[00:00] Why did the American Civil War happen What 
drove the 11 southern states to break away
[00:07] form the Confederate States of America and 
ignite a devastating conflict that tore the
[00:13] whole nation apart to understand the American 
Civil War its battles politics and the reason
[00:20] why it happened we must travel back to the early 
1800s join us to explore the conflict year by year
[00:31] 1819 the newly born United States of America 
sat in a state of delicate balance 111 11 free
[00:44] states 11 slave states from the outside looking 
in it appeared to be perfect harmony equal States
[00:55] equal representation equal influence in federal 
affairs but this was only from the outside looking
[01:04] in in reality there was no focus on balance for 
the Americans instead all that mattered now was
[01:14] expansion Manifest Destiny that was the reason 
why the United States government was hellbent
[01:22] on snagging more and more territory although the 
phrase wouldn't be coined until the mid 1800s the
[01:29] belief held by by many Americans that it was the 
nation's Destiny to expand Westward as far as can
[01:35] be done drove the us to do just that Delaware 
Pennsylvania New Jersey Georgia Connecticut
[01:44] Massachusetts Maryland South Carolina New 
Hampshire Virginia New York North Carolina Rhode
[01:52] Island Vermont Kentucky Tennessee Ohio Louisiana 
Indiana Mississippi Illinois and Alabama that was
[02:03] the whole of the United States thus far as of 
1819 but only a year later this would change in
[02:13] 1818 the Missouri territory previously obtained as 
part of the Louisiana Purchase began its push for
[02:21] Statehood the following year the District of Maine 
would be allowed to break off from Massachusetts
[02:27] and do the same it didn't take long for this to 
cause a conundrum for the Contemporary us however
[02:33] because the addition of two more States had the 
potential to upset the numerical balance between
[02:39] slave states and free states on the one hand 
Northerners and pro- abolitionists in Congress
[02:46] argued that the addition of Missouri which seemed 
to quickly lean toward wanting to become a slave
[02:53] state would expand slavery and thus bring them 
further away from their goals the Southerners
[03:00] though were obviously in favor of adding another 
slave state and thus argued that any new candidate
[03:07] for Statehood should have the right to decide 
for themselves just as the first 13 colonies
[03:13] which side on the fence they want to fall on the 
debate in both the House of Representatives and
[03:19] the Senate would continue into 1819 at which point 
Maine was now brought into the mix as Henry Clay
[03:28] the speaker of the house at the time suggested 
that Missouri should be added to the Union as a
[03:34] slave state but that Maine should also be added 
contrarily as a free state this proposal was
[03:42] subsequently debated into yet another year when 
in 1820 the Senate added to the bill requiring
[03:49] that any other territories north of the 36° 30 
latitude line that had been agreed upon below
[03:56] Missouri's lower border could only enter the 
Union as free states with everyone finally in
[04:04] some level of agreement the Missouri Compromise 
was signed into law this triggered a tit fortat
[04:11] war of adding one new slave state for every new 
free state and vice versa starting with Arkansas
[04:19] in 1836 Michigan the next year and Florida in 
1845 and since Florida was a slave state it was
[04:29] assumed that the the next territory to enter 
the Union and statehood would be another free
[04:34] state but this became complicated when Texas had 
a demanding request for the United States Annex us
[04:43] now the history of Texas has been a roller coaster 
thus far and yet it was only now preparing for its
[04:50] biggest climb yet Texas up until recently a part 
of Mexico after being freed from the grip of the
[04:57] Spaniards wanted to join a different Union the USA 
the Texans pleas were initially ignored by the US
[05:05] government which wasn't in much favor of annexing 
the nearby territory with growing pressure from
[05:12] Britain for Texas to be an independent nation and 
America's undeniable thirst for expansion opinions
[05:18] would soon change nevertheless and Texas would in 
fact join the union on December 29th 1845 here was
[05:29] the issue that Texas wanted to be a slave state 
which would offset the balance the Northerners
[05:36] had tried so hard to keep furthermore Texas had 
made claims to territories that put it in direct
[05:43] conflict with its former host of Mexico and with 
Texas newly a part of the United States those
[05:50] presumptuous claims were now the responsibility of 
the US something that Mexico didn't take lightly
[06:00] recently elected President James K pulk however 
didn't care one bit what the Mexicans thought
[06:07] instead he was an aggressive supporter of manifest 
destiny and quickly upon his inauguration hoped to
[06:14] seize the contested territories thus pulk at 
first attempted to purchase his desired lands
[06:21] he sent American Diplomat John Slidel to offer 
the administration in Mexico City $30 million
[06:28] in exchange for California New Mexico and disputed 
territories along the Texas border the Mexicans a
[06:37] gast and unshakeably against such an idea declines 
to even meet sidel which angered pulk the Manifest
[06:45] Destiny supporter would not be swayed by this 
rejection and instead decided that if diplomacy
[06:51] wouldn't work he would reel his neighbors into 
a war he knew the United States would win as a
[06:59] result in the early weeks of 1846 the president 
sent American troops to the Texas border to egg
[07:06] the Mexicans on and it worked it only took a 
few months for Mexican soldiers to fire on the
[07:13] Americans and give pulk the excuse to declare war 
with the Mexican-American War underway debates
[07:21] continued within the United States pertaining to 
the slave state versus free state debacle with the
[07:27] free states now outnumbered the Northerners felt 
that pulk being a southerner himself was actually
[07:33] committing his land grab in order to further 
bolster the slave state Advantage which boosted
[07:40] north to south tensions still the war raged on 
with now famed generals like ulyses srant and
[07:48] Robert E Lee showing their prowess and adding to 
their resumés while the Americans inched closer to
[07:55] Mexico's capital the city was eventually taken and 
War Fair halted leading to the long awaited Treaty
[08:02] of Guadalupe hialgo which now forced Mexico 
to seed not only the contested territories
[08:09] in California Arizona Oklahoma and New Mexico but 
also lands of modern-day Nevada Utah Colorado and
[08:18] Wyoming pulk had gotten his way and more but it 
wasn't all sunshine and rainbows new land meant
[08:28] more to fight over back home over the next few 
years Iowa Wisconsin and California would all
[08:36] give their bids for Statehood eventually bringing 
about the Compromise of 1850 this series of bills
[08:43] would address a multitude of things though mostly 
focused on the institution of slavery within the
[08:50] Union in short it determines that California would 
join the Union as a free state but was required to
[08:57] send one pro-slavery Senator to the senate in 
order to maintain the readjusted balance from
[09:05] now on however slave or free States from the 
remaining territories gained from Mexico would
[09:11] be decided as such by popular sovereignty this 
went all right at first as with the admission
[09:19] to statehood of Minnesota in 1858 and Oregon in 
1859 but predictably there was simultaneously
[09:29] another reason for tensions to rise as part of 
the new establishment of popular sovereignty
[09:36] Senator Steven Douglas suggested applying the 
strategy to a proposed newly organized Nebraska
[09:42] territory that would at once repeal the Missouri 
compromised slave state border and split the
[09:49] Nebraska territory in two now despite a struggle 
to actually pass the new bill that would become
[09:56] known as the Kansas Nebraska Act the population 
ations of both territories were left to vote on
[10:02] whether they wish to permit slavery or not the 
consequence of this and maybe unpredictably so
[10:09] was that settlers began flooding to both Nebraska 
and Kansas settlers from both sides of the slavery
[10:17] debate this slippery slope ushered in a tragic era 
known as Bleeding Kansas which would eventually
[10:25] see Kansas enter the Union in 1861 surpr 
surprisingly as a free state this would be
[10:33] the final state admitted to the union before the 
start of the Civil War why did things get to this
[10:40] point how could such a Young Nation have fallen 
into battle with itself so fast why were the North
[10:48] and South so opposed to each other the issue of 
slavery and thus the north versus South contention
[10:55] can be blamed on vastly different cultural aspects 
of the two halves of America for the north slavery
[11:03] was not really needed as the upper States had 
quickly become industrialized and thus didn't have
[11:09] to rely on as much Manpower this gave Northern 
citizens the opportunity to unbiasedly consider
[11:16] the moral standing of the entire institution of 
slavery prompting many to call it into question
[11:23] supported by the ideas of European immigrants who 
had come from Nations that had already outlawed
[11:29] slavery these Northerners began to turn toward 
abolitionism this was in total opposition to
[11:36] their fellow Americans down south of course 
but this was because the South had failed to
[11:41] industrialize as the North had instead Southerners 
were more economically dependent on free labor
[11:49] for plantations and the like which meant that 
their personal finances and way of life could
[11:55] be entirely affected by the Banning of slavery 
thus making it hard for a southerner to even
[12:01] give the moral aspect a second thought though some 
did and still supported the institution and with
[12:08] the invention of the cotton Jin the matter only 
became more solidified the South needed slavery
[12:16] the problem then arose as the north wondered if 
southerners wanted to extend slavery even further
[12:23] whereas the latter worried that the former was 
going to take the slaves they already had both
[12:29] ironically would be right the North and South 
were miles away from reconciling this difference
[12:37] debatably there was also the issue of federal 
versus state rights although this factor is hard
[12:43] to blame entirely not only did the later formed 
Confederacy have a shockingly large bureaucratic
[12:50] system for a collection of States who were 
opposed to overbearing Federal governments
[12:55] but there had also been previous opportunities 
such as during the Nullification Crisis a few
[13:01] decades prior for the South to go to war with the 
North or at least raise more of a Ruckus if state
[13:07] rights were the core issue still it is true that 
many people at the time particularly in the South
[13:15] had more loyalty to their state than country 
as a whole and State versus Federal disconnect
[13:22] likely played somewhat of a role in tensions 
even if second fiddle to the slavery argument
[13:28] the Fanning of of the Flames however came from a 
string of amplifying events the Fugitive Slave Act
[13:35] for example have been part of the Compromise 
of 1850 and galvanized abolitionists as it
[13:42] had made the federal government responsible for 
finding returning and penalizing escaped slaves
[13:50] and anyone who aided them even if they made it to 
a free state with the Northerners deeply troubled
[13:57] by this development political active citizens of 
the upper United States would soon form their own
[14:03] opposition party to the pro-slavery Democrats the 
Republican party this new entity would also become
[14:11] host to the controversial Abraham Lincoln shortly 
after its birth Lincoln had previously served in
[14:19] the US House of Representatives in 1846 before 
joining the Republicans and running for Senate
[14:25] a decade later although he lost the senate race 
to St Douglas the series of speeches and debates
[14:31] that preceded the election had both catapulted 
him to popularity in the north while earning him
[14:36] a fair share of enemies in the South his mere 
existence as a political entity thus stirred
[14:43] the pot and increased tensions but then so 
did Bleeding Kansas Guerilla Warfare is one
[14:51] way that this period from 1855 through 1859 has 
been described while Nebraska was somewh whatat
[14:59] hit by the flood of both Pro and anti-slavery 
settlers hoping to sway the coming vote it was
[15:05] Kansas that was truly beaten pro-slavery 
residents of neighboring states used legal
[15:11] loopholes to cross the border and vote in Kansas's 
territorial elections setting off a domino effect
[15:18] that would lead to a split government and allout 
violence historians estimate that anywhere from
[15:25] 50 to 200 Americans died as a consequence in the 
4-year span something akin to pouring a couple
[15:32] of gallons of gasoline on the growing fire 
burning towards Civil War Charles Sumner's
[15:39] Congressional speech about Kansas would further 
heighten the situation a republican northerner
[15:45] suar had actually memorized every last word in his 
impassioned speech titled the crime against Kansas
[15:52] in which he lambasted the entire institution of 
slavery and even took direct Jabs at proslavery
[15:59] Senators this instance serves as a clear example 
of the current level of tensions in the union and
[16:05] Congress as South Carolina Representatives Preston 
Brooks and Lawrence Keat reacted to the damning
[16:12] speech by physically assaulting Charles Summoner 
with a cane beating him so severely that he would
[16:18] need three full years of leave to recover and 
this was only a year before one of the most
[16:24] controversial and anger fueling incidents of the 
entire leadup to the Civil War it was The Dread
[16:31] Scott case that soon put the move toward allout 
military conflict between the North and South
[16:38] into hyperdrive the case revolved around a slave 
since birth by the name of Dread Scott after the
[16:46] death of his original owner In 1832 Scott had 
been purchased by a man named John Emerson and
[16:52] upon his death Scott and his family would then 
be transferred to the ownership of Emerson's wife
[16:58] Irene previously scottt and his family have been 
brought along for travels across multiple free
[17:05] states and territories although at no point had 
they attempted to run or sue for their freedom
[17:11] instead once Irene took ownership Scott attempted 
to buy their freedom off her Irene was obstinate
[17:19] and insisted on keeping her slaves around which 
led dread and his wife Harriet to finally go the
[17:26] route of a lawsuit they each filed on the basis 
of two Missouri statutes as they were currently
[17:33] living with Irene in St Louis one stated that 
any slave taken to a free state would thus be
[17:40] free and could not be returned to enslavement 
even if they left the Free State while the other
[17:46] allowed for anyone to file a suit for wrongful 
enslavement the Scott couple was given logistical
[17:52] support from abolitionists fellow churchgoers and 
ironically the family of their pre previous owner
[18:00] this allowed them to actually take their case 
to court which was first shot down in 1847 on a
[18:06] technicality but was given the option of a retrial 
the next trial would come in January of 1850 and
[18:14] this time the Scots actually won their freedom 
Irene however quickly appealed the decision to
[18:21] the Missouri Supreme Court 2 years later the 
court sided once more with Irene thus rein
[18:28] slaving the Scott family unwilling to give 
up now Scott filed a federal lawsuit with the
[18:35] United States circuit court for the District of 
Missouri the following year before the case could
[18:41] be decided upon again Irene would transfer the 
Scots over to her brother John Sanford hence the
[18:48] name of the new case Dread Scott versus Sanford 
in the spring of 1854 the Federal Court ruled
[18:56] in favor of Sanford thus prompting to appeal yet 
again now to the United States Supreme Court this
[19:03] final trial would start on February 11th 1856 with 
a growing list of abolitionist and even politician
[19:11] supporters in favor of the Scots nevertheless 
less than a month later a decision was made and
[19:19] once more Dread Scott had lost and not only this 
but the judge most notably credited for the final
[19:27] ruling as asserted that no African-American even 
had the right to sue for anything in the federal
[19:34] court because they lacked the ability to be United 
States citizens while the Scots would already
[19:42] have their freedom by now thanks to Irene's new 
abolitionist husband and the help of their Old
[19:47] owner family the case itself was the final straw 
for many abolitionists John Brown had now gone
[19:56] down in history as one of America's most infamous 
abolitionists and on October 16th 1859 he would
[20:04] prove exactly why he warned an army Watchman as he 
and a group of fellow abolitionists launched what
[20:12] would be an ambitious But ultimately failed raid 
on Harper's Ferry after taking several hostages
[20:19] from the town and capturing the US Armory and 
Arsenal the Raiders would be stalled by a local
[20:24] militia as General Robert E Lee made his way into 
the town to wrap things up Brown and his men had
[20:31] aimed to spark a local slave rebellion but instead 
many of the Raiders were killed once Lee and his
[20:38] Marines arrived with brown himself being captured 
and later hanged for his acts of treason against
[20:45] the state of Virginia John Brown had failed and 
he had died but his animosity for the South was
[20:52] shared by far too many for the tide to be turned 
by this point with the election of anti-slavery
[20:58] Northern govern ER Abraham Lincoln in 1860 to the 
presidency enough was enough immediately after the
[21:05] future emancipator was elected to office the South 
Carolina General Assembly called for a convention
[21:12] to consider secession much to the pleasure of 
the locals South Carolina thus voted unanimously
[21:18] to leave the United States of America days later 
they issued a document justifying their decision
[21:25] to seced and making one dramatically important 
point in the process a geographical line has
[21:33] been drawn across the union and it truly had 10 
more Southern States would follow suit and join
[21:40] the newly founded Confederate States of America 
led by their chosen President Jefferson Davis
[21:48] the union President Abraham Lincoln refused to 
recognize the Confederacy as legitimate insisting
[21:54] that he wished to take no one's slaves and simply 
wanted to keep the Union together this meant nil
[22:00] to the southerners who were rapidly attempting 
to create a unified Nation out of a handful of
[22:06] States who had all made a big fuss about State 
autonomy and not just that but the South was at
[22:13] a major disadvantage for the impending War precise 
numbers are debated but it can be estimated that
[22:20] at the time of the mass secession and formation of 
the Confederacy the union boasted a population of
[22:27] roughly 22 million million in comparison to the 
South's approximate 9 million of those numbers
[22:34] the union would eventually enlist around 2 million 
soldiers whilst the Confederates would only tally
[22:41] about 900,000 furthermore the Northerners had 
something close to 20,000 Mi worth of railroads
[22:49] which was double what the Confederate States could 
claim thus giving the Union a better Advantage for
[22:55] moving troops and supplies in Wartime and while 
it's often argued that the Confederate generals
[23:01] such as Robert E Lee Stonewall Jackson James 
Long Street Nathan Bedford Forest and Patrick
[23:08] curn gave the South a tactical military Edge on 
their upstairs neighbors the north was surely
[23:14] ahead in other ways like the fact that they 
produced around 90% of goods in the former
[23:19] United States at the time but still the union was 
losing its grip on the south and only had limited
[23:26] Holdings left in Confederates States and it was 
about to lose another Fort Sumpter was the last
[23:33] Union stronghold in South Carolina and strong 
is being generous it was outmanned and under
[23:40] supplyed to say the least and with Southerners 
now cracking down on Union property within their
[23:46] borders it was surrounded the Confederates 
attempted to force the little remaining Union
[23:52] forces at the Fort to surrender the latter refused 
and the Confederates opened fire the Civil War had
[24:01] begun Fort Sumpter failed to be evacuated by the 
Confederate deadline 6,000 Southerners now had
[24:15] Charleston Harbor surrounded Cannon and mortar 
stared down the fort at 4:30 a.m. on April 12th
[24:22] 1861 a gunner at Fort Johnson set off a 10in 
mortar sending the explosive into the early
[24:30] morning skies above Fort Sumpter the detonation 
lighting up the blue and telling all those around
[24:38] one thing the Civil War had begun as the men of 
Fort Sumpter scurried to prepare local citizens
[24:46] clambered to rooftops in hopes of watching 
the Monumental battle occur one by one the
[24:52] Confederates began firing upon the union held Fort 
until every available Cannon and mortar across the
[24:58] har was bombarding Sumpter the scarcely staffed 
Union Garrison fired back as best they could with
[25:04] a little Manpower and cartridges they had but 
not much could be done the Confederates were
[25:11] unrelenting the attack would continue into the 
following day at one point setting the roof of
[25:17] the fort Ablaze but alas its Defenders refused 
to come out still so impressed by the stubborn
[25:24] Valor of their foes the Confederates even began 
to cheer for each shot fired from the fort but
[25:31] this was far from enough to stop the south in 
fact the Confederates were becoming increasingly
[25:38] more aggressive in the early afternoon of April 
13th the flag pole holding up the Union flag of
[25:45] Fort Sumpter was hit and broken this moment of 
foreshadowing was followed by a chaotic period
[25:52] of diplomatic negotiations which would finally 
find success it was agreed that the Union troops
[25:59] would after all evacuate firing a salute to their 
makeshift tattered flag they were off and the
[26:06] Confederates had won the first battle of the Civil 
War as a result of the Battle of Fort Sumpter and
[26:13] the undeniable start of what would be a long and 
gruesome bloody domestic War President of the
[26:19] Union Abraham Lincoln put out a call on April 15th 
for 75,000 militia volunteers to stop what he ref
[26:28] referred to as an illegitimate Rebellion this act 
would trigger the remaining Confederate states to
[26:34] be to officially leave the union and Lincoln would 
double down by calling for an additional 40,000
[26:40] men to serve for a three-year span Jefferson Davis 
leader of the Confederate States countered with a
[26:48] call for an additional 100,000 militia men of 
his own proposing a 12-month service at this
[26:56] point in time neither side wanted the war to last 
long in fact some in the South had actually hoped
[27:03] that the attack on Fort Sumpter would scare 
the union into diplomacy instead of an armed
[27:09] conflict the Confederates knew they were greatly 
outnumbered and were smart enough to recognize the
[27:14] obstacles they' need to overcome to beat the north 
however they weren't the only ones with concerning
[27:22] weaknesses over in the union many of Lincoln's 
cabinet and his own generals question questioned
[27:28] his ability to lead the nation through a war and 
yet Lincoln's generals themselves were their own
[27:35] problem many had grown old or even unhealthy and 
nearly incapable altogether leaving the president
[27:43] with some difficulty when it came to choosing 
who would lead his armies throughout the conflict
[27:49] nevertheless armies needed to be led and plans 
needed to be made and as for what the North had
[27:56] in store for the South one must only look at the 
Union's Anaconda Plan Lieutenant General Winfield
[28:04] Scott was the man responsible for providing this 
strategy while it was only partially used in
[28:10] technicality by the end of the war it seemed that 
Scott had rather precisely predicted the approach
[28:17] of his nation's tactics it was his idea that 
the union should focus on a strong defense of
[28:23] DC an unforgiving blockade of the south from the 
Atlantic and Gulf coasts and a brutal Land and
[28:30] Sea attack along the Mississippi River to sever 
the Confederates in two named for its attempt
[28:37] to strangle the South into submission the Anaconda 
Plan seemed doable but the strategy on paper would
[28:43] be shelv early into the war due to political 
pressure Lincoln hoped to ease by the end of
[28:50] May nevertheless the union had already crossed the 
pomac and took hold of Arlington Heights this set
[28:58] off the start of intermittent skirmishes that 
would carry on throughout the war between each of
[29:03] the major battles with the first of the latter on 
Virginia soil coming in early June at the Battle
[29:11] of big bethl the forces of the Confederates and 
the United States met at the Village of big bethl
[29:17] on June 10th 1861 the North had hoped to create 
a buffer for themselves around Fort Monroe one
[29:24] of the last Union strongholds in the area this 
would ultimately fail however leading to another
[29:31] Confederate Victory and an unexpected direction 
that this war seemed to be going in the incapacity
[29:38] of Lincoln's military leaders was showing already 
and the Confederates had starkly the opposite when
[29:44] it came to their Generals in a unique win for the 
union however the Wheeling conventions around this
[29:51] time resulted in the Northwestern counties of 
Virginia voting to break free from their current
[29:56] state and begin the process of forming the new 
state of West Virginia which would Ally with the
[30:03] north with momentums and their saes now the union 
decided it was time to begin the main objective
[30:11] take Richmond and end the war once and for all 
as General Irvin McDow began the march with his
[30:19] 35,000 men the largest field Army yet gathered on 
the continent cheering civilians began to follow
[30:26] the troops with picnic baskets and unwavering 
excitement they the Northerners believed that
[30:33] their men were marching into an assured victory 
that would collapse the Confederacy and rebuild
[30:39] their Nation what happened instead was the Battle 
of BU run mcdow's troops were made up almost
[30:48] entirely of men who had responded to the Call to 
Arms by President Lincoln following the assault on
[30:54] Fort Sumpter meaning that they lacked experience 
or even even understanding of what they were about
[31:00] to face nevertheless McDow was leading them to 
seize a crucial railroad's Junction at Manasses
[31:07] just near the bullrun stream that stood in their 
way it was here that the Confederate forces sat
[31:14] waiting to defend however which all played into 
mcdow's plan the goal was to use his three columns
[31:22] to confront the Confederate force in the front 
and right flank to eventually push them into
[31:28] abandoning the railroad Junction as the Union Army 
was approaching the Confederate Army of the pomac
[31:34] under the command of General Pierre GT borgard 
requested aid from Richmond a request that was
[31:41] intended to be answered with reinforcement by the 
army of shenendoa under General Joseph E Johnston
[31:48] Johnston though was being stalled by the Union 
force of 18,000 men under Major General Robert
[31:55] Patterson Patterson was tasked with preventing 
the army of shenendoa from reaching bullrun
[32:02] meanwhile McDow was getting closer and closer to 
board's defenses as they inched near McDow sent
[32:10] roughly 5,000 of his men with Brigadier General 
Theodore runan to guard the rear while another
[32:16] division under Brigadier General Daniel Tyler was 
dispatched to try and hit the Confederate right
[32:22] flank this resulted in a smallscale clash between 
Daniel's force and the Confederate at blackburns
[32:28] Ford where the Northerners were beaten back over 
with Patterson the union troops weren't doing much
[32:36] better either despite having sent a telegraph to 
DC saying I have succeeded in accordance with the
[32:43] wishes of the General in Chief and keeping 
General Johnston's forces at Winchester he
[32:48] hadn't instead when Johnston had received word of 
Bard's situation he utilized a Cavalry screen to
[32:56] give Patterson the slip and leave Winchester this 
was bad news for McDow Who currently outnumbered
[33:04] the Confederate Force he faced by more than 10,000 
if Johnston could make it to bull run before the
[33:10] battle was over which the union general soon heard 
was quite the possibility in spite of Patterson's
[33:16] confidence otherwise this would change drastically 
unfortunately for McDow the change did happen The
[33:25] Clash began on the morning of July 21st 1861 McDow 
sent two divisions from Centerville towards Sudley
[33:33] Springs in hopes of ambushing the Confederate Left 
Flank at the same time another division was sent
[33:39] as a distraction to the stone bridge intending to 
deceive the southerners this plan seemed doable
[33:45] in theory but in reality inexperienced 
men and poor execution meant the Union
[33:51] soldiers were fumbling the ball Colonel Nathan 
Evans of the Confederates defending the bridge
[33:57] was able to determine that the attack on his force 
was only a distraction and swiftly reacted racing
[34:04] with the main fragment of his troops to Matthews 
Hill to meet up with the real Union attack while
[34:11] he was unable to stop McDow due to his inferior 
numbers Evans successfully stalled the Northerners
[34:17] while reinforcements came his way although these 
reinforcements would soon collapse under Union
[34:23] pressure the Confederate defense was failing and 
and its men were on the run there stands Jackson
[34:33] like a stone wall rally behinds the virgins 
General Bernard B shouted to his beaten down
[34:40] and nearly deserting men as Johnston and borgard 
arrived at Henry house Hill the union troops had
[34:46] hesitated and were reorganizing their Advance 
giving the southerners time to do the same after
[34:53] an hour the battle was back on and the tide began 
to notably change change Confederate forces were
[34:59] able to capture Union artillery guns and the 
northern offensive was falling apart the Rebel
[35:06] Yell rang out as the union troops were one by one 
pushed off of Henry house hill by 400 p.m. the
[35:13] Confederates that won after losing their position 
the Northerners began what would at first be an
[35:21] organized Retreat within the hour however any form 
of organization had gone out the window window
[35:28] the southerners followed the fleeing enemy and 
turned the respectable defeat for the union into
[35:34] an undeniable route though some of the northern 
troops would arrive home to Washington by the next
[35:41] day their campaign had been crushed the weight 
of such a catastrophic and embarrassing loss
[35:48] was violently damaging for President Lincoln's 
reputation but there was even more going against
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[36:25] as the fighting got into full swing the union 
president's wartime decisions began to appear
[36:31] tyrannical to some a Crackdown on dissension 
wasn't entirely unpredictable but would prove to
[36:37] be an infringement on the First Amendment rights 
of many Americans nevertheless male telegraphs and
[36:44] the Press became regularly censored and at times 
even silenced meanwhile anyone openly showing
[36:51] support for the Confederates was at risk of being 
arrested even a democratic Congress man Clement
[36:58] L Valen digam was arrested in his home state for 
speaking out against the war while the office of
[37:04] the non-conformist Sunday Chronicle was destroyed 
by government officials all of this made many
[37:11] start to think about ideas such as impeachment but 
as Lincoln built up his defenses around DC both
[37:17] metaphorically and physically opposition was left 
in the dark meanwhile pressure from abolitionist
[37:26] activists was increasing thus far Lincoln's main 
concern was the restoration of the Union but many
[37:32] freed slaves turned activists were cranking up the 
heat on the president with the goal of pushing him
[37:38] to make the war about abolition and emancipation 
not just winning back the Confederates Hest AE
[37:45] however wasn't yet ready to change the focus of 
the war and instead signed off on the Congress P
[37:51] confiscation act of 1861 this act gave the 
federal government the authority to seize
[37:57] property from anyone deemed to be participating in 
the Rebellion property including but not limited
[38:03] to Slaves these fugitive slaves would be classed 
as Contraband and were often then utilized to work
[38:10] as laborers on Union infrastructure far from 
making the war about emancipation 4 days after
[38:19] Congress passed the first confiscation act the 
battle was back on Brigadier General Nathaniel
[38:25] Leon was about to come fa face to face with 
Brigadier General Ben mccullock and Major General
[38:31] Sterling price of the Confederacy in Springfield 
Missouri for what would be known as the Battle
[38:38] of Wilson's Creek this would be the first major 
clash of the Civil War west of the Mississippi
[38:44] and one of the fewer times that the Union forces 
were actually outnumbered in an almost amusingly
[38:50] ironic twist it turned out that both sides as of 
August 9th were planning to Ambush one another
[38:57] both of these plans specifically hinging on the 
element of surprise with neither knowing what the
[39:04] other was intending General Leon of the Union's 
tactic was to send 1,200 men under Colonel Fran
[39:11] SEO wide around the Confederate right to the South 
while the remaining Force involved would swing
[39:18] North and hit the southerners left the latter 
however actually had a similar plan but a stroke
[39:26] of luck and rain caused General McCulla to abandon 
his plans this left the element of surprise fully
[39:34] in the hands of the Northerners the marching of 
the Union broke the Silence of the morning calm
[39:41] on August 10th Leon's plan unlike mulla's was 
still on and it had begun now the Confederate
[39:50] forces were utterly dumbfounded by the Ambush 
they had failed to anticipate a surprise offensive
[39:55] from the union troops and this allowed the lad's 
advance to play out at a swift Pace Lon and his
[40:01] men were able to advance all the way to what would 
soon be known as bloody hill before being stalled
[40:08] by the palaski Arkansas batter's defense attack 
while the palaski battery kept the Northerners
[40:13] from advancing further general price and his men 
regrouped and headed for the hill where a gruesome
[40:19] battle would subsequently break out for nearly 6 
hours the union had begun The Clash with a clear
[40:26] strategic advance AG but as the Warfare on Bloody 
Hill carried on the tide began to shift in favor
[40:32] of the Confederates Mulla was eventually pitted 
against Seagal at sharp Farm where the Northerners
[40:38] thus far triumphant flanking maneuver was crushed 
by the Counterattack from the southerners so badly
[40:44] the Sigel and his troops abruptly retreated 
meanwhile Leon's luck was fading even more
[40:52] drastically himself already weakened by 
wounds he'd obtained in the prior hours of
[40:57] ruthless battle leyon was eventually struck down 
by the south requiring a hasty transfer of command
[41:04] to Major Samuel Sturgis the northerner new leader 
wasn't incompetent but victory for him by now
[41:10] seemed impossible with scarcely any ammunition 
left before the clocks even struck noon the
[41:17] union was at a full Retreat back to Springfield a 
few weeks after the battle of Wilson's Creek the
[41:25] union would finally get a win but this time by 
sea the Confederates for some time now had been
[41:32] authorizing privateering along the Carolina coast 
which predictably triggered a military response
[41:38] from the union this reaction however was poorly 
anticipated by the southerners at two forts in
[41:45] particular Fort Clark and Fort hatus this resulted 
in both partially constructed forts falling into
[41:53] Union hands after a naval bombardment forced 
the troops Manning Fort Clark to flee for Fort
[41:59] hatus which itself would soon surrender it was 
a much-needed victory for the north but it was
[42:06] followed by an even worse defeat the Confederates 
were about to take Lexington general price and
[42:13] his 15,000 men reached Lexington Missouri on 
September 11th 1861 smallscale battle began
[42:21] the next day as the Union forces attempted 
to stop the Confederate advance but price
[42:27] was better prepared and surely determined 
it wouldn't take long for the southerners
[42:32] to pin their opponent down in the college 
housing the union fortifications although
[42:38] the remaining Northerners couldn't be beat out 
or into Surrender by the Confederates a twoh hour
[42:43] artillery battle and delayed supplies caused price 
to hold off continuing the offensive temporarily
[42:50] it is unnecessary to kill off the boys here 
patience will give us what we want he explained
[42:57] less than a week later on September 18th 
however it seemed that price was satisfied
[43:03] with the patience shown thus far despite strong 
union artillery the Confederates Advanced at
[43:10] long last bottling up the Defenders once more 1 
2 3 4 nine hours of cannon fire ensued meanwhile
[43:23] the southerners were additionally in the process 
of capturing the nearby Anderson house which was
[43:28] in use as a union hospital for wounded soldiers 
this stunning potential War crime at least in
[43:35] the eyes of the Union prompted the Northerners to 
storm and retake the house but control would then
[43:42] fall back to the Confederates more permanently 2 
Days Later the city as a whole fell into Southern
[43:50] Hands the following month would see yet another 
embarrassing defeat for the Union as distrust of
[43:56] the president and his abilities were on the rise 
after some poorly executed reconnaissance across
[44:02] the pomac river over in Virginia a decision was 
made to launch another Union attack this time
[44:09] under the command of Abraham Lincoln's dear friend 
Colonel Edward Baker this Fay would be an utter
[44:16] disaster due to horrendous planning and execution 
Baker himself would be slain and his men all
[44:24] positions precariously at the edge of balls Bluff 
essentially cornered by the Confederates either
[44:30] fled were killed two or leapt to their deaths off 
the bluff many of those who did Escape furthermore
[44:39] drowned trying to cross the icy River the generals 
who had been involved in the campaign General
[44:45] Charles Stone and even General George mlen were 
heavily scrutinized and stone would eventually be
[44:51] blamed and charged with treason as a result mlen 
however was dis distant enough from the disaster
[44:58] itself and would eventually be promoted to 
general-in-chief of all Union armies despite deep
[45:04] mistrust between himself and the president this 
trust was building between DC and its overseas
[45:11] counterparts now as well particularly the bonds 
between the union and Great Britain seemed to
[45:17] be dwindling and on November 8th it would appear 
nearly nonexistent Britain thus far was acting a
[45:26] bit sympath pathetic to the South largely because 
they missed the crucial cotton exports from the
[45:32] now Confederate states as a result communication 
between the two entities led President Jefferson
[45:39] Davis to dispatch two envoys over to the British 
mail ship the Trent to try and Garner official
[45:45] support and recognition of the Confederacy 
unbeknownst to Washington on November 8th 1861
[45:53] the month after the envoys joined the British on 
their ship us Captain wils intercepted the Trent
[46:01] the captain then had his Lieutenant board the ship 
to search it at which point the Confederate envoys
[46:06] were detained and the Brits told that they could 
leave on their own this triggered a hail storm
[46:13] from Britain which deems the acts of Captain 
wils to have been both a violation of British
[46:18] neutrality as well as a blatant violation of 
the law eventually under the demand of Great
[46:25] Britain and unwillingness to go to war with 
their former overlords DC agreed to release
[46:31] the prisoners and toiled to resolve the situation 
diplomatically while this would work for the time
[46:37] being it was only the start of British influence 
on what the union was willing to do to win the
[46:45] war nearly a year after the outbreak of the 
Civil War the fates of the United States of
[46:55] America seemed to hang more in the balance than 
anyone had anticipated both sides of the conflict
[47:03] had hoped for a Swift and minimally damaging 
War yet it was clear now that the end was far
[47:10] from near and the union despite its laundry list 
of advantages was struggling the start of 1862
[47:19] had scarcely seen any significant Confederate 
losses thus far however the north was coming
[47:27] into the new year with fresh motivation and 
determination Brigadier General George Thomas and
[47:35] His 4,000 Union troops were positioned at Logan's 
Crossroads as rain poured through the growing fog
[47:43] the Confederates were only 10 mes away when they 
heard of the Northerners approach despite the poor
[47:49] weather the southerners decided to launch an 
offensive with the goal of catching the Union
[47:54] forces off guard before reinforc forc Ms could 
arrive the problem with this nevertheless was
[48:01] that by the time the Confederate troops arrived 
at Logan's Crossroads they were wet tired and
[48:08] unmotivated and their Antiquated Napoleonic typee 
flint lock muskets were horribly suited for such
[48:14] rainy conditions still even as the Northerners 
now saw the attack coming General Felix zofer
[48:22] LED his Southerners into the battlefield with high 
enthus iasm at first the Confederates seemed to
[48:29] have taken the advantage in spite of their poorly 
working Weaponry the 15th Mississippi infantry and
[48:35] 20th Tennessee managed to push back the fourth 
Kentucky infantry second Minnesota and 10th
[48:42] Indiana in the midst of the foggy and chaotic 
Clash however General zofer mistook the union
[48:48] troops for his own and began to approach the 
fourth Kentucky infantry at which point he was
[48:54] shot dead by the enemy this seemed to turn the 
tide rather quickly against the southerners who
[49:00] were soon routed by the Union forces and chased 
into a disorganized Retreat leaving their dead
[49:07] wounded and weaponry behind in the utter Panic 
this Victory following another only 9 days earlier
[49:15] on January 10th at the Battle of Middle Creek 
finally gave the union something to celebrate and
[49:21] some much needed morale boosters Kentucky 2o was 
becoming more weak from a Confederate perspective
[49:28] opening up the door for further Northern influence 
in the state and over in Tennessee the union was
[49:35] making more moves on February 6th 1862 the 
north took the battle to Fort Henry oddly
[49:44] especially considering the potential significance 
of losing the fort the Confederates failed to put
[49:49] up strong defenses a union Naval bombardment would 
shortly push the stronghold to surrender however
[49:57] Confederate Brigadier General Lloyd Tillman had 
already rounded up his troops from Fort Henry
[50:03] and secretly moved them to Fort Donaldson not 
too far away 10 days later Donaldson would fall
[50:10] to the union the capture of both Fort Henry 
and Fort Donaldson meant that the Cumberland
[50:16] and Tennessee Rivers were no longer accessible 
for the Confederates which would prove to be a
[50:21] huge victory for the union and allows the north 
to keep the South cut off from both waterways
[50:27] for the rest of the war entirely Union efforts to 
capture Coastal territory continued as well with
[50:35] another Northern General Ambrose Burnside eyeing 
up the island of Rowan o on January 11th General
[50:43] Burnside had set off with a fleet of 80 ships and 
15,000 men down to their destination at the Outer
[50:51] Banks though the trip would only take a couple of 
days the actual battle would be delayed by several
[50:56] several weeks due to unideal weather conditions 
still with 10,000 of his troops Burnside would
[51:04] soon launch his offensive at which point he 
found himself face to face with confederate
[51:09] Colonel Henry Shaw and only 2,500 men the Union's 
previous victories and notable numeric Advantage
[51:18] seemed to foreshadow the results of the clash as 
the Triumph would be clear and precise with yet
[51:24] another southern surrender after being overwhelmed 
by Northern forces on February 8th the island fell
[51:32] to the union and the Takeover of the coasts seemed 
to be in full swing giving the North and Lincoln a
[51:40] long craved swell of optimism with this new Boost 
of confidence and momentum President Lincoln had
[51:47] his troops hitting the Confederates at any weak 
points they could Arkansas and Missouri became
[51:53] significant targets throughout this period as the 
north pushed through the border states and into
[51:58] the South with both Union and Confederate forces 
of Missouri Under New Management it appeared that
[52:05] a nearby struggle was imminent on one side was the 
Union Army of the Southwest under the command of
[52:12] Brigadier General Samuel Ryan Curtis whereas the 
Confederate Army of the West took its orders from
[52:19] Major General Earl Van Dorne the latter boasted 
about 16,000 men while whilst the union this
[52:28] time was outnumbered by over 5,000 predictably 
then it was the Confederates who were planning
[52:36] an attack General Van Dorne concocted a plan to 
meet the Union forces where they were stationed
[52:43] around Little Sugar Creek and Ambush them from the 
rear an ambitious plan and exhausting Journey the
[52:51] campaign wouldn't be easy but Van Dorne believed 
it' be worth it thus as the Confederates neared
[52:59] the Northerners the general split his forces in 
two one force under molik to swing around the west
[53:06] of P Ridge and the other portion under general 
price would go through the Bentonville detour
[53:12] to Telegraph Road and meets up with mullik as they 
jointly attacks the union rear near Elkhorn Tavern
[53:19] in actuality the Union forces got a heads up and 
instead of waiting for the Ambush Curtis LED his
[53:26] men to meet with Confederates near the tavern 
shots were soon fired and the battle ensued with
[53:33] a major hit to Southern morale coming early on 
when General Mulla was killed in action followed
[53:39] shortly by his second in command James McQueen 
mckintosh being slain as well nevertheless the
[53:47] Confederates though without their leaders managed 
to take the tavern and Telegraph Road by the day's
[53:54] end still the following day would see curtis' 
successful Counterattack pushing the southerners
[54:00] back and in time handing the union control of 
neighboring Missouri and a foothold remaining in
[54:07] Arkansas what had started as a strong war effort 
for the Confederates was beginning to look like a
[54:16] crumbling defense nonetheless the union had its 
own challenges at hand one in particular coming
[54:24] in the form of General George B mclen aside 
from the issue of mlen having a near complete
[54:33] lack of trust in and apparent absence of respect 
for President Lincoln via contemporary stories
[54:39] told of the General George's strategy throughout 
the Civil War could almost be described as timid
[54:46] after the indecisive results of the history-making 
battle of iron clads the union was hoping to find
[54:52] new triumph over at Richmond General mlen was 
put in charge of this new campaign but he had
[55:00] a different idea of how to go about it than the 
president did while Lincoln wanted to send George
[55:06] South to Richmond the latter was more inclined to 
head up via the peninsula by the York and James
[55:13] Rivers opening up his land Army to Naval Aid 
and utilizing the union held Fort Monroe as a
[55:20] Launchpad although it wasn't his first plan the 
president agreed to authorize mlen version and
[55:27] the campaign was ready to begin the problem with 
this however was that the Confederates had been
[55:33] expecting an incursion from that exact position 
and thus were readily prepared though lacking
[55:41] in numbers compared to the 100,000 Union troops 
and nearly 400 ships the southerners were Keen to
[55:48] defend their city and mlen was willing to do his 
part but slowly The General eneral though not bad
[55:58] at his job was a detailed planner and hesitant in 
times he quite likely didn't need to be throughout
[56:05] the campaign upon the outbreak of armed action 
at Yorktown mlen had already been under the
[56:11] impression that the enemy forces numbered the 
same or maybe even more than his own this wasn't
[56:17] entirely true but George nevertheless formed his 
strategy accordingly reacting overly cautious much
[56:25] to the annoyance of President Lincoln eventually 
after the month-long Siege he had chosen over
[56:31] an assault on the Southern Line mlen and his 
troops would take Yorktown though only because
[56:38] the Confederates evacuated this was a planned 
withdrawal by the south in order to head back
[56:44] to defend Richmond more closely but the slow to 
acts mlen saw it as his own victory in reality all
[56:52] he'd really done was given the Confederates time 
to regroup and reinforce the real defense with
[57:00] mlen yet again taking a slower paced and possibly 
poorly calculated approach the southerners led by
[57:07] General Joseph E Johnston made their way back 
to Fort McGruder to set up their new defensive
[57:13] establishing a rear guard Johnston positioned 
his men along a series of routs while Major
[57:19] General James Long Street brought his troops to 
Fort McGruder directly the Union force commanded
[57:26] by Major General Joseph Hooker launched the next 
step in the Peninsula Campaign an attack on Fort
[57:33] McGruder before the clock could even strike 
noon the battle was on the union aggression
[57:40] was met with a powerful Confederate counter 
offensive launching hooker's line back this
[57:45] was a good start for the South but more Union 
troops led by Brigadier General Philip Kierney
[57:51] soon arrived to reinforce the offensive line and 
this time it was the Confederates who were pushed
[57:57] back into their defenses the bloody battle raged 
on into the dark of night before the Confederates
[58:03] once more carried out an intentional withdrawal 
back toward Richmond as expected mlen portrayed
[58:11] this as yet another victory for himself but in 
reality the southerners saw the entire battle
[58:18] as having only been a means of stalling the 
union to begin with which they did their real
[58:24] objective was of course Force to protect Richmond 
and now having stalled the Peninsula Campaign from
[58:31] its end goal for over a month the Confederates 
had given themselves ample time to build up the
[58:37] Manpower needed to protect their Capital the war 
was looking more and more tiring but it was only
[58:45] mid 1862 and there was so much fighting left to 
do up and cominging star of the Union Civil War
[58:55] effort General ulyses S Grant had been leading his 
own Army over in Tennessee near Shiloh Church when
[59:02] on April 6th General Johnston and his men pounced 
the Union forces were blindsided by the incursion
[59:10] and the Confederates found early success as they 
drove the Northerners back in the direction of
[59:15] Pittsburgh Landing this early success on the part 
of the South came in spite of the fact that many
[59:21] men on both sides had scarcely if ever seen battle 
before and what seemed to be a swift Confederate
[59:28] victory was soon becoming more of a challenge 
as reinforcements commanded by Union general
[59:33] Don Carlos bule began to arrive as the Confederate 
effort was suddenly weakened under the union push
[59:41] back General Albert Sydney Johnston would become 
a Monumental casualty after being shot through
[59:47] an artery in his leg and bleeding to death on the 
battlefield when command shifted to General board
[59:53] as Knight set in the attack was called off and 
the rebels retreated the union could call this a
[01:00:00] win but some would say it was a peric victory in 
reality due to the record setting and startling
[01:00:07] number of casualties the brutal brawl had killed 
wounded or lost over 13,000 Union men while the
[01:00:17] Confederates counted more than 10,000 casualties 
this was the most deadly battle in US history thus
[01:00:24] far and no one was taking it lightly on a brighter 
note for the north however a late April campaign
[01:00:33] ended in the seizure of the vital Confederate City 
of New Orleans and better control of the Lower
[01:00:39] Mississippi and in more promising Fortune for the 
South Stonewall Jackson Was preparing for a new
[01:00:45] Confederate offensive with the odds seemingly in 
his favor I do not remember having ever seen such
[01:00:53] rejoicing the people seemed near frantic with 
joy our entrance into Winchester was one of the
[01:01:00] most stirring scenes of my life Jackson recalled 
of the event the Confederates had been entangled
[01:01:07] with Union forces under General Nathaniel banks 
at Strasburg before the latter began a feverish
[01:01:13] Retreat toward the town of Winchester Jackson 
was quick to react to this and gave Chase but he
[01:01:19] was struggling to determine the intended route of 
the retreating Northerners and subsequently began
[01:01:25] dividing up his own men to chase down the Union 
Soldiers from any angle some of Jackson's troops
[01:01:32] would meet up with the Northerners as a result 
dashing their hopes of reaching safety for the
[01:01:37] Yankees at Middletown Valley Pike and New Town 
General Banks's remaining men would eventually
[01:01:44] reach Abrams Creek Camp Hill and Bowers Hill 
where they braced for Jackson's arrival the
[01:01:51] morning of May 25th was lit up with confederate 
fire as the f began the first Target of Stonewall
[01:01:58] Jackson was the union Left Flank which had been 
perched at top Camp Hill this initial objective
[01:02:04] however was proving to be a bit too difficult 
for the general to see its worth anymore and he
[01:02:09] soon turned to Bower's Hill and its Defenders it 
wouldn't take long in fact only an hour for the
[01:02:16] Confederates to regain the upper hand and send 
the Northerners back on the run the citizens
[01:02:22] of Winchester made Banks's new Retreat even more 
difficult as in a stunning display of opposition
[01:02:30] they started shooting at the union men trying 
to flee Stonewall and his soldiers contrarily
[01:02:36] were greeted with cheers and open arms as they 
attempted to yet again pursue the Northerners
[01:02:43] the worn out and stalled Confederates eventually 
fell back enough to let the surviving Union forces
[01:02:49] slip by and the aftermath of this Southern Victory 
nearly saw Jackson get pinched between a fresh sh
[01:02:56] of Union troops taken from the Richmond campaign 
with the aim of trapping the Confederate Stonewall
[01:03:01] Brigade the latter managed to squeeze through 
the Gap however and the union was out of luck
[01:03:08] once more General George B mclen despite recent 
setbacks was still focused on taking Richmond
[01:03:17] and Confederate General Robert E Lee was just as 
determined to stop him General Joseph E Johnston
[01:03:24] was responsible for taking on the inevitable Union 
attack on Richmond prompting Lee and Confederate
[01:03:31] President Jefferson Davis to urge the general 
toward making an updated plan Johnston got to work
[01:03:38] and he quickly noted something quite convenient 
the Union Fourth Corp under the command of General
[01:03:44] arasmus D Keys was on its own mullen's Force had 
been first divided into two but the fourth core
[01:03:52] had separated itself from The Others When Keys 
moved them to a vill by the name of seven pines to
[01:03:58] the great pleasure of the Confederates there were 
only three main roads leading to this town and one
[01:04:04] sketchy Grapevine Bridge Johnston's plan thus fell 
into place and his men would encircle seven pines
[01:04:12] via 9M Road Charles City Road and Williamsburg 
Road meanwhile recent rainfall would make the
[01:04:20] bridge path more or less impossible to cross the 
battle would then ensue in reality a combination
[01:04:29] of bad weather and administrative Kur fuff made 
Johnston's plan look a little more chaotic than
[01:04:35] had been anticipated as the Confederates stumbled 
over to seven pines Northern General Silas Casey
[01:04:41] caught sight of the approaching Army nevertheless 
when Wy confederate general DH Hill launched his
[01:04:48] portion of the attack Casey had failed to prepare 
his own troops for defense and was rapidly pushed
[01:04:54] back Hills men ever were on their own as he hadn't 
waited for the rest of the Confederate Wings to
[01:05:00] get to their positions and as the union third core 
began to enter the battlefield Hill was starting
[01:05:06] to see the consequence of his decision General 
GW Smith answered the call from Hill to Aid his
[01:05:13] attack at the same time Union general Edwin 
V suner was taking his second core across the
[01:05:19] Great Vine bridge to rescue his own comrades 
somehow the rickety Bridge managed to hold
[01:05:26] and allowed the troops to pass through despite 
the Confederate assumption that it wouldn't be
[01:05:30] doable this meant that instead of helping Hill 
beat back the fourth core the Confederate backup
[01:05:37] was suddenly face to face with the second core 
by the end of the night the battle was growing
[01:05:43] and the fourth core was no longer surrounded 
meaning both sides could keep funneling in troops
[01:05:50] over on the Confederate side the situation wasn't 
seeming too bad as Johnston began to examine the
[01:05:57] lines the problem was that he was shot in the arm 
moments later and then hit in the leg and chest by
[01:06:05] fragments from a union artillery shell though he 
was cautioned by one of his men that he rode far
[01:06:11] too close to the Flying bullets from the battle he 
Shrugged off the concern with a confident Colonel
[01:06:17] there is no use dodging when you hear them they 
have passed from there the Confederate offensive
[01:06:24] snowballed although they locked out given the 
Northerners equal exhaustion and unwillingness
[01:06:29] to continue The Clash came to an indecisive end 
and General Lee was subsequently sent to take
[01:06:36] over the Confederate troops involved in light of 
Johnston's incapacity the war was looking more
[01:06:42] and more tiring but it was only mid 1862 and there 
was so much fighting left to do over the following
[01:06:52] months the union took nearly full control of 
the Mississippi iipp River with a success at
[01:06:57] the Battle of Memphis leaving now only Vicksburg 
in their way this was before Lincoln signed off on
[01:07:04] the second confiscation act which expanded on 
the first and supplied more opportunities for
[01:07:10] confederate slaves to be freed that was followed 
by the Battle of Cedar Mountain and the Second
[01:07:16] Battle of Bull Run which saw a Confederate victory 
that would soon be overshadowed by Northerners
[01:07:22] discovering General Lee's plans for the next 
engagement that next Clash would be the Battle
[01:07:28] of antium which remains to this day the bloodiest 
24 hours in the history of the entire Civil War
[01:07:37] the Confederate attempts to launch a large-scale 
invasion of Union territory had failed around the
[01:07:43] same time that the South's hopes of winning over 
Kentucky through the Heartland campaign still the
[01:07:50] pressure was increasing from Great Britain as it 
was on the verge of joining the war diplomatically
[01:07:55] ly in support of the Confederates willing to do 
almost anything to prevent such a catastrophe for
[01:08:02] the north president linkoln finally announced his 
intention to pass the Emancipation Proclamation
[01:08:08] by the start of 1863 if the war was not over 
by now though the Native Americans had also
[01:08:15] been picking sides choosing whoever they believed 
would win and provide them with additional rights
[01:08:21] by the war's end the final month of 18 62 saw the 
brutal Battle of Fredericksburg which allegedly
[01:08:29] got so bad for the union that a Confederate 
Sergeant Kirkland couldn't help but run onto
[01:08:35] the battlefield and begin treating the Yankee 
wounded prompting a temporary ceasefire in the
[01:08:42] end however the union war department had been 
too slow to provide supplies for their men and
[01:08:48] the soldiers were unable to keep up the poorly 
organized attack the South had won yet another
[01:08:55] battle with Northern morale plummeting Lincoln's 
popularity dropping and Union men deserting
[01:09:02] president Davis of the Confederacy finally reacted 
to the proposed Emancipation Proclamation he
[01:09:09] declared that it was nothing more than an attempt 
to excite survi war and furthermore added that any
[01:09:16] black US soldiers would not be treated by the 
same standards as white prisoners of War Days
[01:09:24] Later the Battle of Stones River would finally 
bring about some Union revenge and a much needed
[01:09:31] morale boost it also marked the final days of 1862 
over a year and a half of the war had already gone
[01:09:38] by but it was far from over January 1st 1863 
marks the Monumental shift of meaning for the
[01:09:49] Civil War although not in the way that many today 
are under the impression at did the Emancipation
[01:09:57] Proclamation didn't actually free all slaves 
and in fact was only intended to free slaves
[01:10:05] in Rebel States though not all of them southern 
secessionist states that were already occupied
[01:10:12] by the north were exempt from the proclamation as 
were all border states furthermore those States
[01:10:20] who had left the union for the Confederacy and 
were not exempt weren't going to just let go of
[01:10:27] the slaves that they've been fighting all this 
time to keep this meant that Northern military
[01:10:34] enforcement would be required for the proclamation 
to mean anything nevertheless the act itself meant
[01:10:43] something to so many it also officially allowed 
black men to join the Union Army and Navy opening
[01:10:52] the doors for hundreds of thousands of freedom 
craving men to join the war effort by the end of
[01:10:59] it all roughly 200,000 black soldiers had risked 
their lives to protect their fellow countrymen
[01:11:08] at the same time the north enacted a draft for 
its citizens the Confederacy had done the same
[01:11:14] a year prior but for the union this was a sign 
of the times the war wasn't going as smoothly as
[01:11:23] President Lincoln had hoped thus as conscription 
went into effect in the north both sides prepared
[01:11:30] for battle once more the union had two goals at 
the moment take down General Lee and Richmond
[01:11:40] and capture Vicksburg thus fully controlling the 
Mississippi River the latter objective was highly
[01:11:48] concerning for the South which had thus far been 
struggling to maintain their Tennessee Border as
[01:11:55] as the Mississippi Tennessee and Cumberland 
Rivers made it hard to keep the Northerners
[01:12:01] out furthermore General Grant had already seized 
control of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers
[01:12:08] with a capture of Fort Henry and Fort donalson 
Union Admiral David faragate had also taken New
[01:12:16] Orleans cutting the Confederates off from the Gulf 
of Mexico while the capture of Memphis had nearly
[01:12:22] wrestled the Mississippi away from the south 
already still without Vicksburg this couldn't
[01:12:29] be done Grant was now determined to take the city 
and the river with it in the summer of 1862 he had
[01:12:41] made his first attempt alongside General William T 
Sherman but the early attempt ended in a decisive
[01:12:47] defeat and withdraw at the Battle of the chikasaw 
Bayou although the Northerners were ready to Try
[01:12:55] Again by The Following spring up until this point 
Grant and his men had struggled to even gain
[01:13:04] access to Vicksburg due to the surrounding swamps 
bayu and otherwise seemingly impregnable terrain
[01:13:12] feeling Innovative and quite a bit stubborn Grant 
put his men to work to change this for weeks they
[01:13:21] drained bayus built Bridges and formed roads 
that could actually be utilized to reach the
[01:13:28] city trekking along their newly constructed path 
through Louisiana and across the river Grant and
[01:13:36] his army marched into battle having been called on 
by the general to assist rear Admiral David Dixon
[01:13:46] Porter led a naval Force along the river to back 
the land troops despite being under heavy fire
[01:13:52] from Confederate defenses Porter and his men ran 
the gauntlet like Champs losing only a single ship
[01:14:00] in the process and providing necessary support to 
Grant by April 29th 1863 everyone was in position
[01:14:10] and ready to launch the attack Grant's plan was 
as follows Sherman would be sent to feain an
[01:14:19] attack at Snyder's Bluff Colonel Benjamin Garrison 
would leave need a raid further Inland to bring
[01:14:27] Confederate forces away from Vicksburg Porter 
would continue to provide reinforcement to the
[01:14:34] lands troops and Major General John A mcland and 
his 13th Army Corps would aim for another landing
[01:14:43] on the East Bank of grand Gulf this bank was 
heavily fortified with confederate Defenders at
[01:14:50] the ready but Grant was confident in his strategy 
starting off the Fay was Porter and his gunboats
[01:14:58] which opened fire around 8:00 a.m. targeting Fort 
Wade followed by Fort cin and their defenses the
[01:15:06] southerners responded with their own artillery 
fire rather immediately triggering a battle
[01:15:12] that would last for hours into the afternoon the 
union Navy eventually overpowered Fort Wade but
[01:15:20] then began to struggle with the less susceptible 
Fort cin even with the initial success against
[01:15:27] the first Fort subsequently Porter and Grant 
eventually decided to pull back as they saw
[01:15:34] the second line of defense as impenetrable the 
battle of the grand Gulf had ended and Grant had
[01:15:41] once more hit a brick wall Vicksburg was feeling 
more and more Untouchable but the general refused
[01:15:50] to quit while Grant had his sights locked on 
Berg Union general Joseph Hooker was tasked
[01:15:58] with something about the thorn in the north 
side that thorn was General Lee Hooker also had
[01:16:08] Ambitions of seizing the Confederate capital 
city but that couldn't be done without first
[01:16:14] getting the Slick Virginian out of his way thus 
hooker and his army of 115,000 prepared for an
[01:16:23] attack on Lee's DWI kindled force of only 60,000 
the union Commander split his troops into three
[01:16:32] sending two thirds over to Frederickburg to feain 
an assault there while hooker took the rest of his
[01:16:38] men to the real Target Lee knowing what was coming 
decided to take a strategic gamble considering his
[01:16:47] numerical inferiority he first divided out 10,000 
of his 60,000 men which would be Comm commanded by
[01:16:55] General jubil early these troops would remain in 
Fredericksburg to defend the city meanwhile Lee
[01:17:03] would take the left over 50,000 soldiers to face 
off with hooker's Army of the bomac in a forest
[01:17:11] just west of Chancellorsville battle erupted for 
some reason despite the clear advantage in numbers
[01:17:20] and his prior enthusiasm hooker suddenly ordered 
his men to fall back in defensive positions giving
[01:17:27] Lee a new Edge in yet another bold move the 
confederate general then split his troops yet
[01:17:35] again this time sending his trusty colleague 
Stonewall Jackson with one portion around the
[01:17:41] Union's Left Flank Stonewall marched his men 
straight into battle with the Union 11 Corp
[01:17:48] Lee on the other hand would soon catch wind of 
an approaching Union force to the east prompting
[01:17:54] him to again divide his men so he could Face Off 
With His attackers near Salem Church the battle
[01:18:03] overall would result in an unexpected and rather 
spectacular Confederate Victory but there would
[01:18:10] be one Casualty that the South would soon suffer 
heavily from in particular the death of stone wall
[01:18:19] Jackson while returning to camp in the dark of 
night alongside some of his men the 18th North
[01:18:26] Carolina Infantry Regiment opened fire without 
waiting for the group to identify themselves as
[01:18:32] they believed them to be Union Soldiers Stonewall 
was shot three times in the process twice in the
[01:18:40] left arm and once in the right hand over the next 
few days he would have his left arm amputated
[01:18:49] and shortly died of pneumonia complications 
the response from General Lee would indicate
[01:18:55] what a symbolic blow this was for the South 
I have lost my right arm I'm bleeding at the
[01:19:03] heart after the rebel Victory though at a steep 
cost the Confederates looked for another win
[01:19:12] diplomatically responding to the Emancipation 
Proclamation Jefferson Davis solidified his
[01:19:19] earlier statements and more through the 
retaliatory act which went so so far as
[01:19:25] enabling the execution of Northern black soldiers 
and their white officers this Hefty political move
[01:19:33] was followed by another series of armed clashes 
of course the Battle of Raymond would see a union
[01:19:40] Triumph in Mississippi but the Battle of Jackson 
was a bit more indecisive meanwhile Grant had
[01:19:47] been busy finally chipping away at the path 
to his ultimate Target the roads to Vicksburg
[01:19:55] is open grants told William T Sherman in a 
request for reinforcements the Confederate
[01:20:02] higher ups were currently caught in disputes 
over their next move opening up the door for
[01:20:07] the union to take full advantage this would result 
in the highly significant Battle of champion Hill
[01:20:16] and the hill of death as deemed by Alvin P hovi 
after the fact the result was a Monumental Union
[01:20:24] victory Tory and a huge step forward for Grant 
and his Vicksburg campaign another Triumph for
[01:20:31] the campaign at the Battle of The Big Black River 
Bridge would follow putting increasing pressure
[01:20:36] on Vicksburg as the Yankees were Now set up to 
besiege the city 15 miles of trenches were in the
[01:20:45] works as the siege of vickburg began Grant was 
confident that this time the city would be his
[01:20:55] The Siege began on May 18th trapping the 29,000 
strong Confederate Force Under General John C
[01:21:02] pton and the civilians of Vicksburg in the city 
with no supplies and under constant brain rattling
[01:21:10] bombardment pton and all those remaining in the 
city after 47 days surrendered on the 4th of July
[01:21:18] 1863 Grant's dreams had come true he had taken 
Vicksburg and thus the Mississippi but a lot had
[01:21:30] happened elsewhere in his absence the Battle 
of Brandy Station in Virginia played out in
[01:21:38] early June and would set the record as the largest 
Cavalry clash in the entire War the tussle ended
[01:21:45] with the Union troops being styed and another 
battle only days later the Battle of second
[01:21:51] Winchester cleared the Yankees from the shenon DOA 
Valley it seems that Grant's luck was better than
[01:21:58] his comrades although the Union as a whole found a 
victory on June 20th when West Virginia officially
[01:22:07] joined it as a new state this gave the Northerners 
something to celebrate but just days later and
[01:22:14] hours before Grant would seize Vicksburg one of 
the most tragic events of the war and America's
[01:22:21] history was to take place the Battle of Gettysburg 
General Robert E Lee was the man responsible
[01:22:31] hoping to move the conflict out of War exhausted 
Virginia Lee looked to take the fighting straight
[01:22:37] to the north starting in Pennsylvania with a 
75,000 strong Army Lee marched into the union
[01:22:47] state tailed by Union General George Gordon me and 
his 95,000 men the opposing forces march on until
[01:22:56] they reach the town of Gettysburg where Lee stops 
and begins preparation for the brutal attack that
[01:23:03] is to come meanwhile Confederate Major General 
Henry Heth was on his way to wle when his Force
[01:23:11] stumbles upon that of Union Brigadier General 
John Buford the latter fires on the former and
[01:23:18] the battle unexpectedly Begins the Confederates 
respond well to Union fire and start pushing the
[01:23:27] Northerners back along Chambersburg Pike though 
stalled the southerners are not being stopped
[01:23:34] Major General John F Reynolds Union 1 and 11 
cores soon arrive to support Buford but it still
[01:23:41] wouldn't be enough Reynolds is fatally shot in 
the neck just as the battle is picking up and more
[01:23:48] Confederate reinforcements are joining the fight 
General Robert rhs and general juble early clash
[01:23:55] with the Union troops nearby and together the 
rebels begin to box the Yankees in at Gettysburg
[01:24:03] as the union line collapses many soldiers are able 
to flee along a nearby railroad but others are now
[01:24:11] stuck in the town the remaining Defenders decide 
to regroup on Cemetery Hill to the South holding
[01:24:19] out in a fish hook formation the union men are 
still surrounded by Southerners though the battle
[01:24:27] is not yet lost Union general Dan sickles acts 
next taking his three cores up to emmittsburg
[01:24:35] Road and the peach orchard where they run into 
Confederate forces under the command of General
[01:24:42] James Long Street sickle's plan backfires abruptly 
requiring General Mees to send the entirety of his
[01:24:50] five core troops to support him with long street 
now focusing his attack on the union left General
[01:24:58] Lee sends Hill to take the center and general 
Richard uul to go for the right long Street's
[01:25:05] men hit sickles around Devil's Den and little 
rounds top but to shockingly no avail as the
[01:25:12] union scrambles to bring in more reinforcements 
over at the peach orchard to the contrary sickle's
[01:25:19] men Faire quite worse casualties are already 
t in up in unimaginable numbers as day two of
[01:25:28] the battle rages on the Yankees quickly fill the 
Gap left behind by the reinforcements sent to Aid
[01:25:35] sickle and managed to knock the rebels back at the 
center to the right generals uul and early aim to
[01:25:42] Route the Northerners on and around Cemetery Hill 
as Darkness rolls in the union holds off at first
[01:25:50] but the Confederates soon overwhelm The Defenders 
nor than reinforcements would shortly renew the
[01:25:56] fighting on the hill however but meanwhile 
another confederate general Edward Johnson
[01:26:03] launches an attack on the union extreme right 
at kulps Hill with many of these troops having
[01:26:10] been sent to assist elsewhere Union General George 
Green is left with only 1,300 men to fight off the
[01:26:17] 4,500 Confederates numerical superiority AIDS the 
southern but Green's men hang in there as day two
[01:26:28] winds to a close Gettysburg has already become the 
bloodiest battle of the Civil War day three will
[01:26:37] be no better for most as morning comes General Lee 
sends reinforcements to his men at culps Hill but
[01:26:46] so does General me the tables have now turned 
and it's the rebels who lack proper numbers
[01:26:54] nevertheless the Confederates engage and a 7-hour 
fay commences at first the Confederates seemed to
[01:27:03] be better off but by noon the tide has turned 
in the Union's favor Lee instead of calling
[01:27:11] more troops to the aid of the right orders a 
fullscale attack on the union left something me
[01:27:18] had stunningly predicted making him the first to 
actually outsmart Robert E Lee the center assault
[01:27:27] would turn into the largest artillery barrage to 
ever occur in the Western Hemisphere a spectacular
[01:27:34] show but to no success for the Confederates as the 
southerners are forced to March through a mile of
[01:27:42] open unprotected ground leading across emmittsburg 
Road the Northerners open heavy fire ripping apart
[01:27:50] the rebel attack as Lee pushes for the assault 
to continue the Confederates attempt a last ditch
[01:27:57] effort to collapse the union rear with an attack 
led by General Jeb Stewart but this fails too the
[01:28:05] entire Southern offensive is collapsing on every 
side and it soon becomes clear that the Yankees
[01:28:14] have won the Battle of Gettysburg eventually 
accepting that fact Lee withdraws toward the
[01:28:21] pomac and back into Virginia it is said that Lee 
told his men as early as in their Retreat that the
[01:28:31] entire situation was his fault and he believed 
this so deeply that he offered his resignation
[01:28:37] to President Jefferson Davis after the fact and 
his guilt was not without reason his attempts to
[01:28:46] take the war to the North had caused casualties so 
high that the wounded alone outnumbered citizens
[01:28:53] of the town 12 to1 more than 50,000 men had been 
killed wounded or missing by the end of the 3
[01:29:02] days homes and churches had to be transformed 
into hospitals for the wounded and bullet holes
[01:29:09] riddle the town part of the battlefield would 
shortly be turned into a national cemetery for
[01:29:16] fallen Union Soldiers slain Confederates were not 
so lucky after the catastrophe that was Gettysburg
[01:29:25] the Union victory was in many ways overshadowed 
by the tragedy itself and the still ongoing War
[01:29:33] not only that but the excitement for many of the 
54th Massachusetts colored infantry becoming the
[01:29:39] first African-American volunteer regiment to see 
combat in the war was marred by the draft riots
[01:29:46] that followed angry New Yorkers who felt that 
the conscription system favored the rich began
[01:29:53] to attack the Dr craft office and black churches 
and the anger swiftly spread the South was fairing
[01:30:01] little better however as the war was radically 
draining its economy and raising the question
[01:30:07] of how much longer they could even continue to 
fight skirmishes and smallscale clashes carried
[01:30:15] on through July at the end of the month President 
Lincoln issued general order 252 declaring that
[01:30:23] for for every black us prisoner of war executed by 
the south one Confederate prisoner of war would be
[01:30:31] killed in return tensions were on the rise and 
the rebels didn't react well Laurence Kansas
[01:30:41] was set to face the South's wrath as the day 
began on August 21st 1863 Rebel gorillas led by
[01:30:50] William Clark quantril led a raid on the town that 
resulted in a massacre much of Lawrence was burnt
[01:30:57] to the ground and at least 160 men and boys were 
murdered this wasn't even War it was a mass scale
[01:31:07] homicide and it represented the extreme anger and 
Desperation felt by many from the south as the war
[01:31:15] carried on and the Confederacy struggles to keep 
up as such the union soon captured Chattanooga
[01:31:24] GA Tennessee elsewhere at the Battle of chaga the 
Confederates found some hope with a victory and
[01:31:31] general braxon Bragg followed It Up by launching 
a Siege on Union occupied Chattanooga Lee and me
[01:31:39] meanwhile clashed in Virginia at the Bristo 
station campaign Abraham Lincoln gave the
[01:31:45] Gettysburg address at the dedication of the 
soldiers National Cemetery and Lee was aiming
[01:31:52] to hold out the Confederate War efforts just 
long enough to manipulate low Northern morale
[01:31:59] into electing a southern sympathizer in Lincoln's 
upcoming reelection sadly for the rebels however
[01:32:07] the siege of Chattanooga eventually failed and 
Bragg was forced into Georgia while another
[01:32:14] Confederate Siege on Knoxville also fell short the 
South had started the war strong but it seems that
[01:32:23] all the North's technical advantages were finally 
paying off both sides wanted the war to end but
[01:32:32] neither was ready to give in Lee's ultimate plan 
could still work but Lincoln had another offer to
[01:32:41] make any Confederate willing swear an oath to the 
United States and your Rebel acts will be forgiven
[01:32:51] by now the union was ready to try and truly [ __ ] 
the Confederacy by launching a campaign aimed at
[01:32:59] digging even deeper into important Southern 
territories this would be the largest army
[01:33:07] navy combined campaign to be launched at any point 
throughout the war the main target was the capital
[01:33:14] of Louisiana shreport which if captured could 
potentially give the Northerners an opportunity
[01:33:22] to next dig into Texas the whole thing however 
was problematic from the very start for one on
[01:33:31] the Navy side rear Admiral David Dixon Porter had 
agreed to join the campaign under the assumption
[01:33:38] that Major General William T Sherman would be the 
land commander and Sherman himself had intended to
[01:33:45] do so but with General ulyses Grant preoccupied 
with other Northern objectives and insisting
[01:33:52] that Sherman stay and assist him Major General 
Nathaniel P Banks would instead be the one to
[01:33:58] take the Reigns something Porter nor Sherman were 
pleased to hear in fact Sherman even went as far
[01:34:07] to send a contingent of his own men 10,000 of 
his very best torter specifically stating that
[01:34:14] this favor was in case Banks abandoned the naval 
forces if his own land troops got into trouble and
[01:34:22] the problem with General Banks was that he wasn't 
even much of a military man technically he wasn't
[01:34:30] one at all he was a politician more than anything 
which is exactly why he needed this campaign for
[01:34:38] the military experience and hopefully success 
that it would bring him the problem then with
[01:34:46] Banks's plan was the fact that he intended to 
use three entirely separate forces Porter's 19
[01:34:53] boat strong Fleet Banks own 20,000 men from the 
New Orleans area and Major General Frederick steel
[01:35:01] with another 10,000 coming from Little Rock since 
none of these groups could communicate with each
[01:35:07] other easily throughout the campaign the entire 
plan begs to become an unorganized disaster or
[01:35:16] as one Union general said one damn blunder from 
beginning to end the red River campaign ended in
[01:35:25] a Yankee Retreat and a much- needed break for the 
Rebels the Confederates also managed to seize Fort
[01:35:32] Pillow in Tennessee around the same time murdering 
300 surrendered Union soldiers in the process
[01:35:40] many of whom were black General Grant shortly 
after demanded that all prisoner exchange talks
[01:35:47] be halted until the South agreed to treat black 
prisoners of war the same as white Grant was also
[01:35:55] busy preparing for what would be one of the most 
horrendous engagements of his entire career the
[01:36:02] battle of the Wilderness Lee's army will be your 
objective where he goes there you will go also
[01:36:13] and thus the Northerners would this Lee chasing 
Army consisted of the army of the pomac jointly
[01:36:22] commanded by Major generals Governor K Warren 
Winfield s Hancock and John Sedrick alongside
[01:36:30] Ambrose Burnside and his independent ninth Corp on 
the Confederate side was General Lee the chased at
[01:36:38] the helm working with him however was a bit of a 
rag tag group of commanders as the South was still
[01:36:46] reeling and struggling to recover from the loss 
of Stonewall Jackson Lee's right hand nevertheless
[01:36:54] AP Hill and Richard s uul though not as skilled 
as Stonewall were ready to fill the gaps and
[01:37:01] Lee's close friend at James Long Street was 
prepared to tag along in the early days of
[01:37:08] May General Grant had opted to take his men out 
of the Wilderness of Spotsylvania and into open
[01:37:15] ground in their preparations for a face off with 
the Confederates Lee on the other hand had ordered
[01:37:21] his men to try and trap tra the union troops in 
a battle within the Wilderness as the difficult
[01:37:27] terrain would give the southerners the upper hand 
these simultaneous strategies eventually led to
[01:37:35] the Northerners catching wind of the approaching 
Rebels General Warren reacted by sending out a
[01:37:41] division to investigate the situation while the 
rest of the Union forces attempted to avoid a
[01:37:47] possible Clash before escaping the wooded terrain 
the situation however would not end in the Yankees
[01:37:55] favor the very moment we appeared they gave us 
a volley at long range but evidently with very
[01:38:02] deliberate aim and with serious effect a union 
officer would later Testify the Confederate
[01:38:09] force that Warren had aimed to Simply investigate 
was actually the entire core under General Ule
[01:38:16] and upon being watched they reacted with rapid 
hostility the battle began at saund field and
[01:38:24] evolved into what one described as bushwacking 
on a grand scale as the thick foresting made for
[01:38:31] a confusing Battlefield over with General Hill 
another battle had broken out Along The Plank
[01:38:38] Road as the Confederates there ran into General 
sedwick's division in their attempts to cut the
[01:38:44] Northerners off from the highly important Brock 
Road for the first portion of each engagement the
[01:38:51] favor seems to shift back back and forward with 
no clear winner but the outnumbered Southerners
[01:38:58] were surely disadvantaged under Hill General Long 
Street was intended to come and assist Hill and
[01:39:05] his attack as nightfell which caused the ladder 
to hold off from re-engaging at dawn As Long
[01:39:12] Street was yet to arrive this meant that the union 
attacks that morning proved disastrous for Hill
[01:39:20] that is until long Street's heroic AR Ral hours 
behind schedule the battle around Plank and Brock
[01:39:28] roads would thus carry on for a while longer 
with what seemed to be a growing Confederate
[01:39:33] favor for some time but would eventually end 
in eventual though partial Union victory the
[01:39:42] southerners would complete the Endeavor with the 
upper hand however after General John B Gordon
[01:39:48] routed Yankee troops along the turnpike on May 
6th even taking two Union Generals as prisoners
[01:39:56] in the process the consequence for the north 
was damning the battle had cost them double the
[01:40:03] number of casualties as it had the South and the 
situation became so dire that General Grant wildly
[01:40:10] uncharacteristically broke down in tears in his 
tent at word of the situation yet Grant nor the
[01:40:19] north was ready to give up instead of following 
the Battle with a full retreat they marched on
[01:40:26] Deeper South to Richmond throughout May the union 
was now daringly carrying out two simultaneous
[01:40:36] campaigns grants Overland and Sherman's Atlanta 
the Overland campaign had begun with the battle
[01:40:44] of the Wilderness and the depressing draw at 
best couples with the Raging Fire the battle
[01:40:51] had caused it all seemed like a bad Omen for 
the newly launched campaign but as Grant told
[01:40:58] a reporter there is no turning back the campaign 
was far from over in fact the next Clash occurred
[01:41:07] only hours later at the Spotsylvania Courthouse 
where Lee managed to stall his adversary yet
[01:41:14] again for 2 weeks straight until Grant finally 
disengaged after losing roughly another 18,000
[01:41:23] men the union general pushed on for Richmond 
off and on clashes would follow as Grant and
[01:41:30] his men trudged towards the Confederate capital 
and the Battle of Cold Harbor would see the
[01:41:36] union take another unwanted hit after 6 weeks the 
campaign came to a close but not before racking up
[01:41:45] around 55,000 Northern casualties and seeing the 
third and fourth bloodiest battles of the entire
[01:41:53] War still Grant was aiming for a war of attrition 
now and to this extent with the battle of the
[01:42:01] South having totaled around 33,000 casualties the 
union had actually claimed a strategic victory
[01:42:11] over with General Sherman he and his men had 
been ordered to take the key Confederate city
[01:42:16] of Atlanta and thus beginning in Tennessee 
they started their March as the campaign
[01:42:23] carried on a few things were happening elsewhere 
in the Union on June 8th 1864 for example Abraham
[01:42:32] Lincoln officially received the nomination 
for reelection unfortunately for Grant news
[01:42:38] for him was less positive as many in DC were now 
calling him the butcher due to his strategy of
[01:42:46] sacrificing tens of thousands of men now in hopes 
of saving more later by ending the war or sooner
[01:42:54] furthermore other battles were ongoing such as the 
Battle of Bryce's Crossroads where General Samuel
[01:43:01] Sturgis was crushed by the highly outnumbered 
Confederate Force Under General Nathan Bedford
[01:43:07] Forest Sherman however was Ill concerned about 
his comrades labors as his campaign would prove
[01:43:16] triumphant after a string of combat along 
the way the Confederates under General John
[01:43:23] Hood would eventually Retreat from the city of 
Atlanta entirely surrendering it to the incoming
[01:43:29] Yankees the latter would hold the city until 
November at which point Sherman had ordered for
[01:43:35] all military resources in the city to be burned 
to the ground which would unintentionally result
[01:43:42] in an out ofcontrol fire that leveled the city as 
the heat of the summer beat down on both battle
[01:43:50] worn and battle ready men of North and South 
the Confederates too were attempting to make
[01:43:57] significant moves confederate general jubil early 
was hoping to take pressure off of Petersburg and
[01:44:04] Richmond which had been under siege by the 
union since the end of the Overland campaign
[01:44:10] thus he clashed with Northerners at the Battle of 
Monocacy in Maryland where he would ultimately win
[01:44:17] but many from the north still claimed it to be 
a tactical Victory and stopping the Confederates
[01:44:23] from reaching DC early would eventually reach the 
defenses of Washington nonetheless but he would
[01:44:29] withdraw from the attack the same day as the war 
thus raged on through the summer it wasn't just
[01:44:36] the land forces who saw battle one contest in 
particular saw a joint effort at the start of
[01:44:43] August when the north aimed its sights at Mel 
Alabama the Battle of Mel Bay technically just
[01:44:52] outside of moel B Alabama was a joint land 
and Naval effort by the north to capture the
[01:44:58] Confederate Port that had become increasingly 
crucial for the south after the fall of New
[01:45:04] Orleans Union Admiral David faragut sped his Fleet 
through the bay behind four ironclads to take on
[01:45:12] the small Confederate flotilla and two formidable 
forts standing in the way the battle was well
[01:45:19] fought by the Confederates But ultimately ended 
in a I Victory though the city of Mel itself would
[01:45:27] remain in Confederate hands nevertheless the port 
now belonged to the north violence was still at a
[01:45:36] high around Petersburg as well Jew to the ongoing 
Siege and the following month a battle broke out
[01:45:43] at Winchester again for the third time following 
his attempted attack on Washington General jubil
[01:45:52] early had remained in the shenendoa valley 
which the South had been using for some time
[01:45:57] now to launch their incursions against the north 
this eventually led to the union deciding it was
[01:46:04] time to free the shin andoa of their adversaries 
sending General Philip Sheridan to do the deed the
[01:46:13] battle officially broke out at Winchester when 
General Sheridan and his army of the shenendoa
[01:46:19] were attempting to pass through the narrow canyon 
near Barry rille Pike the Confederates in the form
[01:46:25] of General Steven D ramer's division open fire 
essentially trapping the soldiers and wagon trains
[01:46:33] within the canyon the goal wasn't necessarily 
to defeat the drastically larger Union force
[01:46:40] but rather to stall its Advance giving General 
early enough time to race the remainder of his
[01:46:46] forces to join the defense after having heard 
of Sheridan's upcoming attack by the time the
[01:46:54] Northerners finally gathered themselves enough 
to launch their own assault Major General Robert
[01:47:00] E rhs and John B Gordon had arrived to Aid Ramer 
and the fight was on the Yankees slowly but surely
[01:47:10] beat down the Confederates under Ramer while his 
comrades fought their own battles all around him
[01:47:17] General Gordon and his men were locked in one of 
those clashes although they seemed to be fairing
[01:47:23] in a bit better for the time being the grass and 
Earth was cut and torn up by a perfect sheet of
[01:47:29] lead bullets sought the hiding places of the men 
with fatal accuracy blood was on everything was
[01:47:37] everywhere was spattered on bushes was gathered in 
ghastly puddles on the ground was the description
[01:47:44] given by one of the Union Soldiers present General 
rhs was also launching a strong Counterattack
[01:47:51] nearby as both Ramer and Gordon were gaining 
ground even if it was ground they had previously
[01:47:58] lost as the battles raged on the Northerners 
began to worry that the whole exertion could end
[01:48:05] up going in the rebels favor thus General Sheridan 
decided to call in backup from an old friend I've
[01:48:14] got crook here with 10,000 men and I am going to 
throw them in and whip these fellows in the end
[01:48:23] Sheridan wasn't entirely wrong the Confederates 
would face defeat and the city fell to the union
[01:48:30] and what seems to be a pattern of recent this 
would prove to be the bloodiest battle ever fought
[01:48:36] in the shed andoa Valley with Sheridan losing 
over 10% of his entire Army in the hard-fought
[01:48:42] victory the Confederates would lose roughly 4,000 
scarcely less than the much larger Union force
[01:48:49] they had faced yet Sheridan was wasn't done with 
jubil early in fact he still wanted him out of
[01:48:58] the shenendoa entirely after the battle of third 
Winchester early had worked to withdraw back to
[01:49:06] Fisher's Hill which he believed would provide 
safety for his absolutely rattled troops known
[01:49:14] as the Gibralter of the valley the hill could be a 
crucial grounds to hold if properly defended early
[01:49:22] however was unable to even set up proper defenses 
before Sheridan and his army arrived on their
[01:49:29] heels General crook sent off by Sheridan ambushed 
jubil early and his men on their Left Flank while
[01:49:38] the other Union forces served as a distraction 
the Confederates despite their best efforts were
[01:49:44] forced to retreat yet again being chased until 
Woodstock the following months would see the union
[01:49:52] Ina the burning to downright destroy the Bread 
Basket of the Confederacy and eventually wrestle
[01:49:59] the whole of the shenendoa Valley from the south 
alt together the union was looking more and more
[01:50:07] Grim for the rebels over in the union it appeared 
that the war was as close as ever to ending in the
[01:50:16] previous months it had been General Robert E Le's 
belief that if he and his Confederates could hold
[01:50:23] off for just long enough the war exhausted and 
dissatisfied Northerners would choose to elect a
[01:50:30] southern sympathizing president in their upcoming 
election this never came to fruition however the
[01:50:39] election had come down to a Faceoff between the 
Republican incumbent President Abraham Lincoln
[01:50:44] of course and his old wishy-washy General George 
mclen of the democratic party President Lincoln
[01:50:52] and his VP Andrew Johnson would win in an 
electoral college Landslide though the popular
[01:51:00] vote wasn't embarrassingly far off between the 
two candidates the electoral votes divided up to
[01:51:06] 212 votes for the commanderin-chief and 21 for his 
Challenger if Lee had any hopes left of the Union
[01:51:15] government ending the war favorably for both sides 
they must have been like a dying Flame rubbing
[01:51:23] salt into the wound in November General Sherman 
of the north began his March to the Sea after
[01:51:31] the fall of Atlanta and the subsequent Confederate 
Retreat Sherman decided to really Hammer home his
[01:51:37] Triumph splitting his army in two Sherman himself 
took one portion 62,000 strong on a journey
[01:51:46] through the state of Georgia until they reached 
Savannah with a sole goal of wreaking havoc
[01:51:53] the Northerners on one hand began to destroy 
Confederate infrastructure and Necessities
[01:51:59] such as Farms railroads and the like at the same 
time while Sherman ordered his men to refrain from
[01:52:06] murdering any Southern civilians he also wanted to 
make their lives absolutely miserable the thought
[01:52:14] process was that if the rebels lost Mass amounts 
of infrastructure and material as well as the
[01:52:21] support of their Everyday People people their 
war effort would collapse and the union would
[01:52:26] officially win once and for all thus the yanes did 
just that as they marched towards the Savannah for
[01:52:35] the most part no one Disturbed their destruction 
effort though at one point Sherman and his army
[01:52:43] skirmished with a wildly outnumbered Confederate 
Cavalry that ended up having to flee alt together
[01:52:50] they too ironically took a scorched Earth approach 
on their March ahead of the Union men Burning
[01:52:57] Bridges Barns and anything the Northerners could 
have used to their advantage the latter still
[01:53:04] reached Savannah as planned and took the city 
presenting it to the newly reelected president
[01:53:11] as an early and grandiose Christmas gift the end 
of the year also saw the battle move to Tennessee
[01:53:19] where the southerners were crushed at the Battle 
of Nashville and as the holidays passed 1864 wound
[01:53:27] to a close as the war still failed to be resolved 
though the South appeared to be losing Steam and
[01:53:35] the north quite the contrary the Confederates were 
yet to consider surrender it would be difficult
[01:53:42] but not impossible to carry on and so they would 
fittingly as if to come full circle the focus of
[01:53:53] the war now lay on the Carolinas where it all 
began the union brought the battle to North
[01:54:01] Carolina in the early days of 1865 with a second 
assault on the crucial Confederate stronghold of
[01:54:09] Fort fiser a few months prior the North had 
actually attempted to take the North Carolina
[01:54:15] Port but It ultimately failed and thus decided 
to try again in January for before this endeavor
[01:54:23] to seize the South's only remaining sea port on 
the Atlantic Major General Alfred Terry was put
[01:54:29] in charge of the army of the James portion of the 
campaign while rear Admiral David D Porter led a
[01:54:36] Navy Marine force of roughly five dozen vessels 
and their troops the land troops would be split
[01:54:44] into two portions one US colored Troops commanded 
by Brigadier General Charles J Payne and the other
[01:54:51] division teaming up with the Marines and sailors 
under Brigadier General adelbert Ames the latter
[01:54:58] would hit the fort itself while the former aims 
to take out the Confederate Defenders under Major
[01:55:04] General Robert hul the incursion went remarkably 
smoothly Hox scarcely put up any real resistance
[01:55:13] and though fighting over the fort itself proved 
rough the Yankees found victory that same evening
[01:55:20] this was not only a military Triumph but also 
a major win for Grant's strategy of a war of
[01:55:27] attrition and it was just the start of the Union's 
harassment of the Carolinas General Sherman was on
[01:55:35] his way a month after the hit on North Carolina 
Sherman invaded its lower neighbor the target was
[01:55:44] Colombia and the goal was actually an utter 
Rampage through the already evacuated City
[01:55:52] a drunken soldier with a musket in one hand and 
a match in the other is not a pleasant visitor to
[01:55:58] have about the house on a dark windy night one 
Union general remarked of the sack between the
[01:56:05] destruction dished out by the soldiers themselves 
and raging fires that no one quite knows who
[01:56:11] actually started the city was over half leveled by 
the end of it all in the words of Sherman himself
[01:56:19] though I never ordered it and never wished it I 
have never shed any tears over the event because
[01:56:26] I believe that it hastened what we all fought for 
the end of the war back up north only days later
[01:56:34] the Confederates faced another disaster the union 
capture of Fort fiser and the later evacuation of
[01:56:41] Fort Anderson on the Cape Fear River meant that 
the Yankees had a pretty easy shot at moving all
[01:56:48] the way down to seiz Wilmington and rendevu 
with Sherman and his men General hul on the
[01:56:55] other hand was aiming to set up a strong defense 
over Wilmington while waiting for reinforcements
[01:57:01] under Lieutenant General William J Hardy to 
arrive Ho's early defense would be impressive
[01:57:09] even earning him the nickname of the ston wall of 
Forks Road nevertheless inferior numbers forc the
[01:57:16] rebels to tactically withdraw from Sugarloaf and 
move their defensive lines to Forks Road Hox sent
[01:57:24] word to Hardy that he believed they could in fact 
keep the Union forces out of Wilmington upon his
[01:57:31] arrival but Hardy would never arrive after all 
in fact it was General braxon Bragg's authority
[01:57:40] to the former who ordered Hardy not to go to 
Wilmington and stunningly despite hoa's continued
[01:57:48] successful efforts to repel Union attacks at Forks 
Road mags then ordered the tenacious General and
[01:57:54] his thousands of seasoned veterans to abandon 
Wilmington altogether and so they did back home
[01:58:04] in the Union as the war raged on down south the 
second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln took place
[01:58:11] on March 4th 1865 as eager Northerners flooded 
DC in the face of incessant rain and ridiculously
[01:58:21] muddy roads to witness the historic event one 
would almost fail to believe that the general
[01:58:27] satisfaction in President Lincoln had actually 
suffered greatly at times throughout the war
[01:58:34] even among the cheering crowds however there still 
stood those who refused to see the good in their
[01:58:41] leader one such man in particular was John wils 
Booth the president's future assassin although
[01:58:52] would not act now it is said that he later made 
remarks about how close he was to Lincoln and how
[01:58:58] easily he could have killed him at that moment 
furthermore underscoring the state of tensions
[01:59:05] in the north despite the president's successful 
reelection famed abolitionist and freed slave
[01:59:11] Frederick Douglas stated of the inauguration 
I felt then that there was murder in the air
[01:59:18] I felt that I might see him fall that day it 
was a vague presentiment but Abraham Lincoln
[01:59:27] would not fall that day and the inauguration 
went on steadily enough as the president gave
[01:59:33] a powerful speech to eager citizens hanging on to 
his every word it marked a day of Celebration and
[01:59:41] hope which would days later be starkly contrasted 
to the mood of the South as General Sherman took
[01:59:50] yet another one of his cities the paper said 
Sherman and his army were struggling through
[01:59:58] the swamps in the Carolinas and it was greatly 
feared that the Confederates would get together
[02:00:03] and do them up before they could get to Coast 
what a lot of faint Hearts they must be down
[02:00:09] there in New York the words of Theodore Upson 
demonstrated the Steep irony of the worried
[02:00:15] Northerners who had no idea of the scorched 
Earth Rampage Sherman and his men had been on
[02:00:22] taking and burning towns to the ground the general 
and his army were far from struggling and not only
[02:00:29] were the Confederates failing to get together 
and defeat the Yankees but the rebels were
[02:00:35] instead evacuating City by city as Sherman would 
near and the next of these towns to fall to the
[02:00:43] union would be fville as North Carolina continues 
to be battered by the Northerners finally though
[02:00:52] Sherman would face significant resistance as 
he attempted to lead his men out of fville
[02:00:58] toward Bentonville the southerners in spite of 
it all still weren't ready to throw in the towel
[02:01:06] assume command of the army of Tennessee and all 
troops in Department of South Carolina Georgia
[02:01:12] and Florida concentrate all available forces and 
drive back Sherman these were General Lee's words
[02:01:20] to General Joseph E Johnston whom he'd recently 
convinced President Jefferson Davis to approve
[02:01:26] as the replacement for General PGT borgard who 
had thus far failed to impress the Confederate
[02:01:33] commanderin-chief as Sherman was inching closer 
and closer to meeting up with General Grant Lee
[02:01:40] knew that something had to be done and Sherman 
knew something was coming on the one hand with the
[02:01:49] Yankees divided into two thir 3,000 strong groups 
under orders to keep a close eye out for incoming
[02:01:56] Confederates those Rebels they spoke of were not 
yet United either General Hardy had just arrived
[02:02:04] at Raleigh after a small Skirmish at fville while 
the hesitant to participate in what he saw as a
[02:02:10] lost cause General Johnston was still on his 
way to join his comrade I can whip Joe Johnston
[02:02:18] Sherman had confidently asserted as he and his 
men marched to W Goldsboro under the shadow of the
[02:02:24] impending attack but as more Confederate troops 
came near it didn't seem quite so clear that the
[02:02:31] Northerners would in fact whip their adversaries 
when the battle actually began the Confederates
[02:02:39] did take an early Advantage it wasn't until the 
union managed to get off their Counterattack that
[02:02:45] the tidde changed and the Yankee reinforcements 
pushed Johnston and his troops into a withdrawal
[02:02:52] I can do no more than annoy him Johnston told 
Lee of the man who had been all too prepared to
[02:02:59] win from the start Sherman couldn't be stopped 
now nor could the union and the South knew it
[02:03:07] it would only be a matter of weeks before 
no one was left in denial the Confederate
[02:03:13] flame was dying like a match scarcely shielded 
from a swift gust of icy wind Lee knew it John
[02:03:22] knew it they all did and yet they weren't ready 
to give up not yet General Lee and General John
[02:03:31] B Gordon in particular couldn't let go just yet 
instead they opted to embark on what would become
[02:03:38] known as Lee's last offensive as the struggle was 
closing in on Petersburg Virginia at the end of
[02:03:46] March Lee and Gordon concocted a daring plan with 
the aim of seizing Union controlled Fort Stedman
[02:03:55] with generals William Wallace James Walker 
and Robert ransome Gordon awaited the perfect
[02:04:02] second to launch his ingenious Ambush one of the 
General's Sharpshooters Oscar Whitaker describes
[02:04:09] the waiting period thus General Gordon got us to 
close up around him that night while he stood on
[02:04:15] a stump and told us how Lee was situated what a 
long line we were having to keep up in front of
[02:04:22] us he said was Fort Stedman he told us if we would 
take it he would have our names in every paper in
[02:04:29] the south of course we being old Soldiers told 
him he would do it he told us for not a man to
[02:04:37] load his gun and at a signal from him to rush 
over to the Fort knock down and drag out and he
[02:04:44] would have 50,000 troops in behind us the troops 
next did their best Shakespearean performance
[02:04:52] sending out a group of armed soldiers to the 
federal picket line to feain desertion as their
[02:04:57] Commander convincingly shouted oh boys come back 
don't go the next sounds to be heard were that of
[02:05:06] gunfire at hands toand combat with a three- shot 
signal from Gordon's revolver the battle was on
[02:05:15] daylight was yet to break as the Confederates 
launched themselves into action in a formation
[02:05:21] with Pioneer detachments leading Columns of 
Sharpshooters followed by infantry the southerners
[02:05:27] moved forward the deception tactic continued 
as Gordon's commanders had already learned the
[02:05:33] identity of the fort's officers so they could pass 
as more Confederate deserters or even fellow Union
[02:05:40] troops who were simply falling back while the 
chaos erupted under the early morning Darkness
[02:05:47] the rebels focused on their targets battery 10 
for General General Walker and batteries 11 and
[02:05:54] 12 for General Evans furthermore a Cavalry Force 
stayed position to join the scuffle once the union
[02:06:02] obstacles were dealt with truly rounding out the 
southern assault for the union men of the fort
[02:06:10] nothing made sense Slumber card games and what 
it seems to be a typical night on guard were
[02:06:17] interrupted by gunfire cheering Southerners as 
batteries were beaten and the unexpected presence
[02:06:24] of Rebel Sharpshooters right in their faces 
eventually the fort opened fire with cannons but
[02:06:31] the Confederates under Captain Carson managed to 
escape the line of fire unscathed the captain then
[02:06:38] ordered men to put a bullet through any Yankee in 
sight and it wouldn't take long for northerners
[02:06:44] to begin to surrender still two entire Union 
regiments were yet to even realize that the Amber
[02:06:51] was underway until they themselves were 
bombarded by the Invaders any chance of
[02:06:58] the Yankees putting up any relevant defensive 
seemed nearly non-existent by now and a brave
[02:07:04] yet insufficient effort to retake what they were 
losing under brette Brigadier General Napoleon
[02:07:09] McLaughlin crumbled in an instant as general 
Gordon waltzed into the fort to personally
[02:07:15] relieve McLaughlin of his command claiming at this 
point that his men's success had thus far exceeded
[02:07:23] his own expectations if the South needed a morale 
booster they were getting it now after taking Fort
[02:07:32] Stedman the Confederates turned their sights 
on the nearby Fort Haskell and Fort mcgilvery
[02:07:38] the first thing the boys knew they were firing 
down our line from the right to the left of the
[02:07:43] regiment one northerner recall to the next Advance 
the boys were asleep in their bunks at the first
[02:07:49] volley but grabbed guns and CAU boxes not even 
stopping to dress some were barefooted some only
[02:07:57] with shirts and pants on the regiment had been 
practically cut in two the right took shelter
[02:08:03] in the rear in some old rifle pits while C B&G 
ran into Fort Haskell he continued unfortunately
[02:08:11] for General Gordon however the Defenders of this 
fort had actually been alerted of the approaching
[02:08:16] Army and the rebels proved unable to push past the 
subsequent gunfire as they arrived the Confederate
[02:08:24] forces elsewhere were also meeting some resistance 
now as the element of surprise no longer aided
[02:08:30] them but alas the Yankees were still struggling to 
stay upright the attackers were inches away from
[02:08:38] a total Victory as day broke and the union men 
voled to keep them out of additional Forts and
[02:08:44] City Point Confederates attempting to take Fort 
mcgilvery were captured others were hammered with
[02:08:51] Union fire General Gordon was growing exacerbated 
what had happened to his spectacular assault the
[02:08:59] southerners were now not only grasping to regain 
the upper hand but they were trapped they still
[02:09:07] held Fort stemman but Forts mcgilvery and 
Haskell remained in Union hands as did the
[02:09:13] land surrounding Fort stman meaning the rebels 
had nowhere to even go without a surrender
[02:09:23] running out of ammunition and opportunity 
General Gordon made The Reluctant call to
[02:09:29] attempt a retreat a place of fearful Slaughter 
the retreat was called as the Yankees drilled the
[02:09:36] fleeing Confederates with artillery and gunfire 
the victims had ceased fighting and were now
[02:09:43] struggling between imprisonment on the one hand 
and death or home on the other 2,600 of those
[02:09:51] victims Southerners wouldn't make it home 
the utterly heart-shattering loss for the
[02:09:58] Confederates at Fort stemman would be quickly 
followed by another defeat at the Battle of
[02:10:02] Five Forks by this point General Lee was beginning 
to accept the fate of his efforts seeing no hope
[02:10:10] left of holding off the North Lee decided it was 
finally time to abandon Petersburg and Richmond
[02:10:17] letting both crucial cities fall to the Union 
in a monument mental blow to what was left of
[02:10:24] the Confederate resistance the war was dwindling 
to a close but the biggest hit was Yet to Come
[02:10:33] April 9th would see the worst of it all for 
the Confederates the next few hours would Mark
[02:10:39] possibly the biggest Fall From Grace of the entire 
War as Lee and his men withdrew from the besieged
[02:10:47] cities of Petersburg and Richmond their journey 
to toward North Carolina and their fellow troops
[02:10:54] under Johnston took them in the direction of appam 
matic's Courthouse with Yankees hot on their tail
[02:11:02] many Rebels were simply giving up and deserting 
while few were left with any eagerness or real
[02:11:08] hope Lee was becoming increasingly surrounded 
as the union closed in on the biggest thorn in
[02:11:14] their side for the past few years armed conflict 
erupted once more more though stunningly at the
[02:11:24] Confederate initiative the unshakable and 
rather ambitious General Gordon wanted to
[02:11:31] try yet another offensive triggering a battle at 
aamax Courthouse Gordon's plan just as at Fort
[02:11:39] Stedman started with Great Southern favor but 
the tide eventually turned and the exacerbated
[02:11:45] Lee knew that there was no coming back from this 
point beaten exhausted and and out of options Lee
[02:11:53] said there is nothing left for me to do but to 
go and see General Grant and I would rather die
[02:11:59] a thousand deaths unfortunately for Lee and his 
wish for death over surrender the ladder was the
[02:12:08] only plausible option for his army of Northern 
Virginia thus Lee sent word to grant that it was
[02:12:16] time to come to the table at 1:00 in the home of 
Wilmer McLean the two great generals of the Civil
[02:12:24] War were now face to face the meeting began with 
an odd exchange of small talk between the men who
[02:12:31] had scarcely known each other prior with their 
only real interaction having come from during
[02:12:37] the Mexican American War the interaction quickly 
evolved into surrender negotiations during which
[02:12:44] Grant was quite generous in offering out Pardons 
and even Union rations for the starving Rebels
[02:12:51] Lee would soon accept the set out terms and the 
surrender was concluded Grant had finally bested
[02:12:59] his Southern counterpart but when his men began 
to cheer in celebration he silenced all those
[02:13:06] celebrating in the face of Lee the war is over 
the rebels are our countrymen again the war as
[02:13:16] granted said was over at least for the most part 
smallscale battles would continue through April
[02:13:23] into may but none more than last ditch efforts 
by rebels in denial General Johnston and his
[02:13:31] troops would surrender on April 26th General 
Richard Taylor on May 4th and the last major
[02:13:37] Army under General Simon bivar Buckner on May 
26th after the final battle and Confederate
[02:13:44] win on the 12th in palmo Ranch Texas When The 
War ended the United States of America were no
[02:13:53] longer referred to as a plural unit people went 
from saying the United States are to the United
[02:14:00] States is though reconstruction and healing 
would take time it would work out but even if
[02:14:09] in the end there was unity and more strength than 
ever before there was also a Monumental amount of
[02:14:16] money and lives that have been lost this bloody 
war in US history costing $6.7 billion saw the
[02:14:26] death of 290,000 rebels 365,000 Yankees 50,000 
civilians and 880,000 slaves it was the first
[02:14:38] modern war in terms of its upgraded weaponry and 
Technology adjacent to the scale of Destruction
[02:14:45] and the conflict itself in the end the side of 
emancipation unity and industrialization among
[02:14:54] much more one America survived though hundreds of 
thousands of its men women and children did Not
[02:15:06] Looking Back Now the Civil War can be viewed as a 
senseless period of violence that could have been
[02:15:12] solved instead by words and policies for others 
it's viewed as a moral war between good and bad
[02:15:21] or Freedom versus slavery the real meaning and 
necessity of the conflict May forever be up for
[02:15:29] debate but today if you ask anyone outside the 
United States every American is a Yankee thank
[02:15:40] you for watching our video you can get early 
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