The Wilderness to Cold Harbor, Grant's Overland Campaign - ABT Reaction

These battle maps from ABT have been a gift.

The soldiers cheering when they hear they're going to continue on to Richmond, instead of retreating is depicted wonderfully in the History Channel's Grant miniseries.

Glad you're starting these. I know you've been friends with the ABT for a bit but their animated maps are some of my favorite historical stuff online.

The Overland Campaign perfectly encapsulated Lee’s superior tactical mind and generalship, and Grant’s dogged determination and superior understanding of logistics.

17:00 extremely correct take about the AOTP taking Richmond in 1862. Love to see it.

Previous generals would always pull back and lick their wounds, not keeping up the pressure. After Gettysburg, Meade messaged Lincoln that they were going to "drive from our soil every vestige of the presence of the invader." But it's ALL the United States; that's not what Lincoln wanted. There is a written but unsent letter from Lincoln to Meade about Lincoln's great disappointment with Meade on the failure to finish off the ANV. Lincoln and Grant were on the same page, and Grant needed to be close and monitor Meade.

A 3x great grandfather of mine was wounded on June 2nd at Cold Harbor. He ended up losing a foot, but his life might’ve just been saved since that meant he did not participate in the infamous June 3rd assault.

My favourite version of Gen Sedgwick's last words is..."Don't worry, they couldn't hit an elephant at this dist..."

Just got back from New Orleans. Had the honor to see Hood and Beauregard’s tombs while I was there. Would recommend if you haven’t yet.

23:30 Upton is super young even by Civil war standards. During Spotsylvania he isn't even 25 yet. He gets Breveted a Major General in the Regular army in March of 65 and he is still 25 and half years old. Thay was younger than Napoleon when he took his command in Italy

Chris, as always, and across many topics, I thoroughly appreciate your lack of bias and willingness to praise and criticise all sides in equal measure. Your ability to explain matters in their historical context is massively valuable in helping to understand the bigger picture.....even if some of the historical attitudes do not sit easily with modern sensitivities.

Such an underrated masterpiece of Grant, he did make some mistakes but he pinned Lee down and never let Lee gain the initiative. And Lee could not stop Grant from manuevering further south and closer to Richmond

Terrain always dictates warfare and that has been true throughout history. That's a good point VTH 👍

My papa was the ranger at cold harbour for many years...he would have loved your content...thanks for keeping history alive...

We often forget that Grant's pinning down the army of northern Virginia essentially destroyed it in numbers which by psychological stand point did two things 1) Deterred them to keep the initiative of offense 2) Ended any chance of them to go into guerilla mode

Longstreet and two of his devisons going west was a missed opportunity because who was in commanded out west Bragg who failed to follow-up on Chickamauga.

How Burnside was in command of anything after his previous performances I cannot imagine. Great video, thanks.

I’m making my first trip to Gettysburg in 2 weeks! Going to start trying to visit more Civil War battlefields when I have some time.

In my opinion, this is the ABT’s most interesting campaign video. It’s so engaging and heavy; it was such a tragic and great military event in our history as a country.

I just picked up Grant’s Memorial at the middle of April, and just finished the chapter on New and Old Cold Harbor! What a fortuitous time :)