Now you look at Scott, he has the nickname "old fuss and feathers", he was born in 1786. He is a year older than the U.S. Constitution. He was born outside of Petersburg, Virginia on June 13th. He was somebody who didn't want to take on a military career. In fact, he wanted to do what Jay Jorgensen does, he wanted to be an attorney. He would go to William and Mary College and would be the only one in this fraternity of rascals that would not graduate from West Point. He graduated from William and Mary with the idea of becoming an attorney but he would be talked out of it by Thomas Jefferson in 1808. He could have gone to West Point. West Point opened in 1802 but he did not. Thomas Jefferson, a pretty convincing man, he decides to take on a military career and he will fight in every war from 1812 on up to the Civil War.

During the war of 1812, he will be stationed out by the New York - Canada border and he will gain national attention as he has two horses shot out from under him at Lucky's Lane. He will be severely wounded, he will be carried off the field and he will fight beside John Burns. When you go to Gettysburg, and go over the first day's battle, you will see the statue of John Burns, the old Gettysburg civilian who as tradition has it hears the guns firing at Seminary Ridge, grabs his old flint lock runs out and joins the battle. There's also the other story that says he was the town drunk and was out in the middle of the field firing in all directions. He was the Irish brigade, and he will be wounded three times. If you believe Casper Gusman, a 55 year old boot maker who lived in Gettysburg who owned the house adjacent to where Lee's headquarters was, he will say that he found Burns leaning up against the cellar door with a bad ankle injury and he says do you want to get my wife. I'm really in bad shape and I want to get out of here. Gusman says, there's this battle going on, I don't know if I can get there. He finally gets the wife and the wife said "let him sit there. I don't want to go, there is a fight going on here, I'm not going to risk my neck for some fool." Finally they got a wagon and brought him back.

When you pass by Lee's headquarters, there is a lot of talk as to whether Lee was ever in that building. One of the interesting things is that on June 5, 1907, Emmaline Fiester who lived in the house was arrested and charged for running a house of ill repute. This was like a red light district and tour guides really have a problem. They didn't want say that this was Lee's headquarters because the whole family would want to go in a take a look, they would have some sidewalks stewardess in Lee's headquarters. Some people think that is one of the reasons why the government didn't buy that property. It's still privately owned, it's owned by the Larsons and just recently sold and its nice to go in there because its got that museum.

At any rate, you have Winfield Scott who becomes a national hero in 1825. He will write the first U.S. book on military tactics. In 1841, he will be General and Chief. He will fight in the Mexican war between March of 1846 through February 2, 1848. He will try to parlay all that in a run for Presidency. He will lose in 1852 to Franklin Pierce, a democrat.

In 1860, he will be charged with the safety of President Lincoln as he makes his way through Springfield into Washington. He will wire Lincoln telling him that he is in great danger of assassination as he makes his way through Baltimore. He recommends that they go by night train, which is exactly what they'll do. Lincoln will sneak into town, protected by a shawl and hat. He will say that he didn't feel much like himself. Scott will say that this is the most dangerous period of his life as he is charged with protecting the President while Lincoln will stay in suite number 6 at the Willard Hotel, you will have Scott who will receive 50 threats on his own life as he makes preparations.

On inauguration day, Scott will have sharpshooters on the top of the roofs of buildings protecting the President. They will be carrying repeating rifles. These rifles have cylinders that fire six shots, problem was that the gun sometimes fired all the bullets at once. It was a gun that was first issued to Hiram Berdan's Sharpshooters, they would eventually get three band sharps rifles, serial number ranges in the late '40's, early '50's some with double set triggers. You also have the 1st Virginia with these rifles who will turn them in for Mussel Loader Muskets.

So after Lincoln is sworn in, Scott will say "we have to find somebody to lead this army", and he recommends Robert E. Lee. Robert E. Lee, when Virginia secedes on April 17th will say "I can't take up my sword again" and so a newly minted colonel, on April 23rd, he will resign. Southall Freeman will say that's what he had to do. Well not every Virginian had to do that, you had Slow George Thomas, the Rock of Chicagmuaga, who was a Virginian, he would just say that he would not fight. Oh course he had a wife from New York and my wife is from New York and I am familiar with the influence a New York woman can have.

Immediately Scott creates a buffer zone between Washington and the Confederates. He'll send eleven regiments across the river seizing railroads junctions, cross roads, bridges and on Friday, May 24th he will send Elmer Ellsworth into Alexandria. Ellsworth was in charge of the 11th New York Zouaves, a bunch of ex-firefighters. Before the war, Ellsworth had traveled the country with the Zouave units in competition with militia units and he thought that the firemen, men who were in good shape, men who'd be disciplined, would be great. Well the 11th New York was not great. The 11th New York when they got into Washington was found hanging upside down from some of the rafters of the unbuilt cabin. They would go into restaurants and order a full meal and charge it to Jeff Davis. They did gain some respect with the people in Washington when they helped put out a fire. He will now bring these 11th New York Fire Zouaves into Alexandria and there in Alexandria at the Marshall House Tavern is this huge flag, that Lincoln could see from Washington and it was the stars and bars. The stars and bars were not the square battle flag. Stonewall Jackson's casket, when he would be buried in the Shenandoah, known as the Jackson flag also stainless.

But at any rate you have Elmer Ellsworth who tears down the flag and as he makes his way down, and waiting at the third floor landing is the guy who puts the flag up there, James W. Jackson is not very happy and with him is a loaded shot gun. As Ellsworth makes his way down, boom, no more Ellsworth. Brownell will be the next one who will take his 1855 rifle and shoot Jackson. Jackson will trade his life in. Ellsworth will be the first officer who will die in the war, he is somebody who in the ranks they would yell "Remember Ellsworth". The 44th New York, when you go to Gettysburg on Little Round Top, you'll see the impressive New York Regimental Monument, the biggest monument to a regiment on the battlefield. The 44th New York was recruited as Ellworth's avengers.

So know the buffer zone has been created, but things are not going so well for Scott. Scott has asked for three year volunteers as opposed to the 90 day volunteers. He says "the way to win this war and it's going to be a war that's going to take several years. This isn't going to be a summer's war". It's going to take several years and he suggests that they patrol the Mississippi, split the Confederates down the line of the Mississippi, blockade the forts and strangle them. It would become known as the Anaconda plan and people would think this war is going to be over in 90 days see Winfield Scott as a little dad. He is certainly 75 years old, 300 pounds, 6'5". He is too heavy to mount a horse. So he's not somebody who is going to be out there in the fields. He'll have some problems with Big Bethel, he'll have his problem with Bull Run and he'll have the problem with Falls Bluff.

November 1st, Winfield Scott will resign. One of the credits to Winfield Scott is that he was very committed to the Administration. You didn't have that with his successor George Britain McClellan. McClellan will say things like "I'm tired of this administration, thoroughly sick of it". As opposed to what Scott would say when he resigns and that he suffers new illnesses, vertigo, he needs rest, he needs medicine and he regrets having to resign at this time from the Administration that has treated him so kindly with such respect. Big difference. Of course, McClellan and Martin will be canned themselves and are replaced by Henry Halleck. So McClellan can spend all his time at the Peninsula. Henry Halleck, a man who was given the name 'brain' before the Civil War, however during the Civil War he would share the same nickname as John Bell Hood, 'old wooden head'. Gideon Welles said that Halleck knows nothing, does nothing, and is good for nothing.

Scott will survive to see the end of the war. He will die at West Point in the last week of May, 1866. Now bring in Irvin McDowell. McDowell a tall guy, heavy set, born October 15, 1818. He will graduate from West Point in 1838, he will hang around interestingly enough to teach tactics at a time when you'll have some of the cadets being McClellan, Pope, Burnside, and Grant. So if your Grant's man, you can make the argument that's probably good he wasn't a terrific student.

McDowell will be on the staff of John Ellis Wool, the oldest, next in line after Winfield Scott. He will expect that he will be named as General and Chief when Scott resigns. He will command the 8th Corps and then be shipped off, he'll live in Troy and die in 1869. But he will be on John Ellis Wool's staff during the Mexican War. Afterwards, he will be an assistant in the Adjutant Generals Office in Washington. He will never command more than eight people at a time. Now he's going to command this 30,600 man army that's building in Washington. He's loud, he's boisterous and loves to eat. He will eat anything that's within striking distance. These doughnuts would not have survived. There is a story of a staff officer who said that after they polished off a big meal, he's looking around for something to eat. So they bring out this gigantic watermelon, and he polishes that off, and when he's done he belches and he says that was monstrously fine.

To his credit, he will not be too impetuous, he will say "I know that everybody wants action, but these people they're green, some of them have only had the most basic training, some of them only fired their rifle a couple times, their out of shape." Lincoln says "I know their green, your green, the Confederates are green, you are green a lot." Not the type of stuff Newt Rockne would say in the locker room at half time. But McDowell would get the idea and he now begins to move his army out to the Plains of Manassas where he will face Pierre Gustave Toutant Beaureguard.

Beauguard is somebody who is admired, he is the savior, the hero of Fort Sumter. He is everything that a southern general should be. When their talking about going into battle, he will say "We are destined to win." "We gotta win, it doesn't matter we might only bring to the field, corn stalks and pitch forks, but we're gonna win." The people in the south loved him. Because they understood him and that if he took the entire production in the South, it didn't equal 25% of what New York produced in one year. He would fill the gossip columns. In the middle of the war, one time his hair would just turn white overnight. Why? Headlines, in the papers would say: "Beauguard's hair, what's the problem?" It took about a week and a half for them to find out that he just couldn't get his French hair dye through the blockade.

So Beauguard is there with 20,000 men, there are another 12,500 men out west in the Shenandoah by Winchester. Sixty-Nine year old Robert Patterson's job is to make sure that Joseph P. Johnston doesn't send his men to support Pierre Gustauv Beauguard. The only guy I think in the time of the Civil War that retreats away from Joesph P. Johnston. There is a joke that is if Joseph P. Johnston had commanded the army they wouldn't surrender in Georgia, they would have surrendered some place in Key West. So that enables Johnston to go ahead and take his men, 2,500 at the time, roam on the rails and send them into Manassas from Delaware and he will get them there in time.

Early on the Battle of Manassas is really kind of a fun battle to spend a little time on. One of the things that they did, see I always thought that they could scare the Confederates just by bringing huge artillery up, they would see all their artillery, huge guns, the Confederates would run, its gonna be that simple. So they labored to bring this 30 pound parrot from Washington and it takes 12-16 horses to pull this thing out, this thing weighs 6,000 pounds. Six times what a regular field piece would weigh. When they get up to the top of the hill, there are reports that soldiers when they got to the top of the hill, they let it go, feet don't fail me know. Get away from it, because the thing would go for about a quarter of a mile on its own. They asked for volunteers for the thing and usually it takes 8 men to go ahead to battery your gun. They got 250 volunteers for this gun and they accepted all of them. So now you got this big procession as they drag this thing to the battle. They are taking it to Abram VanPelt's house on top of Matthew's Hill where Shanks Evans has his head wounded.

Shank Evans, rough, tough, cusser, loved to drink. He got the nickname Shanks because of his skinny legs, the cadets up at West Point gave him the nickname Shanks. He would have a Prussian orderly that would follow him around with a tank of Whiskey. This ought to be handy. So he's out there, their aiming this gun, and they pull the lanyard and the thing misses the VanPelt House and tears through a tent that was Alexander's tent. Alexander wanted to be there but they told him, no. He was six miles away at the lookout post and you could just see him looking - boom, "There goes his tent". He would, of course, eventually place the guns at Gettysburg for Pickett's Charge.

You also have the McClean house story. The story is that the war started in his front parlor and he was so upset that he wanted to get away from the war so he moved out to southwestern Virginia. He was really working with the Confederate Army selling them things. There's also some interesting stories with regard to what happened in the afternoon. In the beginning of the battle we'll have the Confederates being pushed down the Warrenville Turnpike up Henry House Hill, everything is going great for McDowell. You'll have Burnside's 1st Rhode Island, along with Governor Sprague who is with the 1st Rhode Island. I don't know if you can picture that today. Can you picture Governor Whittman out there or Patakai or President Carter. I can see President Carter out there, Mrs. Carter, don't worry if anybody gets hurt, we got universal health care. But that's the type of involvement there was in the Civil War.

By 12:00 McDowell is out there with his white gloves on and he's saying: "We done it, we won, guys we have won." and the guys are saying: "On to Richmond, we'll hang Jeff Davis by sundown" and then he stops, maybe it was time for lunch. Maybe because they had never been in a battle like this before, they didn't know when it was over. Maybe they thought for now it's over. But they wait and that gives Joseph P. Johnson time to shuttle his men from the train station to the battlefield. McDowell makes a big mistake. He will send his artillery up before his infantry and they will get blasted.

But 2:30-3:00 you will always hear about the story about Jackson and if you listen to a Virginian the story is as Bernard Elliot Bee from South Carolina who knew Jackson as Tom Fool Jackson, BMI is trying to rally his men of the 4th Alabama and he will turn to Jackson and say: "There's Jackson standing like a stone wall, lets rally around the Virginia". If you're from Virginia that sounds great. If you take a look at the statue of Jackson at Manassas, it looks like he's on steroids, it looks like his horse is on steroids. The World Wrestling Federation interpretation of what Jackson looked like. But the thing is Bernard Elliot Bee was talking to the 4th Alabama who had just gotten riddled by Pickett's battery at the Henry House while the 13 guns of Jackson stood idly by and he was trying to rally his men and if you believe those on Bee's staff, "he said there's Jackson standing like a stone wall, let's go to his assistance." You can pick whatever story you like. It was Colonel William Jackson, he was the cousin of Stone Wall Jackson and they gave him the nickname of Mudhole. The other interesting thing is you'll have Francis Steadmen Bartow from Georgia, member of the Oglethorpe Light Infantry.

In January of '61 that was before Fort Sumter and he will be out there and he will be killed making his way down Henry House Hill leading his men, he's shot, men they got me but never give up this reign. There is a small UDC marker on the Battlefield, and it says "The First Confederate to Fall in Battle", which must have come as a shock to Robert Garnett's family who had probably already buried him after he had died two weeks earlier, but it is there. The other thing that is important is that Bartow would be the first one ever to have a monument to his honor during the Civil War. They would build it out of stone on the Battlefield after battle and they would tear it down as they would leave in the Spring of '62.

So Irvin McDowell not doing too well he now turns into route. By 3:30 they are making their way off the battlefield. Four o'clock as the tradition has it, you will have the old Virginian fire Edmund Ruffan pulling the lanyard and that will be the last shot of the battle hitting a stone bridge and creating chaos. I'm not so sure I believe that Ruffian did that. Ruffian supposedly fired the first shot at Fort Sumter. So, Irvin McDowell, the papers will read "The Great Scaddle" and a couple days later it will be "McDowell Canned" and he will be replaced by the Virginia Creeper, the Pennsylvania Tadpole.

The man who Lincoln said had the slow horse, George Britian McClellan. Born in 1822 on December 3rd, he will start off real quick. He as a youngster who is 13 will enter the University of Pennsylvania. When he is 15 he will enter West Point. He will graduate second in his class behind Charles Steuart. Similar to Jay Jorgensen's favorite Civil War figure Robert E. Lee will graduate second in the class of 1829 behind Charles Mason. Lee will graduate first in overall military tactics but second in academics. Everybody familiar with Bud Robertson? He is somebody who certainly has a Southern perspective on this war. I just love to listen to him. One of the things I heard him say was could you imagine completing four years as a cadet at West Point, finishing second in your class and not getting a single demerit that sounds impressive. The fact of the matter is there were five people who graduated that year without a single demerit. Charles Mason did, he graduated first.

McClellan after graduating will invent the shelter pup tent, he will write a book on bayonet tactics, he will be someone who will redesign military clothing with a looser fit. In his twenty's he will be sent abroad with senior advisors to review military tactics in Europe. In the old army, the only way you advanced was if someone died or quit. It was a little too small for McClellan, so he quit and he will eventually become the president of the Ohio-Mississippi Railroad by age 33. As a woman wrote once, he can't sit still. He will command troops out west and he'll have some success. He'll have success, and at Ridge Mountain, Rosecrans will find an unguarded mountain pass and he will defeat John Pegram.

John Pegram will in January of 1865 be part of the social event of the year in Richmond as he will marry Teddy Carey at St. Paul's church and three weeks later Teddy Carey will be back in church as John Pegram will be laid to rest, dying in Patrick's Run. His younger brother Willie Pegram, an artillerist with the Army of Northern Virginia, will die just two months later.

Ridge Mountain is where Robert Garnett cousin of Richard Brooke Garnett will fall and be the first Confederate officer to die in battle. You will have John Quincy Molner of the Warrington Rifles, he will fall in a skirmish in Fairfax Courthouse on the first of June, but in a real battle Garnett will be the first one. He will be buried in Baltimore and then be moved to Brooklyn and buried with his wife.

Now we have McClellan building this army and that's what he does best. For eight months they're just building the army and Lincoln is getting a little impatient and he says to McClellan "look if you're not going to use the army, I'd like to borrow them". Stafford says either you got to fight or you got to run away from this champagne and oysters on the Potomac got stuck." On January 27th, Lincoln will issue General Order No. 1 which states on February 22 Washington's Birthday all land and navel forces will move against the Confederacy and it will be McClellan's job to attack Johnston at Manassas. Well, he doesn't want to do that because he thinks there is a tremendous Confederate force at Manassas. He devises a plan where he will float his army down the Chesapeake and work his way up the Peninsula and catch them with their drawers down, sort of speak. Well, Lincoln didn't like the idea. Let's take a look at the map, there's Washington here, Confederates here, and you're there, not exactly what I'd like to do and we know the problems that we've had with Lincoln and Washington. So he will finally convince Lincoln that this is an effective plan. Lincoln looking for any action will say yes.

As he moves troops down, unfortunately the troop carriers will be six inches too wide to make it through a lock on the Chesapeake in Ohio. That will give Johnston enough time to move his army. He will have to change his landing place down to Harrison's Landing. He will arrive there and eventually very slowly work his way up to where he is close enough to hear the clocks chiming, the bells tolling, in the Square in Richmond. Well on May 31st, something changes for the Confederacy. At Fair Oaks Station, Joseph P. Johnston will be struck down and carried off the field. His replacement will be a 41 year old Kentuckian by the name of Gustaf Woodsen Smith. Within 24 hours Smith will have a nervous breakdown. Now Davis will make a risky decision. He will elect Robert E. Lee.

He didn't get out of the starting box very quickly. Those who know him say he is audacious. His real name should be "Audacity" and he begins by attacking McClellan at Beaver Dam Creek and it's not a success. He will lose 1300 men, McClellan will lose 308 that doesn't sound like a victory to me but it scares the life out of McClellan. Perhaps you have heard McClellan say "I'm tired of sickening side of the battlefield, the mangled corpses, the poor suffering wounded, victory at this cost has no fascination". Well I thought he was saying that in Antietam, he said that after Beaver Dam Creek. The first time he ran into Lee, that's what he said. Not the kind of mindset you want from a lion who is going to lead you. He'll be pushed back and pushed back and finally the Confederates will be halted at Malvern Hill as they make their way up a long slope against the guns placed there. Lee in those seven days will lose 20,000 men. The Confederates feared that if McClellan would attack, the door to Richmond would lay wide open. But he doesn't attack, he will stay back under the protection of the Union guns.

On June 26th something interesting happened as Lee attacked at Mechanicsburg, Lincoln contacts Pope already he's given up on McClellan. By August, McClellan will be shelved off and let us bring in John Pope. John Pope born in Louisville, Kentucky. John Pope is somebody who is another West Point graduate. He was born in 1822, graduated in 1842. Did pretty well, he was in the top third of his class. He was a braggert. He had some success out West at New Madrid in Island No. 10, capturing 3500 Confederates, for the most part, without firing a shot. On June 26th as he is on leave from St. Louis up in West Point, he gets a call down to Washington where he will meet with Secretary of War, Stanton who looks like he hasn't slept in two weeks. He will tell Pope that he is to command a new army to be christened the Army of Virginia, made up of three corps that are scattered in the northern part of Virginia. They would be Banks, McDowell, and Fremont.

Well, Lincoln knows Pope, as a matter of fact, Pope will have been on a train with him from Springfield to Washington before the inauguration. Pope would have been on that train, Banks was on that train, Elerith was on that train. He knew the Pope's, as a matter of fact, Mary Tyling was related to him by marriage. He knew that his father was a Federal Judge in Kentucky and his uncle was a Senator. When they asked him, don't you know that this guy is nothing but a liar and a braggart. Yes, I understand I know the Pope's, all of them liars and braggarts but that doesn't mean that a liar and a braggart can't make a good General.

Well, the first thing he does which is known as Pope's Address, and he tells the men who have been fighting Jackson in the Shenandoah; "Where I come from out west, we're only use to seeing the backs of the enemy, we're only use to seeing elbows and fannies, I don't want to hear any talk of lines of retreat". Well that didn't sit too well with those who have been fighting Jackson. When a reporter will ask him where his headquarters will be, he will say in the saddle. Men will say that he doesn't know difference between his headquarters and his hindquarters. One man had probably the best comment of the war when they asked him about Pope. He said "I don't care for Pope, one inch of owl's dump". Also, Lee didn't like him, really hated him because what he was doing to the people in Northern Virginia. Those people in Northern Virginia didn't like the guerilla warfare. Pope didn't like the guerilla warfare that was going on and he made those people sign a allegiance to the Federal Government. Those who didn't they confiscated their property. It got so bad that even Pope was amazed at what was going on and heavy penalties were involved in this. Because anything that was in the line of the army was a risk. Lee said Yes, but stop it.

But now we got the beginning of the Second Manassas Campaign right before then you'll have Cedar Creek, where you'll have Banks almost defeating Jackson. Jackson Baker will be saved with the help of the gonorrhea laden A.P. Hill. Then you'll have an engagement at Manassas where Jackson will take Pope's riding about to Manassas and then you'll have the engagement at Brawner's Farm where Jackson will run into the Iron Brigade. It is also where Richard Stoddard Ewell will lose his leg. He will be kneeling down to look underneath some branches and the bullet will land in the top of his knee and work its way back and be amputated by a surgeon.

Now you will have the Battle of Manassas. Second Manassas isn't much better than First Manassas. You will have Porter and men of Howard Veridan Sharpshooters minus Howard Berdan. Berdian would tell you at the time that he was the best shot in the Army. But he liked to see bullets going that way. So he was never around, as a matter of fact it is said that he had something in his cheek that he would bite and spit blood and then run to the rear. So if you go to the Manassas Battlefield, you see a small piece of wood dedicated to the men of Howard Berdan Sharpshooters.

Then you'll have around 4:00 Longstreet who is always supposed to be slow but he'll initiate the quickest attack of the war as he will come out of the trees and attack the 5th New York Zouaves who will be under the command of the hated Clevand Winslow. They will suffer more numbers of casualties than any other regiment. By the end of the day, Second Manassas isn't any better than First Manassas. The Campaign will end up with Chantilly, where you will have the millionaire Carney dying. Kearny will be the first one to initiate corps bashing and he will yell at some people, officers not under his command. Kearny will fall at the end of Chantilly and the end of the Campaign and we have the end of John Pope.

John Pope who has tunnel vision, only going after Jackson. He will wind up in Minnesota to fight the Sioux Indians. He will die in Ohio at the age of 70 in an old soldiers home.

So now we go back to what Lincoln must of hated to do. He calls on George Britain McClellan. McClellan says "Well once again, I've been asked to save the army and save the nation." He will meet Lee at Antietam. Before that reports of the Order 191. Most of us are familiar with Order 191, apparently where Private Barton Mitchell originally found them and he will give them to Sergeant John Gloss who would give them to Colonel Silas Colgrove who would then give them to McClellan. There is Lee's battle plan supposedly wrapped in these three scarves. There is a lot of controversy as to why it was wrapped in three scarves. At any rate, he's got these orders and he says: "Ah, now I got everything at my disposal to eliminate the Army of Northern Virginia. He had everything at his disposal long before he received those orders. Understand that Lee is out in western Maryland, if you're in eastern Maryland you got a problem. But if you're in western Maryland, as Lee found out, you got Unions at every farm, every family out there was a spy and they gave him all the information after Stanton's mechanic giving him information, Halleck would be giving him information. For some reason this 191 was supposed to mean something. He will wait 18 hours even after he had them.

Understand that on December 14th, Lee is about ready to get at it but the victory at Harper's Ferry will make him stay, so now what we have is Antietam a battle that is really three battles: cornfield, sunken road, and the rawback bridge. You'll have Hooker, flank march out at the cornfield and in the morning he will initiate the battle as the Confederates are up in the corn. A lot of people say, why are they up in corn? They just happen to be on a high ridge. He will make the mistake of mistakes in that battle. Instead of going through the cornfield he went to Nicodemus Heights where you have the help of Pelham up there with Steuart with some light artillery if he had taken that position he could see the results, he could get to the rear of Lee's army. But he didn't. McClellan only went to the battlefield once. The attack on the Sunken Road was never ordered. It just happened. The Rawback Bridge, Burnside crossing over after 1:00 that Bridge would forever be known as Burnside. At 4:00 A.P Hill coming up from Harper's Ferry men dressed in blue, surprising Burnside and he will be drawn back. Lee will wait one more day, he won't leave. He knows the importance of this battle. Perhaps hoping that McClellan will leave but he won't. Next night they could hear the wagons of Lee's army as he retreats back into Virginia. Porter will follow without very much success but nobody criticized McClellan for not following up. After Shiloh, the President even said "after major battles, the army is glad to reestablish themselves, resupply and then attack in strength."

They asked Sherman after Shiloh "why didn't you follow up?" Sherman said "we were just glad they left". Meade said some interesting things, he said that they were never resupplied. It was four weeks before they received supplies. The government said well that was because of supply depot problems. They really didn't have anything. There were 200 railroad cars that were staying in the stations. Men sitting there, officers would say "crackers and hard times because they were hungry." When Lincoln said why are your horses tired, what have they done to make them tired. They haven't been eating. Meade personally had to pay for the shoeing for 1200 horses and mules. Meade began to think that the Administration was creating this policy to delay.

After the election, you have Jeb Stuart riding around the army embarrassing them going up in Pennsylvania going up into Chambersburg and coming back without one casualty. But, with the election in October and the election in November. New Hampshire had elections in October that's why we always say "how New Hampshire goes, so goes the nation. That's because they had their election before anybody else. After the election in November when you would have Horatio Seymour becoming Governor of New York. After that Lincoln has had enough of McClellan and McClellan gets the boot. He will eventually become Governor of your State after the war before he fades out. He will try to run against Lincoln, of course, unsuccessfully. So we're done with McClellan.

Who do we have now - Ambrose Burnside. A guy who has been asked to lead this army before and he said no, he didn't think he was qualified and now he's going to prove to everybody that he wasn't qualified. He is another graduate from West Point. He was born May 23, 1824. He graduated in 1847. Hard luck guy right from the start. He would invent the Burnside rifle but he will run out of money and go bankrupt before the Civil War starts. He had to sell his patent. He will lose everything he owns travelling down the Mississippi on a river boat. Left with the clothes he wore and whatever he could stuff into a kerchief. He will become engaged to a southern belle who will leave him at the altar. Showing that southern belles have more smarts than Lincoln I guess. Here we have Burnside and they're pressuring Burnside. The other interesting thing about Burnside is Burnside will be at Fords Theater the night Lincoln is shot.

Booth will jump down from the balcony, make his way out the door and jump on his horse and make a right down F street past the Surrat Boarding House which is now Go Lo's Chinese Restaurant and he will go down to the navel bridge and he will finally be trapped. As Booth raises his Spencer Rifle to his shoulder, Corbit will fire and hit him in the neck and kill him. Corbit is an interesting character, a religious fanatic. He becomes a Methodist minister in Camden, New Jersey. His wife will die and he fears as though he's being tempted by prostitutes and he decides that he should be castrated. So he will take out a scissor and do it himself. He will move out west and they will put him in a mental institution and he will escape and be lost in history.

But at any rate, we have Burnside now and the administration is moving forward to say: we want something at the end of the war before 1862 concludes. We want to see some action. We want to end on a high note. So he'll march the Army to Stafford Heights facing Fredericksburg and he will wait for pontoons to get there to move the army. The pontoons will arrive late, but even when they get there Burnside will take his time. Enough time to for Lee to create a new defense. December 13th, 1862 and 14 attacks on Marye's Heights against Longstreet, 7,000 men will fall and nobody will touch the wall. Meade will break through Jackson's line and he will get his reserves. Maxcy Gregg will be there and Gregg makes the mistake of leaving. He'll run down the line carrying his cane hitting the barrels up in air. Gregg will be hit in the spine and die two days later. Meade, unsupported will have to retreat. The next day Burnside says "let's do it again, and I want to lead it". They finally convinced him that's the wrong move.

In January there will be the mud march of 48 hour driving rain, you have the problem of trying to move artillery. They will be sunk up to the axel. By January 26th, Burnside gets the boot. He will come back heading the 9th Corps during the Wildnerness Campaign. He will become a governor of Rhode Island, Senator of Rhode Island and the first President of the National Rifle Association.

Following Burnside we've got fighting Joe, fighting Joe Hooker. The oldest of the commanders. He is 49 years old. He was born on November 13, 1814. He is someone whose grandfather will be a captain fighting the Revolution. He comes from a military family, he was born in Hadley, Massachuttes. He is someone who was fighting for Pope, Zachery Taylor, and Winfield Scott in the Mexican War. He will actually do very well, honored more than Lee would be following that war. He would have a problem with Winfield Scott. There will be Winfield Scott and Pillow who have this running battle about this anonymous letter where Pillow is apparently being critical of Scott. It will go to court, Pillow will be eventually exonerated but it didn't leave a good taste in Winfield Scott's mouth. He will apparently hold that against Hooker.

On Feburary 21, 1853, he will move to the Sonoma Valley in California and be a farmer. He will also join the militia and when the war breaks out, he wants to come back. Scott says no, but eventually he will become a brigadier general of defense around Washington. Hooker hated his name, fighting Joe. He is someone who would change the way the army news would be leaving the army. The way he got his name was the Associate Press wrote a story that said "Fighting - Joe Hooker", but everybody just took the hypen out and it became Fighting Joe Hooker. Reporters didn't have to sign their name so they could write anything. Only the influential, famous editors would put their name on it. So up till now he made everybody write their names on the news reports leaving the army, so that they knew who to blame. Winfield Scott gives Hancock the name - Hancock the Superb after the seige at Williamsburg. So now you got Hooker who has a wild headquarters, everybody probably enjoyed being part of his headquarters. It was a place where it was said that a gentlemen would not like to be seen and a lady would never go. There was a lot of drinking going on and he brings a new enthusiasm to the army. He will change the army, he will create a calvary corps and with Dapper Dan Butterfield and he'll create more bad news.

But he has got a plan and it's a good plan and what he's going to do is steal a march on Lee which he'll do on Monday, April 27th. He'll take 70,000 men and march them up to Chancellorsville crossing the Rapidan and Rappahannock. He'll do that by Friday, May 1st. He'll leave Uncle John Sedgwick and who would go to West Point. There are two statues of Sedgwick at Gettysburg and there is a statue of Sedwick at West Point. So you will have Uncle John Sedwick with 40,000 men, Lee will take 46,000 men march to Chancellorsville leaving 10,000 men at Marye's Heights. You talk about great flank movements, this was a great flank movement. He had stolen it on Lee. A lot of people talk about Jackson's flank movements at Chancellorsville which is a terrible flank. Everybody knew what he was doing. It was just Hooker who had the idea that he was retreating. They saw him. So now there he is Fighting Joe Hooker will wire back to Washington saying "our plan is perfect, consider the Army of Northern Viriginia, the property of the Army of the Potomac." He says "I hope God will have mercy on Lee because I will have none." But he will lose confidence.

Some say that Hooker, who use to like to drink a lot took on this responsiblity of managing the army very seriously and he stopped drinking and he was having a problem. He will tell Meade who was on the crest of a hill to move down to the fences around the Chancellor House. Meade said "what in the world are you doing, if we can't defend the top of the hill, how are we going to defend the bottom of the hill." Well, that night, May 1st you'll have Jackson and Lee leading what has become the Cracker Barrell. Cracker Barrell meaning sit on a cracker barrel and talk about what to do and they will decide that Jackson will take 26,000 men and march around Hooker's flank however, Oliver Otis Howard will be there, up in the air and they won't attack him. So they agree, the next day you got Jackson and he will successfully flank, but it will be late in the afternoon and we know what happens to Oliver Oatis Haupt. They get rolled up and at night Jackson understanding that he doesn't want lose his advantage and before that can be done will plan a very dangerous night attack. He goes out there, as he comes back from the reconnissance he will be shot by a man from the 18th North Carolina. Jackson will die on the 10th. Hooker on the morning of the 3rd is leaning up against a post of the Chancellor House and will be struck by Confederate cannon ball and he will be dead. He will turn over command to Darius Couch with the order to retreat. But you have Uncle John Sedgwick who in the second battle of Fredericksburg has defeated Early. If you have ever seen that picture of the stonewall, the wall of the Confederates that is the second battle of Fredericksburg. He'll make his way up the turnpike but he will be unsupported at South Church and he will be turned back. Hooker just said that he lost confidence in Joe Hooker. Lincoln with his hands behind his back will be pacing in the White House saying "My God, My God, what will the nation say." Well, they'll make life hard on Hooker and on the June 28th, they will replace him with George Meade.

George Meade is somebody who was born in Spain the last day of the year in December of 1815. He will graduate from West Point in 1835. He is somebody who performed well in the Mexican War. He performed well in the first part of the Civil War. He was injured severely, and very much like Chamberlain he would be shot in the hip and shot in the arm and he will be standing there leading the men on. He will get command of the Army as Halleck will send a courier to knock on the door of his tent in Frederick and Meade who had been very critical of Hooker thought at first that he was being arrested. The courier will open up by saying I've brought bad news, I've got trouble and then say this army is now yours. Meade will meet with Hooker and Hooker looks like a man who is relieved. They will look at a map and go over the position of the army and the only time that Hooker shows any anger when Meade says "Hell, it looks like everybody is spread out". But he will see him off as Hooker will leave on June 18, 1863, and the army is now Meade's. Three days later up in the Chambersburg Pike ten paces off the Chambersburg Pike, Lieutanent Marceluis Jones will bring his Sharp's Carbine to his shoulder and squeeze off the first round in the Battle of Gettysburg. Meade really didn't have much chance to plan, he will assemble the army, fight the decisive battle of the war, and win.

Grant would come East in March, 1864, and the rest, as they say, is history.