It's Dawn on 05/05/1864. Lieutenant General Elisabeth Grant, Major General George Meehan, and the army of atomic have spent the night in the fabled wilderness. Now as the morning sun rises on a new day, what started as an easy march out of the thickets quickly spins out of control after a series of unexpected enemies prices take place. Welcome. To War Yankee. Greetings. I am Kyle in Bondo, and this is War Yankee Overland.
My American Civil War History Podcast that follows generally Lizzie's s Grant and the Army of the Potomac on its 47 day 113 mile military campaign south from Culpepper to Petersburg, Virginia. In this episode,
it's morning on May fifth. And Granite made have allowed the army to spend the night in a 1 place they didn't want to spend the night in. And that was the wilderness. But hey, everything's okay, everything's fine. The enemy is far away. Nothing to worry about. Only as the sun was going down, a first Michigan soldier saw a campfire in the distance and being told was nothing to worry about. Well, now it's 5AM. It's dawn. It's morning. And the bugle rings to the woods.
Soldiers of the fifth corps aroused. There's coffee and pine smells coming up from the Carefederal camps as these soldiers work out sore muscles and blisters from the march the day before, and they're enjoying this forest of quiet tranquility. Birds in the morning chirping, and in this peacefulness, they're preparing themselves. For what's coming next. And what's coming next is a march. And the plan for this morning's march is simple. Warren's gonna move out of the wilderness tavern area.
5 miles down the road to a place called Parker Store, which is along the Orange Plank Road, as Hancock's second core moves out of chancellorsville down to Todd's taverning towards sponsoring a courthouse. And as Warren moves out and Hancock leads the way out to the pointy end of the spear, Sedgwick's core, the sixth core is gonna come up from Germana the Germana Ford, and take Lauren's position. And then Sedgwick's core will be replaced by the ninth core, Burnside's ninth core.
So this is the the rotation of soldiers in the morning. Just a, you know, a simple rotation of soldiers 20000 here, 20000 there, another 20000 over there. Simple. Right? Wagons, cannons, horses, men. Supplies, you name it. Down, country roads not designed to to facilitate a hundred thousand men moving. This is the order of the day. They're gonna move this vast war machine out of the wilderness and into the farmland.
A little more to the east and south of the wilderness, where Grant can finally use his superiority to counter any kind of confederate attack and barring a confederate attack, maneuver his forces and hit Lease forces at mines run. Well, Grant begins his day at Sedgwick's HQ down by the river as they're preparing to take over Warren's position because he's still waiting for Burnside's ninth Court to arrive. And at sunrise, here comes Burnside's ninth core. Their lead elements finally arrive.
Now they have traveled many, many miles. Even said that some of them were 40 miles away. So that's probably what's in the rear of Burnside's ninth Court. But they have done an exhausting march, and they're stretched over several miles as they arrived at the Draenovor crossing. But they arrive. Burnside's men finally show up in the morning of May fifth. It's gonna be a while before they can cross. First off, There's still wagons coming over.
Burnside's core is going to assemble on the far bank of Germane Ford because they can't really cross until Sedgwick moves out of the way. And schedule a killer can't move out of the way until Warren gets moving. So the traffic jam is just added a new element. That's okay, because Burnside's men have gone such a long ways they need a break.
And this is the advantage of having to wait for other military units to move out of your way. You can now take a break, go down to the river, wash your feet, wash your body, wash your clothes, get a drink, take a nap, set up your defenses, and relax for a few minutes until it's finally time to move to the next objective. So Burnside's core is gonna be arriving all day long. Meanwhile,
Warren's fifth corps camped around Elwood Manor and the Wilner's Tavern is getting ready to move. At first light, Mead moves his headquarters to where Warren's headquarters was at at the Elwood House. He's gonna take that over and oversee the Sedgwick Arrival and Warren's departure. Which is not a bad deal because we were if you remember from a couple episodes back, Mead's headquarters is set up in where modern day sits at 07:11.
The Elwood House is still there, at least a renovated version of it. It's much nicer. Big house sits up on the hill, It's got a red sides and white trim. It's got a great view without the trees. You could probably see all the way to saunders field, but it's got great commanding view over the train intermediate vicinity. So it's not a bad place to set up shop. That's where Meade's gonna go in the morning. So Warren's core is pulling out. They are preparing.
Soldiers are getting ready. Rifles are coming out of the stacks. Soldiers are rolling up their tents, putting out their campfires. Remember, there's no threat. You're gonna be still far away. It's gonna be okay. So the critical intersection that needs to change hands between the fifth and sixth core is the intersection of Old Plank Road in Orange cordhouse turnpike or just orange turnpike. This is the road. The turnpike
is that rough cut 25 mile road that leads directly to Orange Court House. And it's crisscrossed in certain places. The Brock Road kinda sits in the middle of their off of some pieces there he is. Because it's a giant intersection. They're almost across roads of different roads. The old plank road, Brock road, the Germana plank road,
the Culpepper Plank Road, and you have the orange turnpike. This is a critical place if you have to make a decision on where you're going. It's gonna break you up into different counties. This is the places where Warren's fifth core is occupying. And think of these roads. I wanna I think think of roads as in the Civil War. Again, you can't define it as like an interstate, a reason of the modern day paved road. It's 2 ruts, the width of a wagon. And they wind up and around hills and around groups of trees and there's weeds and brush choking them at all places.
Because no one's mowing it. There's no Virginia Department of Transportation that come out and take care of it, trim back the weeds. So there's limbs everywhere, there's trees that have fallen,
And the only people that maintain these roads are the people that use it, the farmers of that area. So the farmers from time to time do get together and clear these roads. But for the most part, they're not well maintained, especially after a month's worth of rain, there are rivets and pools of water and puddles and ruts.
Moving 1 wagon over this is probably not that big a deal. Moving a couple thousand wagons over it, plus a couple hundred thousand feet and horses and hooves of all various shapes and sizes turns these roads into
muck and mud. That's what these roads are starting to look like. The grass right up to the wilderness tavern has been chewed away and grass down the way as these never ending wagon trains are moving through. Oh, the orange turnpike itself though because they've only gone down my old 2 down that way. Still maintains that rough cut look.
And because it maintains that rough cut look, can't look down that road very far. You can only see a couple hundred yards. Before there's a turn or a rise or an overgrowth of trees, a bushy clog of tree limbs that keeps anything down that road obscured from vision, these massive thick tree walls
on either side of these roads. This is why the wilderness is so dangerous as you don't see the threat until it's right up on you. So what little signs you do see? Smoke, dust, Maybe you hear some sound, maybe you don't. You won't see or hear anything until to write up on you. But it cuts both ways. Just because you can't see the enemy, doesn't mean the enemy can see you either. So there is some level of protection in where Warren's core is at, and of course, the risk of having a confederate
unit walk right up on them. And Warren is the closest. He's the closest to mine's run. And on the morning of May fifth, Warren is nervous. And he is a he's a strange cat. I'd like to consider governor Kay Warren as the if you ever watched Big Bang Theory, I like to think of him as the Sheldon of the Army of the Potomac. He's incredibly smart. He understands military tactics and strategy, but he's not a very good people person and he is leading 24000 men with this very OCD
style of leadership where he knows everything and everyone is kind of beneath him in that sense. And I know there's a lot of historians fight over whether or not Warren was incompetent or Warren was just too overly cautious or not aggressive enough. I think Warren was undiagnosed Ospurgers. I think Warren has that this that high functioning autistic billable of mind Super smart, but the inability to relate to real people. And now he's got to lead 24000
men who can never rise to the level of quality he thinks they should be at. So he's a nervous cat this entire time. He is very wary of things not working perfectly the way he wants them to work. And so he starts blowing up a little mistakes. There are officers that they're doing things that are not quite to his level of expectation that he's just losing his his mind over. And he even calls miscommunications
or traffic jams or problems that really some of these officers have no control over because when you're moving 24000 men through thick brush. Things don't go as planned. He starts calling it dereliction. He starts using words like incompetence. Or conduct on becoming because he's looking for perfection with expectations set at an unrealistic level. And this I think is the frustration
with the officers serving under Warren. And why they some of them don't like him very much, and why a lot of officers even have to civil war, talked about war in very negative ways. And I think this is how Warren gets this reputation.
He's the Sheldon. And if you think of him as the Sheldon, if you haven't watched big bang theory, I highly suggest you go and watch a few seasons. And you see how Sheldon reacts and then take Sheldon, put him in West Point and then make him a union, a general in charge of 24000 men. And just imagine what problems could happen. I mean, what could go wrong. Right? No. A lot can go wrong. When you have someone whose expectation levels too high, everyone
falls short, and this is Warren's problem. So the morning objective is only 5 miles away from him. It's only 5 miles. Here's the bad thing. Is that 5 miles? Is through some of the densest parts of the wilderness? Because all he has to do is move 24005 miles to a small abandoned country market that the cavalry is aware of and has already supposedly Wilson's Recon that area. It's called Parker Store. And it criss crosses across the wilderness to a location along the Orange Plank Road.
Which is the road that parallels the turnpike by a few miles,
and is connected to the Brock Road, which is where Hancock's seem to be, So it allows him a avenue of approach to Hancock where they can move supplies back and forth or move troops back and forth. So there's a connection there that he can get. The Parker store is just the first objective. He's gonna move on beyond that because the whole point is to shift the Union Army around the right flank of the confederacy and force them to move to them. That's the idea.
So in in since they've been at Wilderness Tavern and the Elwood Manor, he's had engineers out. They've been looking for the easiest way to get to where they need to go without having to go all up and around. And what's happened these engineers have discovered a trail to farm road. So think of it as the path that you'd walk every single day to go get on the water. That kind of trail. And now they're gonna shove 24000 men with horses and cannons and supply wagons. Down this little trail. It
was not going to work. So since the since the darkness, engineers and pioneers, which are the the gentleman who pull up stumps, chop down trees, move, and make roads passable for union army equipment, have been working nonstop to tear this trail apart and increase its size to almost 24 feet for 5 miles. And as they're doing this, they're discovering a few things about the Virginia environment, mostly in northern Virginia, like routes,
tree roots that spread for several feet beyond each tree. This isn't these gnarly roots that do not want to be removed from very easily. On top of that, you have Virginia Red Clay, which might as well be cement, especially after a large rain.
These pioneers and engineers are working this road chopping down trees, pulling up stumps, digging out this small trail into a road. And along the way, they've discovered the wilderness run, which is the watershed that runs the middle of the wilderness and it it winds around just like the rapidan river does and the rapidanic river does, it winds around looking for its easiest path through the wilderness. So they discovered that they've had to put 3 bridges over the wilderness run watershed
in order to move heavy equipment and men that way. So since Don, they've had a working version of this trail. It's not perfect, but it's wide enough for the guns and the fighting wagons to go along.
Provided the horses and the men can push them over these ruts and these roots and whatever stumps they don't get to, and down these winding little hills and up the next winding little hill. So it's going to be slow moving and it's gonna be packed because 24 feet is not a lot of room. And this trail is gonna wind from the Lacey Plantation, where the Elwood House is, and it's gonna break out into a place called Jonesfield.
And then it's gonna go through the wilderness some more and then come into the chewing farm. And this is 1 of the larger farms looking within the boundaries of the wilderness that will allow them to finally stretch out and reach Parker's store 5 miles away. The idea is to use this pathway to move all of the fifth core through the wilderness
and to chewing farm fields and then form up once they reach Parker Store and fan out along the Orange Flank Road to form a new battle line into the afternoon. That's the goal. That's all they have to do. From 5AM on is do that. So to soldiers,
5 mile march, not so bad. That's pretty easy considering in the march they just got done doing, 5 miles is a piece of cake. So all you have to do is get themselves down this trail to Parker store on the chewing farm and they get the rest again, build some defenses, relax, figure out what the next move is. So at 5AM, they start preparing themselves to move forward. Well, meanwhile, at 5AM, Wilson's cavalry is expected to be out there at Parker Store.
Remember, we talked about in the last episode that Wilson, this is his first field command, that he thinks he's a very good officer in the sense he's a topography officer. Understands maps very well, geography very well. Calvary tactics however, he's a green horn and he's having a rough time understanding what he is he needs to be doing. And he has conflicting orders in the sense that he thinks that he needs to be pushing forward with the other cavalry to guard the front.
And because Warren is moving without Calgary escort or scouts, he's relying on Wilson to be his eyes at Parker store as these soldiers start moving down the trail in that direction. And in fact, at 5AM, Wilson sends a report to Meade, which is relayed to to Warren, that says, quote, my picket reports nothing new from the enemy this morning. So as far as Warren is concerned, Parker Star doesn't have any enemy obstacles to worry about. And furthermore, he understands that Wilson has
an officer named Hamid, who's in charge of the fifth New York with his 500 chief troopers watching Orange Blank Road at Parker Store. So not only does he not have no enemy action where he's going, but there's 500 cavalry from the fifth New York waiting there at Parker Store to cover him as he approaches. And with that, this is the connection between Warren and Wilson.
Is through the fifth New York. Wilson's link to Warren's lead element will be through the fifth New York. So if you think about a link, this is an understanding of I know what unit is next to me. The closest unit next to me. So as Wilson moves forward with his conflicting orders, his connection back to the army of the Potomac is from a courier that would come from Wilson to Hammond and then from Hammond to Warren.
If any of those parts are cut off by enemy forces, you now have no way to communicate back to your chain of command. Having the fifth New York at Parker Store serves as a connection from Wilson back to Warren. And with that, Wilson's main force scurries off to the south. Looking for confederate forces, they are in search of the rumored Jed Stewart out possibly by Spotify in a courthouse.
So he's left 500 troopers there. And you know from last episode as well that he didn't leave any forces on the orange turnpike. So the majority of Wilson's of Cavalry has moved off towards sponsoring a courthouse, and all that has left of Wilson's division is 500 troopers from the fifth New York sitting at Parker Store and reconning around Parker Store waiting for warrants the elements to arrive.
So Warren, still cagey about not liking that he doesn't really know what's out there and not liking that his forces are not behaving the way his expectations are. He at 5AM, he starts moving his units forward. And the first unit is going to be Crawford's division. This is the Pennsylvania Reserves. They're gonna start moving. They're starting to move moving forward. But he doesn't just make them move forward in a lot.
He's worried that there could be confederates working in the woods because of the cavalry, something he's not depending on, not done a good job. He requires that these foot patrols have pickets out along the trail and in the thickets. So as the single line of soldiers was moving Southwest,
from the Wilderness tavern towards the parker's store, patrols are far out to the right of the line of the marching troops and guns and wagons. So he has this line of soldiers marching along a open trail with other soldiers weaving themselves through the thickets and the tangles and the dense undergrowth
trying to flush out any spies or confederate soldiers or even confederate pickets along the way. Because he doesn't wanna get attacked while his unit is being strung out on this trail. And this is his solution.
And then he directs his troops to march slowly in case there's an attack. So he's got them spun up in a sense that there could be an attack, march these guys along this trail, march the rest of the thicket, and we'll move along that way. And because of that, things go slow. And he's keeping even the cannons and the wagons to the left side of the trail. They're not allowed to use the right side of the trail. That's where the soldiers are gonna march. So the wagons can't weave in and out of stumps and roots. They have to go over them or be pulled in that direction.
You can imagine the chaos that starts to take place. It's just Crawford's division starts to move forward. It's already long lines and start and stops and start and stops as these soldiers try to move and these cannoners try to move and these wagons try to move and these horses try to pull this these heavyweights up and down and soldiers moving through the woods. It's gotta be a site. I could imagine the cussing coming out of the woods while these soldiers are doing that. It's probably intense.
Make a blush kind of kind of language. Well, as Crawford's division finally empties out of Elwood and the Lacey plantation. Wadsworth division follows them followed by Robinson's division. And the only division left is Griffin's division. These are the veterans that are remaining on the orange drum pipe, guarding the columns rear. And they're expected to remain until Sedgwick 6 core moves down from the Draenei Ford road and takes over those positions.
So Crawford's not moving very fast. Wadsworth is just getting started. Robinsons just kind of filling in behind Wadsworth, it and it's slowly emptying this plantation, Griffin's vision knows they've got plenty of time. There is no rush No reason for them to be in a hurry at all. So they can have a nice breakfast. They can relax. Maybe write a letter home. Just make a heavy shave your face. Remember, no threat.
And this is the division run by brigadier general Charles Griffin. He's another West Point graduate from Ohio. He did Indian fighting out in the west before the civil war, and he has this heavy mustache. Think of it as the the handlebar mustache. Well, Charles Griffin is the poster child for the handlebar mustache.
Big thick mustache. I mean, just imagine it's beautiful. If you collect moustaches, this is 1 to collect. It is bigger than general Charles Griffin. And he's considered a hard case. And he recently considered a hard case is because he speaks his mind. He's very outspoken.
He's the kind of officer that tell you what you need to hear rather than what you want to hear. And when it comes to Warren who wants everyone to be perfect, Griffin has a tendency to get in Warren's face. So there's this east coast way of officer behavior that Griffin is going to become famous for. And he's also an experienced
gunner, so he understands artillery very well. He learned during the Mexican American war as an artillery officer. In fact, he even taught artillery tactics at West Point and he is known for routinely shoving cannon ears aside and instructing them how to use guns a good effect. Again, tell you what you need to know, not what you want to know. So this is the man who's realized that Crawford's gonna go and Griffin's now the rearguard. And Griffin and Warren have a very tentative relationship. So being last, probably not the worst thing for Griffin. Good to have some distance from Warren for some time. So he has this advanced position to mile down the orange turn pike from Williams Tavern.
And poking out on the bitter end of the orange turnpike, hitting anything coming down the turnpike from mine's run. Is the hundred and fortieth and hundred and 40 sixth New York. They're a little to the north of the of the road,
and the first Michigan is in the south side of the road. Remember, we talked about the first Michigan soldier from the last episode that saw smoke right before it got dark off in the distance. Well, this is who's out there, the first Michigan and the hundred and fortieth and hundred and 46 New York. And they have some disjointed lines. The first Michigan pickets are several hundred yards ahead of the New Yorkers, but there's no threat so it doesn't matter.
A major general Griffin is watching the orange turnpike road believing that Wilson's cavalry is a few miles away, also watching the turnpike. So as the sun comes up on 05/05/1864, Griffin is at ease, no fighting is expected. The alignments of pickets is really unimportant. As long as they're comfortable and no one's getting into fights and align in a way that kinda makes sense. There's really nothing Griffin's really worried about. He's not a stickler for expate for excellence like
Warren is. They're a little off, they're a little off, so be it. So as the sun comes up, his division is boiling coffee, they're having breakfast, and the rising sun is sending rays down through the treetops in this long day break where they're enjoying a morning of peace and solitude. Because Warren's off worrying about the other divisions moving down that trail, which is probably a nightmare right now with a lot of yelling, a lot of screaming and cussing. As things start to unravel
wagons moving around and men moving around. I could imagine not wanting to be in that area, but they want to be in Griffin's area. It's relaxing because there's no untoward developments occurring to their front and their pickets kind of hanging out in the forest, joining the birds, in the bugs. Nice shade in the morning because the trees are locking the sun as it warms up a little bit, but not a bad day, not a bad way to get off to a morning. And so as finally,
you get Crawford down the trail some ways and Wadsworth down the trail some ways and Robinsons down the trail some ways and now Warren is finally getting ready to move with Robinson down the trail. Word comes out to Griffin that they're getting ready to move. And Sedgwick is supposedly coming up the road it's time to get ready. It's time to start bringing it in, guys. Bring it in, grab your gear, put out the fires,
It's time to prepare to move. They know they're soon gonna be joining Warren's column on the way to Parker store, so they start preparing. They start pulling the pickets back. They start loading the wagons, putting their gear on, getting ready for a march. And along the turnpike,
there's this slight hill And today, if you go there, it's called US 20 or the constitution Highway. As you make the turn off route 3 onto US 20, you'll go past the Elwood banner. And there's a slight rise in the hill towards the
maybe a mile or 2 past Elwood banner. You'll see a slight rise in the hill. And you come up and over that hill, and right as you come over that hill, you'll see the opening to Saunders' field. And at this slight hill, is just behind that is where Griffin's division has been camped the entire time. The first Michigan is probably the closest to the hill with the New York a little bit on the right hand side. So if you think of it, you're looking down the orange turnpike. First Michigan's on the left, and hundred and fortyth, hundred and 46 New York is on the right. Michigan a little head, but that hill is still there. And it's predominant.
Maybe 40, 50 feet, a rise to that. And when you drive it, you can see, as you come over that hill, that you really have to get to the top to see beyond it. Again, it's the wilderness. This is how a willingness works. Walls of trees along thin narrow pathways, and then there's a hill. You can't see beyond the hill. There's overgrowth. You can't see beyond the overgrowth. So the whole time they've been sitting there, they really haven't been able to see beyond that hill. So 1 patrol,
1 patrol as they're cleaning up guys are getting ready either. They're talking about their day and about their life and about their wife and about home and about what's gonna happen next. Sergeants are telling men what to do. Don't rate your gear. You forgot your coat. Make sure you put that fire out well. 1 patrol, as an afterthought. Decides to take 1 last look down the country road. So they walk to the top of this hill, just enough to see over the hill to see maybe
a couple hundred yards. And in this case, because it just happens to be a straightaway area, you can see maybe a couple miles from the top of the hill because it opens up into that field. May take 1 last long look down the country road. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? Far in the distance, just above the trees, they see a cloud of dust, And as they elbow each other, hey, look at that. What do you think that is? I I don't know.
Maybe maybe it's that the Wilson's Calvary still out there. That's a lot of dust for Calvary. Are they coming this way? Are they moving around? What are they doing over there? There's some confusion. So these curious federals move to the top of the hill and a little bit beyond to see even further. And as they get to a place where they can finally see a long way is down this road, they see small moving dots that appear to be the horsemen. Well, obviously, that's Wilson's cavalry.
Maybe they've been called in Wait a minute. Behind those riders are foot soldiers with rifles, and they are moving quickly down that road. So the captain of this first Michigan patrol, he's informed. And he says, oh, well, that's Wilson's cavalry. But as they watch, they could see tattered gray uniforms and slouch hats, and they realized that those horses are not union horses, those are confederate cavalry, and those cavalry are not alone. They have inventory with them. That is not a recon.
That is an actual force. That's an either a regiment or a division moving down that road. And the captain freaks out. Oh my god. The confederacy is coming right at us. So as captain comes running back to the first Michigan regiment commander, colonel William a Throp. And he's standing next to major George Hopper. And they've just finished their breakfast, saddling their horse, and getting ready to ride with the rest the fifth chord. And Carol Thrope is what do you consider a tough guy?
He's a Detroit native He's joined the the military at the start of the war as a second lieutenant. He was commissioned into the first Michigan voluntary inventory in 18 61. He's been wounded twice. At Gainesville and Gettysburg, and at Gettysburg he even took over after being wounded himself. And he's already relisted and relisted in February of 18 64 and is now commanding the first Michigan. And with him is major George Hooper. He's a railroad man from Ann Arbor, Michigan.
He joined the first Michigan when it was first starting up as a first lieutenant in 18 61, and he too was wounded at Gainesville. And if you're recovering and watching for 2 months, he went to the battle or the second battle of Bull Run, where he was captured, and then later it was exchanged for other confederate prisoners, He was promoted to major. He fought at the battle of Chancellorville. So this is this is kind of his backyard. He was here a year ago that defeated Chancellorville.
And he went on to also fight at Gettysburg. So major Hooper is probably 1 of the toughest men in the union army standing next to major throat. Who's also 1 of the toughest men in the union army? So when this picket captain comes running up to him, yelling, girdle, major. The enemy is coming. Horace, foot, artillery. Sternal throat probably has a cool hand
with major hooper also with the cool hand, like calm calm down, son. Calm down. Tell me what tell me what you saw. And as he gets this breathless captain's information out from him, he decides that, well, it's probably worth looking into. So he orders his regiment to stay put until headquarters has a chance to evaluate this report. And remembering all the battles he's ever been in, If this is a real threat, he's about to get hammered and he is in no position
to take a frontal assault from confederate infantry or even cavalry at that matter, because they've been packing up, getting ready to leave. So he tells his regiment, unpack, deploy your weapons, throw your gear to the side, line up, prepare to be hit. And while his men are frantically moving around and pulling out all their gear, throwing it aside, and lining up, and getting themselves organized again.
He's sending word up to the Brigade Commander, which is brigadier general Joseph j Barrett, who was once a fancy New York attorney, So he likes facts. Tell me what the facts are. And because he doesn't know what the facts are, he agrees with Colonelthropes
movement, and he decides to do the same thing, prepare for the worst. So he gets word back to Colonel's throat to redeploy and prepare for the competitive charge, which is something he's already doing. So Burlett, Throb, Hooper, they're all getting ready. They're all getting ready for the charge. Only no charge comes. Nothing comes. They wait for long minutes. No confederate horses? No confederate infantry? Nothing. Nothing comes over that hill.
So now it's time to figure out what's going on. So they release messages up to the pickets asking just that. Alright? What's happening? What? We need some information. What's happening? And the report quickly comes back that the competitor troops stopped. They stopped
possibly after seeing the union soldiers standing on that hill. And now they are digging in and they're thinking digging in may all kind of look at each other and wonder what the heck is going on? Here was the perfect opportunity for the confederates to come slamming right into the side of Warren's core. Not only that, Warren's chorus stretched all the way down this trail. Here comes a confederate force that could not only disrupt all that,
but within a mile of were for bralette and rope and hiper are standing, is grant in need They can wipe out some of the heavies of the Army of the Atomic in 1 shot, but nothing happens. They're digging in. And they're wondering what the heck is going on. But before I get into how the Union Army high command reacts the news of confederates digging in on their flank down the orange turnpike. I wanna first talk to you about the American Battlefield Trust.
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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 50000 acres of land, but there are still millions of unprotected sites that are being paved over, built on, and erased from history every day.
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colonel throw blees the confederates have most likely spotted his pickets. And now they are fanning out on either side of the turnpike thinking that maybe they're about to be attacked. Because they're now digging in. They're now building defenses. Yet there's no telling how many rebels have arrived, and they had no idea what the competitors are planning. So now some some thoughts are going through the colonel's mind of, well, maybe the confederates are just as surprised as we are.
And they are not ready to engage us. It's just as much as we're not ready to engage them. He also understands how close to disasters became. Because he's realizing that there was no union scouts out to warn the union army, that or the scouts have been eliminated, that the confederate swarmed these scouts, which was probably unlikely,
but none of these scouts came up the road to warn them. So without cavalry scouts out to see or hear these marching troops, they are able to approach within 3 miles without detection.
And because they've been approaching without any warning, they almost tore into the back end of Warren's fifth chord. And that would have been the connection between Warren's fifth chord and Sedgwick's sixth chord and would have cut the army of the atomic in half. And like I said a little earlier, had they driven right into that area? That's where Grant and Mead in their headquarters was a bit of that. It would have been a complete disaster, but now they had a lucky break.
The confederates are not as ready as they were first thought to be ready. There wasn't an attack, it was an arrival, but who arrived? How much a ride? Was it really a force, or was it just a scouting expedition? They didn't have any answers.
Because they had no idea that Wilson had made this mistake. They had no idea that Wilson had not left any cavalry on the orange turnpike. So they don't know what's happened out there, and they don't know what's happened to Wilson in any of his soldiers. But they do know is here is a group of confederates. Just 3 miles away.
And it's this point where Griffin and Bartlett and Thorbin Hopper realized that they'd been sleeping with this force just a few miles away because now the reporter of the first Michigan soldier of seeing the smoke out on the treetops means that the confederates were not that far away at sunset the day before. Imagine if the confederacy had realized what they had right front of them. Again, the wilderness cuts both ways. This may be Lee's backyard. Northern Virginia may be the territory
that half of the army of Northern Virginia understood and enjoyed fighting it. It might have been a bushwacker's dream to be inside the wilderness to fight the union army. But it cuts both ways. It doesn't give them a huge advantage in the sense they can't see out in front of them either. And that is where fortune smiles on the Union Army. Least once. So the divisor ruse, they need to know what's out there. Bartlett and Griffin
need to know what's going on. But let in particular because he's the Brigade Commander there with colonel Thorpe. And so major Hooper, again, veterans. These guys have been through the stuff. They have experienced where the metal meets the meat. They understand
what's at stake. And they know that they have very little time before the confederates realize that the union forces in disarray and the fifth Corps spread down who knows to the wilderness and that the intersection is almost unguarded except for 1 division
Still, a couple thousand guys, but still, they have to act and they have to act fast. So major hooper presents a plan and they tells the first Michigan pickets captain, you're gonna do something very sneaky because I want you to take your troops on the south side of the orange turnpike in full view of the confederates, and I want you to march them across the turnpike into the woods. And then I want you to sneak back into your old positions
I want you to march them in full view again. And I want you to do this 2 or 3 times. Now, the first Michigan regiment, this guy is about 1000 men in it. Think about 10 companies, hundred men each, about thousand men. Give or take. So he's going to move a thousand men across the road. And then they're gonna sneak back around that. Remember that hill? There's that hill right there. It's perfect because you can't see beyond it. It's just high enough. A man on a horse could not see over it. So they're gonna sneak up behind that hill again and then march them across in full view the comparators.
And if they do this 2 or 3 times, they will see troops moving and it will make them wary because they'll think we're about to be attacked, but eventually the competitors are gonna send their recovery out to investigate this little game that major Hooper has created. But they know it'll work long enough for them to get word to warrant and reverse the fifth course direction and get them back to the orange turnpike so that they don't get overrun.
Again, they have no idea how big the comparator force is, but the comparators don't have any idea how big the union force is as well. That's why he didn't think this trick will work. So as the first Michigan is playing go around the block, which is kinda funny, is that the the Soviets used to do this all the time. They would have their big parades with Stalin and Gorbachev and the missiles and the soldiers coming by and, like, oh my gosh, look at all of this military technology the Russians have, and they would drive around the block and change their uniforms, change their unit designations, and ride through the streets again. Oh, wow. They Soviet Army is huge. Yeah. Well, this is the same trick. Only this is the 18 64 style trick rather than 19 64.
So you have this trick going on and word is going up the chain. Regular General, Bartlett, and Major General Griffin have stopped all their division movements They're not leaving the term pike. They've turned everybody around, and they're moving their soldiers back into the term pike positions. Finally, they get word to Warren. A breathless messenger catches up with Warren, now just leaving Wilderness Tavern. So
All 3 of his divisions have gone down the Wilderness Trail towards Parker Store. So he's about to leave the Lacey home at Elwood with Robinson's vision. And the breathless messenger runs up and informs him of the major Confederate force moving towards the Union Army. Size unknown. They've advanced on their pickets. And Warren is shocked.
There's not supposed to be any rebels there. Wilson's supposed to be out there. If there'd been any rebels coming down the road, Wilson should have come and told him how dare he not tell me that there were no rebels on the orange turnpike. But what he doesn't know is that Wilson didn't have any scouts there.
So Warren is a little bit taken back that rebels have arrived, but he is the cautious warrior. This gets back to the historian fights on whether or not he took it seriously or didn't take it seriously or it was just incompetent or risk adverse. But from what I understand, from Gordon Rae's book, Battle Wilderness, Warren doesn't take this as a real threat because there's no way the rebels could be all the way to Wilderness Tavern or near Wilderness Tavern. With anything significant because
they're all at mines run. They're all at orange coredhouse. That's just too far away. There's still another day before Lee's forces were to show up. So this can't be any real threat. Lee's officers are obviously overreacting. And he believes that this confederate force is there simply just to delay the Union Army's progress. They're gonna throw up a little front, probe the Union Army's defenses, and get the Union Army to react
in an effort to buy time for these forces to improve their earthworks at Mine and Run. That's it. They came to engage the Union Force and then they will withdraw. And that way, you the Union could not attack mines run directly. To the delaying tactic. And in a sense, Warren is still fighting the mine run campaign of 18 63. He's still thinking the same thoughts as before.
That Lee was going to come out, be aggressive, and then retreat back to mines run defenses, and force the union to attack a defensive position. But he has to do something. He understands that Grant's new philosophy of warfare is to attack any chance you get, and Warren believes if this is a defensive force or this is a delaying tactic,
then we will crush them. They don't realize there's a hundred thousand soldiers sitting here in the wilderness. So he stops his headquarters movement, but doesn't change the poor movements. He's keeping Crawford and Wadsworth and even Robinson
going down the trail towards Parker's Store. That he's not gonna stop, but he stops his headquarters movement. And he goes, well, I have a complete division here. Here's Griffin's division. So he tells the messenger, tell Griffin to get ready to attack at once, which is something Griffin's already doing. But he pins a message to me, and he says, quote, an unconfirmed report placed enemy soldiers on the orange turnpike, concluding that Griffin probably faced an inconsequential
rebel diversionary force. Have no intention to modify my core movements. And then he does something that Gordon Rae talks about in his book, battle Wilderness, he starts to lecture his superiors. By saying, quote, such demonstrations are to be expected and show the necessity for keeping well closed and prepared to face mine run and meet and attack at a moment's notice.
This is Warren telling me, I don't think this is any worry about. I think this is something small and that they're only trying to delay us and we should probably meet them with overwhelming force and continue along our way. And so he sends that message off to mead, and then another messenger arrives. This time, the message is written directly from Brigadier General Griffin And the message says rubble infantry were confirmed to be on the turnpike.
Okay. He knew that. Says they were forming a line of battle, He knew that too. Spotted clouds of dust, broiling up in Lee's direction. That's something he didn't know. So they've met 1 force, and now it sounds like a new force is arriving. And Griffin's message says this could mean, quote, and more possible troops are coming up the turnpike behind them.
To warrant this arrival of rebels was just too soon. Again, Lee was supposed to be miles away, which meant that his jumpy officers were making more of this than it was. So, again, he's still not quite realizing the threat that is forming on the turnpike,
especially since none of Wilson's cavalry has reported the sightings. Again, he still thinks that that's who should be out there. So if they're not reporting the sightings, then these guys probably crept to the woods and now they've popped out and spooked Griffin's division
So Warren returns the message to Griffin in the way that only Warren can. He says quote, hold the turn pike until Sedgwick arrives. Push her first out at once against the enemy and see what force he has. Because he still has to understand what is going on, what diversionary force did Lee send? Who did they send? Because sometimes it's not just what Lee sent, but which unit he actually sent could tell a lot about Lee's intentions.
Griffin receives this word from Warren and he understands, okay, I have to go to discover the size of the enemy force. See, orders Burger General Bartlett, the Brigade Commander, and the former New York attorney, probe the turnpike.
We have to go figure out who these guys are. The roost is over. It's time to put men into action. So Burlett chooses 2 seasoned regiments, the eighteenth Massachusetts and the 83 Pennsylvania. And to carry out this very dangerous mission, he selects rough and tumbled Harvard University graduate from Maine, Colonel Joseph Hays of the eighteenth Mass. He's going to send these 2 regiments up and find out exactly how many confederates are there, what are their disposition,
and who is in command. And then General Barlett rides up to find major Hooper. Who is conducting his ruse. He tells him, hey, Colonel Hayes is moving forward with the 18 mass and the 83 Pennsylvania. We're gonna go probe this in force. So relax and make room for Colonel Hayes to move forward. So around 7AM, Colonel Hayes moves his 2 regiments in position.
On both sides of the turnpike, you have a thousand men on either side. So 2000 men roughly are moving forward to the woods, as the first Michigan in a hundred 46 New York allow them to filter through. And they move up to the top of that hill, and colonel Hayes pulled out his spy glass to see the rebel line. And he can seek that they're digging in on both sides of the turnpike. And they're massing in force as they're digging in other soldiers and even artillery is moving into position.
But he needs to look closer because his mission is not quite complete. You can't quite tell who they are or what their disposition is. Still too far away he has to get closer. So moving off this hill requires them to move out into the edges of Saunders' field. And Saunders Field is an old corn patch, and it's 1 of the few clearings in the wilderness.
And this corn patch is not flat. It's concave, almost like a bowl in a sense. And there's scars going through the middle of it. And it has some false summits as it kind of rolls up to the top on either end. I like to think of it like a high school football stadium.
But if you took 4 high school football stadiums and you put the field in the middle and then on either end you put stadiums where you'd sit to cheer on the teams, that gives you an idea of what Saunders' field looks like. It's about 400 yards deep and 800 yards wide or long. And so colonel Hayes is standing on 1 side and 800 yards ahead is the confederacy at the top of the ridge which is an excellent position.
If you go there, you can see where the confederate started building an earthworks is the place to set up your earthworks. It is the highest point in that area to build trenches and put up timbers across and build defenses for them to have to attack. Because they're gonna have to attack uphill. And this corn patch is a nasty place, ankle catchers and small rivulets, and there's a waterway that runs to the middle of it on top of that. You think of the turnpike running east to west.
Like, if your compass never eat Shredelweat to east to west, there's a deep gout that runs along the 90 degree of the turnpike north to south. So think of your football field, your huge football field. Right? At the 50 yard line is this gouge and through that gouge just running water. Marshy, lowland stream at the lowest point. It's just the hook down there. And there's a small bridge and traffic going on the turnpike. Has to move around
and find the bridge to get back on the turnpike. So the western edge of this field is the commanding high point. Where the rebels have set up shop. And colonel Hayes starts to look a little closer. He brings up 2 companies, 2 for any Frenchman. To roughly 400 men each. They quietly work their way to the brush from each side of the turnpike until they get to the edge, the ragged edge of Saunders' field. And from here, Kaye is unmistakably
on what he sees. The confederates are building earthworks, they extend it all the way down on the far western edge of the ridge and overlook the entire field. And into the woods, it's long full of soldiers and in behind them are more confederates moving in. This is not some diversionary force. This is a large force.
Easily a couple of thousand men. And as she got the clearer view of the confederates, the confederates spot them, and they start taking fire. Because when you have 400 men peeking to the brush, it can better see them and think we're about to get attacked and the shooting begins. So, Hayes realizes that it's time to move back. And from the edge of the field, he realizes what he's looking at. He's looking at a Confederate
core. In fact, it is the beginnings of what will eventually be the entire second core several thousand men of Lieutenant General Eul's force have arrived at this part of the battlefield. And his shots are coming over. He realizes it's time to make their exit. They have a good idea now what other what they're looking at, and it's not good. So, Hayes orders his men to pull back under enemy fighter and withdraw from that line and let General Griffin know what's going on.
And something tragic takes place. As they're withdrawing, 18 year old Charles Wilson is a young farmer from Massachusetts gets shot and goes down. And it is said that Young Wilson was the first Overland campaign casualty. So it's that reconnaissance mission by colonel Hayes where young Charles Wilson goes down. Around 07:15AM, Word finally reaches meade.
And meade, of course, tells Warren, attack. This is exactly what we wanted to do. We wanted it we found it in any force last thing I wanna do is really get away until
we our disposition of how we're laid out and where we're at, we need to destroy them right now. And Warren is still trying to figure out how big the force is. So Warren pushes back in that sense is, like, I don't know how big the force is yet, so I'm still figuring it out. But means like you have to attack. You have to attack now. And in finding out that Warren has detected Confederate forces, me then go as intel's grant. And when he consoles grant
about what should we do? Because Warren is gonna go attack those force to that force anyway. What means to know from grants? What exactly do you want us to do now? We see a diversionary force forming on our flank. And this is exactly what Grant thinks as well. Both Me and Grant believe that Lee is trying to catch them on the flank, that he's trying to stop them from moving any further to pin them down to either better their defenses at mines run or attack them outright.
Do the same thing he did to General Hooker at Chancellorville a year earlier. Distract him in the front while he moves a force around. Well, Grant is of the opinion that he's not gonna let that happen. And this is where he says, quote, if they wanna fight here, then we'll fight here. He's okay with it. He's okay with terror in this little unit up and moving on. Because again, they don't know that Yule's whole entire second corps has just arrived 3 miles away at Saundersfield.
So as Warren is told to attack, Warren realizes that he doesn't have a lot to attack with right now. His entire fifth course stretched out over 5 miles of Forest Trail. Because remember, When he found out that there was a fire force there, he didn't stop them, he allowed them to move forward. And now he's being told he has to attack, he's gotta reverse that entire line of troops. 20 plus thousand men have to now come the other way. And Crawford's 4 miles away because at around 07:30AM,
he's reached the chewing farm. He's almost to Parker Store. He's almost completed his entire march. And now Warren has to call him back. So Wadsworth's division, which is only 2 miles away, kind of in the middle, is a location called the Higgerson farm. And Robinson, which has kind of stretched their column out past Elwood in the Lacey plantation, is just getting started.
They have to then reverse course with men, cannons, and wagons clogging up the entire way. It's not something you simply turn around. It's like an aircraft carrier. Aircraft carrier takes what 5 miles to turn. Well, an entire core is gonna take several hours to pull back. Enemy or no enemy. And Warren realizes this, but he's been told he's got to attack, he's got to reverse
the course movement. Which means then the word before, he can have old officers in a big circle telling them all what to do at 5AM. Now his officers are spread over 5 miles. Now he's got to set out messengers or write out himself and tell these officers what to do, which of course, is not something Warren wants to do because this makes Warren upset. He's frustrated because he now has to make sure that everyone understands
what it is they have to do. It's the worst place to reverse direction it really is. And this is the reason why they didn't want to fight in the wilderness in the first place and it's becoming painfully clear that what is it happening is going to turn out bad. They can't see more than 20 to 30 yards to the left or right Those cannons and you're not gonna be able to bring cannons out, let alone horses.
You can't form lines to move in the brush. You can't link units together. It is a absolute mess. And now they want to attack a place they can't see, which is a couple miles down the turnpike of a trail they're already down. They don't know if they're which way they're going, how far away they have to go or who there's next to them. Warren's core starts to go into a disorganized mess.
And to further complicate things, the confederates have taken a good position at the top of Saunders' field. Because from where they stand, they have full control of the field itself and the only way really into Saunders' field into the battlefield area is the Trump Pike itself.
To come through the woods is not ideal because of the thickets and the trees and the dense foliage, but you can move those troops very quickly down the turnpike. The problem, however, is that confederates know this is a choke point. So where best to put all the canons and focus your field of fire. So as the union force
probes and maneuvers down that turnpike, the confederates have already figured out that's where we're going to hit you the hardest. We're gonna force you to come to the trees. And that's gonna break all your lines up. You're not gonna be able to organize your forces the way you want to, and then we're just going to pick them off. Eul, he's in a very strong position and has good fields of fire. For this battle that's coming up. And Warren, he does not want to send his men down the chokepoint to get destroyed as they come out. Because he doesn't wanna repeat the same thing Burnside did at the battle of Fredericksburg when they attack Mary Heights. They would march troops in a line 1 after the other, just get chewed up until there was nobody left. They know piecemeal attacks are the worst. And now the confederates have a giant line of fire at the top of the the ridge line on opposite in the Saunders' field and they're going to chew whatever comes down that turnpike up. Warren has no choice but to go to the wilderness. He has to get his line straight.
And in all that dense almost triple canopy style jungle, this is going to slow him down to a crawl. In addition, he's being now told that Sedgwick is supposed to move up and connect with him on the right. While Sedgwick still 2 or 3 miles away, and they're being told to go into the dense brush as well at spots wood plantation. That's the same thicket on the other side of the turnpike that they're gonna have to go through. So 6 core is suffering the same problem that Warren is suffering.
They've deployed their entire cores into the wilderness. They are exactly where they did not want to be. And the confederates are in the perfect position to take complete advantage of this. So about 07:30AM, the far end of Warren's line, Crawford is showing up on the chewing farm. Wilson's link to the Union Army, the fifth New York cavalry, is finished their breakfast, they're packing up sadling their horses.
Now realize that 2 or 3 miles away where the confederates have started to assemble at Saunders' field is Vyze will be off the radar on on the moon compared to where they're at, with the amount of force between them. If no idea what's going on out there, So Wilton's fifth New York cavalry, they saddle up and they start to to probe the road a little bit more. Getting ready join Wilson. They're gonna go they're gonna go south of Wilson as well because they can see and hear Crawford's men
getting close. They know this is about to happen. They've had some contacts with the pickets, so they understand that Crawford's men are about to arrive and they're gonna they're gonna move on. They're gonna go a little further down Orange Bank Road and then move on to connect with Wilsons, the rest of Wilsons division. But as they're getting ready, they see dust in the distance too along orange plank road. Well, that's odd. What is that?
And as they look closer, they realize it's a column of infantry coming down the road. And they immediately recognize that this is an advancing, confederate force coming down Orange Blank Road. And so the fifth New York cavalry understand that Crawford's about to walk right into the middle of this.
And does the union army even know that here comes an entire confederate force down orange plank road where there's not supposed to be 1? And there are vast outnumbered, but they decide to to take up arms and delay this force until they get a message to the rest to warn forces. So they set up a quick a quick defensive line. And as the advancing competitive column comes into sight of the fifth New York, they open fire. And there's a quick skirmish. The infantry immediately has to move its column and deploy out to the sides because it's too dangerous to keep them down the road because it's the long column, which is a few guys, the funds we die, the next few of they die, that's a disaster. So immediately, the infantry starts to spread out. On either side of the Orange Planck Road, But when infantry spreads out, you have cavalry with cargains and
revolvers, infantry with their long barreled muskets they move to the side and start concentrating their fire, it gets very dangerous and very quickly for comfort. They're not they're not designed to hold off parking inventory. They're designed to cause problems, break things, and move on. And during this firefight, the fifth New York realizes It's time to go. We're about to be overrun. And they move up the road. They retreat from there.
They'll just draw. And the confederates start to move forward, but this time they were slowly because now they've encountered hit union forces and they're not they're not wanting to get into a heavy fight right away. They need to figure out what's in front of them as well. So there's a time consuming deployment that takes place. But the cavalry is well aware of who they just ran into. They just ran into 1 of the EP Hillsbergades
and realizes that this is not a diversionary force. This is a huge force. And maybe even all of AP Hill's entire core And right where they're fighting at, the chewing farm is wide open. A lot of farm areas, another 1 of the places in the wilderness is wide open, and open ground is not good for Calvaryman. They like cover. So by the time the confederate line fully deploys,
the cavalry retreat 2 miles back past Parker's store. They are on the run. There's no way they're gonna stop them for any length of time. And as they're on the run, Warren's fifth core element, the lead division, Crawford,
arrives at the farm. So here is his entire division. Several thousand men, rough and crazy day trying to get through that stupid trail. They finally get into an open country in the farm. So he moves to a small knowl and looks across the field to park a store about a mile away. And he reaches the highest point in the era he sees confederate troops all in a line chasing Wilson's fifth New York cavalry. And he's like, oh my god. What is going on over there? Crawford realizes that they're marching towards a key intersection of Brock Road to Orange Planck Road, which will slam them straight into
the supply line of the union.
And where he comes out at the chewing farm, the confederates are off to Crawford's left flank. So he has to reposition himself on the a chewing farm before the defendants realize what's over there because they have an entire brigade coming down the road. Well, his division is still strung out behind him on the trail. Not to mention his artillery and all his supplies, so he's in no position to engage the confederates right away. He needs time to prepare himself. So immediately he sends word back to Warren. But when word goes back to Warren, no 1 can find Warren because Warren is micromanaging
everything and is out and about trying to get his men to turn around. So because the messenger can't find Warren, the messenger moves on to headquarters to find mead. And in finding general mead Meade gets the word 9AM that now there is confederates on both roads, the orange turnpike and the orange plank road. And it's not just cavalry, it's infantry as well. And then more word arrives. At 10:15,
Mead now knows that it's the vanguard to a significant confederate infantry force. Elon has 2 fronts, that have opened up in a wicked swath of wilderness hiding everything in between. And Gordon Rae says it best in his book The Battle of Wilderness, quote, What had begun as a hopeful morning's march was rapidly taking an ugly familiar turn. Once again, the Union High command had underestimated Lee's audacity. Meade now realizes that his premise about Lee was wrong.
Lee was not hiding behind the fences of mine run. They were speeding down the orange turnpike and plank roads. Rebels were getting ready to engulf Warren's entire fifth corps. And threatened to cut off Hancock from the rest of the Army. And the Army is in complete disarray. There's gaps everywhere. They're stretched out through the woods for miles There's no communication between units. And what Mead realizes the most
is that Lee is conducting a counter attack to their crossing. He just waited until May fifth to do it. Lee had proven to be the aggressor again and what Meade was now learning that he was this was not a diversion. That they had moved their forces off the rapidan during the day and passed the mine run defenses. And now Lee had marched 2 cores directly into the union army. And within only a few miles of Warren was a wood line full of rebels.
And now with the second force moving down the Orange Plank Road, there was more than enough men to attack the army of the Potomac on both ends and cut it in half, in probably the worst place to fight a battle in the entire state of Virginia. The wilderness, and mead realized at that moment how much danger they were in.
In the next episode of War Yankee, the battle of the Wilderness has begun. The army of the Potomac is about to engage Lee's army of Northern Virginia in the nightmare tango known as the Wilderness. Soon, the Union and Confederate armies will clash in the first battle of the Overwatch campaign. That's if they can find their way to the forest from hell.
Or Yankee Overland. Is my American Civil War History podcast created by me, Kyle in Bondo, and produced by Capital Pod. I hope you can join me as I continue to follow the Civil War history hiding in my own backyard Follow the Overland campaign's march to petersburg at 4 yankee dot com.