Who is the Angel of Gettysburg? This and More on Stories & Myths.
Who was the 'Angel of Gettysburg?' Why did Union soldiers give their lives to save High Bridge near Appomattox? All this and more on this week's Stories & Myths with Dr. Craig von Buseck and his special guest, Aaron von Buseck.
Watch previous episodes of Stories & Myths on Craig's YouTube page.
Order your copy of Victor! The Final Battle of Ulysses S. Grant
Order your copy of Forward! The Leadership Principles of Ulysses S. Grant
More books by Craig von Buseck
Stories & Myths Transcript: June 24, 2021
and good evening good morning good
afternoon wherever you are tuning in
around the world
we are so glad for you to join us
tonight
on stories and myths and you might
notice
in the lower part of the screen uh
that the last names of both people
are the same this week and even though
he looks a little bit like
john c farrell this is not john c
farrell this is my son aaron
c von busick and we want to welcome
aaron to the program tonight so glad
that you could be with us
thank you yeah this is awesome i'm
really excited to be a part of this
this is uh well i am excited to have you
as well
and uh for those who are tuning in
um aaron has just uh made some history
himself
in the last couple of weeks and uh
you're coming up on the two-week
anniversary am i right
yep me and my wife we tied the knot
literally
we did the not tying ceremony in our
wedding and
yeah it's been it's been amazing so it's
certainly a new
season so it's been really awesome so
that is exciting and uh
we uh we did this uh and
very wisely uh aaron and his
wife julie are both
graduates of the regents school of
communication
where they studied tv and film and video
and so this wedding was prepared
uh as you know from through the eyes of
filmmakers
and so because of that uh
they wanted us there uh for golden hour
at sunrise and we were right on the
shores of
lake erie and the sun rose behind us
as uh well i say behind us
i mean um because i co-officiated
the ceremony with julie's father who's
also an ordained
minister so what gave you guys the idea
to uh to do this cinematic
type of wedding
yeah it certainly is cinematic um yeah
we just you know we both
we you know we've worked on plenty of
film projects in the past and
you know there's just something about
early morning light that is just
incredible and lake erie
uh they have a bang that it's like the
third most beautiful sunrise
you know they don't set the standards
too high but it's but it's certainly
amazing
and so we just knew that it would look
gorgeous and
you know from a
you know from an emotional standpoint in
our connection we wanted to look at this
as a new season
and so we wanted to start it at the
beginning of the day so we wanted it to
symbolize as much of a new beginning
for the two of us as possible which you
know was
kind of always the idea so there's an
element like that there to it but it was
also
simply because we knew that the photos
and videos would look pristine and
and so far yeah everything that we've
seen from our amazing photographer uh
daryl morgan i'll give him a little plug
has been amazing um so we're we're
really thrilled
and really excited to see the rest of it
so
uh i am as well as you said the uh
photos that i've seen in the one little
clip of video that i've seen
have been amazing and i can't wait to
see
more so that is very exciting
yeah so uh one of i was going to say my
uh that was there she was saying that it
was amazing because as soon as
julie got down the aisle the clouds
parted and the sun shone through it was
really
kind of spectacular the way that it all
came together so
yeah it it really was it was uh
for me uh it was almost like a dream
moment or a movie moment uh living it
felt like it was we were in a movie
yeah right i was waiting for someone to
shout cut
yeah well hopefully no one will ever do
that so let me just let the movement
absolutely keep playing yeah
that's awesome well uh we said earlier
that you and julie
attended the regent film school uh tell
us
what the two of you are are doing now in
the film and video
and television industry
so uh currently julie is working
um as a producer uh for cbn
um specifically with the uh
show gizmo go and uh the soup and
also on the side uh super book show
where she does a lot of editing but also
you know a lot of producing and so
that's kind of been
where she's been going but she's also
excellent uh behind camera like as an
operator
and so uh we've been able to work
together actually on a couple projects
which is really cool
you know you know a lot of people you
know don't necessarily get the
opportunity to go to work with their
wife you know
it's really cool to be able to be on set
and to collaborate
because you know film is such an
artistic medium you know and so there
have been a couple opportunities that
we've had where it was really great
getting to work together um and getting
to see her shine in that way because
you know i've only ever seen the product
i've never gotten to see
up until recently gotten to see operate
that one
as for me i just got done working on um
a show up in richmond
uh called swagger uh it's
produced through apple tv and it looks
like it's gonna be amazing i'm really
excited to see it
uh the you know it's a show about um
basketball and youth programs and and
and
the struggles that you know young people
go through
trying to carve their way you know
especially in something as
huge as a sport you know that and you
know national sport like basketball you
know
the competition is so high and so it
makes for a lot of good drama
so uh i'm excited to see that i was a
part of that on their lighting team
um started as a set lighting technician
and then moved to the rigging electric
team
and uh it was very rewarding being a
part of such a large production
uh and now now i just got to work on the
pilot for
a uh a tv series that they're trying to
make
for uh history it's called hidden
history and the episode that we made for
the pilot
uh was about the train that was buried
in richmond uh when they the tunnel
collapsed
and it you know buried like four or five
um
people that are confirmed and then they
think that there might have been
you know up to a dozen or so you know
workers
that were buried as well and so it's
this kind of almost titanic like
story but he hit it you know hidden in
richmond's
ground you know it's kind of incredible
yeah i have never heard this story
before you
worked on this project yeah i mean
either it was really kind of incredible
but uh when i was talking to the
um the producer and uh the
cinematographer ryan pace uh we were he
was telling me the story
about how they've been trying to make
this show
for like 10 years and just now i've
gotten
uh the green light to go make this hook
and then they're working on the second
one which will be happening soon and so
i'm
waiting to hear about that that one too
so it's gonna be cool i love these
stories of you know not well-known
stories
you know from our history but they have
really great lessons i mean
lessons of hubris you know you can be
overstated
you know so well that's what the stories
of this program
is all about to tell those kind of
stories that are amazing interesting
thought-provoking informative sometimes
they make you furious
but then on the myth side you know
the program is meant to also debunk
some of the myths that are out there as
well because
not all history is completely
what happened so there are some things
that we call history
that we find out later as uh further
documentation is discovered
were not exactly what we thought that
that it was
so i'm so glad to have you on the
program uh tonight aaron
yeah no i it's awesome i'm excited to
hear
more about these things i saw your uh
your post on uh the angel of gettysburg
and i was immediately like
well that sounds like a movie
oh my gosh what a title it it really is
so just before we go into the questions
and do you have those questions ready
yeah yeah i have some questions here
that uh okay you know got me thinking
here
before we go into those questions we
want to um announce that
um aaron and i are actually
working on developing one of my books
into a video project the details of
which
will be announced uh in further
upcoming episodes once we get further
down the road
but we are taking the things that i have
been working on
and combining with aaron's video skills
and both of our writing skills because
aaron is also
a talented writer and uh we are
developing a very interesting project
uh so we will announce more about that
as
time goes by yeah i certainly think so
already
like my mind has been blown so many
times i'm like how has this
how are we the first ones to be talking
about this
coming to being a project like this is
that type of thing where you know
in my mind it's in the ranks of you know
the stories that we hear of like you
know george washington crossing
you know and like all that stuff like
all these huge historical stories
that make american history so rich
and i'm very excited to bring more light
to it
so yeah me too and it's also exciting to
be working together
as father and son but in this capacity
as partners
yeah no it's it's amazing it's funny you
know um
growing up in a you know you definitely
didn't hide history from us
so uh i guess it was inevitable that we
would eventually work together when
you shared so much and you you know talk
so much of you know the lessons that can
be learned and
you know and to value what we've gone
through and to learn from our mistakes
but to also
honor you know the good that has been
done
and you know the times that humanity's
goodness has shown through you know
especially in a world that can be so
dark and you know unpleasant
so absolutely well one of those stories
of light
uh is the angel of gettysburg that you
talked about
earlier so what's your question about
the angel of gettysburg
well number one that monument the photo
of the monument
is stunning oh my goodness it's the
artistry behind that alone
was enough to keep my interest much less
you know i know that there's an
incredible story behind it
but i wanted to hear like you know what
is that story and
you know is there some you know other
significance to the monument
itself absolutely well
elizabeth thorne is the woman that is
now known as the angel of gettysburg
she was the mother of three children and
she and her husband
had been hired in 1855
they were immigrants from germany and so
they were hired to be the caretakers of
the new
evergreen cemetery in gettysburg it was
newly established and laid out and they
had just
built uh the archway
entrance and if you've ever been to
gettysburg or you've ever seen the
cemetery
you see that that archway entrance has
on the two sides
uh they were basically two apartments
so there was an apartment on uh one side
where elizabeth and her husband lived
with their three
boys and then on the other side of the
archway was another apartment
that was housed that housed elizabeth's
parents her elderly parents now in 1862
i'm sorry 18 yeah 1862
i believe it was that her husband
um felt that
he needed to join the union army
and so he joined the army
and he went off uh to fight and was
actually fighting
ironically was actually stationed in
virginia
when general robert e lee and the
army of northern virginia invaded
pennsylvania
and eventually invaded gettysburg
so she was elizabeth was alone
uh caring for the cemetery she and her
father
had an average of about five burials
per month until the battle of gettysburg
and you can imagine uh what happened
because
their home was literally on ground
zero it was the central
point for the union army their home
that that uh wow was called cemetery
hill
and uh it was the high ground apartment
what's that yeah i was gonna say i
couldn't i could imagine the high ground
would have been
like tactically you know advantageous
for them to
hold yeah and as i pointed out with uh
my co-host john last week
general reynolds had been
overseeing the pennsylvania militia
earlier in the war
and he was actually from lancaster which
is not far from gettysburg
and so he had studied all of the ground
in and around gettysburg he knew it very
well
and so when lee started to approach
reynolds
had a very strong suspicion that lee
would want to consolidate his army
in gettysburg because gettysburg is like
the hub of a wheel with spokes going off
in every direction
and all of those roads converged on
gettysburg
which is one of the main reasons why the
battle
was not fought in harrisburg it was not
fought in carlisle
it was not fought in pipe creek where
general mead wanted to fight it was
fought in gettysburg
because that was the place where lee
could say
to all his different army corps come
together
let's come together in this place and uh
and reynolds had a suspicion that that's
what would happen and that's exactly
what happened
and so reynolds had been studying the
ground and he met
with one of the other core commanders
general
otis howard the night before the first
day of the battle
and they unrolled some maps and they
looked at it and they agreed
that they needed to hold cemetery hill
which is exactly where
elizabeth thorne's house was
and so um she
they um when they moved into gettysburg
after general buford who was in charge
of the cavalry
sent word back to general reynolds
saying lee and his course
they're gathering here move in we need
your help
and so on july 1st reynolds
and howard moved in in the morning
howard stopped and left one of his
divisions
on top of little or on top of uh
cemetery
hill and he went up to the door and
knocked on the door
of elizabeth thorne and said um just to
let you know
when i tell you to leave don't ask
questions
leave but for now go down into your
basement
and i'll tell you when it's time to go
and so
um the first day of battle was a an
overwhelming confederate victory
and so the union army
got pushed all the way back to cemetery
hill
and then there was a little bit of a
saddle between
and then next to it was culps hill and
that is where the union army was
at the evening of the first battle well
they were sitting in the yard
of elizabeth thorne and so elizabeth and
her parents were down in the basement
with the three boys
and early the next morning when the
battle erupted
general howard sent an assistant to go
tell
elizabeth thorne to get out of there and
so the
the family left and they moved uh far
south beyond a little round top uh where
several people in town had gathered
waiting out the battle
well uh the battle was absolutely
hellacious on uh both uh
cemetery hill and culps hill it was
hellacious all the way down cemetery
ridge and out into the peachfield the
wheat field
devil's den and especially strong and
difficult on little round top uh which
we talked about a little bit last week
with uh
general strong vincent and um
so the third day of battle actually
uh the tables turned the second day was
about a draw between the union and the
confederates
a little bit of a union victory in that
they held their
high ground the third day was pick
pickett's charge which was a total
annihilation the uh
union wiped out the confederates
and that is why the union won the battle
of gettysburg
so it was first day uh a confederate
victory second day almost a draw with a
little bit of a victory for the
union third day was a union victory and
so the union
won the overall battle of gettysburg and
lee had to withdraw on ironically
the reigning day of uh july 4th under
the cover of the rain
and the clouds uh general lee uh
and the army of northern virginia
withdrew
as the army of the potomac and general
mead
were licking their wounds because there
was tremendous
you know there were 50 more than 50 000
casualties
that doesn't mean 50 000 deaths that
means wounded
missing or dead sure probably around 11
or 12
000 dead between the two sides
now you think of 911 there were 3 000
dead on 911.
at gettysburg there were 10 000 dead
you can't even imagine it so elizabeth
horn
who by the way was six months pregnant
that's the other thing i forgot to
mention
and she arrived uh back i think on the
fourth
uh and there were um
dead bodies everywhere and there were
dead horses
everywhere and there weren't just the
dead bodies that were killed
on cemetery hill but people from town
were bringing dead bodies in and
stacking them
uh because they needed to be buried they
had been killed
in town and so um
the town tried to get people to
volunteer
uh to help and even offered to pay some
people to help
elizabeth and her elderly father to bury
these they ended up uh bearing i think
105
bodies now remember this was the
sweltering heat of july
and there were all those dead horses
and can you imagine the smell of all
these dead people
all these dead horses um yeah
six months pregnant woman out there
in the sweltering heat with her elderly
father
and eventually the town's people uh got
overwhelmed and they left
and then the father got overwhelmed he
was too tired
by the smell he left overwhelmed by the
smell and the heat
and just exhaustion and so elizabeth
thorne
by herself dug 75
graves and buried 75 people
by herself and so
um sadly the she the
you know the toll took or the toil
took a toll on the baby and the baby was
born
but was never healthy and died at a very
young age
which is very sad um but
elizabeth finished the job buried all
the people that she needed to bury
and her husband continued in the war
till the end of the war
and uh came home and um
they ended up uh continuing at the
cemetery for a few years and then they
went on to
other things but the great irony is that
elizabeth and her husband
are still buried uh or were buried then
in evergreen cemetery and so their
graves are there
in the cemetery and then about uh 12
years ago or so
um a group got together to honor
what elizabeth thorne did and they
created this statue
of her which actually uh was
representing her but it was also
representing
all of the women who served in the civil
war
and um so it is the women's memorial
for the civil war but the person that is
represented
is elizabeth thorne the angel of
gettysburg
right
wow oh my goodness
so this i had two questions while uh
that kind of came to my mind so you're
saying that
it was because of pickett's charge did
he just they just lost too much man
too many men that when the rest of the
battle kind of came about they
the confederacy was just too undermanned
and that and they weren't able to
stand it yes
it was as devastating uh to the
confederate army
the pickett's charge was on july
3 as the
assault on marie's heights in
fredericksburg
was to the union army if you remember
the union army got blown away
trying to move up the heights to uh
on it was called marie's heights on the
outskirts of fredericksburg
and that was in um late
1863 under general burnside
and um it was a complete disaster for
the union
who had to retreat back across the
rapidan
um and lick their wounds and so
the same thing happened at pickett's
charge only
at pickett's charge the union was behind
a stone fence a much
shorter stone fence but there was a
stone fence there
and lee sent his uh
you know pickets division along with a
couple
other divisions that were borrowed from
the other
uh core of the army um and so
they attacked across a mile wide
uh sloping incline and
uh you know it was a field day for the
union artillery
who just started sending shots out and
they would send these shells out and
they would blow up
over the troops and they'd just drop
like machine gun
bullets onto this huge mass of troops
then as they got closer they would use
what were called
grape shot or canister shot
which was basically these balls that
looked like
pinballs from the old pinball games
in a can that's why they called it
canister and they would shoot them out
and it was like
shooting a shotgun out of a cannon
and it would just mow them down oh my
god then when
the confederates got close enough the
union infantry
stood up took aim and blasted them
with their guns which were rifled
uh guns that were much more accurate
than any guns up to that point in
history and so it was a
it was so devastating that uh lee
uh decided the next day that they were
too wounded
plus the other side of it was that they
were running low on ammunition
and they were so far from their supplies
that
they didn't feel like they could uh you
know lee didn't feel like he could do
another
uh battle and so they turned and escaped
back over the potomac into the safety of
virginia
and you'll remember this because every
time we would drive home to erie we'd go
past
fredericksburg and i would i would pump
my fist in the air and say
fredericksburg
fredericksburg fredericksburg well that
was what the union said
at the end of pickett's charge as if to
say we got you back
now you get what we got at
fredericksburg right
this is our revenge right oh my gosh
right well the in the film business
you know we have a little saying or a
little like
term called foreshadowing and the
the confederacy running you know a
fourth of july
the irony is not lost on me you know
when you kind of like consider the the
meaning and you know
the kind of picture that that paints you
know on on
is well and the further the further
historical irony
is that on the very same day out in
vicksburg mississippi
the confederates surrendered vicksburg
to ulysses s grant
so the same day that lee was
retreating after the defeat in
gettysburg
uh they were also suffering a defeat in
vicksburg and both things happened on
the 4th of july
1863 right wow
wow man that just gets my mind going
with ideas of like tying these
things together it really is like
incredibly providential looking at these
things and how you know so much had to
come into place
together to a just stop the bloodshed
before
you know it could go on for years more
than what it already did but also just
to maintain the union and to you know
keep
the the country together you know like a
lot yeah
and despite these two losses the
confederacy went on for another year and
a half
so i mean the war was far from over even
though
these were two defeats for the
confederacy at that time
so they um they continued to fight
valiantly uh but as grant said they
fought for a cause that was one of the
worst
that people ever fought for and i echo
grant sediments in that yeah
it's awful wow um
so actually we had um we had talked
about the high bridge
this is a little bit of a topic change
but um
i wanted to hear some more about that
because i was blown away by like how
pivotal this sounds
sounded like in the little bit that we
got to talk about i'd love to hear more
um about this because it sounded like it
was dramatic like
you know like you know you think of
those
uh old hollywood films of like the last
stand and stuff like that and like it
sounds like that kind of story
yeah um i had not heard this story
before
and i was doing some uh reading probably
about five years ago
and i stumbled across this and i i don't
remember the source i wish i did
because i remember thinking oh my gosh
i've never heard this but it
it really could have changed the course
of the end of the civil war and what had
happened is that
after the fall of petersburg and
richmond
lee got a one-day jump on
fleeing to the west now you need to
remember
that his army was really depleted
they were running low on food
they had a lot of disease and so
it was a much weaker army than it had
ever been but they still were following
their commander
and so they started moving west along
the railroads coming
out of richmond and petersburg with the
goal
of making it to lynchburg
and getting refitted finding food and
supplies
and then they were going to turn and go
down south
into north carolina where they would
join with general joe
johnston and the remainder of the army
of the west well
if they did that then they would have a
a
army that could go against
general sherman's western army or
general grant's army
of the potomac and army of the james
it was a long shot but with general lee
in command
and with uh very committed soldiers
it was within the realm of possibility
and so
grants they could not go for their their
problems
but there was a hope there so grant knew
that he needed to get around and
surround them
and so what he did was he sent uh
under general sheridan phil sheridan was
the head of the
cavalry and grant told him
stay to the south of the army of
northern virginia and don't let them
turn south
we cannot allow them to link up with joe
johnston
then uh grant sent general ord
and his army of the james uh which was
infantry and said follow and stay as
close to the cavalry as you can
so that you also provide a block
to keep lee from turning south and then
he said to meade
general meade who was the head of the
army of the potomac
you follow on the tail of lee
and his army uh and remember they were a
day
behind so they had to catch up and so
um you know this was back when it was
horses
and and trains when they could run a
train but
normally it was horses and infantry on
foot
so the most of these soldiers were
marching
but most of lee's soldiers were marching
or on horseback as well
and so it was a race a literal race
to try to catch and then surround the
army
of northern virginia well they
started to catch up what happened is the
second day after
the southerners fled to the west they
were supposed to get food
and other supplies at a place called
amelia courthouse
and when they got there they were
starving and they were so excited to see
these train cars
that were supposed to be loaded with
supplies they opened up the train cars
and there were guns
and ammunition and cannon and all kinds
of
you know cannonballs and all that and
artillery
shells and no food
and these people were starving and so
lee had to say to them go out into the
fields and and farm houses and scout
scour and see a scavenge
and see what you can find and so
basically that day that they had
advanced of grant they lost
because they had to go find food and
they came back with like
parched corn and not much else you know
radishes and
you know carrots maybe uh but nothing
of substance because the countryside had
been picked over because of the war
and so they there hasn't been a wildlife
uh they might have found a little bit
but again
when you have an army trying to live off
of the land for
four years um that wildlife is either
going to be killed or it's going to be
scared off and so there wasn't a lot
and so um lee gathered his forces back
together and started marching again well
that allowed the army of the potomac
to catch up and they started getting
towards the end
and started taking shots at the tail end
of the army of northern virginia well
at this point they're exhausted and now
they're starving and you know if you
ever watch the tv show survivor
when people start to get to that point
they're not thinking right
they're sluggish uh they're kind of
dazed and
uh they you know they get weak and that
was what was happening to the army of
northern virginia at the same time the
army of the potomac the army of the
james
the cavalry they're eating like kings
they're eating steak
and uh you know i mean they're just
having everything that they could
ask for so they're very strong while the
army of northern virginia is getting
weaker and weaker
and so the
real tragedy for the confederacy
happened
at a place called sailors creek where
one third of the army got cut off from
the
forward two-thirds and they
uh the army of the potomac finally
caught up
and they went into battle and they were
able to surround
this one-third of the army of the
of northern virginia and they defeated
them
soundly they took in five major generals
as
as prisoners they took in hundreds and
hundreds
of soldiers as prisoners and several
a hundred were killed or wounded
uh in the battle well lee was up on a
hillside
uh overseeing this and he turned to a
needy an aide and he said
my god has the army evaporated
because he didn't know how many soldiers
were left but he could see
all these hundreds of soldiers
surrendering
right in front of his eyes and he
thought that the army was gone
uh but he he turned and started moving
um forward and he found out that
two-thirds of the army was still there
much smaller but still enough of an army
to fight
and now they were approaching a place
where the appomattox river
took a turn at what a place called
farmville and there were two bridges
that went across
the appomattox there and um one was
called the high bridge
and it was a union trestle and at the
time
it was considered an engineering marvel
and the southern railroad went across
this
i think it was 150 feet in the air and
the amazing thing is
i've been there and those original
pilings
the you know uh the they were made out
of
stone those are still there now the
bridge is long gone and they built an
iron bridge
next to it but those original stone
pilings
that the original wooden bridge was on
are still there which is really
amazing to see this thing from back
during the civil war
then there was a second bridge that was
very low
and it was called a cart bridge and it
was basically for
carts and for foot traffic to go across
and it was
it was so low you could reach over and
fill your canteen
with water uh from the river below
and so we was meeting with longstreet
and they saw this
and they said this is an opportunity if
we could get across there and burn the
bridges
then the army of the potomac is going to
go
have to go way around and that's going
to give us time to get to
to lynchburg and we'll you know we'll be
able to get food and refit
and this could be what we have been
looking for
and so oh my gosh that would have just
made everything last
that could have given them distance to
go on for
what months or maybe years
wow maybe years if they would have
gathered with joseph johnston
and they weren't tied down to cities
they could just go from one strategic
place to another
and fight on ground of their choosing
and whenever they did that the the uh
army of northern virginia quite often
won those battles
because they knew how to entrench you
got to remember that
lee was one of the top generals
in the core of army engineers uh you and
i
have many times gone to fort monroe
there in
uh you know hampton virginia that was
built by
robert e lee and you've you and i have
stood up on the side of that fork
that thing is it's it's truly a fork
it is not something that you could get
you know through
easily at all it was amazingly built so
lee knew how to build things
and he knew how to do entrenchments and
that is why
at places like cold harbor and
um petersburg
uh the the army of the potomac had
a terrible time because they would go up
against these entrenchments and just get
mowed down
because they were so well built and even
though they were firing into the
entrenchments
the southerners were were kept safe
because these uh were so well built
that the the shells and the bullets
couldn't get through
whereas they would have these openings
where they could see through and shoot
the north or the uh you know the
northern troops
who had no defenses and that's why cold
harbor was another
uh pickett's charge or fredericksburg
because
now it was the opposite and the union
got mowed down
yeah so at any rate um
so lee sent uh
one of his um uh cavalry
uh groups along with a couple of uh
core or divisions of infantry to go
and burn that bridge and uh to make sure
that the union didn't get there first
well
uh grant was also a brilliant strategist
and he saw
the uh problem that they were facing in
the danger
he saw exactly what lee and longstreet
saw
and so grant had uh general ord
of the army of the james send out his
cavalry and some of his infantry
and basically the northern and southern
troops
met at the bridge
and it was a war or a battle to the
death
because the union knew that they had to
keep the bridge open
the confederates knew that they had to
get across and burn the bridge
before the rest of the army of the
potomac got there and so
it was a really terrible sad
uh battle and so uh general ord
uh sent his second in command
his chief of staff which was brigadier
general thomas
reed and reed took his troops
there uh to fight um
against uh the southern troops under
brigadier general
thomas rosser and colonel thomas munford
and so like i said it was a race they
got there and they started to fight
and um reed and uh the other
uh general uh or colonel i'm sorry that
was
fighting on the side of the northern
troops
they literally gave their lives and
um they they were both killed
and um the um
the the second in command was a man
named washburn
and so washburn uh was killed and
reed was killed and uh at the same time
um one of the confederate generals who
was over the cavalry
was mortally wounded as he fired at
general reed
and there's a possibility that they shot
and killed each other
they don't know that for sure but
reed was shooting towards during
and deer or deering and deering was
shooting towards reed
we know that deering killed reed but
deer
deering was also shot and eventually
died
and deering was the last confederate
general to die in the civil war
at the battle of highbridge so the
confederates
won the battle and they took the entire
union brigade all the cavalry that
survived all the infantry that survived
everyone either was killed or became a
prisoner
and so the lee took the army of northern
virginia across
the uh the bridge the footbridge
and they were thrilled when they got to
farmville on the other side
because there was food in some train
cars there
well right after they got there
the union forces approached
um and so while
they were distributing the food the word
got to general lee that the union troops
were approaching the bridge
and so lee said stop eating and they
closed up the um
they closed up the train cars and we
sent them to the next station
which was appomattox station
so the train moved back to the west
towards
appomattox station and so
um the the confederates
turned and set fire to the bridge so
that the union could not get across
but because of the sacrifice of those
union forces it gave time
for the union army to catch up and so
while
a couple of the spans of the high bridge
collapsed
the lower bridge was a much harder wood
and it was the confederates were having
a hard time setting the bridge on fire
and the union army got there they shot
and scared them off
and the union army took blankets and
canteens and they dipped them in the
water
and with the wet blankets they put the
fire out
and so they were able to keep the lower
bridge
from burning which allowed the union
army to cross
and stay right on the tail of the army
of
northern virginia so there were two more
days or about a day and a half
more of of um
the army of northern virginia running
towards
the west and then um
cavalry the cavalry of the united states
got out in front of them
at appomattox station and a person
that's very famous from history general
george custer was the one who captured
the food
and the trains there in appomattox and
they
uncoupled the food from the uh
from the train and then they destroyed
the train so that the food could not
go anywhere and um
right and then uh sheridan came with his
cavalry
and came around the front of the
army of northern virginia at the same
time general ord
and the army of the james marched
through the night
they were exhausted but they knew that
they were close to bagging
their enemy so they marched through the
night
yeah and what happened yeah at first
light uh general lee said to general
gordon
uh we have cavalry in front of us we've
got the army of potomac behind us
we've got the appomattox river to the
north of us and there's
uh you know the we're having a hard time
because there's an approaching army down
to the south
see if you can break through the cavalry
so that we can keep moving towards
lynchburg and so
gordon came up and started fighting the
cavalry that was
unhorsed at that point and he was
starting to push him back
because he had infantry which is much
stronger than cavalry
and they pushed him to the crest of this
hill and they felt like
we might be having a breakthrough you
know and they got hopeful
but then when they hit the crest of the
hill they looked over the side
and there were scores hundreds and
thousands of blue-coated
union army troops from the army of the
james
that were emerging from the woods and
spreading out all across their front
and they were surrounded and there was
no hope
and so uh general gordon immediately as
soon as he saw that
his instincts told him retreat because
he knew if they kept fighting they would
be annihilated
and they went back to general lee and he
said
we could do no more and that was what
led to
the surrender that later that day there
at
appomattox courthouse in uh uh
wilmer mclean's house and um
so the battle of highbridge was
a critical battle that helped to lead to
the