The bloodiest war on American soil.

States versus States, brothers versus brothers.

Join hosts bang and dang as they take you battle by battle through the most divisive time in American history.

Welcome to Battles of the American Civil War.

Hry back Battles American Civil War.

Behind the battles, fresh off all of the man's facing proclamation.

And it's fair to say this guy he didn't like that at all.

No, Earl Van Dorn, And you know what else, he didn't like getting killed for messing around with a judge's wife.

He didn't even get killed in battle.

Talk about Earl Van Dorn, Major General, United States Army officer.

He also led two defenses of a Native American settlement from the Comanche.

Then he joined the Confederate forces in eighteen sixty one after the war broke out, before he was killed in a private conflict, which we will get to obviously.

First, we gotta go back all the way to the early eighteen hundreds in Claiborne County, Mississippi.

That's where Earl Van Dorn was born near the town of Port Gibson September seventeenth, eighteen twenty.

His parents Sophia Donaldson Caffrey and Peter Aaron van Dorn.

Sophia, she was an ordinary Southern woman.

She was actually a niece of President Andrew Jackson by way of marriage.

There her husband, Peter, he was a lawyer who made his way down south years earlier from New Jersey.

Together they built a big old family, nine of them, nine kids in total, which included two of his sisters that we're gonna mention a little bit later that are going to defend his honor, Emily van Dorn Miller and Octavia van Dorn Sullivan.

Okay, Octavia's son, Clemente Sullivan.

He'd later serve under Earle during the Civil War.

He started as a captain in the o Confederate Forces, worked on Van Dorn's staff, and he was eventually promoted the lieutenant colonel.

So the family's military tradition didn't stop with Earl.

It spread right through the next generation.

Let's take it back to eighteen thirty eight.

Young Van Dorn got a pretty big opportunity, thanked to his mama and her family the connection to Andrew Jackson.

He secured an appointment in the United States Military Academy, and you guessed that that's that west Point.

He wasn't exactly a mild cadet though.

When he graduated in eighteen four two, he ranked fifty second out of sixty eight in his class.

Low ranking wasn't because he wasn't smart, It was more to do with discipline.

He managed to rack up one hundred and sixty three to merits, whoa mostly for not saluting, and he used tobacco and profanity cavy swearing, so it's fair to say he wasn't afraid to bend the rules a little, just.

A little little.

After graduation he got his first real assignment.

He was born in as a prevot second lieutenant in the seventh US Infantry Regiment July first, eighteen forty two.

That marked the start of his army career, having served primarily throughout the Southern United States.

December of eighteen forty three, Van Dorn got married his wife, Caroline Godbold.

She came from a well established Alabama planter family.

You know.

They had two kids, a son, Earl van Dorn Junior, he was born around eighteen fifty five, and a daughter, Olivia, born in eighteen fifty two, who would sadly pass away in eighteen seventy eight.

Wow.

During his early years in the Army of Van Dorn moved around quite a bit.

He in the seventh Infantry, spent eighteen forty two and eighteen forty three on garrison duty.

They did that at Fort Pike now down in Louisiana.

After that briefly stationed at Fort Morgan and Alabama.

Later that same year of eighteen forty three.

He then did more garrison work at Mount Vernon Arsenal in Alabama eighteen forty three to eighteen forty four.

Later, on eighteen forty four, his order sent him to Pensacola Harbor that's down in Florida.

Stayed there till forty five.

During that assignment, hearing the promotion on the thirtieth of November eighteen forty four, van Dorn second lieutenant.

Right for him, Oh, they say he was the kind of man people noticed.

Blond hair, blue eyes.

Hitler would have loved him right, unnatural confidence that seemed to pull attention away to his way wherever he went.

His reputation as a ladies man spread fast and get in trouble only grew after his military success, first against the Comanche, then later through stories of his courage in the Mexican American War.

We'll get to.

Historian Arthur B.

Carter described him having plenty of chances to mingle in high society.

He wrote that Van Dorn was handsome, debonair, and polish, that when he showed up in a Confederate gray coat, he cut a striking figure that instantly drew attention.

Public gatherings or private parties.

He was center of the room, the one everybody wanted to talk to.

His charm, refined manners, proper education made a magnetic especially to women, and by all accounts, he didn't exactly try to discourage the attention.

Why would you?

New York Times even backed up the impression, writing it's true that Van Dorn was enormously attractive to many women.

One Memoirs wrote that his bearing attracted, his address, delighted, his accomplishments made women worship him.

Worship huh.

He served in the seventh U.

S Infantry, like I said, during the US Army's occupation of Texas from forty five to forty six, right as the Old Mexican American War was breaking out.

He was stationed at Fort Texas, which was later called Fort Brown In Brownsville, where his job was helped defend the border from the southernmost town in Texas.

He first saw serious combat at the Battle Monterey, which took place September twenty first to twenty thirty eighteen, and again in the Siege of Air Crews from March ninth to twenty ninth, eighteen forty seven.

Early that year, Van Dorn were transferred to General Winfield Scott's command and promoted the first lieutenant March third.

Nice He fought well through the rest of the campaign in Mexico, earning two brevet promotions for gallantry.

He was named Brevett captain eighteenth April for his role at the Battle of Siro Gordo, later promoted to Brevet major twentieth of August for his actions near Mexico City, which included the battles of Cantrereschurobosco and the assault at the Bailing Gate.

His bravery came at a cost, though, he was wounded in the foot near Mexico City third of September and then again ten days later during the Storm of Bileing Gate on September thirteenth.

After the Mexican American War, Van Dorn served as an aide de camp to Brevet Major General Percifor Smith from April third, eighteen forty seven to May twentieth, eighteen forty eight.

He in the Seventh Inventry were then station in the Botton Rouge from forty eight to forty nine, and later in forty nine they moved to Jefferson Barracks and LeMay, Missouri, just south of Saint Louis.

From forty nine to fifty he sent to Florida take part in operations against the Seminoles.

The United States tempted to remove them from the region Jeez.

Some of the Seminoles escaped into the Everglades, where they and their descendants would form the two federally recognized Seminole tribes.

That still exist in Florida today.

Van Dooran returned to recruiting service in fifteen fifty one, then from fifty two to fifty five he was stationed at the East Pascagoula Branch Military Asylum in Mississippi, reserved as the first secretary and then treasurer of the post.

First as secretary, he spent the rest of eighteen fifty five back in Nollins doing more recruiting duty.

Before being sent once again to Jefferson Barracks to you student.

March third, eighteen to fifty five, he was promoted to captain in the second Cavalry.

Oh get to move up, huh well?

With the second Van Dorn was designed to frontier duty Fort bell Knapp in Camp Cooper in Texas.

This is from fifty five to fifty six, spending much of that time scout in the Northern Texas planes.

On July first, eighteen fifty six, he took part in a minor skirmish with Kamanche warriors, and from fifty six to fifty seven he was stationed at Camp Colorado, which is in Texas, conducting more scouting missions, and then he returned there again in fifty seven to fifty eight, before finally being a sign to Fort Chadburn in Coke County, Texas in eighteen fifty eight.

Mos Dude's all over the fucking place, damn Van Dorn.

He continued to see action on the frontier, this time in campaigns against several Native American tribes.

He fought separately against Seminoles, many of whom had forcibly relocated Indian territory, and later led an offensive against the Commanche who had been the raiding who had been raiding new Native American settlements the United States had promised to protect.

Yeah, the Commanches fucked up everybody.

The US military had long struggled against the Commanche.

The Van Dorn's campaign turned out to be one of the few clear cut victories in that difficult conflict.

General David Emmanuel Twiggs even described it as a pick three more decisive and complete in the history of Indian warfare.

Wow.

Van Dord paid heavy personal price for those successes.

While serving in Indian territory.

He was wounded four times.

The most serious came first expedition against Comanche bad of Wichita Village first October eighteen fifty eight.

In that very fight, he was struck by two arrows, one lodge in his left arm and another in his right side.

Ooh, piercing his stomach and lung.

Dang.

It was bad enough that doctors didn't expect him to live.

Somehow, he recovered in just five weeks.

By the spring of eighteen fifty nine, he was back in action.

Baby in the stomach and the lung.

This time he led, and.

They weren't poison.

Poison would poop.

This time, he led six companies of cavalry and a company of scoutch drawn from the Brazos Reservation on another campaign against the Commanchee.

He tracked down the camp of the chief known as Flow Hump in what is now Kansas and a valley he mistakenly thought was the Ness Katunga or the ness in Tunga.

Attacked on May thirteenth, eighteen fifty nine.

Van Dorn's forces killed forty nine commanche wounded five others, and captured thirty two women.

And they're about to go and take.

Them to Catholic schools.

After that campaign, Van Dorn was stationed at Fort Mason, Texas, through eighteen fifty nine and sixty.

While there, he was promoted the rank of major June twenty eight, eighteen sixty.

Not long after that promotion, he took leave from the army and remained absent for the rest of sixty and into sixty one.

He said, dude, I've had enough enough.

Suppose it.

Van Dorn was a first deeply resistant to the idea of Americans going to war with one another.

He generally believed that there had be a peaceful way.

It's got to be a peaceful way to resolve this, and then he put effort into trying to prevent the conflict from breaking out.

Even though he'd later align himself with the old ReBs, in the early stages, he still held on hope that the crisis could be solved without bloodshed, and we can do this boys.

On hindsight, the optimism came across as a little naive.

Van Dorn underestimated just how far things had really been gone.

He's out in the country, in the plains and the prairies, and jay don't realize what's going on in the cities and unrest.

Right, and he continued to leave up until the first day of battle, almost stubbornly, nah that a peaceful solution was still possible, even as the country was already sliding toward war.

That once became clear that fighting was inevitable, he threw his loyalty behind his home region, as they all did except for a couple.

As the war began, Van Dorn joined the Confederate States Army and officially resigned his commission in the US Army, the resignation taking effect January thirty first, eighteen sixty one.

Before that, he had already.

Been appointed in brigadier general in the Mississippi Militia January twenty third, just a few weeks so he was technically a trader trader.

A few weeks later, February, he replaced Jefferson Davis, who had just been selected as president, and that as a role of major general and commander of Mississippi State Forces.

Okay, good for him, right.

He held that very position until March sixteenth, eighteen sixty one, when he resigned from the Mississippi Militia and immediately entered the regular Confederate Army as a colonel of the infantry.

That very same day, he was sent west to organize, he said back.

He was sent west to organize and command a volunteer brigade under the new Confederate Department of Texas.

By April eleventh, he had been given command of all Confederate forces in Texas and was ordered to arrest and detain, and he remained in the United States troops in the state who refused to join the Confederacy.

Leaving New Orleans Say fourteenth, eighteen sixty one, he made his way to Matta Gorda Bay, Texas, where he led his men in one of the first significant actions of the war.

He put seventeenth, he successfully captured the Union sply ship Star of the West, right in the harbor.

Even in this early victory, Van Dorn's goal wasn't bloodshed, it.

Was a unity.

After taking the ship, he allowed the Union soldiers to keep their firearms, explaining that at the end of the day, they're all Americans right to act.

Mark what became known as the first surrender of the war, officially taking place in April seventeenth, eighteen sixty.

Any of that shit beautiful?

Well, However, it also earned Van Doring some unwanted attention from Washington Old Abe Lincoln Labenham, a pirate on the United States Law for the Seizure of Vessels or Goods by Persons acting under the authority of the Confederate States acting good Yeah.

A few days later, Van Dorn and his forces moved to Indiana piracy though if it's wartime right, his forces moved to Indianola, where they confronted of the last remaining regular the United States Army soldiers in Texas twenty third April.

You forced to surrender as well.

While stationed at Indianola, even tried to convince some of the captured Union troops to switch sides and join the ol ReBs, but his recruiting efforts mostly fell flat.

Not long after that, old Van Dorn was summoned to.

Richmond sixty one, he was appointed a cur role in the first Confederate States Regular Calvary and put in charge of all the cavalry forces in Virginia.

That His rise to the ranks was fast.

He was promoted to brigadier general in June fifth, then again the major general September nineteen, eighteen sixty one.

Just five days later, he was given divisional command of the Competerate Army of the Potomac, where he led the first Division until January tenth, eighteen sixty two.

Around that same period, Confederate President Jefferson Davis he was struggling to find a strong commander for the new trans Mississippi District.

Nobody wants to go out there.

Right, Well, there's two main Confederate generals there, Stirling Price and Benjamin mccollot.

These guys were notorious rivals, and Davis needed someone capable of keeping them in line and building an organized fighting force.

First two choices, Henry Heath and Braxton Bragg, both declined, so Davis turned Van Dorn.

So Van Dorn accepted assignment began heading west again on the nineteenth of January eighteen sixty two.

He needed to gather his scattered commands, setting up his head orders at Pocahontas, Arkansas.

He officially assumed command of the trans Mississippi District on July January twenty ninth, eighteen sixty two.

Well By then, Union forces in Missouri had already pushed nearly all competitor troops out of the state.

When Van Dorn took command of the department, he found himself trying to respond to a situation that was already in motion.

With an army about seventeen thousand men and sixty cannons, they were known as the Army of the West.

His plan was ambitious.

He wanted to attack and destroy the Union army margin to Missouri, capture Saint Louis, effectively turning the state over to Confederate control.

He gathered his forces near the Boston Mountains March thredam, again, moving north to following day to execute his plan.

Won't think him worked, oh bud right.

Meanwhile, Union Brigadier General Samuel Curtis had brought his ten thy five hundred man Army of the Southwest into Arkansas.

He was pursuing the retreating Confederates.

Wow, we got a pursuer right.

Curtis had four divisions fifty artillery guns took up a strong defense of his along the Sugar Creek in Benton County.

This is in Arkansas.

There on the northern side of the creek.

He dug in in four to five, expecting Van Dorn to attack from the south.

Well, van Dorn was smart, He said, you know what I'm decided against they direct usault on such a well defended position.

Instead, he split his army into two, one led by Sterling Price and the other by Benjamin McCullough.

He ordered them to march north separately, planning to reunite behind Curtis's lines and hit the Union army from the rear.

To move faster, Van Dorn made a fitful decision.

He left the supply wagons behind.

That choice later proved costly.

The march turned into a grueling ordeal.

Many ReBs lack basic gear, some reportedly without shoes.

The path slowed further by felled trees blocking the roads.

Exhaustion, hunger, and the late arrival McCulloch's man figure.

All those delays gave Curtis time to reposition part of his army on March sixth, allowing him to meet Van Dorn's Prize attack from behind.

A time, Van Dorn's advance guard accidentally stummed into Union patrols near Elm Springs.

The element surprise is long own.

The resulting engagement now known as the Battle p Ridge and then too it would become one of the rare moments in the Civil War.

Their wre Confederate forces actually outnumbered.

The Union Oh Wow.

Just before taking command, Van Dorn had written to his wife Caroline about the pressure he was under, saying, I am now in for it to make a reputation and serve my country conspicuously or fail.

I must not shall not do the latter, I must have Saint Louis then Whosa.

After waiting for Murcullax to arrive, Van Dorn's patience finally ran out seventh of March eighteen sixty two.

He decided to move forward with the troops he already had, and around nine am that morning he ordered during the Price to attack the Union unt nine am that afternoon, right he attacked during Price he ordered Sterling Price to attack the Union position year Around nine o'clock that morning, he ordered Sterling Price to attack the Union position near Elkorn Tavern.

Despite being wounded during the fighting, oh Sterling Price managed to drive the Union forces back by nightfall, even cutting General Curtis's lines of communication.

At the same time, following Van Dorn's order to take an alternate route and push ahead quickly, McCulloch's forces engaged another part of the Union defenses.

Yeah, but that attack.

But that attack fell apart early when both McCulloch and bringing General James McIntosh they were killed, leaving their sector leaderlessen in disarray.

When Van Dorn heard about the chaos on his right plank, he refused to back down.

Then we must press them the harder, he said, urgent Price to renew his assault.

The Confederates managed to push Curtis's men further back by the end of the day, the situations were precarious.

Right that night, Price's division finally linked up with the battered remnants of mccuch's.

Van Dorn he took stock of his options and what we what do we got here?

His army exhausted, they're all and supplies are fifteen miles away.

Oh and the Union Army now stood between them and those much needed resources.

Still, Van Dorn held his ground through the night.

Next morning, March eighth, Curtis repositioned his forces into an even stronger defensive line.

It's about a mile north of the previous position.

Van Dorn had his men arranged defensively in front of Pea Ridge Mountain.

At first light, he ordered the last of his artillery ammunition to be fired toward the Union line, just to gauge the response, what are they going to do if.

We do this?

What do they have?

Right?

Well?

The Union guns answered immediately and decisively, knocking out most of the Van Dorn's remain artillery.

Curtis did encounter attack, routing the old rebels almost entirely through artillery and maneuver.

There was a little close combat between Invertree units.

Van Dorn he ordered to retreat south, pulling his where his soldier's back opponents were The soldiers back through sparsely populated country for a week, surviving on what little food they can find.

Eventually, the Army of the West reunited with its supply trains south of the Boston Mountains, and his official report on the battle Vandor and summed up the experience with blunt honesty.

I tempted first to beat the enemy at Elcorn, but a series of accidents entirely unforeseen and not under my control, and a badly disciplined army defeated my intentions.

Don't use the voice.

That's amazing.

All of these guys north, south east west, even in Britain, they all found the same country accident.

The death of McCulloch and Macintosh and the capture of Herbert left me without an officer to command the right wing, which was thrown into utter confusion, and the strong position of the enemy the second day left me no alternative but to retire from the contests quote unquote.

Historians still debate whether he said it in that tone.

Historians still debate the casualty numbers from pe Ridge, as they always do.

Most estimates suggest about one to twelve hundred men one thousand to twelve hundred men Union casualties, roughly two thousand Confederate, but Van Dorn's own report told a different story.

He claimed Union losses about eight hundred killed, thousand to twelve wounded three hundred caption, while his own army he sets suffered only eight hundred to one thousand killed and wounded in between two hundred and three hundred captured, so about the same.

No at all.

Regardless of the numbers, the Confederate at p Ridge is a series blow van Dorn's army.

He soon ordered east cross the Mississippi River to join the Army of Tennessee, leaving Missouri firmly in Union hands.

In Arkansas exposed with almost no defenses left still, the Confederate Congress expressed gratitude of Van Dorn and his men, issuing a vote thinks April twenty first, for their valor, skill and good conduct.

And the Battle of el Corn in the State of Arkansas's reported Confederate Secretary War Judah Benjamin March eighteenth, he refused to admit defeat, insisting I was not defeated, but only foiled in my attentions.

I'm yet sanguine of success and will not seize to repeat my blows whenever the opportunity is offered.

Right defeated, Yeah.

After that defeat at Pea Ridge, van Dorn regrouped and he marches men eastward with the goal of joining General Elbert Sidney Johnston's Army of Mississippi.

The plan was to consolidate their forces at Corinth, Mississippi, or they could prepare to confront the Union armies advance up the Tennessee River.

Van Dorn's troops crossed Arkansas and then the Mississippi River, but by the time they reached the other side, as always, it was too late.

Johnston already fought and died at the Battle of Shiloh.

When the long and difficult March finally ended in mid April, the Army of the West arrived at Corinth and it was merged into the Army of Mississippi, now under the general command of General Pierre G.

T.

Bullguide Peter PGT.

Van Dorn's men made up the right flank of the Copeditant line during the Siege of Corinth that followed.

Later that year.

He would again take the field in what became known as the Second Battle of Corinth, fought in early October eighteen sixty two.

Just says at Pea Ridge.

Van Dorn started out strong October first and second.

He combined forces of Sterling Price and positioned his army, which is about twenty two thousand men.

Rob Lee Eagwan's size the Union force for an assault on the town, but despite his initial advantage, he failed to properly scout or assess the strength in the Union defense.

Course Wow he attacked Brigader General William Rosecrans heavily forty five positions on the third of October, his troops with devastating fire.

They sought beaten back with the heavy casualties.

Very next day, fourth of October, He's retreating army hit a gain along the Hatchet River by Union troops under Brigadier Generals Stephen Horrbought and Edward Ord.

The old Rabs were roughly handled, as one report put it, but Rose Grans didn't follow up aggressively, which allowed Van Dorn and the remnants of his army to escape.

The Second Battle of Corinth ended as another costly Union victory.

This one, the Union suffered twenty five hundred and twenty casualties three fifty five killed, eighteen hundred and forty one wounded, three twenty four missing, while the Confederates lost about forty two hundred and thirty three men, which included four hundred and seventy three killed.

Nineteen ninety seven wounded and one thousand, seven hundred and sixty three captured or missing.

After the battle, Van Dorn ordered to retreat south through Abbeville, Oxford and Water.

Valley, Mississippi.

December fourth, he and his staff were nearly captured that they managed to fight off Union cavalry skirmishes as they continued.

To fall back toward Coffeeville.

Wow.

Two days later, December sixth, he finally stopped the retreat regrouped his army at Grenada.

An aftermath, Van Dorn faced a court of inquiry about to explain his decisions that like, what did you do here, Bud?

I was expecting to see Elbert Johnston.

Dude did right?

Wow?

He was equated of all childes.

What the damage already done.

He was never again trusted with the command of a full army and was soon relieved of his district post.

Even so, not everyone viewed his defeat hashly.

Jefferson Davis later called the battle and impossibility.

He said that Van Dorn had inherited an army full starving and sick men.

Is your army?

Davis?

All right?

And then handled an unwinnable situation masterfully.

Captain H.

E.

Stark who witnessed the battle.

He defended Van Dorn as well in a paper he later wrote, calling him the bravest of the brave, the knightly Earl van Dorn.

Stark argued that the failure at Corinth was at Van Dorn's fall at all, but rather the result of General brax and Bragg ignoring his plans and diverting troops to fight at Ayuka.

Yeah, we all know about Brax and Bragg and his terrible decision making.

Well, that move reduced Van Dorn's army from thirty thousand men to maybe about seven teen thousand before the Corinth campaign even began.

Despite those odds, Dark wrote that Van Dorn managed a storm, one he called the Gibraltar of Mississippi, defended by thirty five thousand Union soldiers, some of the best in the entire Federal army under General U.

S.

Grand.

Stark consisted that Van Dorn's assault was initially successful.

He captured some key positions and drove re Union troops back into Corinth itself before roman overwhelming losses force of retreat.

You can only do so much when you're out number two to one.

But you ain't kidding.

Nearly half of Van Dor's men killed wounded, leaving his army two weaken to hold the captured ground once Union reinforcements arrived.

Though the battle ended in the defeat and marked the close of the Confederate campaign in west en Z, many contemporaries still saw it as proof of Van Dorn's daring and determination.

A costly failure, yeah, but one that reflected the brilliant exploits that defined his turbulent career.

The closing months of eighteen sixty two, old General Van Dorn played a key role in one of the Federacy's most creative victories.

You got it.

The recapture of Galveston, Texas.

Operation became a showcase of his technical imagination, his preference for clever strategy over brute force, as described in Arthur BA.

Carter's biography The Tarnished Cavalier Major General Earl Van Dorn CSA.

Van Doord, He guided Major General John B.

McGruder and using deception to make the old Confederate forces appear far stronger than they actually were.

You don't even have to do that, because the Union generals were already thinking it.

His plan relied on a mix of misdirection, psychology and showmanship.

He had troops strategically positioned to give the impression of overwhelming numbers, and he ordered the use of Quaker guns, which were logs carefully painted to look like real cannons, to create the illusion of heavy artillery line in the defenses.

What did the Brits do in World War One at inflatable tanks?

That was World War Two?

That wasn't the Brits.

That was Americans.

That was actually patent.

Oh, okay, that was the Brits.

Oh.

They used patent because they thought Pattin would be the one to strike, So they give a bunch of inflatables, right.

But Van Dorn didn't stop there.

In a bold psychological move, he arranged for a rider to cross over the Union side and said the Confederates are coming.

The Confederates are coming, And he invited a trusted advisor of the Union commander, Colonel Isaac Burrow, to personally inspect the Confederate lines.

Van Dorn guaranteed the men's safety, allowing him to see what he believed was a massive, well armed force ready for battle.

The illusion worked perfectly.

Convinced they were hopelessly outnumbered and outgun the Union forces surrendered the position without a major fight.

Victor Aik Galveson not only demonstrated Van Dorn's ingenuity as a strategist, but also his commitment to achieve in military success without unnecessary bludge Right, you don't need it.

Take a note, Grant.

It's one of the rare moments in the war where deception and imagination carried the day instead of sheer violence, which reinforced Van Dorn's reputation as both a darren commander and a surprisingly humane one.

And it came to sparing lives he was spared him had he had guys right.

Van Dorn truly came into his own as a cavalry commander, a role in which he was never defeated and often showed flashes of brilliance.

His most famous achievement in that capacity Holly Springs Raid.

It's a daring strike that completely disrupted Grant's first campaign to capture Vicksburg.

Van Dorn he's been frustrated after being relieved a command by General John Pemperton and was eager to redeem his rep With Pemberton's permission, he secretly began playing in a raid against Grant's army keeping even in his own soldiers in the dark about their mission.

Why would you do such a thing?

December sixteenth, eighteen sixty two, Van dorn led twenty five hundred Calvary man out of Granada, Mississippi, crossing the Yalabusha River right in northeast under the cover of secrecy, and dawn December twentieth, they descended on Holly Springs, Mississippi, in a surprise attack that caught the Union garrison completely off guard, and Dornan's men captured fifteen hundred Union soldiers, including the post commander, Colonel Robert Murphy, and destroyed at least one point five million worth of Union supplies.

Whole six hundred Union cavalrymen from Illinois managed to escape.

The blow of Grant's army was enormous.

When the raid ended, Van dorn was celebrated by the local citizens, especially the women on Holly Springs, who hailed him as a hero and dubbed December twentieth the glorious twentieth Oh yeah, because they were probably getting right dragged into freaking tents by Union soldiers.

Well, Grant, he hadn't been ignorant of the threat.

He had been out maneuvered.

His cavalry had been ordered to keep it twenty four hour watch over his supply line, and his own cavalry commander T.

Loud Dickey, had already warned him that Van Dorn had left Granada had in northeast, and Grant even telegraphed multiple commanders to be on alert, but those warnings went unheeded.

Colonel Murphy, despite receiving two direct warnings from Grant that Van Dorn was coming his way, he was like nah.

He failed to repair any defenses at all, Fortunately enough for Grant, though on a personal level, his wife Julia and their son Jesse had Lauray Loved Holly Springs the night before the raid to meet him in Oxford, missing the attack entirely.

Am wow.

Grant was like, this guy's an idiot, Get your asses over here.

Interestingly, Van dorns raid coincided with one of the most controversial orders.

Of Grant's career.

Just three days earlier, Grant issued General Order number eleven, expelling all Jews as a class from his military district because, if you remember our grand episode, he believed Jewish traders were violating Treasury Department cotton trade regulations.

They were not only that that was with his daddy.

Yeah, stuck his daddy in it.

Yeah yeah.

Better raids Van Dorns and Mississippi, and another by General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who had already destroyed fifty miles of the Mobile on Ohio Railroad beginning December tenth, wrecked habit, communion, communications, and transportation lines.

Chaos they caused delayed the enforcement of Grant's order for weeks, sparing many Jewish families from expulsion.

Look at that.

After his success at Holly Springs, Van Dorn continued his campaign northward, following the Mobile and Ohio Railroad.

He fought an inconclusive skirmish at Davis's Mill, clashed near Middleburg, Tennessee, maneuvered around Bolivar, returned to his base at Granada by December twenty eighth.

The raid restored Vandorm's reputation, which had suffered greatly after his defeat at the Second Battle Corinth.

Together, his and Forrest's attacks forced Grant to poll his army back to Grand junkson Tennessee.

This is where his troops had to live off the land because his flight lions had been destroyed.

Telegraph lines were down, meaning Grant couldn't communicate with General Sherman, who, unaware of the withdrawal, attacked Chickasaw Bluffs on the twenty nine December and was brutally repulsed.

Twin raids by Van Dorn and Forest humiliated Grant, but didn't end a squer obviously, despite the setback, as earlier victors at Fort Henry and Fort Donaldson, Shiloh Ayuka, and Corinth kept him in the Inn's favor, I would assume so.

However, Old Abe did step into revoke General Order Number eleven after the public outcry at cause.

While Van Dorn's success at Ally Springs derailed, Grant's first attempt to take Vicksburg in General would eventually succeed.

It was after Van Dorn's death, which we'll get here too shortly, when Vicksburg we all know felt July fourth, eighteen sixty three.

Two years later, Grant reorganized the US cavalry in a distinct and powerful fighting branch under General Phillip Shearden shared in during an overland campaign of sixty five, a move that reflected how important cavalry raids like Van Dorn's had proven to be in shape in the course of the war, and.

Then I get those cavalry areas.

You do, you do?

You do.

Thirteenth of January eighteen sixty three, Earl Van Dorn given command of all cavalry forces in the Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana.

Not long after that, General Josep.

Johnson ordered him to move north and joined the Army of Tennessee, which was then operating in Middle Tennessee.

Van Dorn and his man left Tupelo, Mississippi, passed through Florence, Alabama, reached the main Confederate Army at Columbia, Tennessee on the twentieth of February eighteen sixty three, setting up his headquarters at spring Hill in the house known as Whitehall.

Old van Dorn they love that right.

Old Van Dorn took charge of all the surrounding cavalry.

His superior General Bragg.

He tasked him with guarding the left flank of the army, scouting, screening movements, and keeping Blue Coats at bay.

It was long before Van Dorn got the chance to show what he could do.

March fifth, eighteen sixty three, he won a sharp engagement in the Battle of Thompson Station.

The Union brigade under Colonel John Coburn had left Franklin to conduct a reconnaissance mission.

To the south.

About four miles short of spring Hill, Colburn's men classed with two Confederate regiments.

After repelling the initial Union assault, Van Dorn ordered Brigader General William Hicks Jackson's troops, who were fighting dismounted, to make a direct frontal attack.

At the same time, Van Dorn instructed Brigader General Nathan Bedford Forrest to lead his cal around Colburn's left flank and strike the Union rear.

Plan worked perfectly.

After three failed Union charges, Jackson's men finally broke through the front, while Forrest's troopers captured Colburn's wagon train, gotting off the road to Columbia and blocking any chance of a retreat.

Low on Ammo and completely surrounded, Colonel Colburn was sports a surrender.

God, dudes, gotta do, go, do what you gotta do.

Historians they noted that Van Dorn's performance at Thompson Station reflected how much he had learned from earlier setbacks like p Ridge and Corinth.

This time, he kept his cavalry concentrated rather than divided, relied on accor intelligence, and he also used He also used train to his vantage.

His battle plan.

You asked, well, those design It was designed to lure Colburn's force far enough from Franklin to make reinforcement or escape impossible, and guess what, It worked exactly as intended.

The victory not only prevented Colburn's brigade from linking up with the Union cavalry under Philip Sheridan.

All So, Mark van Dorn is one of the Confederacy's most promising cavalry leaders.

His reputation already on the men at the Corinth, rose even higher after this success.

The contemporary reporter described how as Van Dorn rode along the column after the strife had ceased, cheer upon cheer greeted him from the enthusiastic soldiery, who, under his daring direction, had achieved the victory.

He is undoubtedly held high at the present moment.

An estimation of his forces and his confidence is well deserved, good view contemporary reporter.

Just a few weeks later, Mark sixteenth, Van Dorn was officially placed in command of the entire cavalry Corps of the Army of Tennessee.

His final battle came less than a month later, April tenth, eighteen sixty three, at the First Battle of Franklin, there is cavalry skirmish with Uniforces under General Gordon Granger.

In a brief but fierce engagement, Van Dorn lost one hundred and thirty seven men and Grangers roughly one hundred.

Though the fight was minor, it caused Van Dorn to halt his movements and reassessed his next steps, eventually falling back to the spring Hill area.

Not long after that battle, tensions flared between Van Dorn and Nathan Bedford Forrest, who criticized Van Dorn's decisions during the campaign.

Van Dorn never won to back down.

From an insult, challenged Forrest to a duel.

Forrest managed to calm the situation.

It was the whoa whoa, whoa want that all right, hold on, hold.

On, reminding him they were both far too valuable to the Compederacy to risk killing each other.

It's one of the last major moments in Van Dorn's military career and a glimpse into the fiery, prideful personality that had to find him since the very beginning of the war, and his life well.

When it all comes down to it, it wasn't a bad a field that claimed General Earl Van Dorn's life, it was his reputation as a ladies man.

After his victories in Tennessee, Van Dorn made his headquarters in spring Hill, setting up at the Chia's Mansion, the home of Martin Chias.

True to his flirtatious nature, he soon became involved in an affair that would prove fatal.

The women Jesse Hill and Casseck Peters, the young wife of doctor George B.

Peters, a respected loyal physician and state legislator.

It's also a local physician, all right.

Missus Peters was nearly twenty five years younger than her husband, married for Moni, and, according to locos, often bored during his long absences from home, and it wasn't long before townspeople began to whisper about her frequent visits from Van Dorn and the pair's unchaperoned carriage rides through spring Hill.

The gossip spread quickly, and by the time doctor Peters returned home on the twelfth of April, the whole town was talking bye boy.

When he arrived, doctor Peters was humiliated.

Locals openly mocked him for being a cuckold.

Furious, he publicly declared that he would shoot Van Doorn or any member of his staff who dared to step foot on his property.

One night, he decided to take matters into his own hands.

He hit outside his home, and he waited and watched.

When Van Dorn inevitably arrived to visit Missus Peters.

Peters rushed inside and caught the tune.

An intimate embrace, pulled his gun and threatened to kill the general on the spot.

Van Dorn, cornered and unarmed, begged for mercy, pleading that Missus Peters not be blamed or harmed in any way.

Doctor Peters agreed, sparing both of their lives that night.

Oh wow, The competition didn't end the matter, instead set the stage for something much much more.

Darky Guys Peters Wow.

A few weeks later, morning of the seventh of May eighteen sixty three, Doctor Peters rode to Shar's mansion, where Van Dorn still kept his headquarters.

The guards at the door recognized him.

He often came by two requests passes through Confederate lines, and they allowed him to enter without suspicion.

You think if you were Van dorny like, do not let this fucking crazy, fucking here, dude.

Peters walked straight into Van Dorn's office for the general set his desk he was writing.

Without a word, Peters drew his pistol and shot Van Dorn in the back of the head.

A moments later that Hie's young daughter ran screaming from the house, shouting that doctor Peters had shot the General.

Van Dorn's aides rushed into his office and found him slumped over his desk, still breathing but unconscious.

The wound mortal, small caper bullet had entered the back of his skull, passing through his brain, lodged behind his forehead.

He suffered massive brain damage, leading to cerebral herniation an eventual cardiac and respiratory arrest.

Van Dor died about four hours later, never regained consciousness.

Peters he was arrested by competitate authorities soon after, but was never brought to trial.

His defense was simple.

He claimed Van Dorn had violated the sanctity of his home.

Back then, that was good enough.

In the South, where the code of honor was deeply ingrained, many saw Peters's act as justified.

You across the Confederate ranks, condemnation of Van Dorn was widespread.

Frigator General Saint John Liddell, one of Van Dorn's fellow officers in the Army of Tennessee, He summed up the sentiment bluntly.

He said, there was little sympathy to be had for Van Dorn.

Yet that was not the whole story.

Letters written to his family and eyewitness accounts from his funeral preserved in a Soldier's Honor by Emily Miller, paints a different picture.

Those who knew him personally included many soldiers under his command.

They expressed genuine sorrow and respect for their fall in general, and I will assume some didn't.

Even in death.

Van Dorn remained a man of contradictions, molden admired, reckless and undone by his own passions, a soldier whose greatest victories and most tragic downfall both came not from war itself, but from the man he chose to be.

YEAH eyewitness who attended General Earl van Dorn's funeral later described the scene and vivid, mournful detail.

So as we watched the immense possession of soldiers, the hearst drawn by six white horses, its gorgeous array of white and black plumes that bore the grand cas game in which the dead hero lay.

We thought, with sorrow of the handsome face still in death, and the heartbroken wife thus cruelly widowed U.

I'm pretty sure pissed down.

All right, quote unquote.

It was a ceremony of pageantry and griefs.

They honored a man whose life had burned bright and ended suddenly.

Van Dorn's soldiers, especially as cavalry man, remembered him not only for his charm and recklessness, but for his courage in battle.

One trooper recalled that morning, December twentieth ter in the Holly Springs raid, when Van Dorn sat on his black mare at dawn, holding his hat high above his head as men waited beside him.

I thought him was a fine figure as I had ever seen another.

Colonel, Colonel Griffith, whose plan Van Dorn had executed perfectly that day, he wrote, felt as if I could charge Hell and capture the devil.

Even among the chasts of the war, Van Dorn inspired that kind of loyalty.

When the news of his death spread, tributes came swiftly.

General W.

H.

Jackson, who had served under Van Dorn at the Battle of Thompson's Station.

He wrote one of the most movie eulogies upon the battlefield.

Jackson said he was a personification of courage and chivalry.

No chivalry, no knight of the olden time ever advanced to the contest more eagerly, and after the fury of conflict had passed away, none was ever more generous and humane to the sufferers than he.

As a commanding officer, he was warmly beloved and highly respected as a gentleman.

His social qualities were the rarest of order.

For goodness of heart, he had no equal.

His deeds have rendered his name worthy to be enrolled by the side of the proudest in the capitol of the Confederacy, and long will be sacredly and proudly cherished in the hearts.

Of his command.

Oh that's nice, right.

But even in his death, Van Dorn storied at rest quietly.

Rumors and conspiracy theory soon emerged around his killing.

Some whispered that doctor George Peters's motive might not have been jealousy at all, but pure politics.

Peters had sworn an oath of loyalty to the United States while serving as a state legislator in Memphis, an act that made him a suspicious figure among Confederate loyalists.

After affair came to light, he divorced reason.

Right after the affair came to light, he divorced his wife, only to reconcile with their years later.

Around that very same time, he mysteriously received a large land grant in Arkansas.

Feeling even more speculation that the shooting might have had more to do with politics than personal betrayal.

Van Dorn's sister, Emily, she wrote a memoir defending her brother's reputation, and she insisted that doctor Peter's allegiance to the Union, not wounded pride, had been the true reason for the murder.

Yeah, because otherwise he would have killed him that night, Okay.

Van Dorn's death placed him in a grimly exclusive category.

He's one of only three major generals in the Civil War to die violently over personal matters.

The others were Union Major General William Nelson they call him Bowle, he was shot during a feud with Brigader General Jefferson C.

Davis in eighteen sixty two, and the other comfeder At Major General John Wharton, who was killed in eighteen sixty five after an argument with Colonel George Wythe Baylor.

Van Dorn's body was first buried in the family cemetery of his wife's relatives in Alabama, but his sister later arranged for his remains to be brought home.

He was reinterred beside his father in winter Green Cemetery, Port Gibson, Mississippi, same small town where his story began.

Today his child at home.

The Van Dorn House and Port Gibson still stands, and it's on the National Register of Historic Places.

It's a monument to a man remembered as gallant, flawed, and forever entangled in the contradictions of his own legend.

Wow Throughout his own life, General Earl Van Dorn remained one of the most controversial figures in the Confederacy, a man who's brilliant and flaws existed in equal measure.

As a military commander, he was widely regarded as exceptional when leading small to medium sized units don't give him anything over meeting, especially the cavalry, whereas daring and energy made him nearly unmatched.

But when placed in charge of a large, mixed force that required intricate coordination, his effectiveness faltered.

Military historian David Bondgarden he described him as aggressive, brave, and energetic.

Well.

The other historian, Richard Weiner, he summed it up more bluntly.

He said he's a brilliant cavalry officer.

He was a disappointment in command of large combined forces.

Though the Mobile Register, published on the very day of his death, praised him as a every inch a soldier and just beginning to reap the reward of public confidence and praise.

They also added that his loss will be severely fell in that branch of the service of which he was so complete A master.

Arthur B.

Carter, also known to his peers as ABC van Dorn's biographer and author of The Tarner's Cavalier.

He painted the portrait of a man driven by passion and courage and a love of danger.

He wrote that old Earl possessed a fearless and dash in nature, that during his early career in Texas he shown remarkable skill as both a calvary officer and an Indian fighter.

I'm an Indian fighter.

S true potential, Carter argued, came to light during the Civil War when his leadership and mounted operations, most notably Holly Springs the summer of eighteen sixty two, proved to be invaluable to the Confederacy.

Carter believes that by late eighteen sixty two Van Dorn had begin to mature as a commander, learned to temper his impatience and better appreciate the value of reconnaissance and intelligence.

This evolution was on fold display at Thompson's station when, in the set of Rush Headlong in a combat as he once might have, he skillfully drew his unit opponents into an ambush.

He might have grew a little bit better.

I don't think that was the reason that there's some conspiracy to take him out.

Right, I don't believe that.

Carter also highlighted the duelty of Van Dorn's legacy.

His charisma, his charm made him beloved by many, especially among Texans, who consider him the words of British officer Lieutenant Colonel Arthur for Mantle, the bo ideal of a Confederate leader.

Yeah, his personal life inspired just as many detractors.

Mississippi Senator Phelan accused him of womanizing and debauchery.

Even Carter acknowledged that Van Dorn's fatal flaw was his irresistible attraction to beautiful women.

There's a weakness that quite literally led to his death.

Other historians shared similar views.

John Frederickson described Van Dorn as a morave and capable soldier, but somewhat lacking an administrative ability.

He argued that Van Dorn's natural home was with the cavalry, where he was back in his element off of displayed flashes of brilliance.

Fredrickson credited his victories at Holly Springs and Thompson Stations as proof that Van Dorn was among the Confederacy's finest cavalry leaders.

His death, he wrote, robbed the South of a useful leader at a critical juncture of the Vicksburg Campaign, noting that Van Dorn had been the senior major general in the competitive army at the time of his assassination.

Beyond the battlefield, van Dorn was a man of striking contrasts.

Fiscally short but commanding presence, He was known to be impulsive, emotional, intensely charismatic.

He was also an accomplished painter and poet, an artist's soul wrapped into his soldier's uniform.

His horsemanship was admired throughout the army, his reputation with women legendary.

One reporter famously called him the terror of ugly husbands.

Those who knew him socially said that Van Dorn had an amp opportunity to participate in the social life of the community, describing him as handsome, debonair and polished, a dashing figure in Confederate gray, and the center of attention at every public and private events.

Van Dorn is larger than life persona has continued to capture the imagination long after his death twenty five to retards to a.

Podcast on him right.

There was also a historical romance film titled The Legend of Van Dorn, dramatizing the final chapter of his life.

The love Story, directed by Shane Stanley and written by Lee Wilson and also Patroyed portrayed Van Dorn, who also played Van Dorn.

Lee Wilson did.

Film was featured at the Cannes Film Festival.

Go for You explored both his military achievements and his turbulent personal life, culminating in his assassination more than a century and a half later.

The Legend of Earl Legend of Earl van Dorn still indoors, a reminder of the soldier who could be both heroic and self destructive, gallant and reckless, a man forever caught between glory and downfall.

That's Earl van Dorn.

Uh revered Confederate Calvary in general next week probably.

Would have made one hell of a Union general as well.

Maybe well back next week though for another Union general.

Somebody, Oh, man, I feel like it's time to do maybe Joseph Hooker, it's time to do a Sheridan or a Sherman.

I think it's been too long.

It's been too long.

Definitely not Sherman.

I mean Sheridan's story is fucking just long.

Benito warez oh.

And maybe would have shared in next week that guy out of the way along overdue, But yeah, it's Ero van Dorn, So take that which you will.

He's a womanizer.

Got shot in the back of the head.

Was it a conspiracy?

Was it not?

Did you got killed because he banging chicks?

Or ready to get killed because for some reason they wanted.

To take him out?

You'd be the judge leaving in the comments ilek uh, Yeah, but that we'll be back next week.

We're more remember, subscribe to friends, leave a comment review like, and uh all that other good yah, and we're back for more battles of American Civil War.

Behind the battles, was he them well, the Michigan we

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