War Yankee - Overland

Kyle Bondo introduces War Yankee and how having a personal and family background in military history developed his Unionist perspective.

Greetings! I am Kyle M. Bondo and this War Yankee - Overland, my American Civil War history podcast that follows General Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the Potomac on its 47-day, 113-mile military campaign south from Culpeper to Petersburg, Virginia. As the first episode in this War Yankee series, I want to begin with setting some expectations. You may be asking yourself:

• Who is the War Yankee?
• Why the Overland Campaign?
• Why are you starting in the middle of the Civil War?

Those are great questions! Let me begin with some background about myself that will fill you in on what War Yankee is all about.

"That Grant, he was the only War Yankee Lincoln had that was worth anything." -- Grandpa

"The world will little note nor long remember what we say here but it can never forget what they did here." -- President Abraham Lincoln, From the Gettysburg Address

The American Battlefield Trust knows that there is no substitute for experiencing history in the places where it actually took place and has worked to become the only one national organization working to save America's historic battlefields today and discover how you can help preserve American history forever. Join me in the fight to save our nation's historic battlefields by visiting the American Battlefield Trust website at battlefields.org.

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• All our Show Notes: waryankee.com
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• War Yankee - Overland!
• Gagglepod - Until Every Story is Told!

War Yankee is a Gagglepod Production. Learn more at gagglepod.com.

Overview

It's May 1864, You are an officer in the Army of the Potomac during the first week of the Overland Campaign leading men into The Wilderness against the Confederacy. As you struggle to maneuver your soldiers in a straight enough line to engage the rebels within this 70-square-mile tract of thickets and dense forest... you may ask yourself... How did I get here?

Quotes

"Let no man be so rash as to suppose that in donning a general’s uniform, he is forthwith competent to perform a general’s functions."

— Prof. Dennis Hart Mahan, USMA (1824-1871)

"[I] hail the day [I] left public office as the happiest of my life, except possibly the day I left West Point, a place I felt I had been at always and that my stay had no end."

— Lt.Gen. Ulysses S. Grant (1871)

"I was always a friend of southern rights but an enemy of southern wrongs."

— Maj.Gen. Benjamin Butler (1861)

In This Episode

It's the mid-morning of May 5th, 1864 -- The Army of the Potomac has now discovered two massive rebel forces forming on both sides of Warren's 5th Corps still stung out over 5 miles within the tangles of The Wilderness. Now, as new intelligence arrives, they are becoming painfully aware that General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia has launched a counter-crossing attack along the Orange Turnpike AND the Orange Plank Roads. As Meade falls back into his old Eastern Army habits by going on defense, will Grant be able to finally push the Army of the Potomac into an aggressive Federal position?

Notable Quotes

"What had begun as a hopeful morning's march was rapidly taking an ugly, familiar turn. Once again, the Union high command had underestimated Lee's audacity."
-- Gordon Rhea, Battle of the Wilderness

"If [this] is what Meade meant by attacking 'at once', as he said he would at 7:30 AM [it's now after 10:00 AM] no wonder Lee was running circles around him."
-- Gordon Rhea, Battle of the Wilderness

"Double-Quick!"
-- Maj. Gen. George Getty, Running to Brock Road Intersection, May 5th, 1864

"We must hold this point at any risk -- Our men will soon be up!"
-- Maj. Gen. George Getty, Arriving at the Brock Road Intersection, May 5th, 1864

Overview
It's May 4th, 1864 — You are a soldier in the Army of the Potomac marching towards the Rapidan River and into The Wilderness -- a 70-mile tract of thickets and dense forest that only a year before had been the location of this same armies defeat at the Battle of Chancellorsville. Before you cross the floating bridge over the Rapidan River that will later be torn up so that you cannot use it again to retreat... you may ask yourself... How did I get here?

Quotes
“I am greatly obliged to you, and to all who have come forward at the call of their country.”

— President Abraham Lincoln