I have been a long standing civil war buff for 60 years. I been in the military since I was 11 years old, military academy days. I've been following your channel from the beginning but I never posted. This video but me to write because the wilderness campaign is dear to me. My family lost two family members in one day. Anyway, you are a true historian in every sense! Thanks for all your hard work and keeping history alive. I wish we could meet as I know we could share a lot of stories. Carry on my wayward son.
I've studied the Civil War for over 50 years and this video is the best explanation of the Wilderness battle I have seen. The animated maps are excellent ... Very well done.
Even though I have read very much about the civil war your videos increase my knowledge. The animated battle maps always makes the troop movements so much more clear and make the battles easier to follow & understand. You are the only history channel I am subscribed to because I know I can trust what you tell me. It was a very happy day for me the day I discovered your channel. I hope someday you write a book & look forward to reading it. ❤
+1 to that!!! Even for battles with which I am already somewhat familiar, my sense of the struggles increases with each viewing of a Wilder Historian video!!! Huzzah!!!
5 May 1864 my 4th great grandfather lost his life in the Battle of the Wilderness, South of Orange Turnpike. He was part of Company A, 61st Alabama Infantry. He had 2 sons to die during the Civil War. One from wounds received during Battle of Gaines Mill on 27 June 1862. This son was part of the 13th Alabama Infantry. Second son dies during Battle of New Hope Church, Georgia on 28 May 1864 in the 29th Alabama Infantry. Wife and mother never learned of her families death. She passed from an illness at her home in Evergreen, Alabama on 27 November 1864
They died fighting for the horrific institution of slavery. No respect for dead nazis, no respect for dead confederates, no respect for dead Russians in Ukraine. Wrong is wrong. You made your slavery bed, you lay in it.
I've lived in that area most my life and have wandered the many battlefields around the wilderness. Knowing what the terrain is like makes more then shapes on a map. Good job, engaging and educational.
Fantastic, one of the best videos on the battle. It has helped clear up some things that i never fully understood about the battle, having only read about it, seeing the movements happen on the map really helps make it all come together. Thanks a ton.
This battle was a true turning point in the war. In previous years, the Union army would advance into Virginia and after losing a battle, it would retreat. But this time, with Grant in command, the Union army continued to advance after an iniitial defeat.
Excellent job on this video. In 35 years of learning about the Civil War I've never read or seen anything that explained the Battle of the Wilderness this well
I follow many history channels. Yours is by far the best. I also love the American Battlefield Trust, which they do amazing things. Your content just goes a little deeper for those that want to know a little more
I also visited and studied at the war college nere Gettysburg Pa. I tore threw the library studying the cause of the war and the covering up of the true history of the lies towards the South. Again, thank you my son for all your diligence in remembering the greatest war of our country! 
From deep conviction I simply say this: a nation of men of Lee’s caliber would be unconquerable in spirit and soul. Indeed, to the degree that present-day American youth will strive to emulate his rare qualities, including his devotion to this land as revealed in his painstaking efforts to help heal the nation’s wounds once the bitter struggle was over, we, in our own time of danger in a divided world, will be strengthened and our love of freedom sustained. -Dwight D. Eisenhower
@brentinnes5151 By RUclips Andy, may be. I'm sticking with the Top Brass of the greatest generation to live. Check this one out, too. "The world has never seen better soldiers than those who followed Lee, and their leader will undoubtedly rank, without exception, as the very greatest of all the great captains that the English-speaking peoples have brought forth." Theodore Roosevelt Most Respectfully
@@dasalul for sure..they punched above their weight and had esprit de corps from the outset (took Union soldiers a little longer) maybe because they were defending homeland...unique in history
@@IvoryColonizer Abraham Lincoln once asked General Whitefield Scott this question: "Why is it that you were once able to take Mexico City in three months with five thousand men, and we have been unable to take Richmond with one hundred thousand men?" "I will tell you," said General Scott. "The men who took us into Mexico City are the same men who are keeping us out of Richmond." War Dog "Things have gone from bad to worse, until I felt that we had reached the end of our rope on the plan of operations we had been pursuing; that we had about played our last card, and must change our tactics, or lose the game. I now determined upon the adoption of the emancipation policy." -Abraham Lincoln
Excellent video and great coverage. One note I would make for future videos on such battles is that it would help to know what happens at the end of the battle. For example this video ends with battle lines still drawn. Who left the field and how and why? Again, great video, just a comment.
Thank you. Since this is part of the Overland Campaign, the first episode of the Spotsylvania Court House series covers what happened after the Wilderness. Thank you so much for watching.
Wonderful program, a great series but of course I enjoy everything that you produce. I know you have nothing to do with the selection of and length of the commercials, but I had an unusual experience with this one. My 37 years as a naval officer and the injuries acquired from that service , have caught up to me, and I find myself more in the hospital than at home. A kindly nurse Paired my phone with the TV and set up this program for me, but got called away before she could return the device. Most times I will watch at least part of the commercial, for creators that I favor, this time I was forced to, which was OK until the 39 minute Commercial struck me. I’m sure I will go back and finish the program but it’s going to take me a while to get over this.
Because there is not enough information as to how the regiments were laid out on the battlefield so I just made them brigades which is what I usually do when the layout isn't known.
Grant was neither a military genius nor daring. He just wasn’t stupid. Unlike his predecessors he knew how to use superior numbers and logistics to his advantage.
No he was a genius as he saw the new way armies were going to fight in total war and was a genius at supplying armies so they could spread out and do total war
@@matthewheywood8532 You said basically he did the things exactly as how I did. Our only disagreement is that I don’t rank him as a genius. His predecessors were idiots who were stuck in the Napoleon era and didn’t use common sense. They made Grant look like a genius because they were terrible. Lee and stonewall Jackson were geniuses because of what they accomplished in spite of a significant lack of manpower and resources. They shouldn’t have had the stunning victories at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. Lee and Jackson employed Sun Tzu’s tactics up until Gettysburg. I honestly believe key victories in the South were more due Stonewall Jackson was the real genius more than Lee. As soon as Jackson died Lee started losing. As for Grant he just used common sense in contrast to his predecessors. Grant didn’t care about doing things in the traditionally accepted ways that his well born predecessors did. Grant was low born and didn’t care about adhering to the elitist military doctrine at the time. Grant simply saw he had way more men and supplies than the confederates did and it took a common sense low born man to understand how to use it against the enemy. When Grants predecessors lost a battle they withdrew and didn’t attack for weeks or even months. Grant did accept losing a battle when he knew he had more than enough men and logistics to keep it going and stay on the offensive and not give Lee an opportunity to reconstitute his forces. To me that’s common sense. Just because a general wasn’t an idiot and used common sense doesn’t mean he was a genius. You want to see military genius go do some research on Genghis Khans top general Subotai.
Burnsides and Meade were responsible for the debacle at the Wilderness with over 17000 casualties. Confederate attacks pushed the Union flanks. Grant didn’t retreat but headed south.
And then, in about a week at most, the powers that be would value the robots more than human beings. That's to say nothing of the robots thoughts on the matter!!
This was a total victory for Grant. He got Lee to play into his game plan. The rebs had to respond to the yanks moves. In chess it is called the initiative. And, with it came the morale factor. Union soldiers were more than ready for a round two.
@@keithwhittington1322it wasn't a victory, they failed to destroy even Hill's exposed corp It would have been had Sheridan not been fucking off with the entire cavalry
Tactical victory for Lee, but a strategic loss. Grant didn’t win the battle, but he still accomplished his objective which was to bloody Lee’s army. Grants target in the east wasn’t really Richmond. That was just a side quest. Grant knew as long as Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia existed the south would keep fighting. To that end his objective was to fight every day and eventually his superior numbers would prevail.
That war was the most stupidest war in history I would have preferred to leave the country before I would have fought for either side men who fought in that war ware stupid
If you use the French pronunciation for the plural of corps, then why don't you pronounce the plural of battalion as 'battalyohns' and the plural of regiment as 'regimohns'?
Despite being outnumber Lee beat Grant badly. Grant did not care for the safety of his men. The Yankee newspapers wrote that Grant was a butcher. After the battle Grant in a drunken, crying rage thru himself into his cot.
lee beat grant so badly that he surrendered his honour, his sword, his soldiers to Uncle Sam grant. He was at the mercy of grant and grant let lee live rest of his life role playing the role of a president of a university while grant became the president of the country, yeah lee beat grant badly.
I have been a long standing civil war buff for 60 years. I been in the military since I was 11 years old, military academy days. I've been following your channel from the beginning but I never posted. This video but me to write because the wilderness campaign is dear to me. My family lost two family members in one day. Anyway, you are a true historian in every sense! Thanks for all your hard work and keeping history alive. I wish we could meet as I know we could share a lot of stories. Carry on my wayward son.
Thank you so much! I greatly appreciate all the support. Thank you for your service as well.
Great post, sir! 👍🇺🇸
Great post.
I lost two there on May 6th. Such a terrible battle.
Funny how you didn't say which side they fought on
You must have dear memories of them
I've studied the Civil War for over 50 years and this video is the best explanation of the Wilderness battle I have seen. The animated maps are excellent ... Very well done.
Thank you so much!
Even though I have read very much about the civil war your videos increase my knowledge. The animated battle maps always makes the troop movements so much more clear and make the battles easier to follow & understand. You are the only history channel I am subscribed to because I know I can trust what you tell me. It was a very happy day for me the day I discovered your channel. I hope someday you write a book & look forward to reading it. ❤
+1 to that!!! Even for battles with which I am already somewhat familiar, my sense of the struggles increases with each viewing of a Wilder Historian video!!! Huzzah!!!
5 May 1864 my 4th great grandfather lost his life in the Battle of the Wilderness, South of Orange Turnpike. He was part of Company A, 61st Alabama Infantry.
He had 2 sons to die during the Civil War. One from wounds received during Battle of Gaines Mill on 27 June 1862. This son was part of the 13th Alabama Infantry. Second son dies during Battle of New Hope Church, Georgia on 28 May 1864 in the 29th Alabama Infantry.
Wife and mother never learned of her families death. She passed from an illness at her home in Evergreen, Alabama on 27 November 1864
As the descendent of Yankees, I can say thank God we won, but all respect to the brave Southerners. What a weak country we would be without you
They died fighting for the horrific institution of slavery. No respect for dead nazis, no respect for dead confederates, no respect for dead Russians in Ukraine.
Wrong is wrong.
You made your slavery bed, you lay in it.
Thank you once again for all the amazing content.
Let’s goooooo buffalooooo! 👍
I've lived in that area most my life and have wandered the many battlefields around the wilderness.
Knowing what the terrain is like makes more then shapes on a map.
Good job, engaging and educational.
Thank you so much!
Fantastic, one of the best videos on the battle. It has helped clear up some things that i never fully understood about the battle, having only read about it, seeing the movements happen on the map really helps make it all come together. Thanks a ton.
This battle was a true turning point in the war. In previous years, the Union army would advance into Virginia and after losing a battle, it would retreat. But this time, with Grant in command, the Union army continued to advance after an iniitial defeat.
Excellent job on this video. In 35 years of learning about the Civil War I've never read or seen anything that explained the Battle of the Wilderness this well
Thank you so much! I'm so happy that you enjoyed it and learned from it.
I so appreciate this overview of the Wilderness Battle. I wish the map was in full view, but the content is well done! Thank you!
I have never seen a better Civil War video. Thank you. My GGGrandfather was 20th Mass.
Thank you so much for watching and the kind words.
I love these extremly detailed battles keep up good work.......LEE TO THE REAR lol
I follow many history channels. Yours is by far the best. I also love the American Battlefield Trust, which they do amazing things. Your content just goes a little deeper for those that want to know a little more
Two most important troops on the field of battle weren't general's or even infantry. It was the messengers, and the flag bearers.
This is something. Grand.
Great job man.
Good to see the entire battle in context. I think Gordon made his point. A few hours earlier and it would have been a different story.
Great video. I visited this battlefield and hiked around the trails. It was very thick with trees and had a sinister air about it.
Excellent video, I very much enjoyed it. Would love see more. Thanks for this presentation!
Thank you so much for watching!
I also visited and studied at the war college nere Gettysburg Pa. I tore threw the library studying the cause of the war and the covering up of the true history of the lies towards the South. Again, thank you my son for all your diligence in remembering the greatest war of our country!

Next to Shelby Foote your my next favorite civil war historian
No political BS, just ugly real as it happened history.
Thank you. I take that as a huge complement.
Thanks again sir 👍
Great depth of information. Well done. I enjoyed it.
I'm so glad. Thank you so much!
Great channel!
Excellent as always
From deep conviction I simply say this: a nation of men of Lee’s caliber would be unconquerable in spirit and soul. Indeed, to the degree that present-day American youth will strive to emulate his rare qualities, including his devotion to this land as revealed in his painstaking efforts to help heal the nation’s wounds once the bitter struggle was over, we, in our own time of danger in a divided world, will be strengthened and our love of freedom sustained.
-Dwight D. Eisenhower
Same could be said about Grant
@brentinnes5151
By RUclips Andy, may be. I'm sticking with the Top Brass of the greatest generation to live.
Check this one out, too.
"The world has never seen better soldiers than those who followed Lee, and their leader will undoubtedly rank, without exception, as the very greatest of all the great captains that the English-speaking peoples have brought forth."
Theodore Roosevelt
Most Respectfully
@@dasalul for sure..they punched above their weight and had esprit de corps from the outset (took Union soldiers a little longer) maybe because they were defending homeland...unique in history
@dasalul keep the quotes coming
@@IvoryColonizer Abraham Lincoln once asked General Whitefield Scott this question: "Why is it that you were once able to take Mexico City in three months with five thousand men, and we have been unable to take Richmond with one hundred thousand men?"
"I will tell you," said General Scott. "The men who took us into Mexico City are the same men who are keeping us out of Richmond." War Dog
"Things have gone from bad to worse, until I felt that we had reached the end of our rope on the plan of operations we had been pursuing; that we had about played our last card, and must change our tactics, or lose the game. I now determined upon the adoption of the emancipation policy." -Abraham Lincoln
awesome thank You
Excellent video and great coverage. One note I would make for future videos on such battles is that it would help to know what happens at the end of the battle. For example this video ends with battle lines still drawn. Who left the field and how and why? Again, great video, just a comment.
Thank you. Since this is part of the Overland Campaign, the first episode of the Spotsylvania Court House series covers what happened after the Wilderness. Thank you so much for watching.
@@HistoryGoneWilder I'll have to go give it a watch, comment rescinded! Thanks much
Great video. My gggrandfather was in Anderson's 9th Georgia Regiment, The Baldwin Volunteers.
@@mx-k I hope this animated battle map helped you understand your ancestor's role in the engagement better.
@@HistoryGoneWilder it does and thank you!
Your videos are great. Keep up the good work. I appreciate your work.
Thank you so much!
Wonderful program, a great series but of course I enjoy everything that you produce. I know you have nothing to do with the selection of and length of the commercials, but I had an unusual experience with this one. My 37 years as a naval officer and the injuries acquired from that service , have caught up to me, and I find myself more in the hospital than at home. A kindly nurse Paired my phone with the TV and set up this program for me, but got called away before she could return the device. Most times I will watch at least part of the commercial, for creators that I favor, this time I was forced to, which was OK until the 39 minute Commercial struck me. I’m sure I will go back and finish the program but it’s going to take me a while to get over this.
Very well done!
Thank you so much!
Love the name...have gun will travel is fav show
One of mine too
Two opposing economies in a power struggle
What map are u using so I can make a battle for fun when I'm bored?
I get a mapmaker to make them for me.
damn that version of "when johnny comes marching home" was rather poignant at the end there
@40:56 you have confederate units as brigades and union as regiments. This is incorrect. It's apples and oranges.
Because there is not enough information as to how the regiments were laid out on the battlefield so I just made them brigades which is what I usually do when the layout isn't known.
Did Lee send Pickett at Gettysburg because he didn't have the logistical means to carry war for long?
Stopped watching, too many ads in19 minutes
Iron Brigade should have the 24th MI not the 24th WI
@@zzzbetty2915 sorry about that. Didn't catch that.
Grant was neither a military genius nor daring. He just wasn’t stupid. Unlike his predecessors he knew how to use superior numbers and logistics to his advantage.
No he was a genius as he saw the new way armies were going to fight in total war and was a genius at supplying armies so they could spread out and do total war
@@matthewheywood8532 You said basically he did the things exactly as how I did. Our only disagreement is that I don’t rank him as a genius. His predecessors were idiots who were stuck in the Napoleon era and didn’t use common sense. They made Grant look like a genius because they were terrible. Lee and stonewall Jackson were geniuses because of what they accomplished in spite of a significant lack of manpower and resources. They shouldn’t have had the stunning victories at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. Lee and Jackson employed Sun Tzu’s tactics up until Gettysburg. I honestly believe key victories in the South were more due Stonewall Jackson was the real genius more than Lee. As soon as Jackson died Lee started losing. As for Grant he just used common sense in contrast to his predecessors. Grant didn’t care about doing things in the traditionally accepted ways that his well born predecessors did. Grant was low born and didn’t care about adhering to the elitist military doctrine at the time. Grant simply saw he had way more men and supplies than the confederates did and it took a common sense low born man to understand how to use it against the enemy. When Grants predecessors lost a battle they withdrew and didn’t attack for weeks or even months. Grant did accept losing a battle when he knew he had more than enough men and logistics to keep it going and stay on the offensive and not give Lee an opportunity to reconstitute his forces. To me that’s common sense. Just because a general wasn’t an idiot and used common sense doesn’t mean he was a genius. You want to see military genius go do some research on Genghis Khans top general Subotai.
@@nole8923 that is what makes a genius being able to do things others couldn’t
Burnsides and Meade were responsible for the debacle at the Wilderness with over 17000 casualties. Confederate attacks pushed the Union flanks. Grant didn’t retreat but headed south.
What if they had a war and nobody came?
That’s what drafts are for.
@@camson107 and still they didn't come.
@@lonestarcj8132 Yeah they did, and by the thousands they died. Don’t know if we’re having the same conversation here.
@@lonestarcj8132 lol I get what your saying now. Guess we’d force robots to fight.
And then, in about a week at most, the powers that be would value the robots more than human beings.
That's to say nothing of the robots thoughts on the matter!!
Being May 10th in SC, I’d like to wish everyone a somber Confederate memorial day. May God bless the memory of our soldiers!
Just another reason reconstruction didn't last long enough
Clearly secession wasn't reconstructed out of SC. Not too late though
Goo ve nor
This was a total victory for Grant. He got Lee to play into his game plan. The rebs had to respond to the yanks moves. In chess it is called the initiative. And, with it came the morale factor. Union soldiers were more than ready for a round two.
How is it a victory if he was the one that disengaged and left the battlefield in control of the enemy?
@@danielkitchens4512 Were those patches of woods the prize?
@@keithwhittington1322it wasn't a victory, they failed to destroy even Hill's exposed corp
It would have been had Sheridan not been fucking off with the entire cavalry
Tactical victory for Lee, but a strategic loss. Grant didn’t win the battle, but he still accomplished his objective which was to bloody Lee’s army. Grants target in the east wasn’t really Richmond. That was just a side quest. Grant knew as long as Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia existed the south would keep fighting. To that end his objective was to fight every day and eventually his superior numbers would prevail.
victory with a very heavy cost
It was definitely the railroad
And the railroad combined with the relentless assault of General Grant
All those before him retreated, but General Grant pressed on like a bloody butcher without a soul
It may have been that General Ulysses S. Grant simply had little to no compassion toward the men he commanded
Union forces continued to be bolstered with troops and armament and munitions; while Confederate supplies dwindled in troop numbers and all supply
It's thought that if only England would have sided and thrown in more support with the Confederacy that perhaps things today would be quite different
Were you raised to speak American Ulster English?
That war was the most stupidest war in history I would have preferred to leave the country before I would have fought for either side men who fought in that war ware stupid
To many damn ads
If you use the French pronunciation for the plural of corps, then why don't you pronounce the plural of battalion as 'battalyohns' and the plural of regiment as 'regimohns'?
Despite being outnumber Lee beat Grant badly. Grant did not care for the safety of his men. The Yankee newspapers wrote that Grant was a butcher. After the battle Grant in a drunken, crying rage thru himself into his cot.
lee beat grant so badly that he surrendered his honour, his sword, his soldiers to Uncle Sam grant. He was at the mercy of grant and grant let lee live rest of his life role playing the role of a president of a university while grant became the president of the country, yeah lee beat grant badly.
@srimadhav5090 ^doesn't know what numerical superiority means
@@IvoryColonizer u mean to say confederates are not only loosers but also stupid to fight a bigger enemy. Never should have kept those slaves man
Not true in the slightest. He did care about his men but he also knew that he had to keep attacking regardless.
I'm pretty sure none of that is accurate. Lee didn't beat Grant badly.