Jocko Podcast - 323: When Times Get Truly Desperate, FIX BAYONETS and GO. 20th Maine Infantry Regiment, The Civil War.

Episode Date: March 2, 2022

0:00:00 - Opening0:11:18:05 - "Fix Bayonets", by Joshua Chamberlain2:02:09 - End analysis / How to stay on THE PATH.2:20:02 - Closing gratitude.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

This is Jocko podcast number 323 with Echo Charles and me Joccoe Willink. Good evening, Echo. Good evening. Also joining us tonight is Jason Gardner. Good evening, Jason. Good evening. The inspiration of a noble cause involving human interests far and wide enables men to do things they did not dream themselves capable of before

and which they were not capable of alone. The consciousness of belonging. vitally to something beyond individuality of being part of a personality that reaches we know not where in space and time gratings the heart to the limits of the soul's ideal and builds out the supreme of character it was something like this i think which marked our motive which made us strong to fight the bitter fight to the victorious end and made us unrevengeful in that victory. We rose in soul above the things which even the Declaration of Independence pronounces the inamable rights of human nature

for the securing of which governments are instituted among men. Happiness, liberty, life. We laid on the altar of offering or committed to the theories of destruction. while our minds were lifted up to a great thought, and our hearts swelled to its measure. We were beckoned on by the vision of destiny. We saw our country moving forward, charged with the sacred trusts of man.

We believed in its glorious career, the power of high aims and of strong purpose, the continuity of great endeavor, the onward, upward path of history to God. Every man felt that he gave himself to and belonged to something beyond time and above place, something which could not die. These are the reasons, not fixed in the form of things, but formative of things. Reasons of the soul why we fought for the union. And this is the spirit in which having overcome the dark powers of denial and disintegrate,

having restored the people of the South to their place and privilege in the Union and set on high the old flag telling of one life and one body one freedom and one law over all the people and all the land between the four great waters we now come as it were home we look into each other's eyes we speak in softer tones we gather under the atmosphere of these sacred thoughts and memories like the high pure air that shines down upon us today flooding these fields fields where cloud and flash and thunder roll of battle and shrouded us and them in that great three days burial to celebrate this resurrection to rear on these faraway field memorials of familiar names and to honor the state whose honor it was to rear such manhood and those are remarks that were delivered on October 3rd 1889 by general Joshua Chamberlain who with the 20th main led the defense of the left flank of the Union Army on a hill

known as Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg. And Joshua Chamberlain was an incredible soldier, an incredible leader, a warrior, a scholar, a thinker. He's most well known for his deeds as a military leader. He received the Medal of Honor for his heroic leadership there in Gettysburg. That was only part of his life. He served only four years in the Army. But during that time, he participated in some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

Over 20 engagements, including Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Petersburg, and Five Forks. He was wounded six times during battle. Two of those times nearly fatal. He was chosen by Grant to receive the first flag of surrender at the Appomatics Courthouse on April 12th, 1816. then went on to be elected governor of Maine four times served as president of Bowdoin College he was a lawyer he was a real estate developer at the age of 70 even though his health had been severely impacted by his war wounds he volunteered to lead troops in the Spanish-American War he was denied by the

Secretary of War He wrote and he wrote a book called Bayonet Ford, My Civil War Reminiscences, and we're going to cover it today. Jason and I have had the privilege of walking the battlefield of Gettysburg. We do an event at Eschlaan Front called EF Battlefield. And during that event, we look at all the different leaders, and there's a bunch of different leaders. and with a bunch of different personalities,

the good, the bad, the ugly. We got Mead and Lee. We got Buford and Longstreet, Hancock and Ewell, Sickles and Stewart, and every one of those people. And there's many more that we discussed there on the battlefield. There are complex people in a complex situation, making complex leadership decisions.

some right some wrong some insignificant some completely consequential but for me the one individual that stands out from all those leaders is Joshua Chamberlain with so many lessons to learn and we're going to explore some of those today as we go through some highlights of his book Does anyone stand out more than Joshua Chamberlain when you go to Gettusbe? I mean, they all stand out. Mead stands out. Lee stands out. Longstreet.

Buford. They all have these dynamic moments good and bad. But as far as just overall, when you look at the whole thing together, just from Gettysburg, Chamberlain is, he stands out in an epic way. The whole experience of being on that battlefield is almost impossible. possible to put into words. Because there's more to it. It's not like we're in a classroom and we're learning about the history of stuff. There's something that I can't explain that you feel when you're there. And he touched on this in a speech that he gave later. And I was like, oh, okay. What he said was

in great deed, something abides. On great field, something stays. Forms change in pass. Bodies. Bodies but spirits linger, to consecrate the ground for the vision place of souls, and reverent men and women from afar, and generations that know us not, and that we know not of, heart drawn to see where and by whom great things were suffered and unfor them, shall come to this deathless field to ponder and dream and lo. The shadow of a mighty presence shall wrap them in its bosom and the power of the vision pass into their souls. And that's what it's like. You're there and you feel like you're part of something that's bigger than you.

It's just an it's an immensely, yeah, I'll say it. It's a life-changing experience to go to that battlefield as an American. Yeah, there's something spiritual that goes down for lack of a better word. I don't know what other word to use. I'm not even 100% sure I know what the word spiritual means. I think that's the best fit. I don't know what else to say when you walk on that battlefield and when you know what happened and when you know the cost and when you know what the consequences were going to be to win or lose there.

That everything that we have and the course of history as we know it and the course of free people in the world, like it all is there in this one little area where thousands of men stood toe to toe, sometimes literally against their relatives. And when we walk that battlefield, we point that out certain battles where there's literally relatives fighting against each other. And just to know the course of human history

and that point in time, and how important it was. It's, it is, it's like a spiritual thing to be there. Possibly the most decisive battle of the Civil War because if things had gone the other way, it would have affected the election and all, and when you actually walk there and you see that things were literally held by a thread.

Yeah, I mean, case in point, the 20th Maine on the left flank of the Union Army attack after attack after attack and we'll get to it All right, I'm going to go to the book. Going to the Battle of Fredericksburg. This is Virginia, December 11th through the 15th, 1862. By the way, I didn't check on the weather, but December 1862, this was crazy.

So we make boots, right, at origin. the boots that these guys wore were boots called single last boots. And what that means is they don't have a left foot and a right foot. There's just one shape for the boots. And it's a wooden soul. So it's a piece of wood with leather attached to it. And you get a left and a right is the same. That's like the comfort level that these dudes are in.

It's a freaking nightmare. Here we go. So we were held in reserve. It may be thought that we were glad to be kept out of the fight, at least for the present, but I take occasion to say that in forming for a great fight, it is not regarded as a very special favor to be held in reserve. The holding is most likely not for long. And it holds itself a peculiar stress and strain,

waiting and watching intent and anxious stirred by the pulse of manhood and the contagion of comradeship conscious of the strength to help but forbidden to strike all this wears sorely on every generous spirit this guy is such a freaking incredible writer it's mind-boggling but that is such a great thing and as soon as I was reading I was like this is the first thing I'm going to read in this book because only if you've been sitting on the battlefield when there's something happening and you can't do anything or you're being held quote in reserve and you know what it feels like to be like oh i want to go help but i can't and my what does he say my manhood wants to go help but i can't but then he gets this then he says

this and that other not unmanly impulse if the worst is coming let us meet it may have its part two in the drama. It is really less trying to go in first and deliver your blow in the flush of spirit and strength with the feeling that if the worst comes, you will be reinforced or relieved than to be held back till some dire disaster calls when the life and death grapple clenches and you must recover lost ground or die trying. That's another crazy thing. Like when you're in the reserves, hey, if everything goes good, you're not doing anything. And if everything goes bad, you're going to go jump into this freaking mayhem and get some. The worst place.

Yeah, the worst possible place. Or on the other hand, you can be called to advance in triumph over a field already carried. Something then is lacking to the manly sense of service rendered according to strike. So this is a reserve for him is a lose-lose situation. You're either getting called into a freaking blood bath, in which case this is going to be horrible. And you didn't have the chance to strike when you were like ready to rock and roll. Or they're going to win and you know you just get to roll in there and be like well you guys did a good job high five Yeah that's got to be an uncomfortable feeling

It says um this is this is good or bad depending on your reserve state of mind we could plainly see the fierce struggle of our second and nine core lines First steadily moving forward in perfect order and array the flag high poised and leading check and broken somewhat on each successive rise under the first range of shot and shell. No musket replying for this would have been worse than useless, but bright bayonets fixed, ready at the final reach to sweep like a sharp wave crest over the enemy's rock-like barrier. So he's watching this unfold. And you can see the, you can see the soldiers kind of coming up out of the rise of, you know, coming up on a little knoll and then sinking back down.

and they're watching this. He says, right on. Then reaching the last slope before and beneath the death delivering stone wall, suddenly allumed by a sheet of flame. And in an instant, the whole line sinking as if swallowed up in the earth, the bright flags quenched in gloom

and only a riving mass marking that high-tide halt of uttermost manhood and supreme endeavor. So these guys, march up to that wall and then, you know, however many Confederate soldiers just engage and that blast of those rounds at close range and it just immediately stops them. Then a slow backflowing with despairing effort here and there to bear back broken bodies of the brave, glorified by the baptism of blood. I'm just going to throw out some little, I got to go English major here for a minute,

But that alliteration right there, that alliteration there to bear back broken bodies of the brave, glorified by the baptism of blood, this guy gets an A plus on that. Good Lord. It's freaking incredible. Again and again, the bold essay repeated by other troops with similar experience and thickening ridges of the fallen marking the desperate assays. there we stood for an hour witnessing five immortal charges tears ran down the cheeks of stern men waiting almost wishing wishing to be summoned to the same futile glorious work so there's these guys standing up in reserve watching five charges watching guys get mowed down they're crying as they're watching their friends get killed and wishing to be called in to do their duty.

Just to get it over with. Yeah. Yeah. If you're standing in line to go into a meat grinder, do you want to be the first one or like 30 back watching it come slow? Good grief. Now came the call for the reserves. Burnside, despairing of the left and seeing the heroic value on the right at last. exhausted in unavailing sacrifice ordered in the fifth core Griffin's division to lead.

First came the silent departure of our first and second brigades whose courage our eyes could not follow. We waited in expectation, not in fear for that has little place in manhood when love and duty summon, but eager to do our best and make the finish. Few words were spoken among officers, however, endeared to each other by confidences deepened by such pressure of life on the borders of death as war compels. The sense of responsibility silenced all else. Silence in the ranks, too. One little word, perhaps, telling whom to write to.

Griffin gave us a searching, wistful look, not trusting his lips, and we not needing more. now rang forth the thrilling bugle cry third brigade to the front comments you know like this guy is such an incredible writer and the way he conveys this it just doesn't need anything else the story about this night

was what really I highlighted on this battle and struck me when they eventually have to hold up for the night Yeah, and you're sleeping on bodies. Oh, yeah. First comes the charge. We were directed straightforward. Toward the left of the futile advance we had seen so fearfully cut down. The fences sued compelled us to send our horses back.

The artillery fire made havoc. Crushed bodies, severed limbs were everywhere around in streets, dooryards, and gardens. Our men began to fall and were taken up by the faithful surgeons and hospital attendance. who also bring courage to their work. Now we reach the lines we were to pass for the further goal. We picked our way amid bodies thickly strewn, some stark and cold, some silent with slowly ebbing life, some in sharp agony that must have voice, though unavailing.

Some prone from sheer exhaustion or by final order of hopeless commander. The living from their close, clung, bosom of the earth strove to dissuade us. It's no use, boys. We've tried that. Nothing living can stand there. It's only for the dead. On we pushed. Up slopes, slippery with blood, miry with repeated unavailing tread. We reached that final crest before that all-commanding countermanding stone wall. Here we exchanged fierce volleys at every disadvantage until the muzzle flame deep in the sunset red and all was dark. We stepped back a little behind the shelter in this forlorn foremost crest and sank to silence,

perhaps such as human weakness to sleep. So as they're marching on this assault where they've watched five charges fail, as they're stepping over bodies and limbs, and guys, some laying. quietly dialing and dying and some screaming out and agony and some laying wounded are looking up at them and saying stop it's no use don't go we already tried it and they press on and they basically get into a gunfight at that wall and then it gets dark and this is the this is the part that you're talking about is a cold night bitter raw north wind swept stark slopes the men heated by their energetic and exciting work felt keenly the chilling change I rose at midnight as we advanced

over that stricken field the grave conglomerate monotone resolved itself into its diverse several elements some breathing inarticulate agony some dear home names some begging for a drop of water some caring for some for a caring word some praying god for strength to bear some for life some for quick death we did what we could but how little it was on a field so boundless for feeble human reach so they're just up there laid up sleeping with with the dead and the dying by the way i'm not reading this whole book i you and i were talking earlier I said, hey, it's going to be hard. It was hard for me to pick out, like, what am I going to read?

Because literally this book, you could just read the entire thing, just do the audio book. I could just do that and just call it, just be like, hey, I'm just going to read this whole thing. And maybe I will do that. There's no way this is being protected by copyright or anything like that because it's too old. So maybe I'll just do an audio book and get that out there as well. My dad just tried to get a copy of it and it wasn't readily available. They had to get it like from an outside seller on Amazon. Oh, the book itself?

This one, yeah. Yeah. It will be reprinted now, which is awesome. But maybe I'll have to just go straight audiobook on this thing. Hats off to you because there's some words in here I'm not used to. Yeah. It's not that bad. There's worse.

He's, he, he, he, he, even though they're definitely, I think there's definitely words that are challenging. But it's still, he speaks pretty. plainly, you know? I mean, compared to some stuff from back in the day, this is really back in the day, Uncle Charles, he's a plain speaker. But man, it's funny, I never picked up on that alliteration. And he's, I didn't pick up on it because I haven't been reading it out loud. As soon as you start reading out loud, that alliteration, have you ever read the Seamus Haney version of Beowulf? No.

Okay. So Beowulf, the way it's written in, what is it, Old English, um, God, I hope I got that right. Yeah, it's old English. It's written the way that they wrote it's written with alliteration. So all the sounds are, and the same vowels, right? And so when Seamus Heaney did the translation into modern English,

he managed to find words to make the whole thing have that same alliteration throughout the book. It's powerful. That guy's got to be a wizard. Oh, yeah, yeah. He seems super smart. I think he's like one of the most recognized. You know, there's that thing people do where they're like, hey, what's the one person that you'd like to have dinner with, dead or alive?

To fill out those questions, definitely you could sit for hours with Joshua. Yeah. And just listen to him talk because it's like, it took me a second. It was like getting in a cold swimming pool to get used to it. And then once I was used to it, I was like, gosh, I really like the way that he speaks. And then, you know, sometimes I would send like text to Iris. Like, hey, I'm going to endeavor to get the kids ready for school. And then my efforts will be pointed towards ensuring that the horses are fed.

Yeah. No, he's. And mimicking because this stuff is awesome. Yep. The so these guys are up there all night. It's a it's a horror show. It's a horror show No big deal just sleeping on dead guys Fast forward a little bit wakened by the sharp fire Soon came a storm of bullets from the front and flank to route us from our slight shelter in the hollow between the two outermost crests of the manifold assault

This not sufficing the artillery took up the task trying to rain down Shelter's upon us and sweep solid shot through our huddled group. We had to lie flat on the earth and only by careful twisting could any man load and fire his musket against the covered line in the front. Before long we saw two or three hundred of the enemy creep out from the right of their stone wall and take advantage of a gully bank where the ground fell away from our left to get a full flank fire on us. The situation was critical. We took a warrant of supreme necessity. We laid up a breastwork of dead bodies to cover that exposed flank. Behind this, we managed to live through the day. No man could stand up and not be laid down again hard.

I saw a man lift his head by the prop of his hands and forearms and catch a bullet in the middle of his forehead. Such recklessness was forbidden. We lay there all day hearing the dismal thud of the bullets into the dead flesh of our life-saving bulwarks. No relief could dare to reach us. Reinforcements we did not wish. So they get flanked and they have to build a wall of their dead friends to protect them. Fast forward a little bit. They get ordered back to Fredericksburg.

Knight came again and midway of it the order to remove and take respite within the city. We had to pick our way over a field strewn with incongruous ruin. Men torn and broken and cut to pieces in every indescribable way. Cannon dismounted, gun carriages smashed or overturned, ammunition chest flung wildly about, horses dead and half dead still held in harness, accoutrements of every sort scattered as by whirlwinds. It was not good for the nerve. that ghastly march in the lowering night just after midnight of this miserable day we were summoned three regiments of us to set forth on some special service we knew not what or where something very serious we must believe we were bound for the extreme front to form a picket line to cover the center of the field while the army was to take some important action colonel ames commanded our line the regiment coming under my charge.

The last order came in low tones. Hold this ground at all hazards. And to the last. A strange query crossed our minds. Last of what? No dictionary held that definition. As a general term, this reached the infinite. We were pretty well buried and braced for the coming dawn

when a strange clatter came up from the left. rear and a gasping voice called, where is the commander of these troops? I acknowledge that responsibility. Get yourselves out of this quick as God will let you. The whole army is across the river was the message heard no doubt by the whole hostile picket line. This was a critical moment. Something must be said and done quickly. Steady in your places, my men, I ordered. One or two of you arrest this stampeder. This is a ruse of the enemy. We'll give it. to them in the morning. This was spoken with no suppressed or hesitating tone

but pitched for the benefit of our astonished neighbors in double darkness in our front. My men caught the keynote of my policy, trusted my discretion, and held themselves quiet. Talk about badass. Quick thinking, too. So he's up there freaking with their picket line where they're expecting this massive fight

and somebody comes up on horseback. And says, hey, the entire army's across the way. Get out of here as quick as you can. Go. And he knows this guy's an imposter. And just stays calm and cool and says it loud enough so that the enemy can hear him. I stepped back to the staff officer and rebuked him severely for his Rastnish, pointing out to him the state of things vexed at having to moderate even my stress of voice.

He explained he had had such a time getting over the. field on up to hit this front line he'd almost lost his wits so that was a union guy no oh yes yes yeah and he was quick enough to go hey arrest this enemy guy and he's like hey come here buffoon yeah yeah you almost made everybody run away I step back to the staff officer revuked him severely for his rashness that makes it even cooler pitting out to him the state of things vexed at having to moderate even the stress of my voice, which something that we talk about all time is like staying calm.

And that's an important thing. And even the way you speak is going to impact the other people around you. And he knows that. Vex is a word that I need to use more. Yeah, vexed is a good word. One of my friends growing up, he had another friend that, Oh, no, he had an adopted brother that was from like somewhere in the islands, like Jamaica or something. Sure.

And he would do something that would make his brother mad. His brother would say, you're vexing me. So I think that's a good, good time for this. Good, let's bring back that word. Order comes to leave. So eventually they do get, they do get the order to leave. It was a dreary retreat down those wreck-strewn slopes. It was hard enough to be stumbling over torn up, sods, groups of the dead or forms of the solitary dying, muskets dropped with quick relax or held fast with death's convulsive clutch, swords, bayonets, cartridge boxes, fragments of everything everywhere.

But when a ghastly gleam of moonlight fell on the pale faces, fixed and stark and on open eyes that saw not but reflected uttermost things, it sent a shiver through. us. I'm not used to fighting in the dark. Right? Can you imagine this? These guys, they're completely in the dark. Yeah. Yeah. And we always, we had night vision or we could put flares up or whatever. It's just dark. What a mess. The potential for blue on blue and some of the stuff he talks about where he like, he's trying to straighten up his guys and winds up talking to a Confederate soldier about where he's digging it. It's freaking nuts, dude.

It's crazy. Yeah. It's kind of, at least the other people can't see either, I guess. Yeah, no one can. No one can see. Did you ever go on any of those, did you ever go to the jungle in the night?

Yeah, I went down into jungle training in Panama. Yeah, I did that too. And then basically we learned, like, you're not doing anything at night. You could stop. Yeah, you have to stop. And you could patrol real, quiet and slow, but like once you got into an eye ad, it was a total disaster.

That's why the guys, like the Seals and Nam that would patrol at night and set up an ambush. They probably pop flares. They will, I don't think they patrolled very far either. No, that's true. Because you had to move so slow. One of the Vietnam vets was telling me that they wouldn't go further than like 500 yards into the jungle and that was it. And that would take like two hours, three hours. And typically up a canal.

So they were in the water most of the way and then out a little bit. It's a little easier to move in the water. And the moon has a big impact in the desert. But in the jungle, it's a lot less of an impact. None. Because you're under a triple canopy. Do you go down to Panama? Yeah, yeah.

So you got those. Black palms. Black palms, which essentially is like, why get barbed wire? Just plant black palms everywhere. Black palms are a tree. that are just covered in little thorns. Not little thorns, they're pretty big. And what sucks is when you're moving at night

and you grab a hold of what you think is a tree to help you step over something and you just end up with nine black palm freaking thorns in your hand. I don't know how you can do it. You've got to stop and wait. Yeah, you got to move slow. But at least, like, after a while, your night vision could adjust

and you could be like, okay, we can move. but as soon as we did an eye ad at night and you're shooting and your night vision is just out the window, that's when it was just, that's when it's complete blackness. They had us do like three eye ads at night just so we knew what it was like and what the risks were. We were doing some training for a while called the EMP training, right?

What if we go to war with someone and we don't have night vision or any of that other stuff? And so that was great because some of the Vietnam vets were contracting for us and they were talking about being able to smell the enemy. They're like, we'll walk down trails, and we got our hands on the guy's shoulder in front of us because we can't see, and we don't want to risk getting lost, and then sometimes we could smell the enemy coming

before they actually showed up. And an example he gave was there was a female with the Vietnamese, and he could smell her shampoo. And then just start shooting, you know. It's like when you can, they're that close that you're, You're smelling him before you're seeing them. It's just crazy. He's got a section here to, he says, why we lost, why the battle was lost.

He says, perhaps the main cause, and he goes into some other details. I'm going to jump a little bit here. He says, perhaps the main cause of this great disaster, the commander of the center grand division did not put his men in. They were sent by superior orders in detachments to support other commands as a forlorn hope at various times and places during the unexpected developments or rather the almost inevitable accidents of the battle. It should not have been a disaster. Franklin with his 60,000 men should have turned Lee's right, whereas he attacked with only two divisions and at one at a time

and did not follow up with his whole force with their splendid initiative. This is all about prioritize and execute. You know, you're doing a little bit trying to solve this problem, trying to solve that problem trying to solve another problem. It's like, what is our major problem? And not keeping things simple either. That's true too. When Franklin failed, it was rashness to expect Sumner to carry the formidable heights beyond the city, made impregnable by Lee's best skill and valor. That front might have been held still under menace, while Sumner reinforced perhaps by the main body of Hooker's Grand Division might have concentrated upon Lee's left above the city and flank the formidable bastions crowning the heights that entrenched his front with all that earth and manhood could do.

That battle was not fought according to Burdonside's intention. And that his plan was mutilated by distrust and disharmony among his subordinates commanders does not exonerate him. This is going back to Napoleon, right? Look, just speak, if I tell you to do something, if I tell Jason to do something, I tell Echo to do something, and you guys, Don't like me or you don't like my plan and so you go do something else. That's not your fault. That's my fault for not fixing it and not getting you engaged in the plan and not letting accepting your input and asking what your opinion is. It is the first great trust and place of a chief commander to control reluctant and incongruous elements and to make his subordinates and opponents submit to his imperial purpose.

Now I'll tell you what's the best way to get someone to submit to your imperial purpose is by saying, hey, Jess and how do you want to assault this target? Yeah. That's the best way. Not by saying, hey, here's what I'm imposing upon you to do. And you can take those words the wrong way. And I don't think that's how he met them. Like you could take it like, hey, you just need to impose your will, which is actually what he just said, impose your will on the imperial purpose.

But I think he meant them in the way that you get people to do that by getting them involved with the plan and letting them take ownership and letting, you know, you're climbing that ladder of alignment that we talk about. Yes. And look, if I say, hey, no, Jason, this is what we're doing. And you're like, hey, Roger that. Got it, boss. I don't agree with this plan, but I'm going to execute it. We're good. Like, you can be like, hey, there's times where you and I might disagree about something. I go, hey, listen, we don't have time to figure this out. We got to go and we got to go now. So take five vehicles and go to the north side of that compound. And you're like, got it. That's okay. Like, we don't have time to discuss this. Now, if you were like, Like, hey, Jocco, that's a bad call. We shouldn't do that. I'd be like, now I'm starting to question myself, well, okay, what does he see that I don't see? What does he understand that I don't understand? So can you say, listen, this is what we got to do.

We got to do it now. Time is of the essence. Yes. But if you're still getting pushed back, there's a problem. You can't overly trust yourself as a leader. I'd never freaking trust myself. Like, I'm always thinking, what am I not seeing? What does Jason see that I don't see?

What does Echo understand that I don't understand? What perspective do they have that I don't have? And here's one of the things about doing, when we talk about Gettysburg, right? And sure, I can learn a lot from the things that Chamberlain did and Hancock and these other guys. What I really need to do is pay attention to when I'm acting like sickles and just not paying attention and pushing the line out

even though I was told not to when I'm doing that. or when, you know, I'm behaving like Lee and I don't understand my subordinate's perspective and I'm giving them obtuse directions, you know, and you always want to identify yourself with the heroes in any story where the most growth is going to come from is where you go, well, wait, how am I like these people that really screwed this up and how can I fix that? Yep. And you will see yourself in your past. You'll be like, oh, I know when I did that.

and you'll see it in your present like, oh, I think I'm doing that right now. And then hopefully that will prevent you from making these mistakes in the future. And truly when you walk the grounds and you start to see what they saw and see what they were looking at, and then you get to walk to the other person's perspective and see, oh, what does he mean by that order? It's very powerful to experience it and not just hear about it for sure. He says, Bernstein attempted a vindication somewhat on these lines, but too late. He prepared an order removing from command several of his high ranking, but two little subordinate generals, and made ready to prefer charges against them for trial by court martial. So after this went down, he's like, oh, we're going to fire some people.

And then this. But Lincoln again interposed his common sense advice, and the matter was passed over. You can see Lincoln just a badass like, hey, listen, bro. I know freaking Jason and Echo Duden do exactly what you want him to do. Now you want to fire him. But you're the guy in charge. Court martial and him's a little more than firing him too, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What's really cool about his observations through this battle and some other battles is it gives you an insight to what has made the SEAL team so successful. And what made us successful is our ability to deep. brief stuff basically where we take off rank. We're like, hey, what do we do right? What do we do wrong? What were our shortcomings? And he brings that out in this one and other ones where he's just laying it out. It's like, hey, here were some of the issues. Like, communication obviously is a huge issue. A guy is getting word of something on a dynamic battlefield that's happening as it happening. Then he's giving new orders. And by the time they get back and

forth, everything has changed. Can you imagine like someone's flanking you and then you go to tell someone, you know, hey, hey, echo, go tell Jason that I'm getting flanked. Cool. 30 minutes later, you get the word that I'm getting flanked. And you say, well, you know, shift left. And Echo comes back to me 30. I'm already done. I'm already flanked.

It's over. I either did something or I didn't do it. But the whole thing, it's so, that's why the decentralized command is so important in all these battles and knowing and understanding. You can tell when we get in something. these other battles like how well that worked in some situations and how how you know chamberlain in some cases kind of decides what he's going to do based on the orders that he thinks are going to be the most effective for the situation that's going down that's another weird thing you get to at

gettysburg which we're about to talk about but at gettysburg sometimes the situation and we go into some good depths on this when we go out there. But, you know, one guy takes initiative and it turns out good and everyone's clapping him on the back like he's a hero. Another guy takes initiative, maybe in a little bit different manner and things go sideways and everyone calls this guy a jackass. Well, well, there's reasons for that. And once we start to talk about the differences between person A takes initiative and it's good,

person B takes initiative and it's bad, oh, wait, wait a second, why was that good here? and now it's bad. I actually have that leadership strategy and tactics. This first platoon I did, I like made a call, even though I was a new guy. And my chief's like, hey, good job. Three platoons later, I make a call. My OIC's like, bro, what are you doing? Like, I didn't want to do that.

And you have to dissect. Why was it good for me to take initiative here, but bad for me to take initiative here? Oh, not because the leaders were different. It's because I was doing, I was making wrong assessments. So Gettysburg. through blood and fire at Gettysburg. By the way, yeah, I'm feeling sorry for anyone that doesn't get this book. I'm obviously only reading chunks of it, but it's awesome.

Here we go. In a moment, the whole core was marching, was in marching order. Rest, rations, earth itself forgotten. One thought to be first on that Gettysburg road. The iron-faced veterans were transformed to boys. They insisted on starting out with the colors flying So that even the night might know what manner of men were coming to redeem the day This is as these guys are getting ordered to Gettysburg I kind of had to

There's a race two little round top And again there's more detail about the whole battle and look We would have to read the whole book to really paint the picture of what's going on So I don't want to get into the game or the I don't think I'm skilled enough as a human to convey the whole battlefield as it's unfolding. So if you go watch like a 20-minute video or a seven-minute video on Gettysburg and understand the scheme of maneuver, you'll be able to put some of the stuff in context. But here we go.

This is the race to Little Roundtop. In another instant, a staff officer from General Warren rushed up to find Sykes, our core commander, to beg him to send a brigade at least to seize Little Roundtop before the enemy's surging waves should overwhelm it. Other supplications were in the air, calling for aid everywhere. Our Vincent, soldierly and self-reliant, hearing this entreaty for Roundtop, waited word from no superior, but taking the responsibility ordered us to turn and push for roundtop at all possible speed and dashed ahead to study how best to place us.

So there's some decentralized command happening. He like, here's, hey, we got to take this. Cool, I got it. And then goes up ahead to see our. All right, once we get up there, I'm going to put the people in the right position. We broke to that right and rear, found a rude log bridge over plum run and a rough farm road leading to the base of the mountain. Here, as we could, we took to the double quick. So these guys run, run to this position.

So little roundtop is a hill. It's on the left flank of the union, which has pretty much taken this ridge line to stand and fight again. against the Confederate forces. Fast forward a little bit. As we neared the summit of the mountain, the shot raked the crest that we had kept our men below to save our heads, although this did not wholly avert the visits of treetops

and splinters of rock and iron, while the boulders and clefts and pitfalls in our path made them seem like the replica of the evil den across the sweetly named Plum Run. And when you go to Gettysburg, You can see this area that they call the devil's den. It's just a crazy outcroppings of rocks and trees. It's like the craziest.

It looks like a paintball battlefield like setup thing. Yeah. If you've been to Disneyland, that Tom Sawyer Island where there are all the boulders and they're just full of caves, that's what it is. These guys are up above that. Reaching the southern face of Little Roundtop, I found Vincent there with an intense poise and look. He said with a voice of awe as if translating the tables of the eternal law, I place you here. This is the left of the union line. You understand. You are to hold this ground at all

costs. I did understand full well, but had more to learn about costs. The regiment coming up right in front was put into position by quite an uncommon order. On the right, by file into line, both that we should thus be facing the enemy when we came to a front and also be ready to commence firing as fast as each man arrived. This is a rather slow style of formation, but this time it was needful. Knowing that we had no support on the left, I dispatched a stalwart company under the level-headed Captain Morel in that direction with orders to move along up the valley of our front and left between us on the eastern base of the Great Round Top

to keep within supporting distance of us and act as eggs and cheese of the battle should require. So these guys are getting in position as basically as fast as they can. Sounds like a peel into position kind of. Yeah. Yeah. And then pushing those guys out there

across that little valley. Sketchy. Yeah. But I think that there must have been, there must have been less trees there. And they had to have visual, visualize on them. Yeah, there definitely was, it's not as what it is today.

There's not as wood as it is today. So these guys are on, so Chamberlain and his men are on little roundtop. And then their little roundtop goes down, and then it goes back up on the other side. And that's the other side is big round top. And this guy, Captain Morel, takes a small group of guys, like a dozen guys or something like that. He runs into those Burdán sharpshooters over there.

But the supporting distance, you know, for me, supporting distance means that you can shoot, you know, you can help me with your guns. And I can probably, I can see you. And hopefully I can yell to you. I don't know if you could yell over all this noise, but supporting distance. That's a doctrinal term. It's like the essence of cover and move, by the way. because hey, if you go out there by yourself and you go too far away, well, now you're not any help to us and you're not going to get any help from us either.

And they had to have that line up, what we call a line of communications, where they could at least see somebody. Yeah. Yeah, and these guys probably had some pretty good hand and arm signals, I would think, to be able to communicate. I mean, even we have pretty freaking good hand and arm signals. Here we go. The 20th Maine Regiment had 358 men equipped for duty in the ranks with 20.

They were all well-seasoned soldiers and what is more well-rounded men, body, and brain. One somewhat important side note must have place here in order properly to appreciate the mental and moral attitude of the men before us. 120 of these men from the second main were recruits, whom some recruiting officer had led into the belief that they should be discharged with their regiment at the end of its term of service. in their enthusiasm, they had not noticed that they were signing enlistment papers for, quote, three years of the war, end quote. And when they had been held in the field after the discharge of the regiment, they had refused to do military duty and had been sequestered in a prisoner's camp as mutineers awaiting court martial. So he's got 120 guys that had signed up, hey, I'm going to go work for the, whatever, the 13th main. and then they thought they were just going to work with the 13th main. Well, the 13th main stands down.

They fight a bunch of battles with them too. They fight a bunch of battles, but then it stands down. And then they go, hey, well, cool, that regiment stood down. We're going home. And they're like, no, no, no, you signed up for three years. No, we signed up with that regiment. Yeah, then that regiment's done. Yeah, but you signed up for three years.

So these guys are pissed on principle. By the way, even in ancient times, guess what that recruiters were out there doing. They're pissed like you would be. Like he would. They're a little bit more than vexed, actually. Yeah, this is more than vexing. They're actually pissed off. And the recruiters, even back in the day, the recruiters were lying to these fools getting

them in there. So these guys are pissed. They're vexed. And they're awaiting court martial. And so here we go. The exigency of our movement, the last of May had not permitted this semi-civil treatment and orders from the Secretary of War had directed me to take these men upon my roles

and put them to duty. This made it harder for them to accept as they had never enlisted in this regiment. However, they had been soon brought over to me under another guard of the 108th Pennsylvania with fixed bayonets with orders to me to take them into my regiment and quote,

make them do duty or shoot them down the moment they refuse. So guards bring these guys over at point of bayonet and say, hey, you got these guys? Not my problem anymore. This is like the shitty team guy that's like, hey, Jason, I got a guy for your platoon. You want him? Yeah. And he tells them, hey, take these guys, make them do duty, or shoot them. These had been the very words of the Corps commander in person.

The responsibility I thought gave me some discretionary power. So I'd placed their names on our roles, distributed them by groups to equalize companies, and particularly to break up the espree decor of banded mutineers. So that's a brilliant move. He takes them and says, okay, you three guys are going this platoon, you four guys are going this platoon, he breaks them up. Then I had called them together and pointed out to them the situation that they could not be entertained as civilian guests by me, that they were by authority of the United States on my roles as

soldiers, and I should treat them as soldiers should be treated, that they should lose no rights by obeying orders, and I would see what could be done for their claim. It is pleasant to record that all but one or two had gone back manfully to duty to become some of the best soldiers in the regiment as I was to prove this very day. So he treated them with respect. He talked to him, I said, listen, I understand you got some claims. I get it. But hey, if you act like a soldier, I'll have you get my back right now and I'm going to have your back. And all but, I guess, too, stood up and fought.

Incredible. Yeah. That's leadership. By the way, the other leader who attacks them and disparages them has to guide them at bayonet. This is the thing I get all time. you know, the, I always have to bring up the Vietnam draftees and just how, you know, some people, when people tell me about whatever group they're working with, it's the millennials, it's the union, it's the craft people, it's the, it's the nurses, it's the doc, they take all these groups of people, whoever they are, whatever business we're working with. Yeah. And they're like, well, the thing is with the nurses, the thing is with the millennials, they fact them in these groups that, no, this is the.

worst group of people ever, right? Because they don't want to listen or they think they deserve this. They think they deserve that. And I was just, my go to is like, I think the hardest group of human beings in history to deal with was the Vietnam draftees because the Vietnam draftees didn't want to be there. They didn't believe in the war and they could die doing their job. Yeah, I'm running through my head right now. Guys were drafted in World War II and other wars they were drafted, but none of them were as unpopular as the Vietnam and it was, you know, it's debatable whether the Vietnam War was an existential threat. So that, that like is and top it off with the massive drug problem and all the other issues that were coming to a head inside the ranks and then you've got to deal with that.

Yeah. And that trumps anybody else's issues with unions or nurses or anything else. Yeah. It's any group. You know, nurses, teachers. You name the group. And there's some leader, not all leaders, but there's a bad leader out there that says, well, you know the thing is with our software engineers is they think they deserve this.

They said about every single group. You know the thing with millennials, they, They think, oh, you know, this Gen X folks, they think they built all this. So they think everybody says that's about everyone. So here's the deal. If you were a good leader in Vietnam and you had draftees, which you did, the good leaders love the draftees. And they had no issue. Hackworth's one of them.

Because I love what he says. He's like, they would actually tell me when I was screwed up. Yeah, yeah. And he's comfortable enough in his own skin to be able to have someone tell. me screwed up and go, oh, okay, well, let me see if I am screwed up or not instead of just going, oh, you know, shut up or fire him or whatever. And General Mukayama, when he was working for hack, said, I said, well, what did you think your draft?

He said, I couldn't tell who was draft. He said, I mean, come on. Treat people with respect. Listen to what they have to say. Take their input, have their back. And you can take guys that are prisoners and turn them into soldiers that are about to fight and sacrifice. In the matter of a dozen hours because he got these guys like 12 hours before getting to Gettysburg or maybe a little bit longer.

But it's a quick turnaround time. We're not talking about months where he's serenading these prisoners trying to get him to change their minds. You know what else is amazing is imagine this. You're about to go into combat. And up comes the 118th Pennsylvania and goes, hey, bro, not my problem anymore. This is your problem now. There's a lot of people that say, yeah, what are you kidding me? I'm not taking these guys or, yeah, put them over there, lock them to a tree, right?

No. I'm not dealing with this right now. Instead, he goes, okay, this is what I got. Cool. I'm going to work with it. What an awesome attitude. I know, I was, I was, I definitely took people in platoons or in a train trade debt. Where's like, hey, we got this issue.

Cool, send me to me. Let me work with this dude. Let me figure out what's going on. Instead of being like, I don't want him. Hey, man, let's figure out what's going on with this guy. Chances are he's probably a halfway decent dude that just has some issues going on. He's probably going through a divorce, maybe done six back-to-back deployments. I don't know what's going on, but you don't either.

When I ask you these questions, you don't even know what's happening with him? You're just telling me he's got a bad attitude. Why does he have a bad attitude? Give him to me. Give him to me. I put him in charge of cleaning the head. Right? Another example from strategy and tactics.

We'll put him in charge of something. We did. He still has a bad attitude. What was it? Oh, cleaning the head? Cleaning the bathrooms on the second deck. No. Get him run a dive.

Yeah. So here we go. I released the prisoners and provost guards all together and sent them to the companies all but the drummer boys and hospital attendants went into the ranks. Even the cooks and servants not liable for such service asked to go in. Others whom I knew to be sick or foot sore and had given a pass to fall out on the force marches of the day and night before came up now that the battle was on dragging themselves along on lame and bleeding feet finding their regiment and their places where need is greatest

and hearts truest think of that for a second like you just pointed out these guys didn't even have shoes that were fitted for left foot or right foot and they're dragging themselves up to the meat grinder saying put me in coach On bleeding feet. I forget what the forced road march was to get here, but it was long. It was no joke. These guys are hurting when they show up. It's hot.

God. It's July. July. They're in wool uniforms. The enemy had already turned the third core left. The devil's den was a smoking crater. The plum-run gorge was a whirling maelstrom. One force was charging our advanced batteries near the wheat field.

The flanking force was pressing past the base of the roundtops, all rolling toward us in tumultuous waves. It was a stirring, not to say, appalling sight. Here a whole battery of shot and shell, cutting a ragged chasm through the serried mass, flinging men and horses like drift aside. There a rifle volley at close range with reeling shock. Hands tossed in the air. Muskets dropped with deaths quick relax or clutched with the last convulsive energy. Men falling like grass before the scythe. Others with manhood's proud, calm, and rally.

There, a neat little group kneeling above some favorite officer slain. His intense spirit still animating the fiery steed, pressing headlawn with our empty saddle to the van. Here a defiant regiment of ours, broken, slaughtered, captured, or survivors of both sides crouching among the rocks for shelter from the terrible crossfire, where there was no rear. but all advancing, all the frenzied force, victors and vanquished, each scarcely knowing which, surging and foaming toward us.

Death around, behind, before, and madness everywhere. It's a, it's- We haven't even gotten to like the real stress. He's just showing up. Yeah. It's insane the picture that he's painting. Yeah, so he's on little round top now, and this is what he's looking at. Just complete and utter chaos and mayhem.

And that chaos and mayhem? Back to the book, it soon reached us still extending. Two brigades of Hood's division had attacked. Texas and Alabama. The fourth Alabama reached our right. The 47th Alabama joined and crowded in, but gradually owing to their echelon advance. Soon, seven companies of this regiment were in our front.

We had all we could stand. My attention was sharply called now here, now there. In the thick and smoke, Lieutenant Nichols, a bright officer near our center, ran up to tell me something queer was going on in his front, behind those engaging us. I sprang forward, mounted a great rock in the midst of his company line, and was soon able to absolve the queer impression into positive knowledge. Thick groups in gray were pushing up along the smooth dale between the round,

Topps in a direction to gain our left flank. There was no mistaking this. If they could hold our attention by a hot fight in front while they got in force on that flank, it would be bad for us and our whole defense. How many were coming we could not know. We were rather too busy to send out a reconnaissance. If a strong force should gain our rear,

our brigade would be caught as by a mighty shear blade and cut and crushed. What would follow, it would be easy to foresee. This must not be. Our orders to hold that ground had to be liberally interpreted. That front had to be held, that rear covered. Something must be done quickly and coolly. I called the captains and told them my tactics

to keep the front fire at the hottest without special regard to its need or immediate effect. And at the same time, as they found opportunity to take some, Side steps to the left coming gradually into one rank file closers and all Then I took the colors with their guard and placed them at our extreme left where a great boulder gave token and support Thence bending back at a right angle the whole body gained ground leftward and made twice our original front We were not long in doing it This was a difficult movement to execute under fire requiring coolness as well as heat of rare quality were my officers and men.

I shall never cease to admire and honor them for what they did in this desperate crisis. So he had been told to hold specific ground and not give it up. And, you know, he says, what did he say? Takes this this liberally. He had to adjust it because he understood the intent was to make sure that little roundtop got held. Not just the front, but little roundtop. as a whole so he had to adjust from just facing one direction to where he's got troops that are facing not just in front of him but also to his left flank and then a little

bit behind him because he saw that the the Confederates were making a move trying to flank meantime the tremendous blow of the fourth and fifth Texas struck the right of our brigade and our 16th Michigan reeled and staggered back under the shock confusion followed Vincent felt that all was lost unless the very gods should intervene sword aloft and face aflame he rushed in among the broken companies in desperate effort to rally them man by man by sheer force of his superb personality he restored a portion of his line and was urging up the rest don't yield an inch now men or all is lost he cried when an answering volley scorched the very faces of the men,

and Vincent's soul went up in a chariot of fire. In that agonizing moment came tearing up the 140th New York, Gallant O'Rourke at the head, not waiting to load a musket or form a line, they sprang forward into that turmoil. Met by a withering volley that killed its fine young colonel and laid low many of his intrepid officers and a hundred of his men, this splendid regiment, as by a providence,

we may well-called divine, saved us all in that moment of threatened doom. To add a tragic splendor to this dark scene in the midst of it all, the indomitable Hazlitt was trying to get his guns, 10-pounder rifled parrots up to a working place on a small summit close beyond. Finally, he was obliged to take his horse's entire, off and lift his guns by hand and hand spike up the craggy steep whence he launched death and defiance wide and far around the roar of all this tumult reached us meanwhile on the left and heightened the intensity of our resolve meanwhile the flanking column

worked around to our left and was joined with those before us in a fierce assault which lasted with increasing fury for an intense hour the two lines met and and broke and mingled in the shock the crush of musketry gave way to cuts and thrusts grappling and wrestlings the edge of the conflict swayed to and fro with wild world pools and eddies at times i saw around me more of the enemy than of my own men gaps opening swallowing closing again with sharp convulsive energy squads of stalwart men who had cut their way through us disappearing as if translated all around strange mingled roar shouts of defiance rally and desperation and underneath

murmured entreaty and stifled moans gasping prayers snatches of Sabbath song whispers of loved names everywhere men torn and broken staggering creeping quivering on the earth and dead faces with strangely fixed eyes staring stark into the sky things which cannot be told nor dreamed how men held on Each one knows, not I. But manhood commands admiration. There was one fine young fellow who had been cut down early in the fight with a ghastly wound across his forehead and who I had thought might possibly be saved with prompt attention.

So I sent him back to our little field hospital, at least to die in peace. Within a half an hour, in a desperate rally, I saw that noble youth amidst the rolling. smoke as an apparition from the dead with bloody bandage for the only covering of his head in the thick of the fight high born and pressing on that they shall see death no more so you've got this just incredibly intense assault on this hill you've got the hill just about to be overrun when this guy Vincent strong Vincent rallies his troops and holds the line and then dies and then as right as the line's about to get broken again o'rork from the 140th new york brings his troops up same things able to hold the line they they don't even get a chance to load their muskets they're

just into it they just dive into the fight continues on when that mad carnival lulled from some strange instinct in human nature and without any reason in the situation that can be seen when the battling edges drew asunder there stood our little line. Groups and gaps, notched like saw teeth, but sharp as steel, tempered in infernal heats like a magic sword of the goths. We were on the appointed and entrusted line. We had held the ground at all costs. But now that the smoke dissolved, we saw our dead and wounded all out in front of us, mingled with more of the enemy. They were scattered all the way down to the very feet of the baffled hostile line, now rallying in low shrubbery for a new onset.

We could not wait for this. They knew our weakness now, and they were gathering force. No place for tactics now. The appeal must be to primal instincts of human nature. So they go through this, they hold the line barely. And as the smart smoke begins to clear, they're looking at over the field, down the hill, and they see all their wounded, a bunch of enemy wounded and dead. And then they see the enemy starting to gather and muster for yet another attack.

Continuing on, first it was to gather our wounded. This is the human instinct he's talking about. First, it was to gather our human are wounded and bear them to the sheltered lawn for saving life or peace in dying. The dead too, that not even our feet should do them dishonor in the coming encounter. Then such as heavenly human pity, the wounded of our country's foes, brothers in blood for us now, so far from other caring, born like refugee and succor by the drummer boys who become angels of the field.

So they go out and start trying to help. They're dead. They're wounded. And then the Confederate soldier wounded. In this lull, I took a turn over the dismal field to see what could be done for the living in ranks or recumbent and came upon a manly form and face I well remembered. He was a sergeant earlier in the field of Antietam and of Frederickburg. And for refusing to perform some menial personal service for a bullying quartermaster in winter camp was reduced to the ranks by a commander who had not carefully investigated the case. It was a degradation and the injustice of it rankled in his high-born spirit.

But his well-bred pride would not allow him to ask for justice as a favor. I had kept this in mind for early action. Now he was lying there, stretched on an open front. So what he's just said is he's got this guy that he remembers that fought well at Antietam and fraud at Fredericksburg. And he was probably just a freaking BTF Tony type dude that was. was just a freaking badass and somebody told him to do some dumb shit and he's like I'm not doing that and he gets reduced in rank now he was lying there stretched out in an open front where a brave stand had been made face to the sky a great bullet hole in the middle of his breast from which he

had loosened his clothing clothing to ease the breathing and the rich blood was pouring in a stream I bent down over him. His face lightened, his lips moved. But I spoke first. My dear boy, it's gone hard for you. You shall be cared for. He whispered, tell my mother I did not die a coward. It was the prayer of homebred manhood poured out with his lifeblood.

I knew and answered him. You die a sergeant. I promote you for your faithful service and noble courage on the field of Gettysburg. This was all he wanted. No word more. I had him born from the field, but his high spirit had passed to its place. It is needless to add that as soon as a pith of parchment could be found after that battle, a warrant was made out promoting George Washington Buck to Sergeant. The silence and the doubt of the momentary lull were quickly dispelled. So all that took place while there was a lull in the fire.

The 47th Alabama had rallied to our right. We were enveloped in fire and sure to be overwhelmed in fact when the great surge struck us. Already I could see the bold flankers on their right darting out and creeping catlike under the smoke to gain our left thrown back as it was. It was for us then once for all. Our thwarting. thin line was broken and the enemy were in the rear of the whole round top defense infantry artillery humanity itself with the round top and the day theirs now too our fire was slackening our last rounds of shot had been fired what i had sent for could not get to us i saw the faces of my men one after the other when they had fired their last cartridge turn anxiously toward mine for a moment

then square to the front again to the front for them laid death to the rear what they would die to save my thought was running deep i was combining the elements of a forlorn hope and it just communicated this to captain spear when a captain spear of the wheeling flank on which the initiative was to fall just then brave warm-hearted lieutenant melcher of the color company whose captain and nearly half of his men were down, came up and asked if he might take his company and go forward to pick up one or two of his men left wounded on the field and bring them in before the enemy got too near. This would be a most hazardous move in itself. And in this desperate moment,

we could not break the line, but I admired him. With a glance, he understood. I answered, yes, sir, in a moment. I am about to order a charge. So they're almost out of bullets. that's a that's a that's a freaking crazy thought as you're in command and as guys run out of bullets they look at you like I'm out and then they look back to the front and this kid comes up saying

hey boss can I go out there and recover some of my wounded guys before the enemy gets too close and he knows he can't give that order but he says well in a moment not a moment was about to be lost five minutes more of such defensive and the last roll call would sound for us desperate as the chances were there was nothing for it but to take the offensive i stepped to the colors the men turned toward me one word was enough bayonet it caught like fire and swept along the ranks the men took it up with a shout one could not say whether it was from the pit or the song of the morning star it was vain to order for forward. No mortal could have heard it in the mighty Hasana that was winging the sky,

nor would he wait to hear it. There are things still of the first creation, whose seed is in itself. The grating clash of steel and fixing bayonets told its own story. The color rose in front. The whole line quivered for the start. The edge of the left wing rippled, swung, tossed among the rock straightened, changed curve from scimitar to sickle shape, and down the bristling arches swooped down upon the seried host, down into the face of half a thousand, 200 men. So it's about a thousand, or sorry, it's about 500 people against 200. And all he had to say was bayonet. That imagery is just incredible.

His description of it, more alliteration. It's just insane He says it was a great right wheel Our left swung first The advancing foe stopped Tried to make a stand amidst the trees and boulders But the frenzied bayonets

Pressing through every space Forced a constant settling to the rear Morrill With his detached company And the remnants of our valorous sharpshooters Who had held the enemy so long in check On the slopes of the Great Roundtie now fell upon the flank of the retiring crowd and it turned into full retreat

Some amidst the crags of the great roundtop So that's lucky as the Confederate soldiers are starting to fall back now they're now who's on their flank but Merrill and the guys that had gone up on the on the on the big round top At the first dash the commanding officer. I happen to confront so this is as this is going down at the first dashed the commanding officer I happen to confront coming on fiercely sword in one hand and big Navy revolve on the other fires one barrel almost in my face but seeing the quick saber point at his throat reverse his arms give sword and pistol into my hands and yields himself a prisoner I took him at his word but could not give him further attention I passed him over to the custom custody of a brave sergeant at my side to whom I gave the sword as an emblem of his authority

but kept the pistol with its loaded barrels which I thought might come in handy suits as indeed it did. Ranks were broken. Many retired before us somewhat hastily. Some threw their muskets to the ground, even loaded, sunk on their knees, threw up their hands calling out, we surrender, don't kill us. As if we wanted to do that. We kill only to resist killing. And these were manly men whom we could befriend and by no means kill if they came our way in peace and goodwill. charging right through and over these we struck the second line to the 47th Alabama doing their best to stand but offering little resistance. The lieutenant colonel as I passed and a fine gentleman was the lieutenant Bulger introduced himself as my prisoner. And as he was wounded, I had him cared for as best we could.

Still swinging to the right as the great gate on its hinges, we swept the front clean of assailants. So that's it. I mean, that's the famous charge, bayonet charge from Little Roundtop, down Little Roundtop. And those guys from the Alabama have been running all day in wool uniforms.

They were out of water. They hadn't had water in hours. They had a couple guys go and try and find water, and they got run up. And they're just this, just just, it's an incredible, clash. And the way Chamberlain talks about this and he talks about that we could be friends with these guys if we weren't fighting. And he keeps that in his mind. It's something that I was not able

to do on the battlefield. I had a little bit of hatred in my heart when I went to war. But this guy, he's at peace the whole time. And I think that's what makes him such, that is what makes him such an leader and person. Yeah, to go through that, to lose all these guys, and still, as soon as these guys surrender, be like, yep, okay. I'll treat you. Fair enough.

Yep. I mean, I think that's definitely easier when it's, you know, you're fighting other Americans. I mean, I guess they were Confederates, but, you know, you have, these guys had so much in common with, you know, when we fight, all of a sudden we're fighting against a person with a different language, person with a different culture, person from a different country. It's a slipper slope.

It's way slippery. It's way slippery. It's way slipper. To start to fall into that stuff, which is not the best way to do it. Because when the next thing that you, the next step that you're on when you go down there is to lose respect for the enemy and then you get complacent. And that complacency always comes back to bite you. Yep.

This is going forward a little bit. he has to get them to stop because they're charging and he says too much motivation he says it was no light task to get our men to stop they were under the momentum of their deed they thought they were on the road to richmond they had to be reasoned with persuaded but at last faced about and marched back to that dedicated crest with swelling hearts not without sad interest in service was the return for many of the wounded had to be gathered up there was a burden two of the living nearly 400 prisoners remained in our hands two for every man of ours at nine o'clock the next morning we were with withdrawn being relieved by our first brigade but we were sent to support anything but a place of rest our new position

was in support of hancock's troops near the left center of the union line which proved to be the point aimed at by Pickett's Charge that afternoon. So they kind of said, hey, look, these guys just made a stand on a little roundtop, and they lost a bunch of guys, and we're going to give them a little breather. So instead of putting them out on a flank again, we're going to bring them right into the center of the union line

where they're probably not going to see any action. We should be okay. And that ends up being the spot where Pickett's charged literally takes place. And unless I'm mistaken, the guy that makes it the far, furthest from the Confederates, was Hancock's best man in his wedding. Yeah. Incredible. Yeah, they have that monument.

The high water mark of where the Confederacy made it to. They have a thing. This is where this guy made it to. The furthest north. He says it was certainly a narrow chance for us and for the roundtops. had we not used up our ammunition and had we continued to meet the enemy musket to musket, this give and take would have soon finished us by reason of the enemy superior numbers. That's an incredible debrief point.

So he's saying, look, if we would have had enough ammunition and we would have just sat there and trade shots with them, they had more people. So eventually they would have taken us. They had, what, 500 people? We had 200. We don't just trade war of attrition. We're going to lose. Violence of action, right?

He just deployed violence of action. The college professor understood it. And it's like, that's what we were always taught from day one in the SEAL teams. Yeah. That's what we get taught. We get taught speed, surprise, and violence of action. There was a Vietnam vet that had broken service, obviously, and he came back in the teams and did a platoon chief slot.

Man, I think he was almost 50 when he did a platoon chief slot. and I remember I was in the training cell and we were running an operation form and we had kind of a big target and they were set up and he was briefing his guys that were doing a little sand table

before they were getting ready I was langrating them they're getting ready to go hit the target and he goes, boys there's a lot to be said for violence of action let's get online and mow this target down and they did it was awesome

and was so impressive Oh, that's so good. He goes on with a little bit more debrief. Or had the 15th Alabama continued their onset not regarding our preposterous demonstrations, they would have walked over our bodies to their victory. Or still again, if one more Confederate regiment had come up on our flank, we must have been rolled into a zero figure and swallowed up in the envelopment.

It was a. psychological success. A miracle in the scheme of military science. That's an interesting way to describe it. A psychological success. You definitely hear those that the bayonet is a psychological weapon. There you go. Those brave Alabama fellows, none braver or better in either army,

were victims of a surprise of their quick and mobile imagination. Like it got to them in that. Split second. Continues on here. We had gone up the round top slopes to bid farewell to our dead. We found them there on the sheltered lawn where we had laid them, on the velvet moss fringed by low cedars that veiled the place with peace and beauty. I rode up near and flinging the rain upon my horse's neck,

dismounted to bend over them for a soldier's farewell. There they lay, side by side. with touch of elbow still, brave, bronzed faces where the last thought was written. Manly resolution, heroic self-giving, divine reconciliation, or where on some young face the sweet mother look had come out under death's soft whisper. We buried them there in a grave, alas, too wide on the sunny side of a great rock, eternal witnesses of their worth, the rock and the sun. Rude headboards made of ammunition boxes,

rudely carved under tear-dimmed eyes, marked and named each grave, and told each home. He goes on to say, I thought of those other noble men of every type. Commanders all who bore their wounds so bravely, many to meet their end on later fields, and those whose true hearts further high. trust were to be laid nor did I forget those others whether their names are

written on the scrolls of honor and fame or their dust left on some far field the nameless here nameless never to me nor nameless I trust in God where they are tonight I sat there alone on the storied crest till the sun went down as it did over the misty hills and the darkness crept up the slopes till from all earthly sight I was buried with those before but oh what radiant companionship rose around what steadfast ranks of power what bearing of heroic souls oh the glory that being through those nights and days nobody will ever know it here I am sorry most of all for that the proud young valor that rose above the mortal and then at

Last was mortal after all. So there's Gettysburg. And what's crazy is you think that, that's Gettysburg, like, epic, heroic, beyond mythical scenario that unfolded in real time for this guy and for his troops. And then what do they do? March, because it's not over. One forward now to Petersburg. And again, get this book.

There's so much detail in here that I'm not covering. Maybe we'll do an audiobook. Just randomly. Checking with Echo Charles, my editor over here. Get to do a light main accent. Oh, that'd be good, wouldn't it? Man, you're right. I should have been doing a down-easter this whole time.

Would he have talked like that, though? I don't know. It's hard to say. It certainly doesn't seem like it. But, you know, he could have. Yeah. It's a very subtle. It can be subtle. It could be just a little bit in there.

It definitely would have been subtle. So here we go to Petersburg, because I don't know what else to tell you about Gettysburg other than go. If you get the chance to go there, go there. And don't rush and take your time and you will have a spiritual experience. That's what I'm going to tell you about, about Gettysburg. And by the way, that's one story, because there's so many heroic. Just like everywhere you look at Gettysburg, there's little roundtop style battles that are just maker-breaking the future of our country.

Yeah. Going back to the book, when on the evening of June 17th, under the sharp attack of our second and ninth core, the enemy drew in the outer line of their defenses. They left on an outlying crest near the deep cut of the Norfolk Railroad and advanced artillery post commanding the approaches from our side to the fortifications at Reeves. salient. From this position early on, the 18th, they opened a strong slant fire on our division, then drawn up for an assault in our immediate front north of the railroad.

Our attack was thus delayed while our own batteries were getting into position to support this assault. So we're going into an assault. Our line, however, was held in place perhaps to take the enemy's attention from the movement of our guns. Cover move is happening. This raking fire along our ranks. was very trying to the nerves,

which is a very mild way of saying things. Freaking raking fire from cannons as trying to our nerves, as well as to our judgment of the tactics which held us there. When we were not allowed to move forward nor hit back, I am not saying to get back. So he's not saying he wanted to leave.

He said he wanted to fight, but he's getting told, no, hold what you got. Hey, we're getting freaking raked with fire here. Just hold what you got. Our men were going down fast and for no good that we could see. It was therefore a welcome piece of information when our core commander came along with the euphemism statement that this was, quote, very annoying, end quote. Which remark prefaced the suave inquiry if I thought I could carry that position.

I understood the purport of the mild inquiry, thought indeed was required, but the meaning was action. So let me translate that for you. They're they're getting raked with fire this commander comes up and says this is annoying He's like yeah no shit and he says do you think you could you know you could assault that position And the the what did he say the he understood the that what that inquiry meant was like hey man Can you make this shit happen and he knew that the meaning was action So he says reconnoordering the situation I could see no likelihood of being able to hold this place for long nor and might judgment was of importance to hold now that the batteries were dislodged which had

annoyed our troops in the designed assault moreover I discovered that the position was completely commanded by the enemy's main works at the salient three or four hundred yards in our front were plainly seen several strong earthworks with 12 or 15 guns so disposed as to deliver a smashing crossfire over the ground between us and just across the plane RANK Road was a large fort with heavy guns ready to sweep the crest we were occupying. Between these works was a solid, entrenched infantry line of at least 3,000 men. We were a mile away from the rest of the army and I prepared to, quote, take care of myself.

I hurried up three batteries entrusted to me running up the guns up under the cover of the crest, leveling slight platforms on the hither slope so that the men could work their guns, taking advantage of their recoil at discharge to reload and then easily run them up again. The muzzles lying in the grass all as yet unperceived by the enemy and made them ready for what might happen. This position would be of use in case of a general assault by our army and this is what I look for. They're in a freaking hard situation.

I mean, that's what this is spelling out. At this juncture, what was my astonishment at receiving a verbal order through a staff officer personally unknown to me directing me in the name of quote the general commanding end quote to assault the enemy's main works in my front with my brigade so the reason i kind of had to set up some of that military stuff there was was because about what because of what's about to happen so he's standing there he sees this is like a really tough situation there's 3,000 people they got flanking guns they're going to be in a bad way and this freaking random guy that he's never seen before says hey the general commanding says assault assault frontal assault

He says this this was certainly a compliment to my six splendid regiments But I think you will justify my astonishment as well as my backhanded courage and recklessness of personal consequences in presuming to send back to the general a written statement of the situation with the opinion that that position could not be carried with a single brigade even of Gettysburg veterans. So he sends back to the general, hey, bro. No, that doesn't sound like a good idea. Like me by myself with my regiments is not going to make this happen. Grant, General Grant, Grant had lost all patients that morning and his chief subordinates were excited and flurried in a manner I had not seen before. I, however, received a courteous answer saying that the whole army would join in on my

right but the single brigade was to make the assault and prove the prophecy and the prophecy here is that grant's not listening so he gives push back and says hey I'm telling you this isn't going to work and this is another thing we saw at Gettysburg where Longstreet was saying hey we don't want to assault the union line right here it's not a good call and generally he's like no we're doing it No, he was trying to set up the flanking maneuver. Generally, he wasn't listening. He pushed back twice. Yeah, push back twice.

Grant's the same thing here. You got, you got freaking Chamberlain saying, hey, bro, I wrote you a note. I don't think we could take this with a single brigade, even of Gettysburg veterans. Grant had lost all patients that morning, and his chief supporters were excited and flurried in a manner I had not seen before. This is almost, I wonder if that's as funny to people that don't understand. What a staff officers like in the military and how they freak out when the senior leadership says we need to make this happen How do you think they make this happen? We got to make this happen It gets worse too every level that it comes down. It's magnified. Yeah, yep and less listening and more telling

Yeah, so he says in such an assault musketry was not to be thought of it must be a storm of cannonade a rush of infantry with pieces at the shoulder over the works and bayonet the enemy at their guns it was desperate deadly business the bugler sounded the charge under that storm of fire the earth flew into the air men went down like scythe swept grain a wall of smoke veiled the front i thought it necessary to lead the charge with full staff following but in ten minutes not a man was left mounted my staff were scattered my flag bearer shot dead my own horse down to cheer and guide the men where no voice could be heard nor rank distinguished. I picked up the flag and bore it aloft till close upon the enemy's works. A mini ball cut me through and the red cross came down to the reddened, riddled earth. So the red cross is their symbol. And they call it colors a lot. But this is the flag of these various unions.

Sometimes they're talking about the American flag. Sometimes they talk about the Confederate flags have the same thing, but this Maltese cross looks like an iron cross kind of. That's what they have at the 20th Main. And it's important to note that these flags, they were very representative of like the pride and honor of the unit. But beyond that, they were like a signaling device. Yeah, it's communication. It's communication that, like, hey, here's where we're at. We are going forward.

So if the flag goes down, it's a signal that we're not going forward. If the flag is up and going forward, it's a signal that we're going forward. If you take the enemy's flag, it's a signal to the enemy that you just got your ass handed to you. And now we're winning. So that flag is much more kind of, it's not just symbolic, I should say. It's hugely symbolic and it's functional. It's totally functional. So when they talk about these scenes and there's plenty of scenes where you're going to see the colors, the flags come into play, this is one of them.

He sees that he can't even pass any word. There's no word to pass. No one can hear him. There's too much noise, too much chaos. So he personally runs, grabs the flag and charges forward. And then he gets cut. Then he gets shot. He says, I saw my men rush past me to the very muzzles of the gun, then torn in pieces and trickling back.

The enemy rushing out. beyond our left to flank our batteries on the crest behind us. I had only strength to send two broken regiments to support the batteries before I saw that all else was lost. In the midst of this turmoil, I lay half buried by clods of turn up earth for an hour. When the shrouding smoke lifting, I was born from the field by some of Major Bigelow's men of the ninth Massachusetts battery on the crest. When you picture that field, air and earth cross-cut with thick flying, hitting, plunging, burying, bursting missiles, you will not wonder that we did not succeed in bayonetting the enemy at their guns inside their works. You will rather wonder that some of my men got near enough

to fall within 20 feet of them. Bigelow's a beast too. He's another one that we talk about at Gettysburg. Yeah. And it's just, it's, it's incredible where he, like it boggles my mind that he, he gets shot in the pelvis,

essentially. And this is a, you know, civil war, and he survives. What do we know? He's going to be back out on the field fighting in like six months.

Yeah. This, so what happens here? So he's, he has to leave the field because he's severely wounded. And at Petersburg, it begins nine months of, of trench warfare, basically of trench warfare.

They called a siege, but it's more like just a prolonged battle. There's 125,000 union soldiers around Petersburg. There's 60,000 Confederers trying to hold it. Between the two of them, they take about 50% casualties over this period. You're starting to see some breakdown in the Confederate side, like 25,000 Confederate desertions. So that's what's going on. Meanwhile, while that's happening,

here's what's going on with Chamberlain. And this is actually taken from a sort of a memorial. Yeah, it's like a eulogy or a memorial artist. It's in memoriam. It's a, it's an article, basically. And it says at Petersburg on the 18th of June, he led an attack on a strong position from which a,

heavy artillery fire was directed on his advance. Now listen, before we just jump into this, reminder, here you, this is just a classic case leadership situation. You've got a trusted commander, proven leader, by the way, a Medal of Honor recipient that just freaking led the holding of the roundtop, what, maybe a year prior. This guy is respected and they went to multiple battles in between. So here he is. And he's saying, hey, boss, I don't think this is a good idea. And you say, shut up and go. And this is the result. So when your subordinates are pushing back, don't think that you're right and they're wrong. Maybe think that they're right and you're wrong. Is there a chance you're right? Maybe. But where's Grant? Where's Grant right now? I don't know where he is.

It's probably in the rear somewhere with the gear. He's in the rear with the gear. I'm out here on the front line. observing the enemy positions I can see how they're laid up I understand the terrain way better than Grant does and now he's telling me now you know what you shut up in charge don't worry the army's gonna have your back bro no let's not do that by the way if there was some reason and I can articulate if I say hey Jason I want you to assault this thing you go hey boss doesn't look like a good idea and I say hey the reason I'm having you assault that is because as you assault that we're actually sending some troops over here to this other position and that's our main objective and you go

Got it. If you can articulate that, okay. But if you can't even articulate a reason other than, hey, shut up and do it, I told you, that's probably not a good indication. If your best defense in an argument is to say, shut up and do what I told you, that's probably an indication that you don't have a good argument because you're probably wrong. So this is the kind of lessons that we can learn from a leader. And you know what? Chamberlain, here's a discredit to Chamberlain. Hey, I'm not going

Hey, well, I'm not doing this It doesn't make any sense I'm going to go talk to Grant I'm leaving right now Could he have pushed back harder? He sent one note Could he have pushed back harder? Maybe he thought that the army

Was actually coming in on the right True I mean if he has a relationship with Grant And he's like, okay, I buy that Maybe they're coming in And he's got a bigger plan for me And that's probably why Yeah, and that seemed to gratify him

That okay, if you're going to hit them with the, you know, just like I just said to you, like, hey, Jason, you need assault that. And you're like, hey, bro, this doesn't seem like a good idea. And I say, yeah, but don't worry. I'm going to get your flank over here. And we're going to run them up. And you go, cool, got it.

Because now you know that you're going to have to commence the assault, make some progress. But then you're going to get relief very quickly. And we're going to have the upper hand very quickly. So now you understand it and it makes sense. So, yeah, maybe, maybe that was the case. What we can learn from that is there's a time to push back. And there's a time to push back hard. there's a time to maybe ask questions, ask earnest questions.

Either way, you're losing, when you push back, there's a way to push back to that you're, because you're going to lose capital with the leadership capital with the person. And if I tell you to shut up and do something, I'm losing a ton of leadership capital too, and you have to realize that. So two things are important. One is make sure that you're building up leadership capital with everybody around you, so that you can actually make withdraws on that bank account because you've built it up.

You know what's weird is I just kind of like left myself out in the air. I left my flank out. I said there's a time to push back and there's a, and I was like, wait, because to me there's always a time to push back. If you're telling me to do something stupid, now look, if we're in a firefight and you look at me and you say, hey, Jocco, get in that building over there, I'm going to do it unless I see something crazy.

Right. I'm going to do it. I'm not going to push back then because we're at the moment of truth, right? Those moments are very rare. They're very, very rare where we, I have to just trust you. Now look, we built trust over time. So if you tell me, take that building, I know you're telling it to me for a good reason. So I guess there's a time to push back.

I guess the other part of that is there's a time to make sure you understand the bigger picture. because you either have to push back or you ask the question, say, wait a second, Jocco, why do you want me to assault that building? It doesn't make any sense. And I say, here's why. Because as you assault that building, we're going to commence these other operations. It's going to keep the enemy distracted. And then we're going to have the upper hand. You go, okay, cool, got it.

So there's a time to push back. There's a time to check yourself and make sure you understand the bigger picture yourself. And if there's no bigger picture, the bigger picture doesn't make sense. then maybe you have to say, look, I'm not doing this. On the battlefield, though, everybody's a chess piece. And it may be that your chest piece is getting taken. And that's probably what he realizes. Like, okay, well, he told me they're coming from the right.

And this is lousy for us, but they're willing to make that sacrifice. It's really difficult to parse apart. Yeah. It is difficult to parse apart. I mean, we could probably find more research and get more information behind the decision-making process, but the lesson is very clear. And look, you're right. There's times where, especially in an all-out war like this, hey, this chess piece, just like in chess, literally, sometimes you move the knight and it gets taken by the bishop, but now the bishop is in a blocked position. So you've made the good move.

You sat. There are times in battle where that happens. I mean, when you look at D-Day, some of those initial people hitting the beaches, they were in a huge situation to be sacrificed. That's what was about to happen. Look, were they suicide? No, not quite. But damn, that should be very rare. When they're telling him to hold the left flank on Little Roundspot at all hazard.

But that needs no explanation, right? That needs no explanation. Hey, you didn't even need to ask why. Oh, this is, we're on the extreme. That's what Vincent says to him. You're on the extreme left. Do you understand? He's like, yes, I understand.

I know what that means. That means if I go, if I fall, we all fall. But that pushback thing, so important. Such an important part of leadership. Such an important part of leadership. You know, the story I talk about the dichotomy of leadership, maybe it's extreme ownership, but push, yeah, it was a dichotomy of pushing back when my leadership told me you have to take this many Iraqis with you.

There was a ratio. And I said, hey, that doesn't make sense. And my leadership said, cool, Jocco, thank you for telling us. Because I articulated to them what the scenario was. And you hadn't been pushing back. And that's what I was talking about with the leadership capital. You weren't pushing back all the time. We need more rental cars on this next trip.

Hey, you know, this or that. You're just like, Roger that. All the dumb stuff, you're just knocking it out. Oh, hey, we got administrative stuff. Cool, easy. We'll do it. And so the only, and this is the mistake. stake people make with the pushing back is they're pushing back all the time on stuff that

doesn't matter and then it undercuts them when it actually does matter. I mean, you were in my frigging sister task unit. And so you saw me doing that kind of stuff. Like, hey, Roger that. Yep, got it. Yep. You guys were just leaning into it. Yeah. We'll handle that. Yeah, no factor. And that's how I was able to build up that leadership capital. Yes. So that when the pushback mattered, I got to listen to, which is important. It's shocking that you got Chamberlain as your guy that's pushing back on you and you're like, don't worry about it.

So like I said, this battle, it battle Petersburg, it battle Petersburg where Joshua Chamberlain gets wounded. It ends up nine months of trench warfare. What's he doing during that time? Going to this memorial piece that was written about him. At Petersburg on the 18th of July, he led an attack on a strong position

from which a heavy artillery front was directed on his advance many of his men were swept down and Chamberlain's horse was killed by a shell The attack was pushed with vigor and while leading it on foot Chamberlain fell shot through by a ball which passed through the body from hip to hip Severing arteries and fracturing bones He was carried from the field and taken to a hospital inapolis where for two months He lay at the point of death after the general had been taken to the field hospital, the regular surgeon in charge declared the case hopeless. Companion A.O. Shaw, surgeon of the 20th, Maine, after an exhausting day's labor, rode through the woods at night and finding the general, remained with him, watching and caring for him, and performing a surgical operation he found necessary until his patient seemed out of immediate danger.

his friends who were cognizant of the case have always felt general chamberlain's life was saved by dr shaw's skill and faithfulness in his last illness dr shaw attended his old chief with his same faithfulness he had shown in caring for him so many years before at the end of five months and before he could mount a horse or walk a hundred yards chamberlain resumed command of his brigade before he was taken from the field he was assured of his promotion after his arrival at Annapolis he received a telegram as follows to lieutenant Colonel Joshua Chamberlain 20th Main Infantry Special Order number 39 first Colonel J.L. Chamberlain 20th Main Infantry volunteers for meritorious and efficient services on the field of battle

and especially for gallant conduct in leading his brigade against the enemy at Petersburg on the 18th in which he was seriously wounded hereby in pursuance of the authority of the Secretary of War is appointed Brigadier General of the U.S. volunteers to rank as such from the 18th day of June 1864, subject to the approval of the president that's signed by Ulysses S. Grant. This is the only instance in the war of promotion on the battlefield. The terrible wound received on the 18th of June 1864 caused him suffering throughout his life and at intervals incapacitated him for, work of any kind. Resuming his command under conditions that would have amply excused him from active service, he was at once employed in operations along the Weldon Railroad.

His condition was so severely affected by the hardships of duty and the inclemency of the weather that at the end of the month, his core commander insisted on his going north for treatment. While recuperating, he declined many offers of attractive positions in civil life, after a month in the care of surgeons he stole away from them and leaving his room for the first time made the painful journey to the front and took command of a new brigade composed of New York and Pennsylvania regiments bro you folks from Maine I am in awe at your tenacity and vigor freaking awesome you know approaching two hours deep right now I'm thinking um We break now and pick it up with another podcast.

We'll be picking it up as he gets back. He gets back to the military operations on White Oak Road. So so much stuff to talk about here. Hey, look, if you're interested in this stuff, we do this review of the battlefield, the battlefield of Battle Food Review. The next one that we're doing in Gettysburg is May 11th and 12th. You actually get there on the 10th or May 13th and 14th. That's at Gettysburg.

We're there for two days. We spend, so we basically do two iterations of it back to back. I could do 100 iterations back to back of it. And actually, after that, we're doing in August, August 16th and 17th. And then August 18th and 19th we're doing little big horn Which we've covered on the podcast that battle and some of the people that fought there we're gonna do it. We should do another one We'll do a podcast about about two podcasts about crazy horse But if you want to come to those things go to echelonfront.com. That's where we that's where we

Yeah and look at events. That's what's up Echo yes quiet today taking it all in it's an elevated how hard is it to listen when I'm reading this stuff well depends on what you mean by heart

but yeah like you I realized that even though I was like oh this guy's such a great writer then I read it out loud and I'm kind of translating it a little bit yeah probably needed yes okay yeah so even even like you get even a guy nowadays

right you know you get these guys they like to use big words on purpose you know to sound smart and you know, whatever, electrical, whatever. Even then you find your brain like, okay, he just said this and you're trying to, essentially it's a form of translation.

Essentially, that's kind of what it was like. Yeah. Actually, it was a lot of what it was like. Yeah, I felt like that. I was doing that naturally. I hadn't planned to do that at all. And I probably should have prepared a little bit more to say, hey, here's what you're about to hear.

Because that's the same thing that happens with, I hate to say it, speaking of trying to sound smart. But like when you read Shakespeare, if you don't know what's happening and you just read it, it's a different language. It's close to Middle English.

So it's kind of a different language. And then once you know what it means and what those words mean and why their sentences are formatted a certain way, you go, oh, wow, there's so much more meaning behind these things. And I think that's probably the case with this book. Obviously not to the extent that Shakespeare is,

but to say, oh, what does that actually mean and then read it again and listen to it again and say, damn, that's an incredible piece of writing. It's like jumping into a cold swimming pool. Yeah. It's a little bit weird for a little bit. And then you get used to it. And you're like, oh, okay, I get it.

This is good on or getting used to like Cormac McCarthy writing without any punctuation marks. And it just takes you a second and then you get used to it. The weird thing about Cormack McCarthy is his styles between. books is so radically different. I think the best example of that being the road and then and then blood meridian. Like when you read the road, that is a straightforward book. It's kind of what I lean towards in final spin. Yeah. It's written like a screenplay. Yeah. And and then and I think he I think he wrote the road. Yeah. I think he wrote it with some intention of a screenplay. But then when you read blood

Meridian you need a dictionary on hand like no unless you're a a doctor a botanist a history professor and you know and a religious you know minister you're going to miss a bunch of stuff in there I mean just the oh yeah and also a geologist because he's got weird rocks he's talking about and freaking like you got to have a dictionary on standby Yeah. I feel like I use less dictionary reading Bannette forward than I used when I read Blood Meridian. No.

I mean, you know, like it's words like salient and things like that that people aren't used to that you got to go look to. Thank goodness you can just pull it up on your phone. Yeah. I've got a dictionary app on my on my phone, I must say.

And it's very useful. But hey, if you want to come check some of the stuff out, you know, we're covering one angle today. with Joshua Chamberl and we cover a bunch more angles on these events. So if you want to come check that out, eslamfront.com. We got, if you want to support us while you support yourself, remember that old theme?

Yes. Support. It's not old. It's current. Current, huh? I think that's my opinion, you know? But yes, it is current in my opinion. So if you want to support the podcast while you support yourself, support yourself, we have a mutually aligned

focus here. You can check out joccofuel.com get all kinds of good stuff for your for your life. What's your latest and greatest freaking mulk creation? You still throwing it in your morning coffee little, what are you throwing there? Vanilla?

No, I'm cutting back on the milk in my morning coffee. I'm just using it just straight anymore. Just straight milk. Yeah. It's so tasty. I've been mixing the banana and the peanut butter doing this Elvis thing.

I can't stop. I feel like that's what kind of killed was one of the, you know, factors that led to Elvis's death, right? Because this, this dude was like, look, he had a bunch of factors, right? Yes, sir. He had a bunch of factors. But one of the factors was an excess of peanut butter, banana fried sandwiches. Yeah, yeah. Because that can't be good for you.

And he was unhealthy as hell. That's the sad thing is just someone should have been like, bro. Hey, let's go. let's go one every three days on the fried sandwiches, right? I tell you, my latest thing is that the discipline go in the pills. Oh, yeah. It's a winner. Every morning, that's just like with my coffee.

Oh, really? Getting up. Okay. And then if I'm speaking. How many do you take in the morning? Okay. On a regular day. On a day that I'm speaking,

God, that's good. 45 minutes before I speak, I take two. Oh, yeah. And it is hating me when I come up and I am on fire. And so typically what I'll suffer from, and I don't know why this is, it's either getting older or traumatic brain injuries, but I'll do a lot of work. Or you're just dumb. I'm just dumb.

That's my problem. And it's like I'll do a lot of word searching where I'm like, oh, you know, this or that. Nope. To those things, 45 minutes later for the next hour and a half, I am cognitively on fire. I'm pulling all the words down I need. It's awesome. You know when I have to sometimes, because I'll, you know, before the podcast, I'm going. I'm going, going with a can at least, sometimes too.

But like when you're speaking, you can't because you got to pee. Yeah, I know. That's the drawback. But, man, when I got to read a lot, I'm going to have to hit an afternoon go, can of go because you're starting to just starting to not be you know in the in the mood for reading dude on a freaking whatever Sunday Saturday and you already worked out you rolled the jiu jitsu you know you get that post jiu jihitsu fatigue yes you know what I'm talking about it's like you leave jiu jitsu with a hype kind of hyped you don't leave tired I never leave

I mean I'm tired physically but mentally in the game 1.5 hour hours later. I do not feel like freaking reading a book at all. That's what I was going to say. That's what you call post-Jujit fatigue or whatever, right? I was going to say it's kind of nice to be honest when you don't got nothing to do. Yeah. If you got something to do, you got to you look at that as like an opportunity to cruise. It's true. It's nice. The opportunity to cruise is good. So anyways, joccofuel.com you can check out some of that stuff. You want to get some gear for yourself and you want to support America. You want to support America?

Yeah. Check these out. I see Jason Gardner's wearing his brand new. How old are they? A couple months old? No, two weeks ago. Oh, two weeks ago. Yeah.

Yeah, they were awesome. The American bison boots with the black, Christy soul. Loving it, man. And I'd read, you know, like Rogan was talking about, they took a little bit of break-in, so I was nervous about that. I put some oil on them and wore them for a day and a half.

No issues. Yeah. If you get that, that bison leather is so, so good out of the gate. Yeah. We also make jeans and sweatshirts and. Hey, I just, so when I got the boots, I got the built. Pants. Pants.

Yeah, the work pants. Dude, those things are like comfortable like pajamas. I've never, like I put on other work pants. It's like putting on cardboard. And you put these things on in like, oh, wait a minute. I'll see, you know, about the durability. That remains to be seen. But they are so comfortable.

And then the way the pockets are lined out, really well thought out. Yeah. Freaking legit. And I love the fact that you're wearing them up on the freaking, whatever you call, your compound up there. Up north, man. Every day is a work day. Yeah.

Those things are just like, you're wearing them for pajamas probably in case you've got to go like kill a bear in the middle. over night or something. Or you have to clean up after your wife killed a bear. So check this out. There's some military guys up there training right now. And I'm flying down here last night. Iris sends me a text.

And the kids had after school archery. So she went to go pick them up from school. She's driving home from school. And this military unit that was up there. The guys had hit a deer. And they pulled over and they were kind of standing there. They didn't know what to do. an iris could see them and could see the deer flopping around in the middle of the road,

pulls a car over, grabs a 38 out of the car. And we carry guns in the car for this reason, because deer get hit all the time on the road and you want to put them on your misery. So I can only imagine what these guys saw is she just walks over, walks up to the deer. These are special operations. Yes, they are. Crack, crack. Two shots.

Puts a gun away. Decoq, reholster. Yep. And they're like, oh. I'm like ride on, baby. That's freaking legit. Iris Gardner Podcast 70, by the way. Go listen.

Go listen to that. Hey, what do you do with the deer afterwards? You just call it off into the woods or what? Oh, no. They have a thing you just call fishing game when it's been hit on the road. And then those guys actually took it and butcher it out. A lot of them get hit this time of year because of the snow. And it winds up that they wind up being great food for the eagles and a lot of the raptors and the other wildlife because they're looking for stuff to eat too.

So nothing gets wasted. She got some amazing photographs of some bald eagles recently that were eating one of those road killed deer. That is a legit story. Iris pulled off. The kids are looking at it like it's no big deal. Mom's taking care of business. Hell yeah. So if you want to get those pants,

go to, or anything else. All Made America, by the way, we just go a new factory. Yeah. So that's awesome. We got a big factory

in North Carolina now. So our capabilities are going to increase. We're going to continue to invest back into the business, back into the factories, back into the people. It's just awesome. So if you want to support all that, go to origin,

USA.com. Don't support. Well, straight up, just don't support companies that are supporting the communist regime. Don't do it. Instead, support American companies, origin USA.com. And here's the deal. Yeah, it costs more. But when you buy something that's a premium product, over the long haul, it costs you less because it lasts longer.

and then you're reinvesting that into your community, which is our country, right? So just don't be like those corporations that to make $5 on a pair of pants, ship stuff overseas, spend a little bit of extra money, get a quality product, it will actually cost you less over time, and then you're supporting your community.

Yeah, and it's so much better for the world. What do I mean by that? Well, when you're, with all these facts, factories that are overseas, they have no regulatory environment that they're operating in. They're just dumping whatever they don't use into the rivers and it's killing everything. America, there's rules. There's rules not just for the environment.

There's rules for the worker. There's all kinds of rules that we have in place here. So yeah, is it going to be a little bit more expensive? Yes, it is. Is it going to be a better product? Hell yeah, it is. Is it going to help America, those communities and the world? Yes, it actually is.

So we appreciate that. Jocco store.com. Yep, it's true. Did you make that with that name? Yeah. Or do you just make up the T-shirts? It was a collaborative effort with the name, the naming on that one, yeah, for sure.

But good news is, regardless of the name, this is where you can get our apparel if you want to represent on this path that we're all on. Discipline equals freedom, good. Some new jiu jitza stuff on there, too, by the way. Do we have a section now? Jiu-Sixion official? It's a fish?

Yeah, it's official. What's the latest of the jiu-jitsu section? Dean. There's foot shirt that he made up by the way, conceptually. Oh, yeah. So that's an awesome shirt. Does it say foot backwards? No.

Oh, you didn't go full layers, huh? Well, that's not a layer in Dean Lister's foot. Let's face it, Dean Lister came up with it. So it's going to be pretty direct in a lot of ways. You know, if it would have said foot backwards, correct me if I'm wrong. It would have said tuff. Tuf, yeah. Pretty tough.

Right, because he's tough. Yeah. Pete the Greek. You know Pete the Greek. Yeah, of course. He's now saying, um, Why would you ignore 5% of the body? Wrist lock the world.

He's the best, dude. Sir, he makes a good point. Yeah. But yes, Jocco store is some good stuff on there. Short Locker is a subscription thing. Don't forget about that. Kind of cool. Yeah.

Good reviews on them, especially the latest too. I got one that you'll see it, but you came up with a design idea. You did 100% long time ago. In what way? You just came out with it. Is it coming? Make a shirt like this. And you told me that.

idea can't tell you surprise you tell me I made it up bro yeah I know that's why it's gonna surprise you more all right we'll put it this all give you hit there's a stoner gun involved oh you made that shirt I gotta say dude I want to can I see it I need to see it what the shirt it's being printed right now check I guess I have it looks good yeah jocco store.com's good awesome hey subscribe to the podcast check out jocco underground dot com look there's let's face it yes it's getting wild right now with this stuff with suppression of voices. Things are getting crazy.

So if you don't want to, if you want to have a backup plan to listen to us, go to jocco underground.com. It's $8.18 a month. If you can't afford that, just email assistance at jocco underground.com. There's censorship happening. I don't know when they're going to censor me.

Maybe we shouldn't be talking about war or talking about America in a positive way. And we're going to get censored for that. So when that happens, we'll be on jocco underground.com. We got a YouTube channel. We got psychological warfare. Flipside canvas. I written a bunch of books.

Eschlamfront. We talked about that a bunch of leadership consulting. Go to, go to eschlamfront.com. If you want to check out the battlefield review with us. We have an online training academy. It's called it's at Extreme Ownership.com. We're on there. I'm on there once, two, three times a week.

Jason's on there all the time. Laif. the whole crew, we're all on there. They're so cool. Answering question, going through these details of what we're talking about. When we talk about leadership, leadership is a skill. It's a skill. It's not just something you know how to do.

It's not. No one just knows how to lead. It doesn't work. You have to learn it. And so go to extreme ownership.com. We also have a couple charities we support. If you want to help service members active and retire, we've got Mark Lee's mom, Mama Lee.

She's got a great charity organization. If you want to help out, you want to donate, go to America's mighty warriors.org. And also check out Heroes and Horses.com. Micah Fink got a great organization going that is doing some incredible things for veterans. And he's an awesome guy. So that's cool. If you need more of us, we're on social. Watch out for the algorithm.

The algorithm is a thing. It's an active, like, enemy of you. It's debatable. What part's debatable? What, the algorithm? Yeah. The algorithm is designed for specifically. It doesn't always get it right.

But it's designed to show you what you want to see. More specifically, it's designed to show you what you want to see so that you click on and watch more. It's trying. So it is your enemy. So be careful. It could be viewed as what, like the deal with the devil kind of a thing. Like you'll get what you want. You can use it to your advantage, though.

Oh, yeah, fully, fully. You can, but you have to use caution. I mean, you can use fire to your advantage, but you have to use caution. And that's especially with you, Jason, that's a very pertinent item. So you can use fire. You can use guns to your advantage if you have to eliminate or put a deer out of its misery. You can also be a jackass with guns. So it's kind of like a double edged sword.

Dicotomy. Yes, a dichotomy. As one mic. So we are on the social media. Watch out for the algorithm is the warning. Jason's at Jason N. Gardner on Instagram with a period. There's Jason period and period Gardner on Instagram. He's also Jason N Gardner, no periods on Twitter.

And for the Twitter for the gram and Facebook echoes at Echo Charles. I am at Jocko Willink. And to all the military personnel out there around the world representing the flag. And all that it stands for, all that it's supposed to stand for and protecting those ideals around the world. Thank you. And thanks also to our police and law enforcement. Firefighters, paramedics, EMTs, dispatchers, correctional officers, border patrol, secret

service, and all the first responders out there, thank you for keeping us safe here at home. And remember for everybody else that there are sometimes when the odds are stacked against you when things are falling apart and when you're not sure how much more you can take or what you can do. There are times when things get truly desperate. And sometimes in those scenarios, the best thing to do is like Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine is not to sit there and wait to die, but instead attack.

So fix bayonets. Take action and attack. And until next time, this is Jason and Echo and Jocko. Out.