the high casualty counts his armies had suffered in previous battles like Shiloh and Vicksburg.
28:35Further bloodshed would challenge the will of voters who are now being courted by candidates promising to make peace with
28:42the South,
28:42allowing the practice of slavery to continue.
28:48As the Union Army breaks camp on the evening of May 3rd, neither soldier nor general can foresee the horrors
28:54that lie ahead.
28:58The fighting in the coming weeks will kill and wound more of them than at any other time in American
29:04history.
29:13Grant begins by testing Lee's right flank using coastal waterways to supply his army.
29:22To carry out this plan, Grant will need to push through a 70 square mile tract known simply and fittingly
29:29as the Wilderness.
29:33The Wilderness is an interesting place in Virginia. It's a stretch of second and third growth woods.
29:39There's few roads and fewer open fields. It's a dense undergrowth. It might be one of the worst places to
29:44have a battle.
29:45But there's opportunity, certainly for Robert E. Lee's army, who is outnumbered and outgunned by the Union Army.
29:51Grant hopes he can slip through the Wilderness before Lee reacts. Lee does not allow this to happen.
29:59He sees that Grant's right is vulnerable and moves with Richard Ewell's 2nd Corps on the Orange Turnpike and A
30:05.P. Hill's 3rd Corps on the Plank Road.
30:08James Longstreet's Corps, recently arrived from East Tennessee, pushes to join the rebel effort.
30:15Here is Lee facing a very dogged Grant for the first time, learning how Grant works.
30:20And here is Grant facing Lee for the first time.
30:24During the fighting, Grant, you could say, is almost a wreck.
30:26You could say he is chain-smoking cigars, whittling sticks out of stress,
30:30and also trying to, at the same time, control his subordinate's fear that Robert E. Lee would do a double
30:37somersault and land in his rear.
30:42Morning May 5th, armies collide along two separate roads divided by a dense treescape.
30:50For the U.S. Army, Governor Warren's 5th and John Sedgwick's 6th Corps go into position on the right,
30:56centered around a clearing called Saunders Field, while Hancock's 2nd Corps occupies the strategic Brock Road intersection.
31:07Bitter but inconclusive fighting rages until dark.
31:13Grant prepares to deliver what he expects to be a decisive blow come morning.
31:19Meanwhile, the Confederates, exhausted and disorganized, anxiously await Longstreet's arrival.
31:28The Union attack begins at 5 a.m.
31:33Warren and Sedgwick are quickly contained on the turnpike.
31:36Hancock crushes a ragged Confederate line on Plank Road.
31:40And the day appears lost for Lee.
31:44Longstreet's arrival turns the tide for the rebels, as his brigades push Hancock back.
31:50But then, Longstreet is badly wounded.
31:53His attack loses momentum.
31:57After a pause, Lee strikes again on the Brock Road.
32:01The fighting rages, but determined Union counterattacks drive the rebels back.
32:07The fighting ignites scattered fires across the dry woods.
32:10Wounded, immobilized soldiers perish in the flames.
32:15Later that afternoon, Georgian John B. Gordon launches a vigorous attack on the Union's exposed right flank.
32:22Capturing many prisoners.
32:25Darkness ends the affair before further damage can be done.
32:33Both sides fortify their positions.
32:36Miles of earthworks and trenches are carved into the landscape.
32:39Soldiers are exhausted.
32:42Stalemate ensues.
32:44Nearly 30,000 have been killed, wounded, or captured.
32:49The three-day fight in the wilderness is the fourth bloodiest battle of the war, so far.
32:55But then, after the fighting stops, an unexpected twist.
33:00Grant will do something that no other commanders of the Union armies before him had done.
33:05Continue onward toward the enemy.
33:07Almost immediately, moving directly toward Spotsylvania, where another battle awaited both armies.
33:12He knows that this war needs to have an aggressive finish.
33:17It is costing the United States government millions.
33:21We're losing soldiers in the field from disease far more than we're losing soldiers on the battlefield from wounds.
33:28He knows he has to get the war done as quickly as possible.
33:31Grant is demonstrating exactly who he is.
33:33A dogged commander who, even in failure, will continue to push on.
33:38Both commanders are learning about the other.
33:41Grant discovers that Lee's army is more formidable than any opponent he has faced.
33:48Against Lee, open flanks quickly lead to embarrassing reversals.
33:52Grant will ensure that this does not happen again during this campaign.
33:57Lee realizes his opponent is a man of different character.
34:01Seemingly unfazed by bloodshed, Grant charges ahead where those before him would have retreated.
34:08Perhaps, Grant understood something about his soldiers that his predecessors didn't.
34:14As the army pushes southward toward Richmond, Union morale skyrockets.
34:25Warren's 5th Corps leads the advance, but they are intercepted by Confederate cavalry.
34:31Warren reaches a clearing near the Spotsylvania courthouse called Moral Hill.
34:36Like Grant, Lee refuses to back down.
34:40The path ahead is blocked by Joseph B. Kershaw's veteran division.
34:45Confederate forces quickly dig in, creating a strong defensive position.
34:50George Meade, commander of the Union's Army of the Potomac,
34:54orders Cedric VI Corps to support Warren.
34:57They attack the Confederate position at Moral Hill.
35:00It does not go well.
35:04Delays and concentrated rebel fire halt the attack.
35:10As the balance of both armies reach the crossroads, soldiers dig miles of battle lines.
35:17The armies are composed of veterans at this point.
35:20Veterans who not only knew how to attack, but they also knew how to erect fortifications.
35:25One of the expressions we talk about in the Civil War is the last, the old war, and first of
35:29the new.
35:29By 1864, if troops stop for more than five minutes, they dig in.
35:34Then Union cavalry commander Philip Sheridan cuts loose on a raid towards Richmond.
35:41Grant hopes this move will force Confederate cavalry hero Jeb Stuart into a showdown.
35:48Jeb Stuart played a huge role in creating effective cavalry campaigns,
35:51certainly winning against Union cavalry numerous times.
35:55He means a lot to the South militarily.
35:58Three days later, the two horsemen collide at Yellow Tavern.
36:04A sharp skirmish ensues.
36:06The duel leaves Jeb Stuart mortally wounded.
36:12Heavy skirmishing continues through May 9th as Union soldiers probe the surrounding wilderness,
36:17trying to determine the position of Lee's army.
36:21Amidst the confusion, General John Sedgwick, beloved commander of the Union's Sixth Corps,
36:27is struck down by a sharpshooter's bullet.
36:31Meanwhile, Grant receives reinforcements from Ambrose Burnside's Ninth Corps.
36:35He orders Burnside to advance on Spotsylvania along the Fredericksburg Road.
36:41This forces Lee to bend back his right flank, creating a bulge in his lines, dubbed the Mule Shoe.
36:50Elsewhere, Lee continues to entrench.
36:53But the vulnerability of the so-called Mule Shoe won't be lost on the opposing generals.
36:58The Confederates have positioned their artillery to rain crossfire upon any attacking column.
37:05Horatio Wright, now in command of the Sixth Corps, spies a weak point in the Confederate line
37:11and orders Colonel Emory Upton to go after it.
37:15With 12 hand-picked regiments, the carefully planned attack advances in lines four regiments deep.
37:22It's an innovative strategy.
37:25Upton is going to assemble, instead of a long line, a wedge.
37:30A wedge moving across a field where only the guys in front could shoot.
37:34But the guys in back, somewhat protected by the human flesh in front of them,
37:37can get to the enemy line a little bit faster.
37:40And to some degree, it worked.
37:43Upton's men burst out of the trees a mere 200 yards from the rebel lines.
37:51They capture nearly a thousand rebels, but they don't receive any support.
37:57Confederate reinforcements force Upton's attackers to retreat, abandoning their dead and wounded.
38:07Heavy skirmishing continues along the line on May 11th as both Grant and Lee plot their next moves.
38:14It is around this time as well that the U.S. Army begins to feel the presence of a recent
38:20wave of recruits.
38:21Regiments of African-American soldiers serving in what was called the USCT, the United States Colored Troops.
38:28Their presence on the battlefield provides a further advantage to the numerically superior U.S. military,
38:34especially as casualty counts on both sides continue to climb.
38:42Grant decides to test the mule shoe.
38:50Meanwhile, uncharacteristically, Lee misinterprets Grant's intentions.
38:54Imagine a horseshoe. It has an apex to it.
38:57Winfield Scott Hancock's 2nd Corps will attack the point of the mule shoe first thing in the morning.
39:03And they'll model their assault after Upton's angled assault just two days earlier.
39:09Confederates are surprised.
39:10The line had been weakened because that night before,
39:13Confederates thought the Union Army was going to keep on moving, so it had pulled its artillery back.
39:17Wildly successful, they captured nearly 3,000 Confederates.
39:21Two general officers are taken, and Lee is now throwing reinforcements into the mule shoe
39:26as Union troops are pouring in on the other side.
39:28This is hand-to-hand fighting for 22 hours, one of the most horrific fights of the Civil War.
39:35It staggers the imagination, first of all, that they're able to support it logistically,
39:40but it staggers our emotional intelligence to figure out how do you get men to do that for 22 hours
39:46straight.
39:47The two armies are exhausted after seven days of intense fighting.
39:52Spotsylvania would emerge as the third bloodiest battle of the Civil War.
39:56But the broader fight between Grant's and Lee's armies is far from over,
40:02and the election of 1864 is inching closer.
40:06In a bold move, Grant then quits the field and attempts to maneuver past Lee's right flank.
40:13He wants to outrun Lee to the Confederate capital in Richmond.
40:17Lee, however, flexes his own speed and agility,
40:20and intercepts the U.S. Army at the North Anna River, 20 miles to the south.
40:26There, he establishes a strong blocking position on a series of commanding bluffs south of the river.
40:33Grant reaches the North Anna on May 23rd.
40:37He's going to find himself in terrain that no longer favors him.
40:41In the Western Theater, at places like Shiloh and Vicksburg, the river seemed to help.
40:46Suddenly in the east, every river was a barrier.
40:49Undeterred, the Union Army begins crossing the river, testing the Rebel lines.
40:53Bullets fly for several days, though without deciding a clear winner.
41:00Grant realizes that Lee is trying to draw him into a trap.
41:04He's formed his lines in a way that seems to be goading Grant into splitting the Union Army,
41:08which Lee feels would give the Rebels their best shot at victory.
41:14Grant refuses to take the bait, and once again advances around the Confederate right flank.
41:22On the North Anna Line, Lee has missed his best opportunity to stop the Union Drive toward Richmond.
41:31If Grant makes it to Richmond, Lee knows what would come next.
41:37General Lee has told some of his staff members,
41:40we have to make sure that Grant does not cross the James River and get south of Richmond,
41:46because once he does, the war becomes a siege, and then it will be merely a matter of time.
41:53Grant drives southeast, moving closer to Richmond.
41:57The opposing forces then clash on a front that stretches several miles along Totopotami Creek.
42:06By the 1st of June, Grant has pivoted again, leading his soldiers east of Richmond
42:12to the strategic crossroads at Old Cold Harbor.
42:15Fighting erupts near sundown, but the results are inconclusive.
42:21Grant, sensing an opportunity to crush Lee, orders the attack renewed at dawn.
42:27But there is a problem.
42:30He's awaiting the arrival of reinforcements,
42:32William F. Smith's 18th Corps from Butler's Army of the James,
42:36which has been operating south of Richmond.
42:38Those reinforcements require more time than was anticipated.
42:42The attack is postponed 24 hours.
42:46The delay will have a profound impact on Grant's army.
42:50Confederates use the time to consolidate and fortify their positions.
42:54Now, masters of the art, Lee's veterans erect elaborate earthworks with well-sighted artillery positions, creating deadly crossfires.
43:03Dawn, June 3rd, the 2nd, 6th and 18th Corps assault the Confederate lines on a broad front.
43:10They're pushing headlong into an experienced army, aiming its weapons from behind a fortress of timber and soil.
43:18Union soldiers are repulsed with staggering losses.
43:22Some 7,000 are killed or wounded in just 30 minutes.
43:26And the losses will continue to mount over the rest of the morning.
43:31Confederate General Evander Law said it wasn't war, it was murder.
43:37For Grant's part, he later wrote,
43:39I always regretted the second attack at Cold Harbor.
43:46Once more, the two armies grind into a stalemate.
43:50Adding to the grim scene, the two sides fail to agree on a truce to bury the dead and remove
43:56wounded soldiers from the field.
43:59First-hand accounts from Cold Harbor further expose the devastation endured by Union infantrymen.
44:07From what I can gather, I doubt not we lost four or five to one.
44:11We gained nothing save a knowledge of their position and the proof of the unflinching bravery of our soldiers.
44:18Colonel Theodore Lyman, U.S. Army of the Potomac.
44:24It is words like these that Lincoln and Grant wish to keep out of the press, especially during election season.
44:30And within days of the Union charge at Cold Harbor, the U.S. Army would give reporters something else to
44:36focus on.
44:38Grant presses ahead again, but he's not making a run for Richmond.
44:45Grant decides to take the war across the James River
44:48and strike Richmond from the south via the railroad center at Petersburg.
44:54If he could cut Richmond's rail links to the rest of the Confederacy, he could isolate the rebel capital even
45:00further.
45:01This time, Lee has no answer for Grant's advance.
45:05Union forces cheer at the sight of the James River.
45:09The horrors of the wilderness lay far behind.
45:13Most cross the wide river on lengthy pontoon bridges, an engineering feat thought to be impossible by many.
45:20Grant's soldiers are on the edge of the Confederate capital.
45:24Lee's army is squeezed even closer to submission.
45:27The Overland campaign has ended.
45:30Between the Rapidan and the James Rivers, some 80,000 men are killed, wounded, or missing.
45:37All in less than six weeks.
45:40A lot of people look back on the Overland campaign and just kind of shiver with how many soldiers are
45:47lost.
45:47People today look at Civil War soldiers fighting in long lines of battle, shoulder to shoulder, blazing away at each
45:53other.
45:53You can't help but think you would come up with a better way to do it.
45:56But the fact is, the Civil War failed to produce some magical way to break enemies' lines other than sending
46:03a whole lot of people out into a field and charging forward.
46:09Lee's army of Northern Virginia has been staggered but will still not surrender.
46:24The war now enters a new phase south of the James River.
46:28Fortified lines and breastworks extend from miles around Richmond and Petersburg.
46:35One of Lee's greatest fears has become a reality.
46:39A great siege has begun.
46:43Grant finally accomplished what no other general could do, which is surrounding the Confederate capital of Richmond.
46:52This is what Grant recognizes. A Robert E. Lee who cannot maneuver is a Robert E. Lee who is not
46:56effective.
46:57It becomes a matter of time and Lee himself knows that too.
47:01While Grant's army continues its months-long siege, Lincoln will earn his second term in office in a landslide victory.
47:09Between the events in Virginia, the fall of Atlanta in the summer of 64, and the U.S. victory in
47:16Mobile in early 1865, the Civil War is all but over.
47:22Though soldiers and civilians across America will continue to suffer the pain of war until the very last rifle shot
47:29is fired.
47:32Once upon a time, the sounds of cannons, rifles, and anguished soldiers broke through the silence of these gentle landscapes.
47:40But now, it is a different story.
47:43These same battlefields have become islands of quiet reflection amidst the noisy world that surrounds them.
47:51Today, large swathes of the wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna, Tatapadami Creek, and Cold Harbor battlefields have been preserved,
48:01allowing us to walk in the footsteps of Grant, Lee, and the soldiers they commanded.
48:08Allowing us to understand the heroism and horror of war in a way that no words or pictures can adequately
48:16convey.
48:26PBS America joins the search for the remains of formerly enslaved Black Union soldiers brutally murdered by angry southerners as
48:35the U.S. Civil War was coming to an end.
48:37And remembers when these soldiers and thousands of others got their freedom papers.
48:42Next.
48:48How does this join?
48:55Host Fragen
48:56fewer than 2 or 3 years later not to PM Barbara Rish Sexuals
48:57No им in power
48:57No one in power
49:00In command
49:01To angle all of the humans
49:01To feel different
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