Listen to the Trailer
Interpreting History
“The problem with Civil War history is that all the letters home are going to have a bias. People have axes to grind, people want to make their buddies look good, and make themselves look good. The battle reports are all written from a point of view and, of course, all the reports written after the war read sort of like ‘how I could have won the war if they had let me do it’. All you can do as a historian is get all those accounts together read through them all, and see if there are some common threads.”
— Gordon Rhea, C-SPAN Interview with Peter Carmichael, June 20, 2014.
Books
Battle of the Wilderness
The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5–6, 1864 by Gordon C. Rhea Esq. — Overland Campaign Book Series (1 of 5)
Online Sources
American Battlefield Trust
Battle of the Wilderness
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
The Civil War Battle Series: From Wilderness to Cold Harbor with Dr. Mark DePue. September 24, 2015
C-SPAN – 1864 Overland Campaign
Peter Carmichael interviews Gordon Rhea. June 20, 2014
Warfare History Network
Grant Takes D.C.
Culpeper Star-Exponent
When U.S. Grant came to Culpeper, he held the nation’s fate in his hands. April 13, 2019
Herman Melville – The Armies of the Wilderness
First Appearance in “Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War” (1866) [PDF]
Columbia – The Daily Herald
Robert E. Lee, the King of Spades. February 16, 2014
Historynet.com – The Wilderness
Grant and Lee Meet at Last. Originally published in the May 2007 issue of Civil War Times.
Historynet.com – Battle Of The Wilderness
Information about The Battle Of The Wilderness, an 1864 Civil War Battle of the American Civil War
Historynet.com
The Wilderness: Grant and Lee Meet at Last
Bartleby.com
Grand Movement of the Army of the Potomac—Crossing the Rapidan—Entering the Wilderness—Battle of the Wilderness
Spotsylvania Civil War Blog
Grant’s Army, Crossing the Rapidan – Then and Now
Blue and Gray Magazine
Historic Crossings of the Rappahannock and Rapidan Rivers (Volume 32 #3)
Library of Congress
Germanna Ford, Rapidan River, Va. Artillery crossing pontoon bridges