It's noon. On 05/05/1864. Greenhorn Calgary officer, brigadier general James Harrison Wilson, started the Overland campaign with high expectations. Now, after a series of tactical shortcomings in clicking orders, his actions have allowed rebel forces to approach the union army almost undetected.
To make matters worse, Wilson's entire cavalry division over 3000 men and horses are missing. No 1 has seen or heard from us since this 5AM, with the orange plant grown down in the gulf. By an endless column of competitive entry, grant and need are desperate to know where the hell is Harry Wilson. 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, Lysseus grant in the Army of the Potomac on its 47 day, 113 mile military campaigns south from Culpepper to Petersburg, Virginia. In this episode, we continue where I left off with Grant and Meade having to ask about the whereabouts of Brigadier General James Harrison or as affectionately referred to as Harry Wilson's Calvary division.
And at this point in the day, to about noon on May fifth. We've had several events unfold. First, Getty has captured the Brock Road intersection in time to stop the confederate column that coming down the Orange Blank Road. What was left of the fifth New York has arrived at headquarters now to debrief mead about their encounter. And now Meade is learning about what might have happened to Wilson's cavalry division.
If Hammond's fifth New York was to be understood, Wilson was not following me's last order. And that meant that Harry Wilson was most likely miles south of the Orange Plains Road. And this is a problem. As a no 1 has heard from Harry Wilson since 5AM. He could be cut off. He could be on the run. He could already have been destroyed. No 1 knows. And what's worse is Mead really can't lend any support to him if he is cut off. If he's cut off, he's on his own. Which is worse.
So unfortunately, communication was very basic in 18 64. Meade was already having difficulties of reaching Hancock's second corps and getting messaged to and from Warren's fifth division was also exhausting and they're right in front of him. Now remember that Wilson's division is also stretched out through the wilderness along their makeshift road they created,
that they hacked their way through all these trees and brambles. So just in front of him, he can't get Warren's fifth division to engage the enemy at Saunders' field. So you have Hancock's second division or second corps all the way down to Todd's Tavern, at least 8 miles away. Can't get messages going to and from. And now Harry Wilson's cavalry division is missing and possibly cut off. So he has to consider sending more men to go find Wilson's division or
accept their fate. And hopefully, Harry Wilson can figure out himself. But Meade is in really a bind here because he has no men to send On top of that, doesn't know really which direction to send them to. With 2 confederate cores on his front, he can't afford to go off in recon an area where he thinks that Wilson might have gone. So that's tough.
Not only that, he didn't know if he would even get a message beyond the confederate line forming on an orange plank road to anyone that could even go get Wilson or go look at that direction. So me is in a tough spot. The thickets and the tangles of Wilderness has made his job super hard. Probably why. In the very beginning of all this, they didn't want to fight a battle here.
Now regardless of me's decision about Wilson's situation, he didn't understand why Wilson had done this Why did Wilson disregard his orders and go south? Meade is confused by this action, doesn't understand what his cavalry officer or might have done. So that is just adding to the stress of what meat is going through. Warren won't engage because his lions aren't formed because everyone's all stretched out.
He can't get reach he can't reach Hancock. He has no idea where the cavalry division is, and confederates are just popping out of the woods everywhere he looks. Just imagine that kind of pressure on an officer, on a general officer who's got to order men into battle. Or in this case, can't seem to ornament in battle and doesn't know when the next problem is going to arise. And just a little off in the distance, Grant is watching Meads every move. So this episode, we're gonna focus on Wilson.
Because Wilson's story is I think is really interesting. Especially when you learn how as the battle unfolds, how different the Wilson's situation is to compare to the rest of the Wilderness. The Wilderness is really multiple battles strung together in 1 large battle. It's small engagements take place because of the separation. The woods divides these areas of the battlefield into chunks. It's probably why.
I would say maybe 1 of the many reasons why when you go to the battle, wilderness, you go to the wilderness battlefield, It doesn't make any sense. It is a very confusing environment. You drive down 1 way, you see 1 battle, you go to another way, there's another battle, you go a third way, there's another battle, and then there's places that you don't even know about. Things that they never teach you and this we're gonna do. 1 of those things we're gonna talk about is this Wilson problem.
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Alright. First, let's get into what did Mead know and what did he not know? And what me didn't know is that Wilson and him were not on the same page. Me had had thought that he had ordered Wilson's cavalry to be out in front at Parker store to guard Warren's fifth core arrival. That's what Meant thought he was doing. But when Crawford arrived, that morning, only the fifth New York was there. There's no Wilson. Now you think about the way he was supposed to do this.
Did Wilson even receive his orders? Did he not miss did he misunderstand them? We know that Wilson was supposed to be screening, not guarding. And Meade had ordered him to act as a guard force against the with the possibility of any new patrols coming from mine run. That was his objective. Now, Mead wants him to be a guard force. That's a line of horses and men strung out from the turnpike
all the way past plank Road down the Tons tavern. That was what he thought. Little pockets of cavalry troops everywhere. You think about a guard force, it's every intersection, every road has a bunch of horses at it that act as an alarm system. And it's better than men in pickets because is that infantry force moves forward. They put their pickets out. There's groups of men that go forward of the of the column.
To be in an alert. Well, they can only go so far because, you know, they're not packing the, you know, radios. There's no h f frequency radios on their back. They have to see the enemy and understand, oh, hey, we're in trouble. That's bad guys and run back and report. Well, a horse moves way faster than a man, obviously. So the idea is to string these that kind of salt the territory with Wilson's entire Calvary division. The only problem is is that has a lot of training to cover.
I mean, 3000 horses seems like a lot of horses, really a lot of troopers too. But if when you go out to that battlefield, it just goes on, and on and on. And these swaths of land are huge. These forests just go on for miles. You go over 1 little 1 little hill and you've lost sight of everything and everyone. So when you think about having a guard force strung out that long, the cavalry would effectively
be useless. It would it would really be like a security guard force. They're gonna guard the main gate. They're going to watch the roads and run back and tell. But how do they know if the army's moved? How do they get messages to and from? How do they know the unit next to them didn't see something or got hit or got ambushed? They wouldn't. So what Wilson is doing is not something that Mead wants him to do. He's screening.
In a screening force, this is a force almost like the vanguard of an army if you think. It's running out ahead of everybody. It's finding it's looking for the enemy. He wants to smack right into the enemy, engage them
in a skirmish and then run back and tell everybody, hey, I just hit the enemy and that's where they're at. It gives you a much broader picture of where the enemy is at because usually when you're screening and you hit on any force like that, the enemy reacts and you get a good idea of who you're hitting. Well, that's what Wilson thinks he's supposed to be doing, not guarding. So mead, although I could order him to access a guard force, He's not doing that.
He's acting as a screening force, the advance of the entire army of the Potomac. So Wilson had a different understanding of his orders. And, of course, he had swept the turnpike in the plank roads the day before because the army was supposed to be moving on. His troopers, his horses were not enough to cover this wilderness. So in moving on, he takes the entire force with him.
That's 10 miles. A 10 mile front that was supposed to have horses on it doesn't have anybody on it. And in pass up, as we talk about, the reaction of this is Even the army is unaware what Wilson's doing. They think what they see in the distance is Wilson's cavalry, and it's not. So Wilson is now miles away and still moving. He is in anticipation of Crawford showing up at the at some of these farms on the way to Parker store. He's in anticipation. That's why the New York
fifth is there. They're supposed to be waiting for warrant to arrive. And when they arrive, it's the touch point where they can then go meet Wilson. They can keep continue going south as the army pushes forward because the link between Wilson and the army is the New York in the middle. And as the New York moves along,
they can continue to stay within a couple miles distance of each other. So if something happens, Wilson comes back to New York. New York then goes back to the to Crawford and you have this connection. Well, then we we know from last episode, New York is not there anymore. We're looking at the New York is still you know, the unit that can be put into battle, they fought a heck of a battle on the plank road. They're gone. So the any connection Wilson has has been separate. So his goal on May fifth
was the Cartharpan Road. And I love I love the word gotharpan. My my best girl calls it the Carpathian road. You know, it's spelled CATHARPIN. It's catherpin. But she calls it Carpathian. It's not. It's catherpin. I'm sure it's probably named after some, you know, a Virgin of some kind because everything here is named after some Virginian.
So his goal was to get to the the Gartharpon Road in in advance of where he thought not only Warren's fifth corps would push to, but also to connect to Hancock's second corps. He is supposed to be the front of the spear. He's to point the end of the spear in his mind. So he didn't know that the army had stopped behind him. He didn't know that he had engaged confederates on 2 different main thoroughfares. He had no idea that it happened.
Because by the time the New York would have reported this to him, they had already been overrun. So the last message that gets to me is him telling mead at 5AM that all as well. He reports at 5AM, quote, my pickets report nothing new from the enemy this morning. And then he moves on. So how could of Wilson screw this up? This doesn't seem like something that you would you would expect from an officer of his rank. And the reason is actually
simple when you put your mind to it. It's the telephone game. Only it's the military version of the telephone game. And if you are unfamiliar with the telephone game, And if you if you have you're fortunate to have small children or grandchildren around, the idea of the telephone game is pretty simple. You have a line of people standing alone, and the first person is told a phrase
and that person was reserved to the person next to them and then the person next to them and then the person next to them. And it goes along the line until it gets to the end. And at the end, they ask you what was the phrase. So if you whisper in the ear, a potato is very hot. At the end of the line, you get something like a papa has new pants. And, like, how did how did that happen? This is exactly what I believe.
And you've read a lot of the history you start to really think about. That 2 people from this era, the civil war era miscommunicating. And it's all the time. Any kind of battle any kind of war. Miscommunication takes place constantly. The fog of war is often what it's referred to. But Wilson, even when he's talk you know, when you're talking eye to eye to some people that are miscommunicating. So imagine if they can miscommunicate, the same way we miscommunicate.
From people in the past. This is Wilson's first field command. He's not used to this operational type of of attitude. Right? He's an engineer. So you're thinking about he wants details and be very specific. But if you're talking to him, in a more general term or maybe the way some of the vernacular that maybe Calvary use, maybe he doesn't understand. Or he interprets what he's been given a different way than you expect him to. So is it because
he's new to operations? Is it because he's incompetent? Is he misreading Meade's instructions? It's it's 1 of those kind of the kind of things where you kind of think about where you have to dig into Wilson's actions? Because his actions dictate to you, maybe what he was thinking at the time. And I like to think about of of things to take into, you know, people who have researched this a lot.
1 of them is the the great military historian and the National Park Service chief historian 1 time, a scientist Emeritus. Historically, Emeritus, Ed Beres, who unfortunately passed away last 09/09/2020. At the age of 97. So he had a long life. But the way he told stories and the way he told civil war history in particular, so to sad loss, to support history.
But the late great Ed Beers summed up something very important about Wilson. During the lecture he gave about the battle Wilderness in 20 14, he said, quote, if Grant turned a sharp turn, Harry Harry Wilson, in this case, would break his nose. So Grant is Wilson's boy. Grant is Wilson's boy from way back in the western theater. So he he comes from the same mold of grant in that interpretation of orders is best left to the officer to make the most logical determination
of what he's supposed to do or what he thinks his commanding officer wants him to do. So he's told to screen the army of the Batomac by placing scouts throughout these these vast lines, but he's also told to scout ahead for Warren's fifth corps in their march to Parker store and beyond. So historians constantly bring up these conflicting orders that they were given to Wilson. They say that Oh, that means because Wilson's a bad officer
or at least a bad Calvary officer, you know, he's incompetent. He he didn't know he was stupid. He didn't know what he was doing. Grant picked another lemon. Yeah. Sure. I'm sure that's what they say because most of the histories are written by southerners. But I think Wilson came from the the same way same kind of thinking as Grant. When in doubt, do what you think is best, trust your gut. That is the Wilson thinking, at least to me, you could disagree.
You know, and you have every right to. That's what I love about. But history is you could call him incompetent or You could say that he didn't understand these orders when he was receiving conflicting orders. He decided to trust his gut and do what he thought the, quote, screening by reconnaissance should mean. Amit thinks that's guarding. He thinks that's looking for enemy, not finding any, moving on in a long line. So I think Wilson
although he had conflicting orders did what he thought he trusted his gut. I don't see that as incompetence. He trusted his gut. Unfortunately for mead, It doesn't, you know, it it turns out to be not the best thing for him to do because me is thinking he's supposed to be doing 1 thing and he's not. So means interpretation of the battlefield is now flawed because there are units missing. Units that he think should be there that are not.
So now when it comes to battlefield calculus, meat is operating with bad information. He'll eventually catch up. But right now, in, you know, noon on May fifth, he's miss he's got Bory's got his rookie and his knight are not on the table, what he thinks they are. It's like playing chess blind, I guess. It's probably what would have like Grant is such a good officer because Grant could could do things like that. He could, like, see the chessboard in his mind and not have to see the pieces.
As long as you get good information. And this is, of course, the reason why Battlefield Intelligence is so important. Because if there are pieces on the board that aren't there, you need to know about it. Because you may be depending on something to take place that can't take place because those guys are gone. Here's another point about Wilson. This also overlooked. He's not alone.
We know that he was surrounded by several veteran calorie officers So it's not like he's just like, no. It's my way or the hallway. And so he's got smart people with him. And Wilson is not the kind of guy to say, you know, well, I'm I'm in charge and you're not and you're gonna do what I'm telling. He's not the kind of pompous guy, that Grant didn't like those people.
He put capable of men who could think outside the box even though I hate saying that phrase, but men who could think on their feet, but also men who trusted their men. Officers who understood that they didn't know everything, So 2 of these officers with him are colonel Timothy, m, Brian, and colonel George h Chapman. Now Brian, he's a native Pennsylvania.
He's commissioned lieutenant colonel in the twelfth Massachusetts volunteer infantry when the civil war started in in 18 61. So he's been around for a while. This is not his first rodeo. Man, I'm just using all sorts of things to bear and I So he was overlooked for promotion after the second battle of Bull Run, so he resigned
from the Massachusetts regiments and offers his services to the native Pennsylvania. And a lot of the officers did this. When they weren't getting what they wanted out of 1 unit, they would resign and move on to other units, which I, you know, I don't think definitely can't do that today because, you know, we're a United States military. We're here. We're still struggling with the the state to state operations.
So he was more happy with with moving to Pennsylvania because they were more than happy to give him a commission as a colonel. And gave him command of the eighteenth Pennsylvania Voluntary Calvary in 18 62. So this is 2 years later that we get colonel Timothy and Brian. Standing next to or riding next to Wilson. So you have this officer. I think this 1 officer. And the other course is Chapman. Colonel George a Chapman. He's an Indiana man. He was a former US Navy midshipman,
a lawyer and newspaper editor. And finally, it was commissioned to the cavalry in 19 18 61 into the third Indiana cavalry. So these backgrounds of these officers is fascinating. Here's a man who understands the Navy. He understands the law. He's a newspaper editor, so he reads between the lines. He's very good. Think about wording of orders. Chapman is gonna understand the nuances of the wording. Or maybe overunderstand them. You overthink them possibly.
So you think about the second man next to him, And he was transferred to the infantry in 18 62 and was a veteran of the Battle of the Second of Bull Run and Tatum, Fredericksburg. And finally, he was commissioned as promoted to a colonel just 2 months before Chancesville. So after Chancesville, he returned to the cavalry service to lead his regiment during the battle of Gettysburg. Chapman has been in just about every single union loss. That they've ever had except for Gettysburg.
So he has experienced defeat. He's experienced bad situations. He understands when the chips are down. As an inventory officer off top of all things, I can imagine some of these battles and teed them. Oh, the blood soaked fields there. Freddieicksburg. Mary's Heights, the 6000 men to go up that hill would just get chopped down. Chancesville. Where stone wall outflanks them and then from Hazel Grove, they hammer them with cannon, those just brutal losses. He finally gets a win at Gettysburg.
So Chapman, a reverend, and Brian who is seasoned, have been around. These are the 2 men with him. So Wilson was following the orders that he had told him to scout ahead, and these 2 men are interpreting that stuff for him as well. So you can't just throw Wilson out to dry. You know, Wilson's incompetent. With these 2 men next to him, you really have to take pause and think about would Brian and Chapman lead him down this road? Would they say, Sergio, this is not what we're supposed to be doing?
I don't know. I think not. I think not. Again, that's my opinion. So Wilson was following these orders. This is This is why he reports that New Orange Blank Road is clear. He leaves Hammond's fifth New York because he's already scattered around and nobody here. He's been looking all over the place. No confederates. Nope. Not on the turnpike, not on the Pike Road, not in between, nowhere. And it's a big it's a lot of land in between the turn pike and the plank road.
It's not a small chunk of land, plus he's been all the way to the rapidan river and down. Because, hey, they came across the rapidan river, the Ozark 30, on the fourth. They've been exploring up and down all over the place. In that in that area, you find anybody. So they're moving where they think the army's going.
So they leave the fifth New York, 500 troopers, which is not a small small amount of people. They leave in that Orknight Grove Parker store They wait for Warren's leave division, which they know is coming. That's what the New Yorkers was just to wait for. And they would serve as his link into Warren's lead elements, and then Wilson's main force continues south. That's where Wilson is. Unfortunately though, Wilson's decision has some consequences as his battle unfolds.
Because he's going off his gut. He's doing what he thinks these orders mean. But this decision is is again just like me not knowing the whole the scope of the battle or where all his units are, Wilson is basing his decision without all the facts too. He's operating off information he had last, which was what, cold pepper 2 days ago, so he may have had scouting reports and moving moving up and down. He does not know what has come down the turnpike, and he does not know what's coming down
the plank road. And the situation in the ground has changed, so he moved from 5AM and moved on already in the past 2 hours this situation has changed. Remember, we're at noon on the fifth. So he's 7 hours. He's moved south 7 hours ago. And we'll catch up to what's going on with Wilson, but think about he moves away. 2 hours later is when New York gets hit. Because he hasn't received any new orders, he's left the entire army of the atomic exposed.
There are no cavalry anywhere in front of those kind of confederate units. And that's what is unfolding in front of me. I think me is starting to under Stan because he hasn't heard from Wilson Hill in 7 hours. And then now that New York has showed up in headquarters, things have gone wrong. That the cavalry is not where he thought he was supposed to be. And I'm sure as the New York show up at Elwood to Tel Aviv,
We just got our butts handed to us. By the way, Wilson went south and we haven't seen him for a couple hours. Now knows that the Wilson's division is not anywhere on his front.
So that's already changing the calculus in Meade's head. And we know what has already happened behind Wilson because his actions allowed an entire confederate force to approach not only on the turnpike, but down the plank road. He has allowed the confederate force to approach on 2 major thoroughfares that he was supposed to be guarding.
He was supposed to tell me that these forces were there. Not the New York showing up at headquarters after already Getty's already made the run down of Brock's road and Crawford's already spotted a list, not then.
So these 2 errors made will made by Wilson could have spelled out complete disaster of the entire Union Army. Because imagine if the New York had moved on. And these 2 conveyor forces had come all the way up and no 1 had detected them. If the guy hadn't gone to the top of the hill after his breakfast and go, oh, what's that off in the distance? And the New York had decided that, okay, we're done in a parking lot. There's Crawford and moved on. Imagine how close they could've cut the army in 3 different pieces. It would have been a bloodbath.
Lee would have had a complete pincher movement. It would have cut all these cores in half and cut war in the middle. The battle of the wilderness would have been vastly different. But instead, although me is caught by surprise, the veterans don't take advantage of this ether. So although it looks like it's a it could be a complete disaster, the errors made on both sides are contagious. You know, like I like to say, the wilderness cuts both ways.
So Wilson doesn't know what is happening behind him. Only knows what's happening in front of him. Because he's been cut off and he doesn't know that he's been cut off. So by 10AM,
Wilson has no back at all. He thinks he has a backdoor. He does not. There's an entire there's an entire confederate core cutting him off from any Union forces in that direction at Parker Store. So Wilson's 3000 plus troopers are now, they've moved several miles away to the south. They're looking for the Cartharvon road.
However, in the wilderness because you earned it. Wellness cost both ways, both sides keep learning over and over again. But the confederates don't know that they have cut off Williston division. They don't know that 3000 horses went that way. All they know is they hit the New York and they hit Gettys and they know there's some forces in front of them. That's all they know.
So as they drive down the Orange Flank Road, more and more men come between Wilson and where Hammond's fifth New York was and stations at Parker's Playstation and Parker store. So you just imagine if there was no trees of open territory, this would be a vastly different battle. But because of all this mess that's in between everybody,
no 1 knows what's in front of them, what's beside them, what's behind them, how much distance and how close they are to devastating another army. Because Lee makes a ton of mistakes in his battle too, because now both his forces are cut off by 3 miles of wilderness, not knowing that Warren has moved his entire fifth court all in between these 2 these 2 competitor forces. If Warren had known that and taken advantage of that, he could've cut, please army in half. Again,
what you don't know, you don't know. The wilderness cuts both ways. So where the hell is Harry now? Covered all the backstory to get you an understanding of what Wilson was thinking and where he got. So we know that Wilson moves out at 5 We know that Wilson leads colonel John Hammond to the fifth New Yorker Parker store, and they have orders to wait until Warren's fifth quarter arrives before moving South to catch up with Wilson. So Wilson tells Hammond
that he's moving forward and to search the path to catharpon Road through the wilderness. He's looking for a place locals call Craig's Meeting House. And with a few miles, it's roughly a few miles by the old mine run defenses. So Wilson is thinking that he's going to move down to the Gatharpon Road and get near this place called Craig's Meeting House and know whether or not the confederates have moved out of their defenses at mines run. They've moved from Culpepper and moved south,
and that he can engage anybody there to give him a good idea of where the front end of the confederate line is. Not knowing that it's come already past him. It's in his rear. So he's looking for this Craig's Meeting House. This is the this is the landmark he thinks he's going he's gonna fight on, like, a Tharpon Road. And he could give him a good position to know where the confederate
flank is. Another good thing he wants to know. So if he gets out to Craig's spinning house and find a confederates and the confederates are still where they're supposed to be or maybe they're slow to move. Again, remember, Wilson doesn't have any intelligence. He doesn't know what's going on behind him. Here's no the truth yet. And this is an important fact that we could consider in what is happening here.
So he's traveling, these farm roads, about 5 miles with their farm roads. And if you if you look on any of the maps, it cuts through some of the wilderness preserve area in a couple of the places. The the Gartharpon Road area is is strange. It's filled with private houses. It's very wooded. There's a couple small streams in there. But really, you would not know that anything took place there. There are no civil war markers There are
the Craig's meeting house is is not there. It's not existent. There's nothing there that says, here's good. Craig's meeting house. It's not there. There is a there's a church. We'll get to that here in a minute. But most of those most of those landmarks are not there. It's a drive down a nice road until you hit mines run. So you would already really think that cathartic because I guess
calvary battles are kind of strange in that sense that you they're hard to judge because they move around so much. There's so much movement in them. You don't know where the lines are because they're constantly shifting. This battle will be different though. There is particular places during this battle that it would be nice to know where they are and be markers and historical historical elements there. But you know anything about the way
reconstruction and the rest of the, you know, the the post civil war worked out. Virginia put a lot of landmarks and memorials up to the Confederate side of the house and not so much for the union side of the house. And a lot of battlefields were ignored or overlooked for a long time. This is 1 of those those situations where there's just nothing there. You have to you kind of have to use your mental image You have some ideas where things could possibly be, but unless you are
combing the library of congress for battle maps and you can get permission to go on this private land that's all over the place, you're not gonna find much. Maybe in the future, maybe someday the American Battle of the Trust will find this. Find some stuff out, put some markers out there. Maybe even a roadside marker would be nice. Todd's tavern as close as you get. You get the Todd's tavern as a couple of markers there. You can get kind of an idea. Once you move down the cithorphan road towards mines run, there's nothing there. K? So that's just a nice little sidebar. Okay. So they're traveling down these farmers. For about 5 miles or heading south, they're splashing across a maze of streams and ditches.
Again, it's the wilderness. So it's thick. Let's see. Scrub trees, grub pines, poison ivy, ticks, mosquito hoes. It's hot. It's gotta be miserable because it's early morning. The sun's coming up and it's hot. They're moving through this. And so they move across Dorton Prom, which is a branch, the Po river. Now, another kind of sidebar.
When I say a branch of the Po river, you have to understand in Virginia a what they call a river is often a stream. And what they call a run is sometimes a trickle. It is bizarre how a run, which is a trickle contributing to 20 feet wide, and then go back to 3 feet wide. This is a strange topography in Virginia.
This is the Tidewater area. This is the way this works. That's not really tight water. That's all for those out. But you get an idea of, you know, when when the history says, the Po river, you're thinking of this like a vast river, like like, you know, I don't know, the, like, the Columbia River where I grew up in Washington or the Mississippi River or something like that or even the North Anna River, No. These rumors are not big. They're small. But they're enough to stop. They're enough to stop
horses, men, canons. They're enough to really throw a wrench into your plans, but they cross over the northern prong of the branch of the Pearl River and they cross over Robinson Run which is another branch of the pro river. So you're getting a kind of an idea of this east west criss cross of these streams and runs. Little ditches, ditch, and a ditch, and a ditch, and a climb a hill, and another ditch, and a climb a hill, another ditch. And they split,
and they branch like veins, like arteries in your body if you think about it. And if you look at just the rivers of Virginia, it's amazing how you could ever fight a battle here. Which is why this is why another reason they they wanna fight here. It's rough. All these rivers make natural boundaries for all sorts of things, but they're horses, they're calvary. This is simple to move across right now. So they're moving across this. And they reach the crossroads that interacts with
Parker Store in the Cartharpon Road. This is you think about it, if you drew a line from where they think Parker Store was. 5 miles south, this is precise, roughly where Wilson emerges on the Gatharpon Road. And again, the Gatharpon Road not unlike the plank road and the turnpike is another dirt farm road. It's probably the width of a wagon. You got probably the 2 runnels going down it's where all wagon's paths have gone through. It's been horse trampled.
Maybe some cows move up and down it's and it's overgrown. Branch is hanging on the sides. Hard to look down. It weaves. It winds. It goes up and down. If you go down like the Tharpon Road, you'll see think the throwback in road kinda dips down low and it comes up high, and then it kinda opens up into some farmland and then it gets closed off. And woods again, it's another typical Virginia corkscrew road. So you kinda got a visual of what you got here.
They're they're what? They're they're in the early morning. They're on the sun shining. It's May. Got green leaves everywhere. Birds are singing. Mosquitoes and bugs and you're just either in the wilderness. K? It's probably really, really quiet there too. You think about it. So they reach these crossroads. And here, Wilson stations, colonel Brian. He's the first brigade.
And he's gonna stay right here at the Katharpon Road and Robinson Run to watch the crossroads because they don't know, you know, okay, you think about it. You come down the road, you reach a t intersection. You look left? Nothing there. You look right? Nothing there. Well, what happens if the competitor's already gone past? Well, now they're behind you. What if they're coming down in front of you? Well, now they're in front of you. What if they've gone both directions? So he sets up at the cross roaster because this becomes his link.
This will be his link to New York as the New York guys have to come down. If they move too far off, New York won't be able to find him and will no idea where they're at. That's think about it. This is the this is the thought process going here. So the first brigade sits sets up at Robinson's run and could bend the Cartharpon Road the intersection to watch the crossroads. So there is there your first defensive position. Because they're not sure Where they are? Because their maps are garbage.
It's also a way to cover their escape if they're here or not where they're supposed to be. They think they can run back to Parker store and they'll be fine. And this is where the wilderness strikes again because Wilson doesn't know what connects to what in the wilderness. Is he lost? Is he on track? He's bad maps and thick brush. He does not help Wilson with understanding where he is yet. So they think they're the Cartharpon Road, but they don't know. It's a guess.
This could be where they're at. They need to do some reconnaissance. So what he will discover is that 2 miles in the opposite direction is a place called Corbin's Bridge and it spans the Po river. And when I say spans the Po river, Corbin's bridge is a bike. Okay. If you if you own a house and you have a driveway. Okay. Think about the driveway. It comes off the the county, the county street, or whatever, and goes up to your garage door. About what? 15, 20 feet long?
That's Corpen's Bridge. Now, I mean, but that's in 18 64, that's Corpen's Bridge. It's probably not well maintained. It's probably iron or something of those names probably has planks on it. But there's a bridge over the poor river, helps the wagons get back and forth. Take your hay, take your produce to market, etcetera. So there is a bridge there. Now it's it's probably a little bigger now. It's all, you know, it's all paved road.
But 2 miles behind him is Corben's Bridge. So if you think about your head and south, you hit the Tharpon Road, to your left is Corben's Bridge. We're heading towards that the direction towards Todd's Tavern. But 3 miles beyond that is Todd's Tavern, and that's where Hancock's second core, that's their morning objective. So about 5 miles
to his left. So let's see. Never eat shredded wheat. That's where he's expecting Hancock to be. He thinks. Because if if this is indeed the the Khotharpan road. So we gotta we gotta find ourselves a Korbin Bridge. Right? Now to
the right, he thinks that's where Craig's Meeting House might be. So they're they're laying out there. Okay. We think this is this we think that is that way. They're getting an idea. They're starting to orient their map to their location. This quarter of Regina Todd's Tavern will be a major landmarks in a few days,
now that as the battle moves towards sponsoring the courthouse, you know, so those are therapy engulfed. And this and, ironically, Wilson's understanding of the topography that he's about to learn today will be instrumental in some of the stuff that happens in a couple days. Because as they get familiar with how these roads connect,
the Union Army gets less and less confused when moving through this terrain. It's not perfect, but they if you think about it, if you you you've gone to a conference or you've gone a vacation, you get you're really easy to get lost. For like the first day. The d 2, start to figure out what things are. D 3, you're an expert and it's time to leave. Right? That's the way of things. Same thing works for here too. So Hancock's lead element is supposed to be that direction.
But as he sends the cavalryman to recon that way, No 1 can find them. Did that appear to be any Hancock
second core people in that direction? Okay. Well, not a problem yet. Right? Because he realizes that armies move slow. He's not too bad. He hasn't seen New York yet either. So maybe Warren's moving slow too. It is the wilderness. He's already experienced the wilderness of himself for the past 2, 3 days. He understands that this is just the way it is. So No one's freaking out yet. Everyone pretty pretty much understands what's happening.
But none of his men can really make heads or tails of these useless maps. So they're gonna need to expand their reconnaissance. So at this point, we know things that Wilson does not. We know that Hancock is not gonna show up for hours. We know that Meade has his exhausting messengers, he's trying to reach the Wilson can't get through. But when we know that not only is Hancock not going to reach that area,
He's had he's me to sending exhausted messengers that direction to stop Hancock and turn him around, which means that if Wilson gets in trouble, Hancock's second core isn't there to save him. So as far as we know, no 1 is going to be near Wilson to aid him for most of the day. He is all alone. And he doesn't know that yet. So if you think about it, if he knew he was cut off and behind enemy lines, he'd behave much differently. But he doesn't. So he's starting his reconnaissance.
So Carl Brian's first brigade is watching the crossroads and that's Wilson's escape route. So he thinks to be encounters confederate pickets or cavalry, they can run north. They think they can escape that way. But we know that north is a dead end. And at this point of the day,
that would be a bad place to go. Well, they don't. Not yet. Again, even though things they don't know. So in the Garpen Road, This is where he sends his other veteran, colonel Chapman, in the second brigade, they're gonna go and recon forward. They're gonna go. So we come to the t intersection where we're heading south,
so he's gonna go towards mine run to find this Craig's meeting house that he's heard of. And at this point, maybe they've bumped into farmers, maybe they've bumped into slaves, and asked questions, and maybe he's gotten direction. And he has a good idea. Which way he's going? You know what I mean? Craig's Meeting House is that direction. It's been described as a poor structure.
Which is a that's a historical term. A poor structure. It's a Shack. It's a lean too. It's probably why no 1 knows where it is and and why it's gone. But it's a place that they know they can water horses. So it's got maybe there's a well there, maybe it's because it's close to a couple of the waterways. There's a waterway there to water the horses. It's a it's a place that all the farms around the area know of. It's probably where
they they have their elections. It's probably where they meet to discuss prices of their from Parker store. Maybe they meet discuss the local news. Who knows? Right? Maybe you have trials or maybe it's, like, you know, it comes to court house before they go to spotting. Is a meeting house is all it's described as. So you may go there to drink whiskey. Let's be honest. Probably the real reason they go there to drink moonshine.
So the meeting house is, you know, there's a fancy way of saying what bar maybe. Think this is not there anymore. No historical marker like I said before. But what is there is a place called Craig's Baptist Church. Craig's Baptist Church is the actual is a is a bot. No 1 can tell me specifically whether or not Craig's Baptist Church is the is this is where Craig's Meeting House was. But it's called Craig's Baptist Church. So
you know? So if you drive down the Catharpon Road and you find Craig's Baptist Church, just assume that's the that's the place. Why not? It's history. I'm sure there's probably some archaeologists out there who's like, dude, I'm fucked. It's a 75 yards off to the east, whatever. There is a place called Craig Baptist Church, and right past that as a giant rounding turn to the north.
You get to mines run. So if you're thinking if that's the mines run defenses a couple miles past that, and this is Craig's Baptist Church, this is the area roughly where they're at, and the maps kind of show that to. So this is the this is the historical state of this area. Or we're gonna just put a pin in Craig Baptist Church and call that close enough. Because it gives you an idea of of what happens next. There's a couple other places that happened during this battle at
no clue where they're at. It's all guests. So beyond Crediting's me beyond Craig's Meeting House, if you go 3 miles beyond that, you get to the small town of Mine Run. And of course, Mine Run sits an intersection with You got it, the orange plank road. So catherpin and orange plank intersect. Now think about that for a minute. The confederates have just marched
from their defenses by Cole Peplu, and they've come down the Orange Flank Road. As they come down the orange blank road, here comes the anthropan intersection. Why would they
avoid that? Why would they just not send anybody down that? That way? That doesn't make much sense, does it? And that's exactly what's about to happen. Right? Wilson is starting to probe deep in the Confederate Health territory again he doesn't know that that core marks down the orange plank road. So the catherpin road will eventually hit the orange plank road. So 2 things could happen. 1, the confederates avoided it completely, and he's gonna run right into
he's gonna be behind enemy lines in a sense. You'd imagine 3000 union cavalry writing behind the Confederate. Oh, it'd be a route. Okay? But he's known this. Remember, Wilson doesn't know this yet. We do. He doesn't. He's still operating off the intelligence he had the day before because he hasn't been in contact with command since being like before 5AM, maybe even the day the night before. Maybe hasn't heard from anybody. So he's gonna start probing
into deep into Confederate health territory. And he's also He's remember he's also running off those weird rumors that we heard earlier. The Jeb Stewart's cavalry is out and about
Maybe they raided Fredericksburg and around. People have spotted them and said that he was out there. And we know that that's not exactly true, but he has to be wary To be very careful, he's perceived with caution because he doesn't want to get better to know he's here, not yet. But this is dangerous because this is the danger of the wilderness.
The danger is not just the thick wilds, but the vast network of Deer Pass and Farm Roads Everything in the wilderness, if you know where you're going, is connected. The army of Northern Virginia has hundreds of soldiers that used to hunt these woods So yes, there are several units all over the south within their ranks, but they have northern Virginians and this is the reason why the Army is called the Army of Northern Virginia.
It's their name for a reason and they know where they're going most of the time. Again remember, world risk cuts both ways. Do you remember where that is? Do you remember that Deerpath? Maybe you're from another part of Virginia and you don't never been here before. Some people have. Some people. In fact, when we get to Pennsylvania, 1 guy, as he's sitting in the trenches, watches his family farm burned from the French turn the trenches.
That's rough. That's rough. I mean, they're fighting in their backyards. So yeah, as they grew up, as they roam these woods, they know these pass. They know where these streams are. They know where these farms are. This gives them a huge advantage over anybody lurking around with a really bad map trying to figure out where they're going. So not to mention, they've been here multiple times. I mean, just a year before, they fought Chancesville.
They came to these same woods. This is the same countryside. They've traveled to fight with the first and second manassas or bull run, whichever you prefer. Fredericksburg, Chancesville, This is the path they took on their way to Gettysburg,
and they fought what men mine run and pains form from these woods. Wilderness location is dead center in the crossroad that have led to every big battle in the civil war. And of course, that's why they call Virginia, the bloodiest ground in America and is they have home field advantage
and they know the roads connect with other roads and the union does not. And neither do any of Wilson's troopers. So could you imagine that huge column going down, the orange plank road, not going down compartment? Does that sound logical to you? We'll get into that. We'll get into that here in a minute because because I don't wanna spoil I don't wanna spoil a surprise. Let's just keep going here.
But before I do, before I get deep into the fate of Wilson and his troopers, I wanna first talk about an organization that's trying to preserve these historical locations so that you can visit them too. And of course, I'm talking about the American Battlefield Trust.
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 that these battles were fought at 13000 places with only a fraction remaining today.
Because these unprotected the battlefields 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 were named that can be saved.
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. This is why the American Battleville 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 first citizen soldiers who fought and died on these now quiet and hollow fields. Join me in the fight to save our nations historic battlefields by visiting the American Battlefield Trust website at battlefields
dot 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 dot org. So Wilson is close to finding this critical landmark, and I they correct myself.
You know, these maps are oriented in the north, so you you flip them around these sort of thinking if you're looking at the south, how that works out. Let me just draw your picture again. So Wilson's gone south through the Cartharpon Road. Along the Cartharpon Road, to the east is Todd's Tavern behind him. To the west is Craig's Meeting House in Mine Run. Okay. We've got that. And then to the south is more woods.
Not that you had to to know there's more woods. He's surrounded by woods. They're everywhere. This battle never gets out of the woods. Which is probably why it's the battle of the wilderness. Right? It just continues constantly be an ever ever present threat. And problem and obstacle. So he sent Chapman's second brigade to find this place. So they're heading out to the west to recon the road. And Chapman's brigade moves west towards
the the Craig's Meeting House. What they think is the gatherer road. So they're moving along. Imagine the third gate of horses. It's a lot of horses. And the road is quiet. 11, but warm spring morning, endless pine forests pine forests on either side of this morn and overgrown dirt road. Guidance. Really cool. Chapman's advanced watering is led by the first Vermont Calvary regiment under the command of captain William Garrison Cummings from Barnett Vermont.
And he's been with the first Vermont since October 18 61. He's another Grizzly Calvary factory. So Captain Cummings, in the first Vermont, they are at the front end of Chapman's second brigade. And we're getting close to 8AM, so it's been 3 hours since they've gone south. And they're proceeding with caution. And the first Vermont moves down the road in the in the front, in the vanguard, if you would. They're the pointy end of the spear.
And they get near a location where they think they can see the Shaq, the Krigs Meeting House just off the road. And because it's narrow roadway, and it's, of course, these dense forests. Catton's coming as Vermont's troopers slowly approach
this ram cycle structure because they don't know who's there. They don't know who they wanna be spotted. They want people to run off and and they alert the confederates to where they are at. They only wanna they wanna act they wanna can maintain the element of surprise. So they're almost certain that this lean to they see just through the trees They come they they come down the road. It's Craig Binkhouse. And there's me too. So they'd still be cautious. Slowly riding up.
And as I slowly get approached this place, notice it's not abandoned. There are people there. Okay. Well, they didn't expect. I mean, it it's the wilderness. People may not even know the union armies crossed over and how many union soldiers are in the area. And they spot a horse and another. Okay. Men with horses and just a few short steps. They come up onto the mini house, and it's full of toilet closings.
Not just 1 or 2, but does this. Maybe even hundreds of horses or type of trees off in the distance of the forest and spots off on the other side of the house, there's horses everywhere. And they stopped themselves on the road. And they just look at these horses, and they realize what they're looking at. They're looking at confederate troops. Dismounted federal troops that are pulling their boots off, are drinking water, have various states of disrobing. There's men setting up clothes lines.
There's starting fires. They have just walked on to a large confederate cavalry force. And there's this awkward moment. There's a scene in Saving Private Ryan. If you haven't seen that movie, I definitely recommended. Very good movie. Steven Spielberg. Tom Hanks stars in it. Same with Matt Damon. There's a scene that's even private Ryan. Where they're in a city. It's bombed out French city and just off of Normandy where they're moving forward. And as they're hiding against the wall,
the wall falls over. And I noticed that the wall they realized was German soldiers on the other side. And the American soldiers are looking at them and looking back and realizing that they were on the other side of this wall relaxing too, burned out building. And there's this weird pause that takes place before someone realizes what they're looking at. And then all their weapons come up and there's a lot of yelling and then the American officer and he shoots them and the Americans are safe.
But there's that moment. That moment when you're looking at something and your brain is not realizing what you're seeing. It's that weird pause that takes place when you're thinking that, hey, there's a whole lot of horses here and a whole lot of men. And oh my god. Those guys are not on our side. And not only on our side, those guys are the enemy. And they're armed. And you just imagine the confederates having the same the same thing. They're sitting there just a long ride that they're
getting a a rest in from riding along. Have you ever been on a horse for hours? It's is brutal. Your body gotta stretch your legs out and take your boots out. It's a lot. So you have Captain Cummings and the first Vermont troopers having the same experience. They are we've come up riding to the opening of the tree line that is Craig's Meeting House, and they see the area's full of Confederate Calvary. But the rebels and the yankees don't realize what they're seeing for a few long seconds.
And in that brief moment of silence before all hell breaks loose. Because when Captain Cummings first to Braunner discovers the vanguard of the third Confederate column. This 1 coming down the Gartharpon Road and almost ready to run into the head of Hancock's second core. Now remember, Hancock's getting ready to turn around. So in a sense, these guys would have been coming right up the backside of Hancock's second core.
And what they've run into is a unit commanded by General Thomas Rosser, also known as Tex. General Rosser of Virginia. And this part of the Rebel Cavalry, are some of the first men derived from Longstreet's core that are still over a days ride behind them in Gordon'sville, which is a long ways away, 20 or 30 miles away. These guys have run up ahead. They're the the first cavalry to arrive after being told to move into this area.
And the American Civil War is full with this kind of historical irony because it turns out that Rosser was at West Point with Wilson in the late 18 fifties. They were once classmates. Only now, they will be enemies about to fight each other for control like a Tharpon Road. And this is another forgotten part of the battle of the wilderness. This battle that's about to take place is actually known as the Battle of Craig's Meeting House. But you never heard of it have you.
If you look into this battle, you find out that some historians consider this the first engagement of the wilderness campaign. No. They I think they they think about, well, you know, Getty and the Crossroads, but remember, it's only what? 8 or 09:00 in the morning. So this is 3 hours before Getty meets the confederate pickets at at the Brock Road Crossroads. Wilson is about to have the fight on his hands in the worst way. So welcome to the Battle of Craig's Meeting House, 05/05/1864.
So we have this awkward moment. First firm honors, looking at the confederates, roser's men, They've been riding all night and they're a little slow. I can't believe they're a few union men sitting here on horseback and front of them along the Tharpon Road that just can't be that's not Union Calvary. That's too far away. And there's a moment where the traveler or troopers don't realize what has just happened, but that moment doesn't last long.
There is an alarm that starts on the boat. Rosschards and their valvaries are equipped with their guns and gear. All the smokes, those were game Those are Yankee. Oh my god. Get your guns. Get your guns. Hostes are nang and all hell is breaking loose. And camping comings and the first responders there realizing what's happening that several hundred men horses of the Lowell brigade
are moving into action. All of them radically moving around, putting boots on, grabbing swords, grabbing rifles, grabbing pistols, resettling their horses, trying to get into the fight. Kathy Cummings, understanding that he and his men have just kicked over the confederate court's nest. Realize it they are in serious danger.
So shortly after 8AM, Captain Cummings immediately brings his company into a bind. Sends a courier back to the maternal chapman near the second brigade and stops at a mile behind him where he's on the front and informs him what they have found. And they are about to be attacked. And the rebels get their stuff together first before colonel Chapman can bring up reinforcements to help captain Cummings, he's charged by Rossville's troopers with few already.
So who hasn't have their boots off, who hasn't taken the saddle off their horses, they're able to get into the fight, and cute comes a group of Confederate fighters. They are fighting a very close range. The first responders and then the Wall brigade hit hand to hand combat. It's savers, it's rifle butts, it's the back of boots. It's insane chaos of terror and gravory and blood in guts that takes place right at this moment in the first responders. Stumbled onto Rosser's forces.
During the fight, 1 of the Vermont troopers is killed when he's struck in the head of his suit. And another is captured in his force of balls. But that is the impact to the first from Honors. Captain Cummings realizes that this is only gonna get worse and orders his men to retreat. This growing number of Confederate horsemen surge forward thinking they have the advantage. Here's just a few, like, a few hundred. Maybe not even that. The cabinet's coming as first responders.
And they start after them. They realize that, hey, not all. Hey, boys. Come on. Boys got the Yikes on the run. They can't believe their luck. This union forces doubled on them and now they're gonna capture their first union battery in the fight. An easy win only. As they chased the helicopters down the road, their combat surprise when colonel Chapman, who has dismounted his cavalry, come stepping out where they're hiding along the side of the road.
This is colonel Chapman's counter attack as a first commander's commander, flying into the lines Rosser's Cavalry. Remember, they're still kind of disheveled, get hit by a union barrage. Remember, Colonel Chapman, he's 1 of the veteran troops acting as Wilson's adviser who'd given Wilson's sound advice that he wisely followed. He'd ordered 3 quarters of the cavalry at this mountain to deploy his infantry.
And the rest took the horses away from cover. So as the confederates come chasing the first responders down the roof of road, they don't realize the trap they don't bite into. And they rally forward as captain Cummins and his first or moderately were large to treat past his line, and the confederates are cut flat for them. But
they were they were roaring down that road. So when the men stepped step out and shoot a lot of confederates died, the business stopped at the rear front of the innards charge of slamming into his house, remaining the gate. And Ruggelson would later recall In his writings, a Chapman's class with Rosser's first calendar charge. He would say, quote, the action was at once and as both sides were anxious to gain the first advantage, it soon became furious.
But if you call this a sea of blue, but maybe you'll see a blue black For a few minutes, it's a scene of confusion because of the recoveries moving in full speed and after your arms. And then hit mine with a barrage of dismounted troops. And then, of course, there's a mountain troops that were hiding in the woods come roaring out too. So now you have mounted and dismounted all mixed together in close first combat. So what the first room honors the taste of what they just experienced is now
10 x off the Garpen road. They could finish the ride and run into more than just a company at Calvary. They realize that this is way bigger than what they thought it was. And now it's in their turn to order the retreats. And as soon as the clash happens, it ends. And the rebels retreat back up the road towards Craig's meeting house to regroup and gather reinforcements. And this is a lull.
And for a second there, Cathy Cummings, an colonel Chapman, Wilson, have a chance to realize what has happened. The dust settles. They've they've captured some confederates. They've captured a competitor captain and several of his men. And Wilson is kinda taken aback. It isn't quite no what to really do to regroup. These might wanna definitely wanna regroup. You know, meet with your advisers and assess his position. So stay here. How many men are we talking about? What did you what did you see?
And that's when Captain Cummings tells him that it's a it's a lot and the rebel prisoners hint that it's even more up the road, they say, than just a few rebel cavalry. They even hint that Jeb Stewart himself has arrived at the reinforcements So they think, okay, based upon what we saw and based upon what these prisoners have told us, it's a lot of conveyor force. Maybe this is a a recon force. Maybe this is a division.
Maybe this is this is the the main force coming at us. Almost says no, but he knows he's encountered a confederate and a lot of them. So he he starts to think, well, right now I have the advantage. It's gonna be a long moment Wilson and his troopers realized that they have a nice place here at the road. The confederates have run back. They don't know how many union forces were there, but they have pretty much control of the Carbon Road.
So the confederates don't know what's waiting from the woods, don't even know about the first brigade, hiding back towards the crossroads. So he's gonna he's gonna let the rebels regroup further up the Dartmouth road and he decides that he's gonna hold the line queue because he's now going to do something he doesn't know he can't do. He's gonna send word to mead that he's made contact with rebels near Craig's main house. Wilson is operating off of bad intelligence.
So he's gonna hold the line here and a wait word from me about what to do next. He doesn't know. Those messages will never make it through. On the next episode of War Yankee, Gary Wilson is in deep trouble. But Wilson's not done yet. He has a few tricks still left up his sleeve, and Rosser will soon discover what his tricks are. Will Harry Wilson's calvary divisions survive the day. Find out on the next episode.
Or Yankee Overland is my American Civil War History podcast created by me, Kyleyn Bondo, and produced by Cagapod. Hope you can join me as I continue to follow the some more history hiding in my own backyard. Follow the overland campaigns, march up here to work and support the podcast at war game key dot com. This is Gagelrod.