It's May 18 64, and president Lincoln has now promoted Ulysses S grant. The hero of the western theater, the rank of lieutenant general. A rank only held in wartime by George Washington. The Grant's task is to now lead the Union army against the Confederate rebels during the most unstable time in US history. If grant fails, it can lead to peace with the confederates and a continuation
of slavery in North America for generations to come. The wartime steaks couldn't ever be higher. Welcome to War Yankee. Howdy. I have Kyle and Bondo, and this is War Yankee Overland. My American Civil War History podcast that follows generally Lucy's s Grant and the army of the Potomac on its 47 day 113 Mile Military Campaign South from Culpepper, Virginia to Petersburg, Virginia. As the first episode in this Worry Yankee series, I want to begin by setting some expectations.
You may be asking yourself, Who is the war yankee? Why the Overland campaign? Why are you starting in the middle of the civil war? Well, these are great questions. Let me begin with some background about myself that will fill you in on what War Yankee is all about. First, I wanna talk about this podcast title. Worry Yankee. Why Worry Yankee? Well, it is a word my grandfather used to call Ulysses S Grant whenever it came up in conversation.
He would say, that grant, he was the only war yankee Lincoln hand that was worth anything. Oh, something like that. Usually, there were more expilatives in that description. Or he would if the topic shifted to Sherman, he would say, good then Grant had that old War Yankee on his side. You kinda get the point. This was his word for Union generals.
Union officers in general during the civil war. I asked him once what he meant by Warganki and he told me that it was a compliment. It's like calling a man a war horse. Only you're calling them a war yankee because a war yankee is a war horse. Only it's a war horse hiding inside a strong man. This is why I named this podcast for War Yankee. It is the standard that I want to hold myself to, as well as making my unionist
point of view very clear from the very beginning. And of course, it's a way to honor my grandfather. And because the unionist point of view is an ideology, that I was introduced to as a child and now fully embrace as a father, husband, veteran, and American. The worry Yankee perspective goes way back in my family. How far back? I mean, it's almost like an inside joke. But back far enough, then I can draw a direct line to my oldest military ancestor, Sir Humphrey's Leir.
He was 1 of the 9th Crusaders. Who accompanied King Richard the lion hearted to the holy lands during the 3rd crusade in 12th century. Yeah. That far back, And there's even a funny family story. Well, not so funny for surhumphrey, but funny now. There's a legend in my family It talks about how King Richard was hit in the face during the occupation of Asalon Israel in 1192.
No 1 really knows what he was hit with. He's got a mace of flail, back of a sword. So maybe someone punched me, he fell off his horse. But his helmet His helmet is the key in the story because it collapses helmet on him making it impossible for him to breathe. Now risking life and limbs, or Humphreys waited through the fighting and worked the helmet off the king's head, allowing him to breathe again. However,
As he was rescuing the king, an attacking soldier cut his legs so badly that it had to be amputated. Now it said that King Richard personally sought us or Humphrey's recovery. And even decreed that an armored leg be added to his coat of armed in in remembrance of the occasion. But the best part of what King Richard said to Sir Humphreys is he said that he should forever be called Leir or my breath. And it was from that day forward that Sir Humphreys got his name. He was then forever known as Sir Humphrey Leer.
And it is the Leer family line, which changed over a 1000 years to just heirs. Is where my grandmother's maiden name comes from. But that might be too far back. So let's get a little more current, like maybe the 17 eighties. And this is ties back to the war yankee way of thinking. Now I have 3 direct ancestors that were in the continental army during the revolution's war. This is John Breeding Senior.
His son Spencer R breeding as they affectionately refer to him as Klinch River because that's where he came from. I guess there was another Spencer breeding. In fact, if you go look on their roles, you'll find out their Spencer Breeding, there's a lot of them, were soldiers in the Virginia militia. And another ancestor, William Patterson, was also a private in the North Carolina line 10th regiment.
And so this is this is my family connection to starting with the revolution. When it comes to family during the civil war, I have a a northwestern connection with a gentleman named William Breeding who served as an engineer in the West Missouri volunteers, and George Foster,
who served in 1 of the union infantry regiments from either Illinois or Ohio. The problem with the name like George Foster during the 18 sixties is that there were roughly 300 George Foster serving in the various Illinois and Ohio infantry regimens the Civil War, not the easiest mystery to solve, but still a fun 1 to try to to solve. Then there's the Northeastern connection out in New Jersey and this 1 starts with a curious case of artist heirs and his conveniently
timed wedding. Artist was 24 and single when President Lincoln signed the draft act of 1863 in the law. There's a strong possibility and a family rumor that he married Evelyn Rudolph to avoid being drafted the union army. So you kinda have some very interesting family history moving along with these with these conflicts as people navigate the history of their their circumstances.
In case you're not familiar with the draft after 1863, it was the first instance of compulsory service in the federal military. So all male citizens as well as aliens that had declared their intentions of becoming citizens between the ages of 20 to 45 were at risk of being drafted. So no married man could be drafted until all the unmarried men had been drafted.
So you think about that. Is it makes being married a very reasonable decision for a young man in 1863 because if you're married, well, you can't be drafted. That's kinda convenient. Meanwhile, his 2 older brothers George and Belford heirs may have decided to do the opposite, and either volunteered or were drafted into the 10th or 12th inventory regimen of the New Jersey volunteers. It turns out the spelling of names, particularly an ever changing name like heirs.
Because that can be spelled ayaresorayresorayresandthat'swithoutadding the the Lee in front of him that can even add more confusion has because of these several different spellings, it makes tracking out specific rosters tough. They're in there somewhere among the New Jersey volunteers and hopefully 1 day I'll find out exactly which unit.
But the mysteries don't end there. Another family story that was passed down to me is that I have a direct connection between 1 of my ancestors and general William to come to Sherman's mother, Mary Holt.
At some point, someone in my family married someone in Sherman's family a few generations back. Now this only makes us cousins, but there have been more than 1 person to say that I look like Sherman when standing next to his a really big portrait, especially when we went to Gettysburg and this portrait was there, standing next to him. I mean, I kinda do look out of like him. I have the same balding spot. I have the same kind of red hair. I have the same kind of sneer when I'm angry. It's kind of uncanny. You can see some family resumnances.
But there's nothing more American than to say that 1 of my favorite war yankee generals kinda sorta looks like me and that's kinda cool. Let's skip ahead a little bit more to World War 1. There you'll find my grandmother's father, William Oscar Ayers, and he was a US army private in the 1st Oregon National Guard. And he was placed during the war into the 167th
Field Hospital of the US Army's 42nd division and sent the fight in World War 1 at the age of 24. And he saw some serious action in Belgium in France and returned in 1 piece to get married, settle down, and start a farm in Eastern Oregon. And the reason why I say saw action and that all this I find kind of fascinating is that no 1 knew in my family that my grandma's my grandma Doris's father had even been in the military. It wasn't until she passed away in 2017 that anyone even found out.
So from what I understand, he never talked about it. When he came back from the war, the great war, he took his uniform off, put it in a trunk, and never talked about it again. So it's interesting that some of these these family legacies of war are not all positive. Some of them are kinda sad. And then on my maternal grandfather's side, my grandfather's brother, my great uncle Bob. He joined the US Navy before World War 2. He once told me that he didn't want to be a farmer.
So he joined before it was cool. And I loved my great uncle Bob stories about the navy and navy life. But it's this 1 story in particular that I found fascinating. He told me the story of how he was walking to the chow hall on 1 bright Sunday morning. It just happened to be the Sunday morning of December 7 1941.
Well, before he crossed the grass into the chow hall, he watched an airplane fly eye over. And that airplane just happened to be a Japanese bomber. And as it flew over, it dropped a bomb directly on the building's roof in front of him. And it was full of sailors and marines eating breakfast. There's a huge explosion.
It buried everyone inside, and he was knocked to the ground of the concussion, and he was wounded in the blast, in fact. But the second he came to his senses he ran into the rubble to find survivors. Now my great uncle Bob was an eyewitness
to the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. But what do you remember is is not the bombings of the ship? What do you remember most? Was going to that rubble and saving those men and women trapped under the debris. And that's when he told me that he knew he wanted to be a navy corpsman on that day. Not only did he become a navy corpsman because of that, He retired as a chief petty officer's pharmacist mate. That was really the impact of war to him is it it gave him his calling. He realized
what it was he wanted to be. He wanted to be a war yankee. And in my most recent history, to my mother's brothers, my uncles, they served as well. Randall Carey joined the US Marine Corps of Age 19 to become a granny deer. And after a tour in Vietnam, He unfortunately died in a training accident in Hawaii in 1965. He reached the rank of Lance corporal age of 21, but to this day, his death still haunts the family. No 1 will talk about it.
It's kinda tough when you start to realize that, okay, maybe way back when is easy to talk about, but it's too soon. 1965 is still too soon. A little more currier note. My uncle Kenny, he took a different path. He joined the US Army and became a high powered radio operator. It just kinda caused him to be right in the middle of the Cold War escalation in Western Eastern Germany. He even spent time serving near the Berlin Wall. He's dropping on Soviets in East Germany communications.
So it spans the the difference between all sorts of the jobs in the military. My family is just an interesting collection of patriots. And even my wife's family has military ties, my father-in-law, and his brother-in-law both served in the US Navy, and they were on the carriers in the in the gulf war. I think my father-in-law was even on the USS Aratoga, helping to liberate Kuwait from Saddam Hussein's thugs.
In fact, 1 of his his most proudest metals is the Kuwaiti Liberation Medal. In fact, it's beautiful. It's giant. Gold, red, and black stripes. It's an amazing metal. And that's that's his memory of war. And then it was my term. I served in the US Navy as an intelligence specialist, 1st class petty officer. And I was in it before 911, during 911, and after 911.
And that includes Operation Rocky Freedom, and the actions that led to the invasion of Iraq, the fall of Baghdad, Tory Bora, among other things. And I kinda get what my great grandfather Oscar in his
experience of World War 1. I kinda understand that now. Where I didn't understand it before I do now, more than anything. And just like that, my experience in military told me everything I needed to know about why my great grandfather found his experience tough to talk about because war leaf scars, battles, have a lasting impact on those who survive. And what this all gave me, this experience, gave me perspective. War a Yankee perspective.
My career in intelligence forced me to learn why armies and leaders of armies behave the way they do. And then it showed me up close and real how combat changes that plan. It also helped me understand why strategy is important in allowing the tactical details of a battlefield to unfold.
Because without a strategy, no 1 knows what to do next. And the what's next part That's actually important because if you don't know what to do next, that's when the chaos appears and turns the tide of victory into a defeat. It was learning these things firsthand that fascinated me about military history. And before you say, oh 0, wait a bit of Kyle, You are in navy intelligence.
Doesn't that mean you only know about ships and water and stuff? Okay. No worries. I see your confusion. Let me help you out here. Unlike the other services, a navy intelligence specialist or as they were affectionately referred to as an IS, has to do it all. There's little compartmentalization or time for specialization. I know it's it says intelligent specialist. You would think we specialize. But that's just the reading name. What it really means is intelligence and generalist.
Every IS in the navy is a very strange and special duck. That has to be comfortable with both in and out of the water. Even if that water is very, very far away and full of sand,
This is why you have to learn to talk marine. You have to learn to talk grunch or pog. You have to learn how to jump out of helicopters. You have to learn how actual battle works from the nuts and bolts all the way to the bullet on the other end. And here's a little fact to consider too. There are roughly 3000 active duty intelligence specialists in the US Navy right now. They're out there on the pointy end of the spear right now. Does the Taliban or Al Qaeda have any ships? No.
They do not. So what are all those men and women doing right now? That's right. Navy intelligence has gone ashore. It's been ashore the whole time. That's the dirty little secret. It's always been ashore. But just kinda put that in the bag of your head. Nice little. Factoid to tease your friends with, especially those in the other military services that have to specialize.
So now that you understand a little bit about where I'm coming from with regards to military history. Let me focus on Civil War history itself, which is what War Yankee is all about. Why did I start with the Overland campaign? And this is a question I get a lot. Why is this where do you focus on Kyle? Why they were like, I mean, why not everything else? Well, I'm always amazed to discover how a battle was won or lost.
You see, those of us that work in the intelligence side of the battle only get to see the beginning and the end. We used to say that it's kinda like herding cats or or being the mother hen of little chickens. You brief them all on on what they need to do, what their role are, and the little team guys go off and do their thing, and you have to wait by the radio and hope it all works out. And when everyone comes home safe, that's the only time you actually get to relax.
That middle part, the actual part of the metal meets the meat, That part is communicated back to you from the safety of the command center. This is why I'm just in awe of the operations that require men and now women to charge head first into the teeth of enemy fire. That raw courage and sacrifice, that's humbling. And is this often overlooked human element of warfare that always and has always and will always draw me to understanding military history.
And passion maybe is a good word for that. And the topic of American Civil War itself is directly handed down to me from my grandfather. My grandfather was a an antique weapons collector. If you ever it's 1 of these kind of hobbies that is rarely rarely understood. Is my grandfather was a war dog in a sense. He's a weapons collector. I mean, weapons, not like 2 or 3. He had hundreds of American Revolution Civil War and Frontier Muskets, rifles, and swords.
He had hunted these down, he'd researched each single 1, he even refurbished many of them back to their original condition. I believe that my love for some more history came from this legacy, my grandfather could take an artifact from the past, let's say, like a calvary sword, and then tell you its entire life story. From the time it was crafted or forged
to the battle it would fought in to even the action that caused its owner to lose it. It was in these stories that I learned the difference between a smooth boar musket, a rifle musket, a cavalry carbine, or even a repeating rifle. He had a whole room of these things.
Look, but don't touch. Yeah. I'm sure you have some grandfathers like that. Right? But that's where this love for civil war comes from. But really, the Overland campaign. I can start it anywhere, and I will go other places. But why the Overland campaign? Why is that become my primary focus. Well, where I now live, that has a huge factor on why I decided to start this podcast, the War Yankee podcast.
At this point in the civil war. Because this is the this is the part that I think most people don't understand. And it's strange because if you you look at books, you look at history, you look at a lot of things, Gettysburg is huge. Right? Figured Vicksburg is huge. Shiloh and Tatum, huge. Everyone has studied the Taur out of them. The Overland campaign is is weird. And it goes like this when you're when you're a kid in in high school learning about civil war history,
It goes like this, the civil war, the union lost a lot. They got beat all the time. And then Lincoln put grant and charge and then they surrendered. And you're like, oh, wait a minute. What do you mean they surrendered? They surrendered a year late, a year late, a year late, a year later, what happened in the middle?
Well, you know, there was this, you know, Shiloh and entitlement, but Gettysburg. There was Gettysburg. It broke the back of the Confederate Army, and then a year and a half later they surrendered. Why didn't take him so long as we're, oh, because it's, you know, it's the 18 sixties. Takes a long time to do anything there. Right? Everyone's gone horseback and wagon. Oh, okay.
Well, that turns out not to be so true. And what really matters is when you move to the middle of where all this took place. Because I now live in Fredericksburg, Virginia. And if you're not clear on where Fredericksburg, Virginia is, Then go to Google or go to Google Maps and type in Frederickshire, Virginia, and then type in Civil War Battlefield. You will be amazed what is in my backyard.
In fact, I sit in the center of 5 of the major Civil War battlefields, and I could name them really quick, ferrets, fact, there was 2 battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorville, the Battle Wilderness, SponsoredLinX Court House, and the North Anna River. These battlefields are right here. Right here. In fact, there are many little battlefields
all over this place that when I started this project, I didn't even know existed. I didn't know about the union's difficulty coming down Brock Road. Didn't know about the little tiny skirmishes here and there, the farm there, the hillside there, hilltop here. These were the things I had no idea that were there. I've been driving these roads, living in this in this area. This it's kinda rule, I guess they call it, suburbia.
It's like the suburb of a suburb of a suburb of Washington DC. It's really out there 40 miles away from Washington DC, but still right here, I've been all over these Bamba fields. Not understanding what happened there. Now I think I have a pretty good idea. So I could have started anywhere, but the fighting of Grant's Overland campaign
started only a few miles from my house. The battle of wilderness is right there, and then it tore through my backyard on the way to spots on your court house. Before it concluded 80 miles to the south in Petersburg, Virginia.
That is a lifetime of civil history, and it requires years to explore You ever read Gordon Rays books? I mean, there are, what, 5 of them. They're each 1, an inch thick? That's a lot of that's a lot of reading. Trust me. Read it once. It's a lot. Read it 2 or 3 times. It's way more than that. This is just the tip of the iceberg of some of the some of the interesting things you can find out from this small little area. I mean, I've even heard this is the bloodiest ground in America.
Is right here in the Fredericksburg, SponsoredLinX County area. And after understanding what took place here, I I now get it. I now understand what the signs mean. And it would require years to explore it before I felt even confident enough to start this show. But for me, starting War Yankee with Grant's Alert Campaign, and I'm gonna start it May 3rd and take it all the way to June 18th.
18 64. It just felt like a natural fit. I understand it enough to teach it, to talk about it, to explore it, to give you some of the the aspects, and of course, the thing I talked about earlier, perspective of what happened. And I think this is a podcast that you could go back and listen to almost as if you visited the battlefields yourself. And I and I wanted to bring it that way. I wanna oh, and I only wanna bring the history of the Overland campaign to life this podcast.
Because the stuff's in my backyard, I want to go there and describe what is happening or how these places look. And act and feel and taste, a textual feeling to these battlefield. Because when you go there and see it, you go Oh, that's why that's why that was important. Because not only do I understand these battles, I've actually stood where General Grant stood during each 1. I found these locations. In fact, I found some locations that aren't even on the map. To try to understand
what it is that happened here. I actually walk the path of destruction from Culpepper, Virginia to Petersburg, Virginia. Reading and studying the Overland campaign, it's been insightful, but there's nothing like standing at the bloody angle at 5 AM on May 12th. On the exact day of the 156 anniversary to make you really understand what went through people's minds they stood across that field in the dark right before the attack. That is perspective.
And that is what I hope you take away from War Yankee. Perspective. That's the goal of war yankee, and I hope you can join me. So thank you for listening. Thank you for listening to this introduction, my family history, and my reasons for creating war Yankee. And I look forward to having you join me on this journey.
If you love Civil War history, then I want to take a brief moment to remind you of a profound statement from Abraham Lincoln. He said, the world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
Now, if you love history like I do, then you know that America's freedoms were secured on the battlefield of the revolutionary war, the war of 18 12, and of course, the Civil War. But what you may not know is that these battles were fought at 13,000 places with only a fraction remaining today. Because these unprotected tobacco fields tell the rest of the story of how America was forged into the nation we are today, we must do something to preserve what few battlefields remain that can be safe.
That's why I want you to consider supporting the American Battlefield Trust. The American Battlefield Trust is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to preserving the sacred places that are etched into our national memory. They have already saved over 50,000 acres of land, but there are still millions of unprotected sites that are being paved over, built on, and erased from history every day. This is why the American Battlefield Trust needs your help to preserve these sites for current and future Americans to study and enjoy.
They see each battlefield as outdoor classrooms and living memorials to America's 1st citizen soldiers who fought and died. On these now quiet in Hollywood fields. Join me in the fight to save our nation's historic battlefields by visiting the American Battlefield Trust Web site at battlefields.org.
Because the American Battlefield Trust knows, there is no substitute for experiencing history in the places where it actually took place. Join the only national organization working to save America's historic battlefields today and discover how you can help preserve America's history forever. That's battlefield, battlefield with an s.org.
In the next episode of War Yankee, we're gonna kick things off. As I explore the high stakes gamble involved in promoting Grant to general in chief of the union army, and the military connection to Abraham Lincoln's reelection chances. And what could happen if the entire Overland campaign of 1864 fails. War Yankee Overland is my American Civil War History podcast, created by me, Al Bondo, and produced by Gagapod. I hope you can join me as I follow the history of hiding in my own backyard.
Find out more at wargenke.com.