It is noon on May fifth 18 64. The army of Potomac has captured the Brokery intersection with Orin Flank Road and has discovered confederate cavalry probing their left flank along the Gotharpon Road, and they now must deal with the growing threat of rebels digging in along the orange turnpike. After waiting for hours for me to stop talking about attacking and actually attack, Grant has had enough, but will he intervene in time to win his first battle against Lee? Welcome to Wargen.
Greetings. I am Colin Bondu, and this is War Yankee Overland. By American Civil War History podcast that follows generally Lizzie's s Grant in the Army of the Atomic. On its 47 day, hundred and 13 mile military campaigns south from Culpepper to Petersburg, Virginia. In this episode, I wanna start to set the stage for the union attack at Saundersfield. And to do that, we're gonna
revisit what has happened since 5 AM and get us to the point where these forces start to step off. And begin this battle. And since 5 AM or even since 7 30 AM, Meade and Warren haven't accomplished much. And Grant ordered Meade to attack. And Meade is directed governor Kay Warren's fifth corps supported by Sedgwick's sixth corps on the right to make the assault. Only it's noon. It's noon. And Warren has been unable to get Griffin to get out of his entrenchments and move forward.
And he's there's a lot of good reasons why Griffin has been resistant. But Warren's been ineffective in getting his his division commanders to do what he wants them to do. So Griffin doesn't wanna move until he's got reinforcements on his flanks. Wozworth is chopping through the woods. He can't make heads or tails a worse way he's going because it's so thick. Crawford doesn't wanna give up the tuning farm and Robinson is sitting back at headquarters
as reserved. Robinson kinda has the best deal right now. He doesn't actually have to get into the battle yet. Other commanders are going to have to do this first. The Robinson gets a wait and see, which is good for Robinson, but not good for everybody else. And all over the place, there are skirmishers in key locations.
And along the orange turnpike is 1 of the key locations where there are skirmishers everywhere in the woods, So as they're mixing around to the wilderness, they keep bumping into Confederate skirmishers in different pockets where they pushed them back only to find a line of infantry in the woods that they didn't know was there.
This is happening over and over again. And so for the past 7 hours, Warren has been unable to get his men into battle because there are a hundred little little fights going on. Shot here, shot there, that he can't get his commanders commit to attacking the Confederate forces. And there's various reasons why we're gonna dig into a lot of those reasons before we we really gonna launch this battle. But Grant is starting to see the wheels come off the union board machine.
Grant has been pushing mead to make some tough decisions. And mead and Warren want everything to be perfect. And whatever they be textbook before the attack, and Warren has been very cautious about his flanks and wants them covered before he orders his men forward, and some of this has to do with the battle tate that took place just up the road a little ways, a chancellor's bill just a year ago. His hooker didn't watch his flanks too well, and he got he got ambushed
as Donald Jackson's men outflanked him. At Gettysburg, Warren was 1 of the key commanders to observe little round top that maybe that they should watch some some train off to their to their left flank. And had he not done that, then Lee would have hit their flank and routed them in that way too. And again, at mines run or panes form, everyone is I think it's the the late 18 93 campaign that is the precursor to the battle of Walrus. Warren again
didn't want to attack because he thought that the entrenchments are too thick or too too well built and he'd just be throwing men into into the grinder. So Warren has this this this very cautious attitude towards grinding his men in piecemeal type attacks. He doesn't wanna throw them in 1 at a time just to be chopped up. He wants to hit everybody in force. And to do that, we're talking nineteenth century infantry combat tactics.
You need a line of attack. You need multiple lines of attack. You need reserves and reinforcements. You need to be able to support each other. And a key part of that is not have the enemy run around your sides and hit you from the rear or from the side. If you think about a battleship, a battleship you're looking at straight on,
it's a I mean, it's kind of a fat lady. If you think about it, it's it's got a wide side. The gun wells on the sides are pretty wide. But it makes a really hard target when it's coming straight at you. But there's only a few guns that can shoot out of a battleship from the front. So what does a balance shift do? In order to maximize the amount of damage that a balance shift can do to you, it turns sideways. So all its guns can hit you in what's called a broad side. So, infantry tactics
are very similar to that. You get a long line of men, followed by another long line of men, Remember, we're talking nineteenth century weaponry too. We have musketry. A lot of times, it's breech loaders. Now we're getting to the point now where we're doing mini balls
and it's not so much. I mean, there are some there there are repeaters, but a lot of times the the the typical infantry or long rifle or carbine is a breech loader or you have to, you know, pack it in and drop the charge in there, pack that in, cock fire, and then repeat the process over again. So you're not shooting 1500 rounds a minute. And she was shooting something like 10 rounds a minute. And these guys get very very good at at doing this. So you want a maximum amount of fire forward.
You could hit as many targets as possible. So that when they shoot back, they're missing half the guys, and they've shooting back with half that that force. And then your second line shoots. And if you have superior numbers, you destroy the unit in front of you for better shots. You
you hit the the guys in front of you and you wipe them out. So Warren wants all his men lined up. And long lines of battle. So then he can maneuver them around. So as 1 unit takes out a a confederate force or breaks through an opening, or force turns and runs, he can then move other units around and exploit the openings. The problem, however, is that the wilderness does not allow you to do this.
There's just not enough openings. There's just not enough places for you to line up soldiers in a long line and move forward. The wilderness, trees, and brambles, and thorns, and thickets, does not allow for lines of battle to work this way. And the confederates fighting from a defensive position have an advantage of not only making the union force come to them, but being able to fire from cover as they were approaching them.
Considered don't have to go anywhere, but he's gonna stop them from getting enrichment. So in a way, they just have to be the wall the union has to get through. So the union's gonna have to make the attack here, at least at this point in the battle. So this caution is taking time. Lining units up is taking time and as they move forward or as they get in the position or they realize just how far away they actually are from other units. These holes are opening up all over the union line.
And Warren is frustrated with this because not only is he seeing these these holes, but he can't get units to talk back to each other because units are not behaving you want to because they all have excuses for something that is going on. So meat is struggling to get warned of the fight, because Warren is being cautious because he's hearing from his commanders things that they don't want to do because of various reasons.
So instead of making everything perfect, Grant is leaning on mead to Warren Warren and Sedgwick to attack at once. Despite his best efforts, Meade has been unable to stop Warren from micromanaging this problem. His Warren has now spent hours fighting position realignments in this tangled thickets and dense brush. He's moving up and down. He's running out to different lines. He's got krogers going everywhere. And his commanders have reasons that Warren kind of agrees with.
And he goes back and tells me that Amjad kind of agrees with these reasons too. Why? Because the Eastern generals are very defensive and they're sensitive to flanks. Grant does not care. He wants the aggressive assault to take place and not worry about these flank positions because he thinks that he can hit the Confederate force was such power now, they will not have a chance to be bigger later.
This is the thinking going on. And the whole time, Me neither Warren are in their heads are pondering. What is we Lee about to do to us? With the army, the Potomac, and disarray, they don't know what Lee is doing. We didn't even know Lee was going to be on the orange turnpike that morning. Then, on the Orange Blank Road,
they didn't expect to see that unit coming down there. And as they get longer in the day, they find out that Wilson has encountered all sorts of soldiers down on the Cartharpon Road as well, and then as far as Hans Taffron is where Greg's forces are gonna bump into some some confederate. Cavalry. So they're they're starting to to be reactive to what the confederates are doing rather than being proactive and deciding how to best engage the confederates to make them, make make moves.
And of all this chaos, thankfully, Getty, This is 1 of Cedric's first units arrive at Wilderness. And he was just gonna sit around and they sent him over to the block road intersection to save the day. His men are holding back that confederate line in the Orange Bank Road. They're doing a holding action, but even they are in a tentative position. Because the unit coming up, the orange plank road was AP Hill's entire division.
Getty does not have enough men to stop AP Hill from hitting him full force. But Hancock has been reversing. And so they're thinking like, okay, maybe Hancock will support him in time. But Getty only staved off a
temporary disaster. Soon the computer infantry is gonna return and they're gonna return in force, and then they're gonna threaten to break the army in half again, and the army needs to act during this short reprieve of catching them off guard in all these places because the federer's are a little surprised to find the Union Army where they found them a little bit.
I think Lee expected them to be kind of this area, but maybe not bogged down in this area as much as they were. But the Union Army's ax soon. And they're having all this difficulty. So that's we're kinda set in the stage here. This is the the mindset of the Union Army is
Warren's commanders don't want to move because they have various problems with their own. They're they buy to get food, you know. If I move forward, they're who's on my right. If I hit the configure or force my right, they're gonna come around the corner. If I move forward and the other unit doesn't move forward, I'm the only 1 out there. Then all competitors shoot me.
Hey, we got this really good strategic position right here. Why we wouldn't waste it? We we should stay here and fight. What do you mean go backwards? I don't want to go backwards? Hey, all these thick woods in front of me. I don't know where anybody is. How am I supposed to fight? I don't even know which way I'm going. Weren't agrees with all this. This is no way to assault a position, a defensive position as they're seeing right now. Because they're thinking, oh, this the bogeyman,
Lee, the king of spades, he's just over he's over the ridge. He's gonna be all over us. He's so smart. He's so cunning. Where's the other force at? What are we not paying attention to? What flank is he gonna hit out of a surprise? This is the problem. It's almost like PTSD within Eastern generals. They're thinking that Lee is this this mythical beast, this mythical man, this super intelligent, intellectual, super general.
They will hit them at any moment, and they're so worried about it. That they've bottled themselves up into these positions where they can't really move out of these boxes. And they're stuck. They're stuck in this dispense this expensive mindset. And Grant's watching this. Grant's watching all this happen, and he's a little bit perplexed.
It's kinda shocked old, and it gives me shocked his work for it, and he writes that he's he's seeing this go on. I mean, he's starting to understand Why have you been unable to beat Lee? They made him bigger than he really is. So the Union Army is for all intents and purposes. They're lost in the wilderness. The wilderness has eaten their army alive, and they're struggling. They're struggling. So we need to first know wherever 1 is in order to understand
how this this battle actually takes place. So I'm gonna revisit the disposition of the army of the Patel makes sense, discovering the confederates on the Orms turnpike. In a little more in a moment detail, because Warren's line are the first problem, but they're not the only problem.
Because still he doesn't want that piecemeal fashion. He just wanna throw in 1 unit after the other. That's how you grind your core down and nothing. He knows this. That's why he wants to wait until his lines are straight. And the cemetery, the wilderness is not allowing for the cemetery. So none of his units. Maybe safer Griffin and Robinson can get themselves aligned in a wilderness. And the thick trees and brush are catching on clothing for blocking line of sight.
And at some points, they're even talk about how confederate soldiers pop up and shoot and then just disappear. Or they're having gun battles, well, it always uses smoke. Don't even see the enemy. And then let's add 1 more element to this this chaos. Is we're getting to about noon and the sun is the highest point and it is a hot miserable Virginia spring day. Now if you're wearing dark wool clothing,
and you're in the forest. And this is the kind of forest that is very akin to almost triple canopy jungle in a sense. It holds the heat in. Wind is not blowing through the trees. Like it does, if you go there today, there's just a lot of more way more open than it was 18 64.
Fitness thickets and the trees all tight and close and you get and you get scratched and stuck and things are grabbing your clothing and grabbing your rifle and then boom, when someone shoots at you and then you're moving through again and you're you're grabbing your clothing and it's hot and you're sweaty, and then boom, someone else shoots you. And when your buddy goes next to you, he gets hit and goes down. And so you kind of clump her down in that hot sweaty mess and just cook it up.
Not a happy place. Not a happy place. So you're you're distracted. By all this other stuff going on. So Warren keeps getting the not ready reports from his division commanders, and it's it's starting to frustrate him. Because Crawford is sitting out past numerous run. He's on the tuning farm and he sees AP Hill's forces going down the orange turnpike and he thinks, this is a place we should fight from and he's dug into this position.
He just want to move. When he starts to get the the move forward to attack orders or reversal orders he got earlier, but now at 10 30 AM, he's getting the it's time to turn an attack. He's being told over and over and over again that connect with the Wadsworth. So if you think of a line, let's think of a line, right, from left to right, to draw a line in your mind from left to right. To the left is Crawford out on the tuning farm.
And then there's like a half mile gap or so of thick woods between him and Wadsworth. And Wadsworth is sitting by the Higginsworth farm. Higerson farm. There we go. Which is hilly and thick. And Wadsworth didn't even realize he's about to walk into a bog, which will be really fun later. So we have that. That's where he's at. And then on the far right of Wadsworth, you start to get to Griffin, who is straddling the turnpike.
And he's the 1 who's closest to Saunders Field, which is the little corn patch, 400 yards, from the tree line to the confederate line. So and so, maybe 800 yards across what we say, 2 football fields or if the 2 football fields. Okay? And then on Griffin's right is nothing. It's supposed to be Sedgwick's sixth chord. There's nothing out there. So behind him is Robinson, but to Griffin's right is nothing. It's just woods. And they're seeing the Confederate line is moving beyond them.
It goes further on. And Griffin has been talking to air as 1 of his commanders out on his far right. And realizing that if they step off, That confederate line just keeps going. If they step off to attack the confederates, the confederates that are far off to where they're right are gonna roll around right up right right right behind him, and his men will get slaughtered. So he's not going forward. So you have Crawford who's not going forward.
Wadsworth is having a heck of a time moving forward and can't really contact anybody. He's having trouble playing Griffin and Crawford. And Griffin who knows that Sedgwick is supposed to be on his right but isn't there. And meanwhile being told over and over and over again, It's time to attack. It's time to attack. Meade is even told Warren, we're waiting on you. And Warren's like, we're Sedgwick. And Grant is saying, don't worry about Sedgwick.
You need to start moving forward. And Warren's like, my guys aren't ready yet. So Warren is getting pushed by mead and mead is getting pushed by Grant. This is this is going on since 10 30, since 7 30. So hours and hours and hours of this back and forth and reports and back and forth and going and reconning and coming back and talking to the officers and coming back and getting reports. And the whole time, nothing is happening.
At least on the union side, nothing appears to be happening. On the better side, they're digging in. They're chopping down trees. So Griffin's division really hasn't moved all morning. They're aligned. They're ready to attack. They're the ones who have been kind of in the mix between the group at Saundersfield and are ready ready to go in the sense that they could step off an attack right now, but it would just be them. All by themselves and Griffin doesn't wanna go all by himself.
So Wadsworth is being told because Griffin is having this problem. Wadsworth is told You go ahead because you're going to the thicker woods, you go you set the skirmishes out, form a live in battle, you go and do not worry about griffin. Move forward now. So Walgreens tries to follow Warren's orders. Only his woodsman are not getting much success as they move through the stickest because the confederate line of battle moves out that way too. Those men are pushing to the wicked wilderness,
but they just keep breaking contact not just with other divisions, but just within the regiments too. Is the worst thing you want to be on the battlefield is alone? Remember regiments about a hundred people, hundred men? So you're with a couple thousand men. And as you move forward, now you're with a couple hundred men. And you move forward, and now you're just with your guys. And you move forward. And then you're just with the rechargeable 2. So let's get really lonely real fast.
And then you don't know where the shooting's coming from. You don't know how the shooting's friendly or foe? You don't know if you're hitting skirmishers or you found that the confederate frontline? You don't know. It's that thick. It's that hot. There's so much smoke. Because there's 1 little piece in here that another The confederates didn't show which is infantry. They now have some cannons rolling in.
These cannons are dropping shells, and they're really ineffective. And there's there's all sorts of fire, you know, tuning of opportunity. If an opportunistic firing going on in the credit line and with the skirmishers. The skirmishers popping back and forth. So there are bullets that are they're hitting dirt to the road, hitting trees, the confederates have now had a chance to sight in their rivals. Well, they brought up cannons too. And the cannons were firing and hitting with the zest woods.
So a lot of times the canobals are striking trees and either splintering trees or bouncing off them depending on the kind of shell. Or they're exploding. And they're starting little fires. There's little bugs. The fire here both fire there. But remember what happens with the fire, especially we're looking at all the leaves that have fallen. In Virginia, when the leaves fall, in fall, in autumn. It just blankets
the forest with leaves. And then the time they're wet, and the snow falls, then the snow goes away. This rainy season coming in the spring. Remember, it rained in a lot in April. So it's all wet. But when that wet dries up, all those leaves crinkly turn brown and they start to the fire hazard in a sense. These are probably getting to so they can pull in the summer. So you have a hot May morning and a hot May afternoon. And there's leaves everywhere. These cannonballs when they explode
are starting these little fires. There's a lot of dry wood. There's a lot of dry leaves. Perfect. Kindler. My dad is a Kindler. That's all the kindling you need to start a fire. That's exactly what's happening. And the smoke coming from this Kindler. These little fires here and there smoke is starting to drop in the hang in this forest. So gunfire Don't know where you're going. Thick forest hot day and now fire here and there.
This is a recipe for disaster, and Wadsworth is in the middle of this and not having any luck moving forward. He's breaking contact with other divisions. And meanwhile, we go to Sedgwick. And Sedgwick is also having problems moving the wilderness. So his entire 6 core was stretched from Germana Ford to the Wilner's tavern along the Germana Plank Road. Remember he followed Warren across the river, on their way out of Culpepper.
Well, he's taking over a place called the Spotswood Plantation and it's just a tiny little place off of the Germana Blanca Road. And behind it, they discovered a road, if you could call it a road.
But in fact, it's called the Spottswood Road. But there was like an old mine. I think the Culpepper mine is there, and there's a couple like the trail places in there. And the road is supposed to lead directly to Saunders' field and match up with the orange term pike. It's a way for the the crops to move from spots wood plantation and hit up the turnpike without having to go up and around by William's Tavern. It's a shortcut. But it's a shortcut made by maybe a horse pulling a wagon
and they cut away through that maybe they take crops to what once or twice a year. So the road is not well maintained. Maybe 10 feet across? So this overgrown wagon trail, seldom used, is what such which forces have discovered. Hey, we got a shortcut to the front line. Well, let's shove 20000 men down that shortcut. That's not gonna work.
You don't want the the what too abreast coming down the road to hit a front line of Confederate forces Well, we just what used to grind them down. 1 line of paying me, paying me, paying me, next guy, paying me, paying me, that's not gonna work. So they try to form a line of battle and move through the same wilderness
that Wadsworth is trying to move through. And the same problems on the set took side. This is the north side of the orange turnpike, Bosworth's on the south side of the orange turnpike. He's having the same problems. Fire, skirmishers, thick woods, people popping up, smoke. He's trying to move down this this little tiny road that earlier they saw a confederate cavalry shooting at them, but from Cavalry. I will I will get that word right.
But city forces have found confederates all over the place, so they're slow moving. They've not really had a good time in leading this our 2 generals, Wright and Rickets divisions, are in front. But they're just like Wadsworth struggling to move through this thick woods. And right is having problems finding and keeping any kind of alignments. But not just what he thinks where the fifth core is at and then on the turnpike,
This is a giant there's not, notably a giant row, but a row that is supposedly next to them in Saunders' field. I can't really tell where that's at. There's a giant gap between him and Griffin. And he's having trouble keeping alignment with Ricketts, who's on his his right. So, right, you can't even get contact with Ricketts. All the way out to where they think the federal line ends. They think they don't know. Again, still having this problem. The front is almost 2 miles long at this point.
Competitors have really taken the ground there. They try to block the Union Army from the United Army on both ants. And the woods are an obstacle. Remember the the wilderness cuts both ways. Competitors don't know how many union forces are coming at them either. So they have to react that way too. They have to curve their lines so that they don't get out flanked as well. They stretch their line really long in hopes of reaching I may imagine that if you push if you push far enough down
the confederate line into where Sedgwick's end, you're almost getting to a part of the rapidown river. There's a lot of rapidown river curves around like I don't know, it's like a drunken sailor walking through a home from the bar. Right? It just because it just curves everywhere. But the computer align just about reaches the rapidan at some point. I'm sure there's probably pickets and then centuries out that far too to to use that as their anchor.
So Sedgwick is is moving towards that line. He's having trouble getting connected. And then, way out, if Todd's Tavern, Rome's Todd Tavern is Hancock, and he finally gets the message to turn around, so Hancock has to turn his entire core around. And he's been reversed. And he's been told, get to getty at Broker Innjection right away. And it will still take Hancock
3 or 4 hours to reverse himself and just go a few miles up the rock road and get to where Getty is controlling the intersection with his without playing with his brigade. And Meade is kind of unclear on where his first divisions are. And if he's gonna arrive in time to support getting, he's doesn't know whether or not Hancock's gonna make it up that road in time. So Hancock is again another another question mark of where exactly his forces at and how fast are they moving?
Because there's no telegraph. There's no cell phone. Hancock just go, hey boss, what's going on? Oh, yeah. My guys are on the way. No. It's a guy at a horse. Splending down the Brock Road. Finding Hancock, digging through all these men, walking the road, finding finding an officer who knows what's going on, getting a message to Hancock, Hancock reading the message, ever replying to the message, and that guy riding all the way back. And then Parsley moves, what, 20, 30 miles an hour.
That full gallop Depending on how fresh your horses, it's gonna take a minute. And that's if you can find your way back, all their maps. If you remember from past episodes, the maps weren't that great. So these couriers, I imagine the couriers are probably the guys who definitely have figured out some of the road networks better than anybody else.
Because they're constantly moving back and forth, trying to find these officers. But the officers keep moving too. They're reconning. They're talking to other other officers or headquarters are moving as Hancock is reversing course. Carriers have to go refined him again, or it gets too hot in certain areas and they gotta find a different route. Or they're just gonna bust through the trees by themselves and we know how that goes. They get turned around, they get backwards,
or they find office, or they find soldiers that say, hey, have you seen General Hancock? Yeah, he's over there, and they go over there, he's not there. They go, well, I think he's over here and they go, he's not there. So this is the chaos. Again, we're in 19 century combat. Right? And lastly, we have Burnside's ninth Court. They've finally arrived at Germana, the Germana Ford that morning.
Never Grant was waiting for them, and then he got word that the confederates had been spotted, and he didn't stay long. Something like 19 minutes. I have to go back and remember that. I have to I know it was it was less than an hour. It wasn't much time where Grant was like, you know what? It turns out I'd be fine. I'm I'm gonna go I'm gonna go headquarters. So they've been marching all night long. So this brutal night march, Burnside's ninth course, finally got this round of 4,
but there's a problem. I mean, Germane Ford to the Williston Tavern is miles away. That's a long way as they still have to go after this brutal night march. So they are exhausted and the road is clogged. It's it's at this point with 2 core plus the wagon train of support and staff supplies and the the herd of cattle to feed the army and the medical wagons You can just imagine the Germana Ford Road must or the Germana Germana Plank Road must be on this. Not only these are miles of traffic,
but now it's been tortured. It's ruddied. It's muddy. So these soldiers following this the, like, path of destruction, and you have to walk through all this stuff. Not to mention that Cedwick's 6 corps is blocking the sides of the road with resting men and tens of supply and regents and gear and all their support staff, plus the long wagon train still on its way to Fredericksburg.
So Burnside's got no choice, but hey, everyone, take 5. And that's what men are doing. They're washing their feet in the river. They're making a little campfires cook some meal, they're eating hard tack, they're resting.
It's the same thing Griffin's men are doing. They know that it's better to fight on a full belly than an empty 1. So because they keep seeing the front in front of them unfolding to the point where it's not really gonna work for them. They attack. They're gonna get flanked. It's gonna be brutal. They're eating. They're resting. They know it's coming, but they're taking the time.
And Griffin's allowing this to happen. Well, Burnside's allowing this happen too. So Burnside is not ready to move beyond the gen Germana. Until he has a clear path, and that's not gonna be for a while. So you have the disposition of the entire Union Army. And the whole time this is going on. Grant has taken position on his little Knoll, just across from the Elwooded plantation fail with the Lacey House.
And he's sitting on his Knoll. And if you go there today, it's a very unremarkable place. In fact, I think where the National Park Service put Grant Snow is not where Grant Snow actually is. It's strange as you go there and of course there's there's a plaque and there's this big sign, he'll grants headquarters, Grant Snow, and you go there and it's a little trail. It's maybe 20, 30 feet long. And you go to his clearing. There's a plaque there and he say, you know, Grant's out here and he did these things. You know, like, oh, that's interesting. But if you look off a little bit in the distance,
a wave, you turn your back from Saunders' field and you look the other direction, the hill kind of rises up a little further. And you're thinking, that looks more like where the Knoll should be because it's a little higher and it's closer to the Lazy House. And I think that's where his Knoll actually is. If you walk up there, it's, again, another remarkable hill, coupled with with weeds and stuff. And I often find that where the National Park Service puts the interpretation marker
isn't always exactly where it happened. It happened near there. In fact, there are some interpretation markers that say. You know, 50 feet or a hundred feet from this marker. This thing happened, you know. Generally, you know, slept under a tree over here. George Washington had an app.
And you'll you'll go there and you'll like this. It doesn't look anything like I I heard read about. Or research about or saw photos about. And then you find out, well, that's because you're not in the exact position. I found the Germana 4 Crossing like that. Is where you go kinda where the Germana Fort is and go to the Germana Fort Crossing. If you look at the photos and you stand on the river, you know that it where they built the brand new Route 3 Bridge
is roughly where it was at. It's a little further upstream, but you can't get to that property because it's all private property. You can stand on the south side of that and see most of that. I can't. Not quite work that. So Noel, he's Noel, he's unremarkable. He go there and you go. Okay. This kinda worries that. But being unremarkable is a lot like how Grant is described sitting on this noble. Because since he's come up here to the headquarters, he has found a I'm imagining it's a stump.
Stomp or it's a, you know, you cut a you cut a tree for lumber. You get big rounds after you actually split the wood. He's sitting on 1 of those. Sit on the wall in the center sitting on a a cut piece of wood.
And he's wiggling her. He found a branch. He's got his pin knife. He's got his leather writing gloves and he's whittling these pieces of wood, not really in anything. He's just kinda cutting them or he's got a pile of shavings at his feet. And as he's cutting these pieces of wood, his gloves are taking a nick here and knuck there. Eventually, his gloves become just shredded tatters where he has to get another pair. And from the historical reports he goes through
20 or 30 pairs of gloves in this 2 day battle doing just this. He's sitting on this stump. He's whittling a piece of wood. Just cutting the bark off it and nothing he's not making anything. I mean, an animal or snake or anything anything. It's just cutting the wood, like passing the time. He's smoking a cigar. He smokes 20 or 30 more of those as well. And doesn't look he's paying attention at all. And officers are running out of the headquarters. He's right across from Mead's headquarters.
He's seeing officers running around and meets coming over to him and asking questions in every now and then he'll he'll add a little bit to the conversation. But if you didn't know that was Grant, You might not even when you walked in there and might say, hey, we're general Grant. You wouldn't realize this the guy sitting there on the stump whittling a piece of wood. Because he's not actively
flaking out or or his anxiety level is not amped. He's not screaming people like me it is. It's not losing his temper. He's just listening to what's going on. And as he's sitting there, it's back to a tree, scarring his mouth, Looking very unassuming, he's observing what everyone else is doing in fine detail. He's watching the stream of cougars riding in and out of the Lacey HQ, and what he's paying attention to is not only the inactivity of Warren and Meade
flailing around and not getting anything done. He's also listening to the sound of cannons in the distance. The rattle of musket fire in the distance. He's paying attention to the sounds of the battle forming. Where the actions happening at. His mind is conceptualizing the battlefield and hearing the reports coming back and forth. Of who can't move where, why they can't move. Because he's paying attention and he's watching me and Warren. He's paying particular attention. To mead.
He's not liking what he sees, and he's starting to understand why this army can't do anything. And he's realizing the problem is at the top, and his patience is starting to fray. Doesn't look like it because he's not running around and flailing like the rest of these generals. And he knows that the enemy is directly in his front less than a mile away. And for hours now, Meade has been talking about attacking. Giddy hasn't actually attacked anyone.
But up until now, Grant has resisted the urge to take control he wanted me to run this army because they know me. They respect me. They'll follow me. But he wants me to lead the army in an aggressive way. And he's not liking the first impression of me to under stress because nothing is happening. And he is contemplating the consequences
of this delay of me and Warren. And Warren is giving into what Lee is known for as being the king of spades, as of giving him ample time to build defenses and Warren is also allowing Google's second Court to dig in, and not only just dig in, but digging for the past 6 hours on the south side of Sandersfield. They've been able to take the high ground in a field that goes up maybe 20, 30 feet. They sold their union arms and have to fight up hill.
They are getting improved positions because nothing is happening. The confederates are building and building and building and that's a lot of trees cut down. There's a lot of trenches dug, and there's a lot of thing sticks being sharpened in the stakes. The earthwork construction alone is gonna make his union army that much more challenged in taking out the competitive position.
This is also giving Lee the opportunity to organize his lines of fire sight in rifles and cannons, get supplies organized, and get more men to the fight. The Saunders' team is presenting other challenges Grant didn't have 6 hours ago either. Because even though Summersfield's open cornfield, Grant will not get the chance to have open battle. Surrounded by thickets on all sides. He's hearing about the struggles of Wadsworth and Sedgwick
going through these woods. So the Orange Shore Pike is the only high speed avenue approach. Everything else has to find its way to the woods. But even though the orange turnpike is the fastest ever approach, it's also the deadliest. Because as you come down that road, the confederates are waiting for you. They can see you off in the distance.
That's where all their cannons are starting to be formed at. That that avenue approach, that conduit through the woods, considers are going to hit that with everything they got. They're not gonna let anything come down that road. So the only way to really do this is attack the other 60 percent of Eul's line. That's where the the thickets and the trees slower, but it's more protected. The soldiers in the woods will have a difficulty keeping up with the soldiers in the cornfield. Granted.
The trees also provide a little bit of cover. The cornfield does not. The canons not gonna be able to go to the woods. They're gonna have to come down the turnpike to that bottleneck. And that's the place where the cannons are already the competitors already signed with the cannons at. And even with Cavalry. If Grant had any nearby, which he really doesn't, that bottleneck would create the kill zone, the blunt any kind of cavalry attack. So cannons and cavalry, things that Grant was
supposed to happen a lot of. That doesn't have any effect either. So he has this this interesting challenge of this battlefield because he can't get meade and warrant to commit infantry. That's this this battle is gonna be all about infantry for the most part. You can't get them to commit that. You can't bring in horses, you can't bring in that many cannons. The cannons would have any effect anyway, but once you get out of that open, cannons are gonna be brutal, at close range.
Everything right now needs the infantry support. Work. Granted watching me eat and warn not attack and not attack. Another hour goes by, not attack. Grant's getting upset. So before we get into what Grant does about this inactivity of Meade and Moren, First, let me talk to you about supporting this show. If you like this show and you like what you hear and you're interested in American Civil War history, And you think what I do here is is worthwhile,
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So this is the the layout of this battle come noon. The confederates are not waiting for Grant to move through the wilderness. They're gonna hit him here, and they've formed the line of attack And for 6 hours, they've been digging in, wondering what the union forces are gonna do, and they're growing bigger and bigger as more come in. Is equal his goal, his defensive, just back behind the Prince of the Hill. And it's strange because if you take the tour out there,
the National Park Service Park Ranger will talk about how the trenches are not at the top that are coming behind the hill. And what you then begin to understand is Eul is trying to hide his numbers. Because when you think, why would he wanna hide his numbers? And he just wanna form a line of defense there. And it's because the confederates had a secret they were trying to keep from the army.
And that's if the rebels were not attacking or conducting a holding tactic. Eul was told by Lee not to engage the union army in a fight. Hold them here, but withdraw if they attack you, do to retreat back. He's supposed to just be a holding tactic because the entire Confederate Army was still moving. Napy Hill wasn't really in his place Longstreet from Gordonville 30 miles away was still a days away from even joining the forces.
Bleed in Hamilton was men where he needed him to be. So as they start moving up, they realize that they cannot take the Union army in a in a fair fight. So you're all supposed to not engage them directly. They're gonna stop, stand off ish, let the union arm come to you, and if it gets too hot, back back away. If you remember my my last 2 episodes, Wilson's Calvary division has encountered Longstreet's men only in the afternoon down on the Cartharpon Road, the very tip of Longstreet's division.
The Longstreet's full course still a days march away. And that's why Eul has been told not to get involved in general confrontation. But Eul is not the best general. And he's moved a little too close to the new army before digging in and when Lee hears the gunfire taking place on the orange turnpike, he's not thrilled. Which means that time is not on Grant's side. And Grant didn't really care about what Lee was doing. He knew the longer they waited, the more Lee could reinforce his position.
So attacking now is the best way to knock these forces off balance and disrupt his plans. Grant wanted to hit the competitive forces now. Crush a unit, a small unit now. There is a there's a lot of historical writings that talk about grant thinking that this was just the holding force to allow Lee to move his forces into the old mines run Defenses, which is about 10 miles down the road. And
I've heard I have a hard time with that 1. It seems like Grant Either did think about that or didn't think about that, didn't really think that they don't think Grant really cared whether or not he was a holding or was all their forces. Grant wanted to hit them as hard as he could because he knew that the longer it took to hit them, the more forces they would have there. If that's if they are indeed a holding force,
it would crush them if they hit them. But the longer you wait, the more Lee can understand Oh, wait a minute the Union Army has disrupted. Maybe I won't stay at my mind, I may not disengage my whole force. So Grant didn't really didn't really care. Whatever Lee was doing, it didn't matter. He wanted to hit this Confederate force hard because he needed to test Lee's resolve. He needed to to engage Lee in a way to in an almost introduce himself in a sense.
But however, as he watched me and Warren debate movements and alignments, everyone in Gran line of sight, including Warren, was wildly moving around and planning, complaining, and worrying. And none of them were actually getting anything accomplished. So Grant was starting to understand why Lee was able to defeat this army at every turn.
In fact, in as Gordon Rae put it in his book battle of the Wilderness, He said, quote, if this is what Mead meant by attacking at once, as he said he would at 7 30 AM, and it's now after 10 AM. No wonder Lee was running circles around him. And Grant had enough. Grant had watched this for several hours and he was done.
Me now have 2 fronts separated by a wicked swath of wilderness in between these 2 areas. While Warren was keep kept delaying and delaying and delaying, Meade kept accepting Warren's excuses as legitimate. Time or talk was over. Grant is expecting action. And if me and Warren were not able to take action, he would. And 1 of his aides, Porter remembers in his writings, Grant made a comment.
And it went something like this, quote, The only time I ever feel impatient is when I give an order for an important movement of troops in the presence of the enemy, and I am waiting for them to reach their destination. Then the minutes seem like ours. And this is Grant's frustration. He's told me to attack. And now we're we're at noon. 6 hours have gone by and nothing has happened.
It's a grant's aggressive federal plan starts to emerge in his own head. He starts to think about who he had ready to fight, from what he's listened to, and what he's heard, and when the reports he's getting he understands that he knew Lee had somewhere around 64000 men between here and Richmond. He didn't know how many was in the front, but he didn't expect to be anywhere, to be 6 64000.
And he's got, what, hundred and 20000 or so. Maybe he's got the same amount, that's 60000 ready right there. With the others in reserve. So Grant starts to think about who he's got ready now that he can start to push forward in spite of mead. And Grant is really looking at Sedgwick 6 Core. Because at this point, Sedgwick 6 Core
was simply following along the dramatic like road behind Warren's fifth corps, and we're now pushing down spots would road. This is what Grant is starting to think in his head of how he can formulate this attack. Regardless of Crawford or Robinson or or Hancock,
you get these 4 divisions to move into place and attack. He could finally get the engagement with the confederate he asked for 6 hours ago. So this means he would have to get Burger King General Horacio Wright and Burger General James Rickets into the fight. So let's talk about those 2 guys first. But what Grant sees as the the key to to holding this altogether.
So first, we have Brigadier General and Ratio governor Wright. I don't know what is it? It is with the 18 hundreds and the name governor. It's very popular. I'm sure someone can probably write to me and tell me, at the war yankee at gmail dot com. Tell me, why was governor so such a popular word, a name? It just seemed like it's a very formal. Anyway, Harishio Governor Wright, this guy is a character
in an American legend on top of that. Because Harishio Governor Wright is an engineer originally from Connecticut. He's another graduate of West Point. He graduated in 18 41. So some 20 years before, 20 plus years before the Battle of Wilderness.
He taught engineering in French at West Point for several years. So he's a well read smart. I think you're teaching engineer and you're teaching French. And French is It's not an easy language to learn. We. So these experience in defensive works and big gun fortifications
and Speiler alert, he'll go on to be involved in a number of engineering projects, including the Brooklyn Bridge, and the completion of the Washington Monument. So he's gonna make it. He's gonna make it through this campaign and go on to do meet the Brooklyn Bridge. That's pretty cool. I mean, that's still there. I think this is, you know, a national treasure. Seem like the Washington Monument. Although, I would say the Brooklyn Bridge is built better than the Washington Monument, it always seems like the Washington Monument is under repair.
Crazy. Anyway, a big rush. So during the start of the war, right took part in the evacuation and the destruction of the Gross Port Navy Yard. And If you're a sailor, you know, that's the old name of Norfolk Naval Navy Yard. Whereas when I arrived in Virginia for the first time, I called it Norfolk Hey, you take me to Norfolk. Yeah. But the cabbies there. Don't know what you're talking about when you call it Norfolk or Suffolk, or DamNIC. You know, go deck. Go to North.
Yeah. That's the Norfolk Neo yard, the Norfolk Neo yard. So an April twentieth 18 61, he prevented the exploitation by the Confederate forces by evacuating everyone and then destroying the navy base so they couldn't use it. And of course, he's captured for this action, but released 4 days later. So Wright has
has been in action since the beginning of this war. And he helped construct fortifications from Washington DC. He's later assigned as the chief engineer during the first battle of Bolt Run. So we're looking at a guy who's been in the beginning. And he was assigned as a chief engineer to a major general Thomas Sherman in November 61 in an exposition against Port Royal, South Carolina.
They successfully commanded union troops against Jacksonville, Saint Augustine, and other military targets on the Florida coast in 62. He's now moving into combat operations. But this these actions led to his appointment as a major general of volunteers in the Department of Ohio and then part of the creation of the army of Ohio
in 62 and 63, he even helped repulse the Confederate General Braxton Bragg as his invasion of Kentucky and to. But like a lot of generals, politics kinda caught up with him, Lincoln was forced to rescind his promotion of Major General because the senate didn't confirm him. So it had to be revoked in March of 63, which reduced him back to a Burger King general. And he lacked the rank to command an apartment. So then that meant the compartment got passed on to Major General
Ambrose Burnside. Always seems like Burnside is always picking up everyone's leftovers. So he then was reporting to Burnside and right remained briefly as the commander of the District of Western Kentucky before he returned back to the east. So he said had some some operations out into the west, out into the east. He's done a lot of different operations, navy operations, engineering operations, combat operations at EMEA 63,
right has given command of the first division of the sixth Corps of the Army of the Potomac under General John Sedwick, Major General John Sedwick. To his first battle as a division commander was at Gettysburg, July 63, where his corps was kind of held in reserve. I mean, they saw action later that year November of 63 at mine run. But really, in this morning, where he's the command of the first division, he's about to see hardcore action.
Maybe action he hasn't really seen during the entire war except for the some of the smaller stuff maybe in Florida. So that's That's who her ratio right is. And he's the guy chewing through the woods down the spots would road on his way to the front just before Saunders' field.
And the other gentleman with him, not really with him off his right, somewhere in the woods, somewhere in the wilderness is brigadier general James Burton Rickett. And he's not as well known. And he's a gentleman from New York, He's a career officer,
another West Point graduate. He started off as an artillery officer. He was a first bull run also, and he was wounded and captured. And then he was confined as a prisoner of war in Richmond, and his wife, Frannie, was allowed to travel to Richmond, stay with him as a nurse. Did you know that kind of stuff happened? I didn't. Since December eighteenth of 61, he was exchanged for a confederate colonel and rejoined the union army. And then he fought at the second battle of both run, and then he fought it in Tatum. And 1 of the cruel, the like and a god. Cool. Is that the word I wanna use? The interesting things about Ricketts is the battle of Antitim, he had 2 horses shot out from under him. And the second 1, however,
is what caused him because he became badly injured when the second 1 fell on him. You imagine being in battle riding on a horse and that the the horse gets shot because the horse is a giant target. The horse gets shot. 1500 pounds landing on you brutal.
So he's hurt for a long time. It takes him a long time to recover. I think he's in DC for a while. And then he returns the field in March of 18 64. And he's assigned to be 1 of the division commanders. I think it's 1 of the things that they're division. He's assigned 1 of the divisions and John Sedgwick's sixth Corps. And he's the man commanding the division that is more or less hacking through the woods off to Horacio writes writes blank.
So these 2 division commanders are struggling to line up with Warren's men on the Orange Turnpike. Horatio Wright is nowhere near Griffin right now. The grant in his mind thinks that they're a clock closer than than they are they actually are. And you saw 2 divisions, etcetera scores the ideal for getting 1 more fight. They're coming up on your right flank. Because they're going to come up and support you, you don't get to wait anymore. Ayers, who is
Griffin's right flank. So Horacio Wright is on his right. Would be the ratio right's left, there's a gap there. The grand is saying, hey, Cedric's core is coming up on the right. Griffin, you have no more excuses. Since 8 since 11 AM, the sixth quarter's been hacking their way through the wilderness. It's not that far from Spenserwood plant plantation, which that really existed more. But that road, as part of the battlefield, you can find that road, walk it. You can walk it pretty far too.
And these days, it's it's well, it's been trimmed, so it's a lot easier to travel without. But if you go to where roughly the spot would come patient is walk back towards the battlefield. It's not that far, a couple miles. If that, it doesn't need you that long to get there. But 1 thing you do note is that even though the rambles and stuff there today makes it kinda hard to see. So imagine that triple thick,
not easily transverse at all. And just the road is is where the ratio rights guys are going down. He's not saying that it's gonna take you that long to get there. It's not that far. He thinks it's not that far. So if Harishio writes and rickets are coming up on the right hand side of Griffin. He doesn't have to wait anymore, which means that the only general that Griffin needs to to be connected with is really wands work and the attack can start. And that is what Grant is telling me.
Grant has had enough and he's telling me that Griffin doesn't need to wait anymore. Sedgwick will support him. Wadsworth is on his left. He's covered on both sides. Hit them at Saunders Field now. But before I get into the new plan Grant is crafting on the fly. I wanna first talk to you about an organization that's trying to preserve the historical locations that you can visit today. And of course, I'm talking about the American Battlefield Trust.
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So with this, this mindset that Grant has, he starts to go in action. And Grant's plan is simple. When Wright and Rickets signal they have advanced, enough to support Griffin. And Griffin has some sort of connection between Wadsworth and Horacio. Right? He can go forward, he can start to attack. And Grant begins getting officers into the fight. And couriers are to fly from the federal h h q as ore for orders intended to put the army over the top of the Potomac in the battle. Now,
Gordon Rae's book, Battle of Wilderness, says that it's not clear whether or not Grant is the 1 doing this. Or because most of those are going through meade. But the fact that Granta showed up and is now pushing meade directly It's pretty obvious that the change from defensive to aggressive or offensive action is a direct result of grant arriving and starting to push this. But yet, it's not it's not so simple.
As Griffin is in a key position and still holding the center on the south of the turnpike. As he has been all morning, Griffin hasn't moved much all morning. So this bramble choke cornfield in front of him is what he's been looking at, as well as Eul's competitors that are concealed by trees in the western end of the field. And they've already sided in their musket, so he knows he's about to walk into a hell fire, a hail of bullets.
And Griffin knows on his left flank that Burger General James Wadsworth has met from Indiana, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and New York are there off to the left. So the union line of events strrials,
the orange turnpike across this 2 mile front. And it's overlapping on both ends, clearing of soccer field. That's what Griffin has to to face. And while Warren Griffin's entire division, I'm still sitting on the long term bike ready to go, Wadsworth still Although he's been told to go forward before Griffin, he's still working tirelessly to move to the south of his left. And Wadsworth's men are strung out all over the place.
They keep encountering a confederate pickets and pockets of confederate defenses. Men would pop up and shoot in the desperate force of Waters is still having this problem. He's been having this problem all morning. And while other men on the left and right of the union soldier of these union soldiers would be there 1 minute to disappear in the fold is the next. And Waters cannot keep heads or tails of where everybody's at, and he is having a heck of a time moving forward.
There's more problem because the northern Griffin Rice Division has not shown up yet. It's just like Wadsworth, they're encountering their own share of configured pickets and more defensive Earthworks they didn't expect to be there. They come over through some brush and all of a sudden they figure out the compare line is is right in front of them. There's a hardened infantry waiting to shoot at them. To ricketts even more disorganized without the road orientate his alignment,
his men continually lose sight of of rights line as they try to move forward in their own consumer side. So the morning offensive is really starting to take shape, but it doesn't sound like it's in any condition to actually launch an attack. However, after pushing through the wilderness, each division says they kinda have this loose understanding where everyone is, but they really don't. And Griffin understands that that this is not this is not gonna go well.
But Warren is telling him you are out of time. The delays are over. You're gonna have to go forward. Said you'll go back you up. He's supposed to be on the right. And Grant thinks he has these 4 divisions ready. They hit these rebels digging in along the backside of the Saunders' field, and Wright and Rickets are not where they're supposed to be. And Griffin and Wadsworth are not connected the way they should be.
But what Grant thinks is 20000 infantry Even without Kevin, cannons, and cavalry, it should be enough to push back the confederates. But the reality check is it's not. It's a brigade here. It's a couple brigades there. It's a loose confederation
of, man, it's a bad word. It's a loose organization of regiments spread out all over the place, Wadsworth is a mess, writes a mess, rickets is a mess, And Griffin's about to walk into he's about he's about to go where the metal meets the meat without support. Griffin is about to walk into hell itself. So the understanding that Griffin no longer has any excuses left, that Warren has no longer any excuses left. And grant and need are pushing on him. Griffin now understands he has to go forward.
And strange is There's a lot of reports that say between 12 and 1, an uneasy quiet takes place. If you think about it, the confederates have been popping shots off all day. Union response and skirmishes. But then the skirmishes were pulled back because they're the land of barrels want to come out of the woods and attack.
So the skirmishers get called back and there's an easy quiet because the confederates see the skirmishers get called back. They know this is the hallmark to they see the movement, they hear the movement, there's there's something going on. So they stop firing because they want to hear. They want to hear. They want to hear. Do they hear men moving? They're big bugles? They're horses? You start to think about what is going on in those woods. So this uneasy quiet hangs in the air.
And from 12 to 1 somewhere in that period right there as Griffin gets his men ready, tells them to prepare tells his commanders to prepare. Everyone checks their weapons, checks their gear, men sort of cite their positions, they sort of look where they're gonna walk, where they're gonna go. Their sergeants get them ready for battle. Get them motivated. They sort of looking at the battlefield
in the sense of, okay, we're gonna line there. There's probably a marker there. We'll we'll check our positions there, and an easy quiet takes place. And Grant, who's a man of action, does not like this kind of suspense. Beneath his steady facade. He's surprisingly nervous. And he's gonna he's gonna say a sensitive individual. He hated these long waits before an action.
No 1 quite knew what lay in front of them along this 2 mile front, so Grant was still waiting impatiently for Griffin to pitch into the confederates along the Orange Turnpike. And they're waiting as Griffin is getting the men ready. And you can't blame Griffin for being a patient man. And Warren's taking a lot of heat for this attack. But to Griffin has to carry it out. In Griffin, like Grant at West Point graduate,
and a Mexican war veteran, he desperately wanted to wait for union divisions to move into place along his flanks and ratio rate's not there, and he's convinced that the significant rebel force is concealing more than he can see along the tree line. He knows the minute he goes up on that hill, it's gonna be a lot more confederates than you can see. So while Grant is chewing up mead and mead is chewing up Warren, and warning his tuning out Griffin. Griffin
finding his reasons to delay and delay delay just could not delay forever. To around 1 PM on May fifth, 18 64. A portion of the army of Atomic is finally ready ish. Griffin reluctantly forgetting word that Rice Division is tentatively on his right, or until limits time. It's the bugle sounded forward, the union army offensive, the grand ores 6 hours go, started to move. Then got off the ground, then came out of the old woods they had built, started to move through the woods towards Saunders' VA.
And now Grant would finally get his first taste of Northern Virginia combat. But this is the eve of a potential disaster because maybe the only Griffin who knew was about to happen. Because he's the 1 walking into into the storm. The army's atomic is not ready to assault the competitive defense as a soccer field. Because the 1 place they told themselves for 2 months Previously to this day, they did not want to fight. They were now getting ready to launch a major attack. In the wilderness.
In the next episode of War Yankee, the battle of Sondra's shield has begun. And the army of the Potomac is ready to launch their first major offensive of the Overland campaign, pressured by grant and need to attack Warren will now push his brigades east to west with the confederate line. But what happens next will change the course of the war forever as a wilderness takes his toll on the union army.
War Yankee overlaid. Is my American Civil War History podcast created by me? Kyle and Boto, and produced by GagSpotter. I hope you can join me as I continue to follow the civil war history hiding in my own backyard. Follow the Overland campaign's Mark's debut of Berg and support the show, at war yankee dot com. This is Gagelrod.