It's noon on 05/05/1864.
Greenhorn Calvary Officer, Brigadier general, Harry Wilson, has stumbled onto a third Confederate force coming down the Gartharpen Road. While he prepares his troopers to repel a rebel counterattack from his former West Point Classmate General Thomas Tex Rosser of Virginia. He is desperate to get this new information to me before it's too late. The only problem is that Wilson's entire Calvary division, over 3000 men horses, is completely cut off from the rest of the Union Army. No 1 is coming to save him or his men.
Welcome to War Yankee. Greetings. I am Kyle Envado, and this is War Yankee Overland. My American Civil War History podcast that follows generally Lucy's s Grant in the army of the Potonic. On its 47 day, 113 mile military campaign south from Culpepper to Petersburg, Virginia. And in this episode, We continue where I left off with Harry Wilson and his dilemma of being cut off, completely cut off from the Union Army. Some of it is own making. A lot of it has to do with the fog of war.
But as the dust settles on his initial engagement, with Confederate cavalry they found at Craig's Meeting House. His fight is far from over. So Wilson deploys a strong, skirmish line of dismounted men forward on either side of the road. He's gonna hold the road here with whatever they bring down. So within a few hundred yards of where they engage the first time, he has all his men laid out and the skirmishes move forward. Now remember what skirmishes are.
It's it's groups of 2 or 3 men, and they move out in little groups, and they move forward hundreds of yards to see what's in front of them. Because they even engaged the confederates. They ran up the road, but now what are the competitors doing? Are they gonna come right down the road again? Well, that would be stupid. No. They're gonna come to the woods, come to the sides, hit them from from protection. That's what the confederates are gonna do.
So he's gonna make sure that doesn't happen. So he's deploying his forces because the last thing he wants him to do is run around him and come around his flanks. This is the basic army tactics 01:01. So he puts his skirmishes forward and they meet resistance. Already. Within a few hundred yards of where they engage on the road, confederates are shooting at them and they start shooting back. They're exchanging gunfire through the woods.
And it seems like, okay, there was a lot of forces up there, but now they're engaging shots from a lot of considerate forces. And maybe not just cavalry, There's a large line of rebels in the woods. Like, maybe they're all just mounted rigorously. No 1 knows. This second engagement starts with this heavy firing coming from both sides. This is where the line is. They shoot shoot back shoot shoot back really the line doesn't move for several hours. And Wilson's line
stays there until the afternoon. So we've moved past. So now, Getty's engagement of the barcode has taken place, which means that the confederate line has come all the way down That's the tap farm on the the Frank Road. So Wilson's entire north is cut off from him, and now his the to the west, George Craig Meetinghouse has another line in computer forces. So if you if you drew a line, it's almost like a a right angle in
is above him to the north is a line of confederates and in front of him is a line of confederates. But the 1 the the ones off the plank road haven't bothered with them yet. He's got to deal with the ones in front of me. So every time Wilson's troopers pushed back the rebels to see or see an opening, the veterans arrive and they plug it up. And then they start to ProBulsen's flights. It seems like that there's a never ending supply of confederates coming at him.
And they're coming through the woods and they're coming from all directions and there's are coming from Craig's Meeting House still. So Wilson's line is not going to hold and he realizes that it's not going to hold and we're looking at what hours have gone by. Still no messengers. No messengers can get through. And in this and in this point, none of his messages have returned, which is a key point. It's not that they did. They came and they they said, I can't get through. None of them come back.
Where are they? So Wilson is starting to calculate that Okay. Maybe it's time maybe maybe sort of thinking about pulling back or finding a better position. Because the hornets are starting to get thick, Wilson's ammunition is running low. He's become obvious that that Bracher is heavily reinforced. It's fighting, not just mounted and dismounted cavalry, but it's starting to to realize that he's starting to fight hardened and confederate infantry. It's more than just cavalry coming at him.
And Wilson's line begins to bend, and a hole sort of appears ranks. And seeing his advantage, Rosner starts to push his man forward and the more and more rebels appear, Wilson's left flank was just south of a carbonate room begins to fall, and Wilson realizes that he's in trouble. So Wilson has no other choice he has to fall back. To see him as confederate infantry arrived makes Wilson and his staff member of the veterans that were with him. Brian and Chapman.
Both tell Wilson, if we wish Wilson already knows, he's bitten off more than he can chew. So Wilson orders a retreat to strong to Australian position. So to the east of of Craig's Meeting House, to the north of the Gharboran Road is a place called, and this is for greenhouse. Again, there's there's citizens the citizens of the wilderness that live here. They carved off small little farms.
They've made a living in this area. Because it's not too far from cold pepper, not too far from Fredericksburg. And you could make a living here as a farmer and is allowed in existence in this rough terrain. You have to be of strong stock to do this. Because the wilderness is not a very forgiving place. But they know of a place that they they recon on the way to Craig's meeting house, a place called missus Faulkner's house. And it sits on a little hill.
And we're talking about Virginia hill, so it might be 20 feet taller than the Tharpon Road. There's actually a a weird dip in the Gartharpon Road that goes up maybe 30 or 40 feet, different elevation change. So let's just say that it's, you know, it's a you can see down And that's a key piece of this of this story
because that's where Wilson's gonna take his his next position. So colonel Chapman moves his men from their positions and places the Newster's permission of dismounted men forward of the road near the small house where the where the there's 1 hill where the house stands on. And additionally, again, Virginia train is bizarre.
Found a ditch. It's a deep ditch. It runs north and south across the road. It's a naturally made trench. It's probably may might be made for irrigation. Maybe someone dug that at 1 time. But it has wood cover. The woods cover this ditch so you could heighten the ditch and as men come forward, they can't see you and you can shoot from position to cover. That's a nice
tactical position for Wilson to take. So the the the racket line he has now has not only cover but cover into the woods from an elevated position. That's a good place to be. Not only that, Wilson brought a surprise because he's a cavalry division. He's got guns. Big guns. Well, cavalry guns, but big enough, I mean, when it comes to the infantry, big guns. He brought 12 guns with him, 2 batteries of horse artillery. And Rosser's men don't know this yet.
So he puts those guns in a position near the house on a rise overlooking the road in the trench. And from his position, Wilson's waiting to give Rosner's rebels what he calls the Yankee welcome. I love that. The Yankee welcome. I'm sure there's a it's probably a a rebel welcome to a Dixie welcome. But the Yankee welcome is these 12 horse pulled artillery, these 2 batteries waiting for these men to come through the woods and come down the catharpon road. And this Yankee welcome is ready.
And seeing that the union line has fallen back, Rosner thinks he's got the advantage. He thinks that, okay, the line of hole was formed here. The line bent here. His men are pulling back there. I've got him. He's on the run. I'm gonna crush my classmates. I have this mad Wilson in my grasp. And he decides that, well, who wants to live forever. Rosser charges Wilson's love.
So not only is he got men who could scream in yellow, rebel yell through the woods to attack the ragged line of union forces, he sends is Calvary screaming down the Garpen road, which can move at high speed to not only punch through the route down. And when they approach the makeshift warps that the person who Wilson has crafted at missus Faulkner's house, they get exactly what will and had intended. A proper Yankee welcome. Masters charged directly into the damage trap.
And will since 12 guns deliver a tremendous damage to the last response? Picking shot and then firefight positions is devastating. They catch the entire charging force by surprise rise. This combined arm, something his boss didn't even suspect was waiting for him. The damage is horrible. The charge is stalled and is forced to retreat that under this withering fire from the trench and from the house batteries on the hill and the aftermath of these assault. Awake of mangled corpses in play.
Procter's advances, once again, blunted by the resourcefulness under Douglas's command, Each time he thinks he's got Wilson on the ropes. Wilson, because he's led or wouldn't say he's led he's leading. Grizzly war veterans. They have 1 more trick up their sleeve, and then 1 more trick up their sleeve. Of course, it doesn't last. But it's just interesting to watch this battle take place, but Rosner thinks that he's got them now. Just out of the mouth of victory, the snatch defeat.
But Rosner is well supplied. This is another thing about the battle. There's a the thing they talk about how Wilson's a division in Rosner was actually was in division. It was like a reinforced brigade. I don't know. It seemed that Ross had a lot of advantages because he just never ran out of men. Where Wilson's cut off. He's got the only piano he's carrying with him. He's got nowhere to go. He doesn't know where he is. See, again,
they're written by southerners. Right? Rosner is the better soldier. He's the better officer, Wilson. As an idiot, he's incompetent, he's lucky he survives, etcetera, etcetera. And I'm sorry. It's stuff like this that makes it sound like Wilson and the men he's with, just out smart roster at every angle. Until they run out of tricks. Every trick in the book, Wilson will throw at this guy. So within miss within minutes, Rosner has
regrouped his men. Okay. We know about their surprise. We know they got guns now. Okay. Though they can't, you know, you know, they've they've played that card. We know they have guns now. Now we know we have to maneuver. We can we can hit them from other sides. We can we can push more forces in. Now, it's time for Rosner to bring his own surprises. So Rosner
His line suddenly is reinforced out of nowhere by newly arrived artillery batteries too. Hey, 2 can play this game. I've got guns too. How do you like that, Wilson? And this time, it's Wilson's troopers are surprised by a Nick and Nick of time rebel reinforcements. So, yes, listen. How about tomorrow? Here we go. Now, ROCCER has guns and the rule.
When the competitor counter strike, your rival, the new cannons in the road, the shells start to fall all around missus Faulkner's house, which is probably why you don't have a missus Faulkner's house. On the smithereens. So the nearby union can and placements are getting shelved as the trench is getting shelved. The moses man They have the advantage because that makeshift trench is just dynamite.
But the forward movement and fire and more and more rebel infantry now coming through the woods, the cover of the cannons is placing serious pressure on on Wilson's position. Still, still. No word for me and his messengers. He still doesn't know what's going on and it's starting make him seriously worried. He's not getting any words back from me. Remember? You only even, like, brought the ammo he's carrying. Again, it also has a little more trickably sleep.
Is up. Unlike Rossner's brush cannons, Wilson's cannon ears, just like his advisors, are veteran archer artillery. Our veteran artillery lists. Our veteran artillery lists. Wow. See that 5 times fast. They are good shots with cannons. How's that? An artilleryist. I still can't say it. But Wilson's canons deliver what confederates describe as some of the war's most accurate fire. This is the advantage Wilson has by having senior veterans with him.
These men know how to fight they've been in war before, being shell to being shot at does not waver them, worse than terrified. War is terrifying. But they have blues, like, steel veins. They have well, they the cold blood, the water for veins, holding water for veins, icing them. So they're not shaken by this, where Rosner's men or maybe they're not. But I know on the union side, these veteran cannon ears, these are blurous. Still can't say it. Anyway, they have their excellent shots.
And Wilson's men start kicking rosters and human reinforcement with what is called something in the fireworks family. Now you can imagine the artillery lists. I was at that time. It has an idea of different enemy. You have a scatter shot, which is like, oh, bear with me. You have cannon shot, you have explosive cannon shells, Something in there in the fireworks family sounds like like something like the Chinese movie or like a rocket or something.
But they brought it with them. And I'm not too sure what exactly that is because it's described as as something in the fireworks family. I'm thinking it's it's some kind of burning and scenery some kind that make it whistles when it fires. Whatever it is, the flash explosion ignites dry grass around the rubber guns that fire.
This is the this the tricks they pull out of their pat. So the other guns start dropping shrapnel shot directly on Rosner's line with deadly precision, and the combination is overwhelming and stuns Rosner's line again. And this fire does something that's even equally as impressive as they start killing the the confederate gunners.
They killed so many confederate gunners that the confederate battery officers have to jump in and begin with and begin themselves putting fires out, tending to the wounded. The confederate line of attack is Surrised is is covered with men screaming. The endless barrage of union shells tore Rogers' advance with a raging fire on top of Canon shells and Trappenal and the fire coming from the trench, and Rosser's line gets disheveled, is disorganized.
Officers can't get men into line. Men do not want to stand while the grass is burning at their feet. Then the shelling is endless and direct. It's not like shells bouncing to left to the right. It's bouncing right in front of you and hitting your friend. Even veteran soldiers have a hard time standing in front of that. You don't wanna charge guns that can actually hit you. But it wasn't enough.
The roser's men were a mess, but the barrage didn't dissuade them from pushing forward the confederates. Somehow got the men to move forward despite their disorganization. Now, Wilson's in trouble again because they as the competitors move forward, they began focusing fire on the Wilson's gun. They realized they have to take the cannons out in order to move forward. So soon the guns at Wilson the guns at Wilson's cannons had tempered disabled
are replaced with new guns. Another advantage that if guns were has is just the the the the guns get pulled away, new cannon ears come up, and new batteries reform it, boom, boom, now they're firing on camera. Rosser's med moved past the line of fire. So now they've reorganized their line. The grass fired as infective animals behind them. As the entire confederate onslaught hammers forward, Wilson's men here a new threat. Here comes a huge line of the cavalry, of confederate cavalry.
Fungering down the carbon world forecast. So this is Rosser's concluding rockets. He's he's he's in the moon. He's gonna push these confederate infantry through the woods to hit the trench line, but he's gonna concentrate fire on Wilson's gun, and the rifle's allies, and you're gonna get them to confederate sweep around the side, cut off Wilson from any retreat, and roster will have his victory. He is charging him a third time. These guys are for abreast. It's going to be a bloodbath.
But Wilson is still His guns are still dropping murderous fire on Rossford's men. And colonel Chapman he's the first to realize that the union line is about to be overrun. So despite excellent cannons and despite the trench and despite the high ground, He sees that officer has organized a lot of the cavalry is coming, and it is not going to be long. Before they can for the positioning. There's just too much. There's just too many confederates coming at them. So instead of retreating,
colle Chapman decides to take advantage of the fire coming down for around the shifting of the lanes. As he sees them reorganize themselves past the fire, he decides this is the time. Before they can finally get organized, colonel Chapman orders his men to drop back remount their horses and charge Rosser's flying firsts. In a Yankee charge from the Sculptura's house, which is Rosser by surprise again.
As Rosser's Virginians charged down the Gotharpon Road, they're met by Chapman's remodgers headlong, the clash falls into a frenzy of hand to hand combat akin. This time, however, after they've been fighting for hours, the shovel is over. He's over. These men hate each other. They have had enough of each other. It is all wooler.
They are fighting with hand guns at a point blank range, rifle guns, sabers, boots, this to walk belts, rands, knives, is disturbing how the cast iron ore sends into a bloody uncontrolled to all the postmen against the postmen. All discipline is lost, and and difficult compliment is the only 2 people killed me about this mistake. Still in saver with busy and slaughter while the shrieked to the stricken and the shouts of the boohoo's kind of mingled with the war battle. It is breathtaking.
What takes place? It is the beginning of the end. Because despite all the raging battle and the guns and the close range fight up and down the battle line, both men and horses fighting and dying, the bravery of the union charge could not overcome Rosner's numbers of or ferocity. Wolfson's line begins to give, then it breaks under the attack. Union Calvert horses and men start to fall backwards towards miss Faulkner's house, then they fall then the fall turns into a full retreat.
He becomes every man for himself. From that bloodbath colonel Chapman has lost complete control over his reigning men, and they are dashed to the rear. And only a handful of soldiers were on their horses able to stand as Wilson's line of brakes. And to by time, Wilson himself and what few many had left to cover the cover the retreat along with his cannons. But Russo was in no position to push on the ferocity of the attack does break the union line, but it comes at a cost.
He had to let them go. They were so badly mauled. They were no condition that to take immediate advantage of the break. Remember, they push past the fire. They're already disorganized. Then they get charged. Then the charge just erupts into total chaos. And as the line breaks the union forces, the confederates to have to lick their own wounds.
If dozens dead wounded on their side as well, so they've no advantage to take it. And Wilson and his cannons hold back whatever resistance comes forward in the process. And for long mow moments, Wilson is trying to regroup his troopers and try to turn them around and no, don't retreat. Don't stand here. Stand here, but it just can't happen. Wilson and senior officers knew it was time to go, but they've done what they could. Had not been for those cannons, they might have folded sooner.
And so another lull takes place. And it allows Wilson a chance to regroup his fleeing men and lick his wounds and the order has given the fall back to the reserves of Robes and Run a few miles to the west. And is the momentary arrest from Rossner's continuous assault, but it's also where his reinforcements are, that Rossner doesn't know about it again, Wilson still has a couple cards to play. Unfortunately, when he arrives at his reserves, he gets the bad news. He now knows why
he hasn't heard anything from me, and why his messengers haven't come back. From this position, he now knows he's been cut off from the Orange Bank Road to the North. And none of his couriers have been able to get through to me because of the giant confederate forest coming down the Orange plank Road. He is now surrounded by rebels. And the reason, well, the confetters were all over the woods now, they didn't just come down the plank row they deployed.
So it's not just a line anymore. It's now a wide swath of confederates all facing towards Brock Road. And they know here comes more troops down the Cartharpon Road, and they've moved up on Wilson.
So now Wilson has forces to the north of him and to the west of him. They started to come down that path. The path that he blazed from Barco store, Orange Lake Road, curious confederate skirmishers are coming down that road because they're looking for their buddies on the catharpic road and suddenly they hear cannons and gunfire and the smoke They know something's going on down there, so now confetters are getting curious and checking out what's going on down that road.
So Wilson, linked to Hamid in the fifth New York is obviously blocked. It's obviously gone. And soon, Rosslyn's forces will be on him again. With the added danger the confederate infantry surrounding them all sides, his advisors are telling him it's time, and Wilson knows his time. And he decides now is the time to retreat. We're gonna head east and find Hancock, especially before the door closes for good. So he moves his forces on to Shady Grove Church.
He orders his division to fall back 6 miles. They're not gonna go through the woods the north of the Khotharpan Road. They're not gonna use the road. They're gonna hide in the woods. They're gonna regroup and you're a small local church called Shady Grove Church, and it's still there.
Into 1 of the landmarks, I think at Artem Road, that you could actually go visit. It's still there. I think there's even the older building is there too. So you can see if you can think about where Shady Grove Road or Shady Grove churches versus where Craig's Baptist churches you can draw a line down that road. This is where the battle takes place. And it's kind of strange when you kind of figure out that missus Faulkner's house has to be somewhere in the middle of that.
Maybe the trench is still there. I often I've looked for it several times. I think I know where it is. It's tough to find. But from there, he's hoping to go to Todd's Tavern, and he expects to find Hancock's lead at Todd's Tavern because he leaves the vision still there. Remember? Hasn't heard from me for hours, but he knows there's a huge risk. Because if Rhasar has made it this far east, he didn't know what other union forces and also encountered.
He's starting to think, well, if I've hit this guy and they've come down the turnpike, then me is engaged and Wales is engaged and maybe they came through and maybe there's a hooled battle going on, no one's coming for me. Wilson is realizing very quickly he has to save himself. So Wilson is now on the run. With his orders given to his officers, he, they took to slowly move the division towards Chaney Grove's Church using the woods is covered. As they move to the wilderness,
they discover the an overgrown wagon frame. As parallels the driveway. And if you think of this as maybe it's a driveway to a farmhouse, In fact, I think they even come across a far house and even live in the woods here. So
it's it's a a dear path. It's barely a wagon can fit down it or maybe it was the Cartharpon Road before the Cartharpon Road. It could be a lot of different things. But they find a way to move to the force quickly. This gives them that fast force track for going easy. I got to go 6 miles and they have this giant competitor force forming up behind them that really wants them dead. So a scout confirmed that the trail goes past some of the farms that connects back to the Cartharpon Road,
almost a TazTazTazTazTaztaztaztaztaztaztaztaztaz is only 2 miles away at that intersection. But he's gotta move these, oh, he's not 3000 horses anymore, but 3000 so odd men this way quickly. So if they hurry, they could possibly be Rosner's horsemen to the hidden intersection that where this little hidden wagon trail pops on the cathart road and make the run to tops Tavern, where he thinks safety and reinforcements are. So the race is on.
Colonel Chapman's brigade, who's put at the lead, carry the rest of the vision out of the woods. And the artillery will follow Chapman because it of course, it's needed to hold the intersection. So Chapman's gonna go forward, blaze the trail, and then hold the intersection for the rest of the division to run through a captain's
through Gatharpon Road and get to Todd's Katherine. And then colonel Jomby Macintages were gay, will bring up the rear there'll be the rearguard to cover the exit from the forest, and the race is on. We'll see his men begin slipping away down the wagon trail, Rosser's men find their hiding hole at Robinson.
And now it is a game of cops and robbers. To better covery begin harassing him a small inspired from the rear. Olsen's men fighting a running gun battle, they're running and gunning. Through the wilderness at full speed. So for 6 miles, thousands of horses are running and shooting and running and shooting as groups are trying to move to the forest. And there's another near miss. And the tight woods along the trail, the horseback gunfire, so it is just intense at close range.
The Wilson Sports, it's named Leaf, the veteran of Vicksburg and Chattanooga, This is a horse that's been around cannons and gunfire for years. He gets spooked by all the fire. The Wilson is almost throwing from his horse to his to regain control of his force before his brakes had him fall in the confederates could have been on him before he could have been falling out of time. There was a close close
crazy going on this 1. It's chaos again. Does men die and then shoot and they're running fast and then die and shoot in their running fast down the 6 mile corridor of woods and grass and weeds and pickets and spider webs and gardens with us. Just imagine how many men who were killed along this way? And then they're still there? They're still there. No 1 even knew they were there, just died in the woods somewhere and covered up with weeds and and leaves.
If if anyone is still left there, it's definitely here. So the the running gunning battle for 6 miles will exit these warriors out on the Gatharpon Road and colonel colonel cap Chapman
He's been zigzagging his lead horsemen through this type this type forest and the Spraggy pines and its exhausting work. They're hot, they're sweaty, they're winded, and then finally, finally, they managed to find and cross the tiny poe river and exit out onto the Gatharpon Road into the open air, into the late afternoon sun. In the way, appears to be clear, they've beaten a monster to the junction.
So they set up their quick defenses, but it's not long. Within minutes, Rosner Calvary are spotted down the road. Here they come. So they're not only coming behind them, along the trail that Rossner has realized what is happening and send more cavalry down the road. He is going to cut Wilson off, box him in.
So they have been at their heels and men about to close the door, but they're not gonna do without a fight. There's more Unihorz's exit onto the Khotharpan road to the the danger glows close. The hundreds of confederate cavalry come riding down the road to cut off Wilson's escape. And Wilson, he's riding at the rear of the column because his horse got spooked. When he exits the woods, he's madly spurring wave towards Todd's tavern.
Especially as he comes out on the Tharpon Road and sees the wave of confederate cavalry coming at him. But before I get into that, I'd like to talk to you first about how to support the show. If you are really enjoying WarGankie, and you like what I am creating here. By all means, please go to war yankee dot com. At the top menu, there is a button that says support.
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Unfortunately, for the men behind Wilson, his rear guard, consisting of the eighteenth Pennsylvania cavalry under the command of lieutenant colonel William Brenton, they're not so lucky. Because as these rebels come roaring down the Gatharpon Road, Britain is the last group of Calvary troopers to exit the woods at the intersection.
And no matter how prepared any of Chapman's forces were to repel the rebel attack, the onslaught of of men coming down that road, make it very clear that they need to keep moving and quickly. Because not only does Ross or have his cavalry coming down the Katharpon Road, he's got them running and gunning through the wagon trail parallel to the Gotharpon Road. So Brenton is between a rock and a hard place. As he comes out under the intersection, what's left of Wilson's
Calvary division has already been moving towards Todd's Tavern. The rebels arrive at the intersection and behind him. And he knows they got him. He is in a pinch. There's nowhere to run. There's nowhere to escape to at that moment. That trail junction is full of rubbles. But he's not gonna go down without a fight. He decides that rather than surrender, he's going to use what little space he has left to try to push the confederates back.
So he pushes his troopers back down the wagon trail rather than use the anthropan road and stay in the wild or in the wide open. He's going back down the wagon trail. And Brenton pushes his troopers down the wagon trail and hits the force that's been running at them chewing at their tail. And when he engages those guns, he realizes that force is too big too. So he turns his his regiment around, and they come back out to the Tharpon Road and hit
the confederates that are waiting for him there. Almost like a game of pickle. He's going between these 2 Confederate forces who aren't too sure what is going on. They're trying to capture them, accrue them, Britain is not giving up the fight. He does this 3 times. 3 times, he runs and he hits the confederate hiding on the trail. That he goes hits the confederates on the Khatharpan Road. And each time, remember, his britons men are not on the arm. So each time it's a clash, swords and pistons,
rifles, carbines, boob, boob, boob, churns as horse is around backed into the wagon 12. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Turns around back onto the Garpen Road. He does this 3 times. And each time, more and more and more confederates arrive. And each time the confederates are starting to solidify their position, solidify the exits. Making the area in which Britain can maneuver smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller. And finally, he realizes that
is not going to work. He's not gonna be able to escape, and he's either gonna have to surrender or he's just gonna kill all his men. And that's not an option hepre he wants either. So because he can't break this blockade at the intersection, he is causing something to happen, which he's allowing
Wilson and the rest of the division to tear off into the distance. Now, Rosker is chasing them. He still has a force chasing them, but he has to deal with this other force as well. So let's kind of split his his focus a little bit. Dealing with Britain's men running back and forth in the woods, And so by the third time, he Britain realizes the gig is up. They now have enough of their positions solidified that there's not gonna be much of an escape. But he's not going to let that happen.
He orpress his men to disperse to the woods. Gonna have to catch me. I think confederates just do just that. They go after them through the wilderness. Remember? Like I say all the time, the wilderness cuts both ways. And Britain's strategy works by this spurcing into the woods
and fighting any which way they can away from the competitive force they're immediately engaged with. Not too sure what they're about to encounter as they go through the woods, but they're still 5 miles of wilderness between AP Hills forces and Rosters forces. That's a lot of trees. And this is a brilliant strategy. I'm gonna go this way. All men disperse, Rossers men try and vain to capture the eighteenth Pennsylvania. But the woods is an advantage for people trying to hide.
And although these Virginians think they understand how to fight in the wilderness, If you don't wanna be found, you can get away. And this is what Britain does. He gets away. And he'll come out later. Later sometime in the afternoon along Brock Road, somewhere near Hancock's second division or second corps, he'll pop out on the Brock Road. And he'll live. He'll survive. His men will make it.
But he will not link up for Wilson for some time. So this is the end of Britain. He gets away. The rearguard escapes. And it causes enough of the aversion that it peels away some of the forces away from rosser chasing Wilson. So again, fortune smiles on Wilson. Wilson has to be the luckiest guy on the planet. And in this territ in the rear right now, it's missing this battle. Because it seems like every time it looks like Wilson is gonna get get caught. Gets away, he gets routed, he rallies.
They charge him, he's got guns. He flees, they chase him. He's got reinforcements hiding in the woods. He finds an extra trail. He gets to the corner. And they beat them to the intersection and get away again. So at this point, the confederates are highly frustrated with trying to catch Wilson's libery calvary division. Seems like every time they almost have them, Wilson slips away. So this brings us to about 2PM in the afternoon. As Wilson's breathless riders
reached Todd's tavern. The the front part of Wilson's Vanguard finally reaches will Todd's tavern from that intersection. Only talking 2 miles,
but we're on horseback. Horse's do what? 15, 20 miles an hour plus remember they've been running and gunning and shooting. Some of these horses are probably wounded. So these lot of these men are wounded. They're out of ammo. They're breathless. Riding a horse is a lot of work. You don't just like sit on a horse and the horses all the work. You're bouncing up and down and being banging around.
You're in action trying to maneuver the horse to the tree, so it doesn't like hit the branch or take your head off or or do something it shouldn't do, drop itself into a hole and you flip off it, There's a lot of work in navigating an animal that's roughly, what, 11 to 1500 pounds. Through this thick wilderness. These men are arriving after they've been fighting since 08:00 in the morning.
Maybe a little after that, but somewhere in that time period. K? So we're looking like 6 hours of combat they've been in running and gutting. It finally showed up to Todd Staffing. And I imagine with the amount of combat going on, some of these men are on foot or Scott shot out from under the more on the back of someone else's horse.
So Todd's Tavern is the landmark they've been they've been waiting to get there. And just like I said before, how Wilson just seems to get lucky every turn when they showed the Todd's tavern There are calvary they are waiting for them. Union calvary. Burger General Greg is waiting for them at Todd's tavern. In fact, Greg has been sent to find Wilson in his wayward his wayward division. Grant Meade have asked major general Phil Sheridan Go find Wilson.
That's 3000 horses. Go find him the New York, member the fifth New York guy back the headquarters. So they know he's out there. They know kind of where he went. So they've asked Greg via a major general sheraton Go out to this area where we think Wilson's at and link up with him. Find him. We hear gunfire in the distance. Something is going on over there, go find him to make sure he's not in trouble. Because that's what Greg has done.
So he got redirected from guarding the wagon trains and he's on a rescue mission. And as he's at Todd's tavern, here comes Wilson's men with and around the corner. Into his fold, into the fold of safety, At roughly around 02:45PM, he sends a quick message off to Sheridan because he's got to let the rest of the army know. What has happened. He's getting the the all the exhausted reports of the few men who have shown up so far. Still no Wilson.
And this is the this is the the the bitter, the front end. Finally, Shump Todd's tavern where the back end is now getting ready to be pinched off by Rosser's Cavalry. In their blockade. So he gets up he gets a message out quickly to Sheridan that says, quote, General Wilson is falling back to this point followed by the enemy. Well, that's that's an understatement. Colonel Chapman reports the enemy that attacked very superior to his force and compiled him to retire. And we know that too.
Wilson has just just could not keep up with the amount of Rosser's reinforcements. Like, and, of course, he goes on. Quote, Wilson and his self has not yet arrived and I can't say what I will do. I have my command here and will receive the enemy. So brigadier general Greg realizes that Wilson is on the run. He's being chased and he's about to receive the enemy 2. So he's going to be the blunt. Now, you think about poor Rosser here. He has Calvary walk up on him. They charge to get repelled. He
falls back So Wilson falls back. He charges him again. He thinks he's got him on the ropes can and fire. So he brings more men in. He thinks he has him on the ropes. The cannon fire is just brutal. It gets gets harassed there. Wilson finds a way to slip away. He thinks he have the ropes again. Wilson's got reinforcements. Thinks he has on the ropes again, gets him past Shady Grove Church, gets the intersection, and now here comes an entire new recovery division.
So Rosser has his gonna have his hands full. Begin. What's Greg say? No Wilson. Wilson's rioters have arrived But Wilson hasn't. Well, that's a problem. Where's Wilson? They said he was in the mix. He'd kind of fallen back. His horse had some issues. So Greg still needs to find Wilson because that's his orders. Will orders from from orders from headquarters. He's been told by the head shed Find me Harry Wilson. But Greg has to find out.
So he's done his report, so now his to change the command knows, at least they found parts of the division. He needs to now send his forces out to go find the rest of their He's not just gonna sit at Todd's tavern and wait for all Wilson's men to arrive. So he is now moving forward in force. And he does 2 things. First, he commands brigadier general Henry E. Davies junior, who's a New York lawyer term Calvaryman. I love What is with all these lawyers in in the cavalry?
This is crazy how many lawyers are are in the Union Army. They they're very very book smart in the sense. I wonder if that I wonder if that's the problem. Is if if you got to university men who are the officers and the officers of corps. Is that always a good thing? I don't know. I don't know if a lawyer is a good thing to have as as an officer. But we have a greater general Henry Davies junior. Kind of forgive me for me to junior.
And he is gonna take 2 regiments to go find Wilson. That's his job. He is the he's the trap. He's the tactical recovery of an aircraft pilot. He is the the unit, the navy seals, the green berets, he is the force recon, he is the army rangers. Sent to go get me Harry Wilson. Go find him now. And of course, they're fresh. Fresh Calvary.
And they're gonna they're gonna have to elbow their way through Wilsons to shoveled, tired, exhausted, cavalry division that showed up a tossed tavern, they were kinda blocking the way because they just showed up, saw a new cavalry, ugh, finally, rest. That's kinda falling around. So he's gotta elbow his way through all these ripened cruisers. And he's gotta go west along the Khotharpan Road towards Corbyn's bridge
to find where Wilson's at. And of course, that's exactly where Wilson's at when the confederates. Greg also has to do another thing is, this is an intersection. He's come down the Brock Road to the Gartharpon Road, but the Brock Road keeps going. It goes on a little further to another network of of road that leads you to spotsylvania Courthouse.
It leads you to mass upon each church. And the night before on the fourth fits you lee which is a relative of general Robert Eley, is another cavalry unit coming from Longstreet's men that spent the night at Mass Supply, stretches a few miles away. And he has been hearing the fighting going on on the Khatharpan Road, and he's moved his men up to the Broc Road.
Well, Greg is is aware that there are Calvary units to the south of him in and he's gotta protect his flank. So he's gonna split his units into 2 forces. One's gonna protect his southern his left flank against Fitterli. And that's a quick exchange of gunfire and Fitterli runs off. And then he's gotta go find Wilson. Which is Rossner's cavalry, catch capturing him in the blockade or trying to capture him in the blockade at the corner.
That's that's the let me paint. That's the picture we paint. So as Davey's Cavalry head from Todd's Tavern, to where that intersection is. And the Hawthorne Road does a strange thing. It kind of it wasn't kind of the Hawthorne Road gently turns the corner to the Po river. So if you're following the road, you'll see it turns slightly to the left as you're driving down it, and you get to the bridge, corporates bridge. And this is where davies Fines Wilson. His rearguard,
not the not the eighteenth Pennsylvania, they'd run off. The ones that were left with Wilson they're in a life and death battle with Confederate horsemen. Just like the previous engagements with Williston and Rossford. These however men are locked in hand to concrete. It's sabers and pistols Point blank range, shopping and shooting, of his davies, of his first New Jersey, right up. I see this and he charges them. He can squad move forward and here comes fresh horses.
Because they've been fighting for so many arrows, the confederates seeing this new unit over the years They break back. They break back because remember them as splintering. The cross was trying to capture the eighteenth, but they sent some other units off to go capture Wilson to these confederates union forces, they break in line for a moment. So the first New Jersey tried to press the advantage. They they don't want just the competitor to run away. They want to push him down the road.
It reminds me of the scene in Star Wars, a new hope, where They're trying to have Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker to run off, and it's Han Solo and Chabakka and the Death Star. And Han Solo just come screaming down the hallway behind the stormtroopers and they're running for their lives. And he turns the corner and there is a whole platoon of stormtroopers and they all turn, and now the odds have shifted. Instead of the scary the unit, the surgical sink is behind them, they see it's just 1 guy.
1 guy in Jabakah. And they start shooting, and then Hansel comes running back down the hall. We go, right? Same thing here. At first New Jersey, press the advantage only to run around and see the blockade. It's trying to stop the rest of Wilson's men from slipping through, and now the tide has changed. And Rosser is not going to take any chances anymore. His cavalry that came down the road came with friends. They came with horse drawn artillery. The tide is changing now.
So on a hill over the Pearl River, by Corbin's Bridge. He's got the Rosser as confederate guns lined up. He's got chilly in Davy's position. And Craig's position on the road. You know, Craig by extension. The shells are coming down and has the new first New Jersey trace that you're charged for. And so the first major is New Jersey, along with the first Massachusetts cavalry, just like what happened most early who breaks up.
Their flanks fall apart. Their men go all over different directions as shells explode all around them. It's total chaos. Because Davey's men have found the hornet's nest that Wilson kicked over a few hours ago, and now it's the union side. It's their turn to get the rebel. It's weird how the tide of battle changes so quickly.
Barrasso has has decided that he's not good to be caught off guard anymore. It's overwhelming force. Not only is his his his cavalry pushed all the way forward, his infantry, reinforcing his cavalry, but all pushed all the way forward, but his horse drawn artillery pushed all of forward. He is holding a line here because his attempt was to cut off Wilson and capture his whole division in entirety. That didn't work. Wilson was too fast.
But he's going to be damned. If he's gonna let Greg's men comment steal his victory from him. But Davey's is not your normal calvary officer. He doesn't turn and run. Instead, he stands his ground and he orders the first New Jersey to remain in a line running north and south of the road. He puts the New Jersey along the north side. He puts the first Massachusetts along the south side.
He's got the tenth New York behind him in the woods, and Davey's decides that although he's being shot at by this horse running artillery, and he sees his confederate cavalry in infantry starting to form, he takes what he now has is 2 regiments and forms a line of battle. And all this deadly onslaught of cannon fire and potshots are coming at him. He starts to move his line forward. And then it charges.
So when your first New Jersey is lined up and the first Massachusetts lined up and the tenth New York is lined up behind him, they attacked. 2 regiments, of course, has come creeping forward because the guns can't align themselves fast enough. Because unlike Wilson's artilleryman, who are just deadly. Broadstreet's man got chewed up. All the new guns have shown up at a lot of the vets that were with that group dead or wounded.
So these guns are new, whether or not their vets are not it's not even clear. What is clear is as Rossford's men form up to start charging forward, Davey's attack breaks their charge up. As Davey's move forward, they fire a volley, and then they fire a will. And now Davey's men are in the Confederate faces. And again, we're back to the same type of combat we have before. As 200 horses move forward, 1 cavalryman
no didn't. That they were moving as a steady as if they were on parade, their line was impeccable. And the rebel attempt to check that with cancer far our military did not stop this blue wave of horsemen moving forward and firing at a little. There's the the scene where King Arthur is starting to ride forward and he goes, I forget the name of that song, but it's it's quite epic. It's a different man's theme song in some ways. I imagine
that's what this is the This David has the first New Jersey, the first Massachusetts in the tenth New York all lined up and they start moving forward. And no matter what the confederates do, the line does not break and the men just keep coming and coming and they're shooting, acquiring a will, I imagine it's probably car beans, hand guns, pistols, just coming at them, and the rebels realized that they're in a really bad position. To fend off this attack.
So instead of firing their cannons and reorganizing their men, They limber up their guns and fall back down the Khatharpan Road. And Davey's troopers go on and sweep the field, and they take the pull river to the far back. They pushed Rogers' men all the way back to Corbin's Bridge. So from Corbin's Bridge to Todd's Tavern, at Yankee Country. The Corbin's Bridge with the Pearl River is becomes a natural
boundary, which makes sense and Rosser's gonna set up shop there. He pushes his man back to corner's bridge, realigns their guns, realigns their lines, and in a sense, dares, Greg, to come get him. But from Craig's meeting house to the Portland Bridge, that's rubble country. And the line now begins to form at Corbin's bridge along the Pearl River Bank. And I still think even though this is where the the fighting ends, by Dark on May fifth for Wilson, Greg, and the catharpon Road.
I still think If you go to the Corbin's Bridge and walk the banks of the Pearl River, that's where you're that's where you're gonna find. Historical place that should be preserved. Unfortunately, Gatharpon Road didn't get the opportunity to have locations preserved, but others still need your support so that you can visit them too. I mean, you can drive down the Gartharpon Road. There's not much there to see. Fortunately,
other places have been preserved. And of course, I'm talking about a great organization that has done this known as 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 is that these battles were fought at 13000 places with only a fraction remaining today. Because these unprotected 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 remain that and be safe.
That's why I want you to consider supporting the American Battlefield Trust. The American Battlefield Trust is a nonprofit organization that 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 Battlefield Trust needs your help to preserve these sites for current and future Americans to study and enjoy.
They see each battlefield as outdoor classrooms and living memorials to America's first citizen soldiers who fought and died. On these now quiet and hot of fields. Join me in the fight to save our nation's 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. Davey's charge ends Wilson's ordeal. And Wilson, and what is left of his division, has finally been saved. And near disaster has been averted.
But at what cost? By late afternoon, on May fifth, Wilson's men are finally done fighting. They get to bivowack their troops near a place called Lewis Creek, about a mile east of Todd Tavern. Like, now it's called Pittsler's Creek. A lot of this is farmland
of private homes. It's hard to get to. You can get the Todd's tavern though. So you can see kind of off in the distance some of these places. So you can get a sense of the area, which makes for good historical insight. You can stand at the markers there and see farmland. You kind of figure that probably around some trees or nobody, the creek bed, the horses are standing, men are sitting, sending up a little pop tents. Starting little fires.
There's a couple thousand men there now, plus there's reinforcements. And while they're there, The tickets are out around Todd's Tavern. They're being informed and becoming aware of the other actions that have taken place in the orange turnpike and the orange plank roads. Wilson is getting for lack of their word informed of what he did or did not do. That Wilson's expedition has been a fiasco in a sense that he lost the Cartharpon Road. And now Mead's left flank is full of confederate cavalry.
But if he hadn't gone down that far, with the Cartharpon Road had turned into the disaster for Hancock and had Hancock all the way down by Todd's Tavern in a battle line. And allowed AP Hill to cut him in half between basically wedged himself between Warren and Hancock. So you could say even Wilson kept Hancock's force and Warren's force for being separated. I mean, that's a good thing. Because he did discover the third confederate column coming down catharpon Road.
Now, the history books say, that Rosser was only a brigade, that he wasn't a corps division. He was just a brigade of confederate cavalry on a reconnaissance mission which makes it sound like it wasn't that big of a group. And that Wilson with a division couldn't overcome the confederate brigade. True? Maybe. But what they like to leave out
is that they were augmented by soldiers from Orange Blank Road. They may have started out as a brigade, but at some point, AP Hill and Ross are augment each other in some sense. It's it's It's an ongoing debate. Because there's a lot of people that say Wilson is a is an end of soul and he disregard the orders and if he wasn't Grant's boy, he would have been court marshaled or hanged for for dereliction of duty.
But I don't know. I think If it wasn't for Wilson, I think Rosser would have torn the entire side of Hancock's core part I also think that it would have even easily told APE Hill what was going on and because Lee was with APEL's forces he might have because this is a very common trait of of Lee. Taking the advantage of the Broker intersection, it wouldn't have just just been a slight engagement before Getty got there, he would have pushed his whole force into that intersection.
He would have cut the union army in half. I think that's an important distinction. I can't. Oh, the willingness cuts both ways. Lee didn't know this. Wilson didn't know this? Me didn't know this. Grant didn't know this. So finding Hancock exposed like he was and war exposed like he was would have been disastrous. So did Wilson inadvertently save the army of the Potomac from a disaster?
It's funny how not doing what his superiors want him to do in that in that sense, Wilson may have saved the day for now. I mean, we're may fit. But only in the wilderness, can luck like this happen. But for now, Wilson and his men get to rest. As we close the door on the battle of Craig's meeting house. And it's tough to say how many how many men Wilson lost. For the casualty rates for the battle of Craig's Meeting House are are iffy because it's blended into the entire battle of the wilderness.
But it was several hundred men killed, missing, or captured. But right now, Wilson gets to have his day in the sun of surviving this battle and maybe even say that he he won this battle. That's another debatable thing or did Ross or win this or did Wilson win this or did Greg win this? It's kind of hard to say for what it does illustrate is that longstreet is coming. So there's a there's a lot more going on behind the scenes, but Wilson survives till to fight another day.
Now that you know the fate of Wilson and the third Calvary division, in the next episode of War Yankee, the army of the Atomic is their chance to launch the first major offensive against the newly arrived rebel forces. Only nineteenth century warfare is not compatible with the fighting and the willingness and it will take everything Grant has to get his army to fight. That is if they can find each other without getting lost within this hot dense Northern Virginia forest.
Or Yankee Overland is my American Civil War history by cast, Kratabiby, Kyle Embondo, and produced by Gagoboby. Hope you can join me as I continue to follow the civil war history hiding in my own backyard. Follow the Overland campaigns march to Petersburg and sport to show at war game key dot com. This is Gagelrod.