Breakthrough at Petersburg from the Confederate Perspective: Petersburg Video Tour!

wow everybody it's been far too long since i've been here here at pamplin historical park i just love coming here it's been more than a year um and this is also you know the perfect place to sort of you know cap grant's attempts to finally break through you know the confederate line you might recall we were at union fort welsh before well that's about i don't know the distance but let me say 1803 yards off in the distance through those thin trees there in other words the open ground beyond pamplin historical park which is about to those trees there becomes american battlefield trust land and then national park service land beyond and that's where fort welch is you'll recall that on april 2nd 1865 uh there is plans for a dawn attack will green already talked about setting up the troops in and around fort welsh laying in front of it imagine the moment before this attack started okay and then there it's going to start and to talk more about this let's bring on our friend tim talbot he's the director head of education and a whole lot of other things here at pamplin historical park especially during covet thanks for joining us tim what do you got to say sure so as you mentioned these guys are land in formation and how they got into their position is first of all the union artillery in the union forts across the way about one mile are going to bombard this position for almost three hours the night before the night of april first into the morning of april second so from about 10 p.m until about 1 00 a.m on april 2nd they're going to send all kinds of shot shell everything they can over here to soften up this position but as we all know earthworks do a really good job of not being destroyed very easily so it's probably doing more psychological damage to these confederate defenders who probably know that something's coming but there's nobody behind them to give them reinforcements that gets those union soldiers into position they're going to be attacking in a wedge shape for mission with three divisions general george washington gettys division in the center general frank wheaton's division on the right and truman seymour's division on the union left about 14 000 men in those three divisions 42 regiments they've been ordered to load and bayonet the rifles but not to cap them they don't want them stopping to fire and then all of a sudden breaking formation this is supposed to be a sledgehammer blow into these confederate earth works pointing uh pushing these confederate defenders out at the point of the bayonet and as they're attacking across this field with uh getty's division right in the center it's being led by the vermont brigade who is being commanded originally by louis addison grant but during the pre-attack he actually takes a spit bullet to the head and he has to actually turn over command of the vermont brigade but they continue forward following this ravine over my left shoulder right into the confederate earthworks where there's sort of a swampy area and no earth works and that's going to be their avenue of attack and as they're going forward leading to vermont brigade is the fifth vermont and leading the fifth vermont is company h and leading company h is captain charles gould a 19 year old captain he's going to be turning 20 in may the next month and as he's leading his men forward he apparently hears someone behind him say bare left bare left and he and his ben actually break off and follow another ravine that's been created in the geography here that weeds them through the earthworks excuse me the obstacles the abbatee and they make their way up toward the confederate earthworks captain gould knows the safest places in that ditch where the confederate defenders cannot shoot him without exposing themselves he gets into the ditch and then realizes i better lead by example he scurries up that wall by himself standing on top of the earth works motioning his man to follow him on and a confederate soldier who's behind the earth works sees him in the pre-dawn light raises his rifle points right at his chest pulls the trigger but fortunately for captain gold the gun goes click he jumps down into the earthworks and is immediately a target from all these confederate soldiers one confederate soldier runs over with his bayonet lunges up and catches captain ghoul right in the chin and the bayonet goes through his chin and out the other side of his face somehow probably with the adrenaline pumping he's able to pull that bandaid away from his face use his sword on that soldier but a confederate officer runs over with his sword and his captain gould right across the top of the head again i think captain gould had a little fortune shining on him either hit on the flat side or that sword was not sharpened because it doesn't cut through his cap or his scalp but he said it's like getting hit on the head with a club and then finally he looks over there for us to see where all of his men are and he gets pulled back into the earth works by other confederate soldiers and bayonetted in the upper back for his third wound he's going to be eventually rescued when all of his troops start surging over the wall and corporal henry recore is going to pull him over to the other side of the works make their way back to the union lines and then he's going to receive some serious care at city point and eventually receive the medal of honor good that's it don't go anywhere tim so what we have here is a famous story right and i've been lucky enough sometimes to see some of gould's actual items here at pamplin historical park but you know like in all battles right there's 10 different people that claim to be the first ones over the work so what's your take on this is gould really first and if not who's competings for this yes i think he's got a good claim to it since the vermont brigade is at the center of this attack and they're at the point of this spear um formation so i think he's probably got the best claim to it there are others but of course this is at what uh 440 45 450 in the morning it's dark it's hard to see they're attacking on a mile wide front so it's hard to see who actually made it out of those 14 000 soldiers first over the earth works another good claim at the other end is john buffington of the 6th maryland infantry uh who received a medal of honor there's actually 36 soldiers who received the medal of honor in the sixth corps here for fighting on april 2nd well and that makes sense too right this is what i like to call the most consequential assault of the entire civil war okay show me another salt assault that results directly in the fall of the confederate capital i don't think there is one okay and it starts right here and i do want to ask you um a little bit more so so they break through okay the thin confederate line starts to fall back in in a nutshell what then so a lot of the confederates flee back toward petersburg some of them head back toward the south side railroad uh what the union army is going to do is after they break through here is kind of get themselves reorganized and instead of turning toward petersburg immediately they're going to actually turn and follow the earthwork line all the way down to hatcher's run and they're going to clear out and make sure that they don't get attacked from the flank or behind and then later in the day they're going to move back up with the 24th core here to this position and then on into petersburg the 24th chord is going to encounter fort gregg and the sixth chord is going to encounter artillery placed around lee's headquarters at edge hill and good let's not talk too much about fort gregg because unconfirmed reports might suggest we might head over there and it's got a cool story and a very interesting one indeed so in the end we have this huge assault that happens here and man we told you this on the other side fort gregg uh you i'm sorry union fort welsh is over there you can park in the american battlefield trust parking lot there you can walk along the national park service line of works that we showed you on the previous video you can then follow the walking trail across the truss land and eventually you'll come to some signs that you're entering pamplin historical park don't enter that is unless you want to complete that walk and come all the way up here the way the vermonters and the other more than ten thousand soldiers of the sixth corps come but if you do come and do that you'll walk through pamplin park and please proceed to the main visitor area so you can pay your admission it's well worth it and i think we'll talk about that on another video tim anything else to add thank you very much i appreciate you coming here to help tell our story and we do encourage people to come see us please do thank you so much for watching thanks to tim and all of pamplin historical park for having us and thank you for supporting battlefield preservation and education you

Channel: American Battlefield Trust

Views: 15,723

Rating: 4.971581 out of 5

Keywords: American Battlefield Trust, Civil War Trust, Petersburg Civil War Tour, Petersburg Battlefield Tour, Petersburg Tour, Garry Adelman, Petersburg Live

Id: CC3d3RJLghM

Length: 8min 15sec (495 seconds)

Published: Wed May 05 2021