Though not a big battle in its own right, Eltham's Landing holds a special place for me due to it being the battle that baptized Hood's Texas Brigade in fire. Enjoy!
Back in '09, this was my second stop after driving from Southeast Texas to Guinea'Station to visit Jackson's Shrine. The prior year l participated in the 145th anniversary battle of Gettysburg.lt was my first national event. Getting back to Eltham's Landing, my great grandfather's brothers-in-laws and nephews were in the 4th Texas,Co. K. They were out of Henderson County,which Athens is the county seat. My great grandfather and his older brother also served, they stayed in the Trans'-Mississippi and great grandpa was in the 15th.Texas lnf. Reg. Co.F. His brother stayed in Texas and was in the 13th.Texas and lost a leg in the Battle of Galveston Jan.1 st.,1863.
But you can see them in the flags. The 1st Texas had Elthaam's (spelled with two a's) Landing adorned on it's Texas flag (which might have been considered a lead flag for the whole brigade) along with Gaines' Farm, Malvern Hill, and Seven Pines before it was lost at Sharpsburg. Nice to see a description of the battle. Normally when a flag was presented to a regiment it had battle honors put on it from previous battles but would not have any added but the First Texas Lone Star Flag might have been an exception, I can't remember offhand if it replaced another flag or was just an additional flag taken up. The Brigade was issued 12 star cotton flags with no white border and no battle honors originally. The 1st Texas at Sharpsburg lost the Lone Star flag and a cotton issue at the same time and amazingly they survived and returned to Texas.
@@hoodoo2001 If you wanna read up on some good Texas history really dig into Sibley's New Mexico campaign. The small battles and campaigns is what I like to study. When you really understand the small actions, the big actions make way more sense.
I was born on Eltham Creek, which is on the north side of Franklin's beachhead ( now called Plum Point). The bridge shown on the map is adjacent to land owned by my grandfather.
@@terrymurphy2032 Not sure, but many things in this part of Virginia have English names. for example, Eltham is in New Kent County. Interestingly Martha Dandridge Custis (Mrs. Washington) had a home at Eltham.
Thank you and good job. I am secretary of the New Kent County Historical Society and work in the Clerk's Office there - I have already posted a link to this video to the Society's Facebook page
I really enjoy this channel, both because you do a great job and also because it’s fun hearing a southerner speak objectively about the civil war. Keep it up!
Ah, John Bell Hood, another fascinating and colorful character from a fascinating and colorful war. One of the more interesting generals from that war to study as well, I think, though I wouldn't get used to friendly interactions between him and Joe Johnston...
John Bell Hood is the military epitome of the Peter Principle. A brilliant brigade commander, good division commander, alright corps commander, and horrendous army commander. What's truly fascinating is that is was the same trait that caused all of them - an utter determination to achieve what he set out to do. The determination that led him to see through his famous assault at Gaine's Mill was the same determination that led him to reject a flanking maneuver and launch his hellish assault on Franklin.
@@yaitz3313 I think you're right, which is why John Bell Hood should always have been under some sort of supervision, and never calling the shots himself, but Jefferson Davis wanted an attack dog at Atlanta, and boy did he get one...
@@robertpizor577 At the time of him taking control of the Army of Tennessee. He was at a very poor mentally and physically. He lost the use of his arm at Gettysburg and his leg was amputated after a wound he sustained at Chickamauga. He was taking heavy drugs to numb the pain which screwed with his head. If he had been mentally where he was during the Peninsula Campaign, he would have done better.
HOOD was an excellent brigade commander and probably adequate divisional commander. However, further promotion placed him above his level with disastrous consequences.
I hope you put this much effort into explaining the battles of my ancestor’s Brigade, the Lawton-Gordon-Evans (Or more famously just Gordon’s brigade). I had 8 ancestors fight in the 61st and it would mean a ton if you could feature them in detail at Antietam, Gettysburg (where they smashed Barlow on Barlow’s Knoll), then the Wilderness (Gordon’s flank attack which shatters an entire Union Corp AND BREAKS THE IRON BRIGADE ((The first time the Iron brigade ever broke)). And Spotsylvania where they filled the gap in the confederate line in the Muleshoe and saved Lee’s Army. and then the battles throughout Early’s 1864 Valley campaign, Gordon was absolutely BRILLIANT during 1864. Gordon’s brigade was regarded by Lee himself to be one of the best Confederate brigades in the entire Civil War, alongside the Stonewall Brigade, Hood’s Texans, and the Tigers. i’m just trying to get them some of the same recognition that the other three have👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 Thank you brother for what you’re doing. KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!!!
Kudos to your Georgia Bulldog ancestors, l am very proud of my ancestors who were in Hood's Texas Brigade. I make no apologies to yankees nor to modern day libtards. Like John Wayne stated, "Never apologize,lt's a sign of weakness". DEO VINDICE
Very impressively done, the fact that you have made people aware of these small but critical engagements is in itself a huge accomplishment. Keep up the good work Woody and Saris -Jack, the official Union troll
I can’t wait to see the battle of Seven Pines and the reason is because it paved the way for the arrival of Robert Edward Lee and this battle would also be the first battle in the civil war for Confederate brigadier General Lewis Addison Armistead who is known for reaching the farthest point reached by confederate forces during Pickett’s charge but armistead is also well known for being the nephew of brevet Lieutenant Colonel George Armistead who is best remembered as the defender of Fort McHenry and following the bombardment of Fort McHenry George was given the original Star Spangled Banner.
This was a case of bad intelligence by the union and luck from the fog of war. How could general Franklin have known of an entire enemy corps 6 miles of the landing spot that he was told was safe? If anything, hood's attack only worked because of those reasons, and the Individual will of his soldiers, of course
I do not understand the tactic of sending skirmishers into an arbitrary part of a forest, when apparently they could be flanked (they were), and there is a defensible bridge and river to guard and defend. It's not like Franklin was going to advance on Johnston. So why not just keep his defensive lines in defensible places? edit: I'm looking at that place on Google maps, just southwest of West Point, Virginia on the Pamunkey River. It looks like a scrubby swamp! Eltham town is just northwest of the apparent landing zone, otherwise he would have landed in a swampy place it looks like.
It always comes down to information...skirmishers don't just screen, but are the source of your tactical view of the battlefield and, at the end, your decisions are based upon their intel. Also the reason, why so many forces and opportunities seem "wasted", having been hold in reserve or to protect flanks, where (in hindsight) there has been no threat present. But that, you could not know at the time and (for example) rather preferred to secure your flank, instead of throwing every "idle" regiment into the fray, while possibly getting outmaneuvered.
@@golem5809 Thanks for your response and sorry for the tardy reply. One thing I realize in all this is that the topography could have changed, and I'm obviously not a military commander! So I ask because this is very interesting. I want my favored side to win every time. And want to understand it when they don't and why they did in some cases.
I go through this area quite a bit never even knew about this battle. Anyone visit West Point be prepared for a strange odor in the air here is a pulp mill on the riverbank
How not to take the initiative on the Union's part and how not to capitalize on your gains on the Confederate side. The thing could've spiraled out of control and have been a terrible loss for the Union. Thank God for big miracles!
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord He is trapling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored He have loosed the faiteful lightening of his terrible swift sword His truth is marching on Glory, Glory halleluhja . . .
You have to LOVE the "Great Confederate" victory with such bravado, on their home soil when they seriously outnumbered their enemy; who had ENTIRELY out-flanked them with a simple unopposed landing; and the end result is they were able to blunder forward in the woods with no intell or skirmishers and push back the enemy beachhead by about 25%
Who, except you, sir, has called it a "..great Confederate Victory..."? War is too often a groping, stumbling, uncertain affair, even with reliable intell. Of course, you would have shown both sides how to win, with your century & a-half of hindsight.
@@GrumblingGrognard No, GurglingGonadz, no one got any Southern, Northern, Eastern, or Western pride hurt, but only to point out your easy chair commanding. As Lee said about some of the Southern smart-ass, easy chair, newspaper editors that criticized the Confederate war effort - that it was plain that all of the best generals were newspaper editors, and should have been made generals. Of course, this was in stark contrast to Lincoln who prosecuted, incarcerated, or exiled anyone who criticized his war efforts.
You should read some good books from gallagher or mcpherson or other serious historians of the civil war. Never understand a story from the end. The Victory of the Union was not inevitable.The tremendous human casualties of the war and shameful military defeats especially In Virginia threatened the morale in the US to sustain the war to preserve the Union several times. The confederate strategy to defend their territory as good ad possible and to erode the moral of the Union came close to sucess in Summer of 1864 when Lincoln believed himself he would be defeated by McClellan in the presidental elections because the public morale was at the bottom. The Civil War was at first a war of Attrition not of one decisive battle
@@maco3893 Logistics and supply. The GDP of the state of New York alone was more than the entire South. As long as the political will in the Noth was there it was un winnable...
Technically all wars are won or lost because of politics though. Break the will of the people enough and you'll win. The north was close quite a few times to calling it quits, some northern states were considering secession to form their own country to get out of the war that only some timely victories cooled off. The Americans had no military or industrial way of winning the War of Independence... we won because the British no longer saw it as worth it. There have been plenty of wars where a side that on paper has no chance wins. Just look at Afghanistan. Compare the economic and industrial power of the US and Taliban... who won? It all comes down to public support and political will. Lee's mistake was trying to win the war when he should have focused on dragging it out. He could only win with a death by a thousand cuts instead of one knock out punch.
Though not a big battle in its own right, Eltham's Landing holds a special place for me due to it being the battle that baptized Hood's Texas Brigade in fire. Enjoy!
Oh no thank you so much. I live in barhamsville so it was q surprise seeing this beauty of a video thank you so much
Back in '09, this was my second stop after driving from Southeast Texas to Guinea'Station to visit Jackson's Shrine.
The prior year l participated in the 145th anniversary battle of Gettysburg.lt was my first national event.
Getting back to Eltham's Landing, my great grandfather's brothers-in-laws and nephews were in the 4th Texas,Co. K. They were out of Henderson County,which Athens is the county seat.
My great grandfather and his older brother also served, they stayed in the Trans'-Mississippi and great grandpa was in the 15th.Texas lnf. Reg. Co.F. His brother stayed in Texas and was in the 13th.Texas and lost a leg in the Battle of Galveston Jan.1 st.,1863.
It's these little skirmishes that we never hear about in history class.
But you can see them in the flags. The 1st Texas had Elthaam's (spelled with two a's) Landing adorned on it's Texas flag (which might have been considered a lead flag for the whole brigade) along with Gaines' Farm, Malvern Hill, and Seven Pines before it was lost at Sharpsburg. Nice to see a description of the battle. Normally when a flag was presented to a regiment it had battle honors put on it from previous battles but would not have any added but the First Texas Lone Star Flag might have been an exception, I can't remember offhand if it replaced another flag or was just an additional flag taken up. The Brigade was issued 12 star cotton flags with no white border and no battle honors originally. The 1st Texas at Sharpsburg lost the Lone Star flag and a cotton issue at the same time and amazingly they survived and returned to Texas.
@@hoodoo2001 If you wanna read up on some good Texas history really dig into Sibley's New Mexico campaign. The small battles and campaigns is what I like to study. When you really understand the small actions, the big actions make way more sense.
Hoods Texan’s First Battle, I’ve got to say that is amazing.
Thanks Gallant, I think so too!
I was born on Eltham Creek, which is on the north side of Franklin's beachhead ( now called Plum Point). The bridge shown on the map is adjacent to land owned by my grandfather.
@@terrymurphy2032 Not sure, but many things in this part of Virginia have English names. for example, Eltham is in New Kent County. Interestingly Martha Dandridge Custis (Mrs. Washington) had a home at Eltham.
Thank you and good job. I am secretary of the New Kent County Historical Society and work in the Clerk's Office there - I have already posted a link to this video to the Society's Facebook page
I really enjoy this channel, both because you do a great job and also because it’s fun hearing a southerner speak objectively about the civil war. Keep it up!
Thank you Diehard, i started this channel to be objectively about the civil war and hope to continue the trend!
Thank you for the care and thoughtfulness with which you produce these interesting videos.
Ah, John Bell Hood, another fascinating and colorful character from a fascinating and colorful war. One of the more interesting generals from that war to study as well, I think, though I wouldn't get used to friendly interactions between him and Joe Johnston...
John Bell Hood is the military epitome of the Peter Principle. A brilliant brigade commander, good division commander, alright corps commander, and horrendous army commander. What's truly fascinating is that is was the same trait that caused all of them - an utter determination to achieve what he set out to do. The determination that led him to see through his famous assault at Gaine's Mill was the same determination that led him to reject a flanking maneuver and launch his hellish assault on Franklin.
@@yaitz3313 I think you're right, which is why John Bell Hood should always have been under some sort of supervision, and never calling the shots himself, but Jefferson Davis wanted an attack dog at Atlanta, and boy did he get one...
Some people like to say Hood not being shot at Eltham's Landing ruined any chances the confederacy had at winning
@@WarhawkYT Ouch for Hood.
@@robertpizor577 At the time of him taking control of the Army of Tennessee. He was at a very poor mentally and physically. He lost the use of his arm at Gettysburg and his leg was amputated after a wound he sustained at Chickamauga. He was taking heavy drugs to numb the pain which screwed with his head. If he had been mentally where he was during the Peninsula Campaign, he would have done better.
Another excellent presentation - keep than coming!
You're awesome in love these battles I never heard of
Another well
Done video. Thanks.
HOOD was an excellent brigade commander and probably adequate divisional commander. However, further promotion placed him above his level with disastrous consequences.
TBH, this series is as good as the 1990's Documentary The Civil War from Ken Burns.
Gratz on 10k subs!
As always totally enjoyed the content. Thank you for all you do
Thank you Dave
This battle similar to Jackson's Valley campaign shows how to beat a larger enemy with a smaller force.
Great video! Thank you, Warhawk!
You don't often hear the words McClellan and quickly in the same sentence.
I hope you put this much effort into explaining the battles of my ancestor’s Brigade, the Lawton-Gordon-Evans (Or more famously just Gordon’s brigade). I had 8 ancestors fight in the 61st and it would mean a ton if you could feature them in detail at Antietam, Gettysburg (where they smashed Barlow on Barlow’s Knoll), then the Wilderness (Gordon’s flank attack which shatters an entire Union Corp AND BREAKS THE IRON BRIGADE ((The first time the Iron brigade ever broke)). And Spotsylvania where they filled the gap in the confederate line in the Muleshoe and saved Lee’s Army. and then the battles throughout Early’s 1864 Valley campaign, Gordon was absolutely BRILLIANT during 1864. Gordon’s brigade was regarded by Lee himself to be one of the best Confederate brigades in the entire Civil War, alongside the Stonewall Brigade, Hood’s Texans, and the Tigers. i’m just trying to get them some of the same recognition that the other three have👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
Thank you brother for what you’re doing.
KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!!!
Kudos to your Georgia Bulldog ancestors, l am very proud of my ancestors who were in Hood's Texas Brigade.
I make no apologies to yankees nor to modern day libtards. Like John Wayne stated, "Never apologize,lt's a sign of weakness". DEO VINDICE
Would the Tigers be the Louisiana Tigers?
Sadly I can't watch the premiere but I know it will be of the highest quality
It will be here waiting for you!
Another great work! Thanks from italian military history' fan
As Plato once said, "When da Hood is da Hood."
What da hood doing
@@WarhawkYT - G. T. Beauregard upon first receiving credible information regarding the Battle of Nashville.
Very impressively done, the fact that you have made people aware of these small but critical engagements is in itself a huge accomplishment. Keep up the good work Woody and Saris
-Jack, the official Union troll
Thanks Jack, the official Union Troll!
I can’t wait to see the battle of Seven Pines and the reason is because it paved the way for the arrival of Robert Edward Lee and this battle would also be the first battle in the civil war for Confederate brigadier General Lewis Addison Armistead who is known for reaching the farthest point reached by confederate forces during Pickett’s charge but armistead is also well known for being the nephew of brevet Lieutenant Colonel George Armistead who is best remembered as the defender of Fort McHenry and following the bombardment of Fort McHenry George was given the original Star Spangled Banner.
We are two videos away from Seven Pines :3
@@WarhawkYT oh okay
good to have a short video on the channel for once
This was a case of bad intelligence by the union and luck from the fog of war. How could general Franklin have known of an entire enemy corps 6 miles of the landing spot that he was told was safe? If anything, hood's attack only worked because of those reasons, and the Individual will of his soldiers, of course
Texas always moves em, Lee always said
I do not understand the tactic of sending skirmishers into an arbitrary part of a forest, when apparently they could be flanked (they were), and there is a defensible bridge and river to guard and defend. It's not like Franklin was going to advance on Johnston. So why not just keep his defensive lines in defensible places?
edit: I'm looking at that place on Google maps, just southwest of West Point, Virginia on the Pamunkey River. It looks like a scrubby swamp! Eltham town is just northwest of the apparent landing zone, otherwise he would have landed in a swampy place it looks like.
It always comes down to information...skirmishers don't just screen, but are the source of your tactical view of the battlefield and, at the end, your decisions are based upon their intel.
Also the reason, why so many forces and opportunities seem "wasted", having been hold in reserve or to protect flanks, where (in hindsight) there has been no threat present. But that, you could not know at the time and (for example) rather preferred to secure your flank, instead of throwing every "idle" regiment into the fray, while possibly getting outmaneuvered.
@@golem5809 Thanks for your response and sorry for the tardy reply.
One thing I realize in all this is that the topography could have changed, and I'm obviously not a military commander! So I ask because this is very interesting. I want my favored side to win every time. And want to understand it when they don't and why they did in some cases.
And thus began the story of the Celebrated Texas Brigade and for Robert E Lee, one of his favorite brigades
Lesss gooooo
I go through this area quite a bit never even knew about this battle. Anyone visit West Point be prepared for a strange odor in the air here is a pulp mill on the riverbank
The audio levels of voice and background music are a bit off. I'd like the music toned down.
Video good
Thanks Michael!
Software pixelating the chapter intro pictures again? :(
How not to take the initiative on the Union's part and how not to capitalize on your gains on the Confederate side. The thing could've spiraled out of control and have been a terrible loss for the Union. Thank God for big miracles!
Quite so Donchichi
Hoods Texas Brigade!!!!!
How do you make these
I use after effects for animation and photoshop for the graphics.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
He is trapling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored
He have loosed the faiteful lightening of his terrible swift sword
His truth is marching on
Glory, Glory halleluhja . . .
Franklin got his ass whooped.. fucked around and found out..
Music is too loud over the narrative!
12:10 in fairness that's not a bad idea
A quaint engagement that lost the opportunity of a great victory for the Federal Army.
Do Sherman campaign!
You have to LOVE the "Great Confederate" victory with such bravado, on their home soil when they seriously outnumbered their enemy; who had ENTIRELY out-flanked them with a simple unopposed landing; and the end result is they were able to blunder forward in the woods with no intell or skirmishers and push back the enemy beachhead by about 25%
Who, except you, sir, has called it a "..great Confederate Victory..."?
War is too often a groping, stumbling, uncertain affair, even with reliable intell.
Of course, you would have shown both sides how to win, with your century & a-half of hindsight.
@@GrumblingGrognard
No, GurglingGonadz, no one got any Southern, Northern, Eastern, or Western pride hurt, but only to point out your easy chair commanding. As Lee said about some of the Southern smart-ass, easy chair, newspaper editors that criticized the Confederate war effort - that it was plain that all of the best generals were newspaper editors, and should have been made generals.
Of course, this was in stark contrast to Lincoln who prosecuted, incarcerated, or exiled anyone who criticized his war efforts.
@@jaydubbyuh2292 Clever Jay Dumbshit, let's all go back to Jr High School and make fun of people's names. You are a child.
Lee is completely overrated. The war on the battle field was over the moment it started for the traitors. Their only hope was a political victory.
Yep
You should read some good books from gallagher or mcpherson or other serious historians of the civil war. Never understand a story from the end. The Victory of the Union was not inevitable.The tremendous human casualties of the war and shameful military defeats especially In Virginia threatened the morale in the US to sustain the war to preserve the Union several times. The confederate strategy to defend their territory as good ad possible and to erode the moral of the Union came close to sucess in Summer of 1864 when Lincoln believed himself he would be defeated by McClellan in the presidental elections because the public morale was at the bottom. The Civil War was at first a war of Attrition not of one decisive battle
Bruh moment.
@@maco3893 Logistics and supply. The GDP of the state of New York alone was more than the entire South. As long as the political will in the Noth was there it was un winnable...
Technically all wars are won or lost because of politics though. Break the will of the people enough and you'll win. The north was close quite a few times to calling it quits, some northern states were considering secession to form their own country to get out of the war that only some timely victories cooled off. The Americans had no military or industrial way of winning the War of Independence... we won because the British no longer saw it as worth it. There have been plenty of wars where a side that on paper has no chance wins. Just look at Afghanistan. Compare the economic and industrial power of the US and Taliban... who won? It all comes down to public support and political will. Lee's mistake was trying to win the war when he should have focused on dragging it out. He could only win with a death by a thousand cuts instead of one knock out punch.