Bannon's War Room - Episode 4150： A WarRoom Special 2024： Combat History of Christmas

00:00:00.000 Good morning and Merry Christmas. I'm Patrick K. O'Donnell and I'm hosting today the combat

00:00:15.900 history of Christmas through America's eyes. It's something that Stephen K. Band and I have

00:00:21.680 done for over 15 years. I've been a historian for 26 years, written 14 books, and been on

00:00:29.160 dozens of radio TV shows, hundreds, thousands of them, actually. But this is my favorite show that

00:00:34.880 we do annually. Steve's traveling today, so I'm hosting the show. And we're going to take you back

00:00:40.820 in time into the most important inflection points in the combat history of the United States that

00:00:47.000 happens to be at Christmastime. It's here that, in many cases, history changes and turns on the

00:00:53.640 actions of individuals. Individual agencies changes history. And I'm going to take you through

00:01:01.320 several periods of time where this change was dramatic, that changed. These were inflection

00:01:08.640 points in history. And it will be focused today on the individuals and the actions that they

00:01:14.500 performed. In many cases, this is some untold stories or little-known stories that we're going

00:01:20.980 to focus on that you haven't heard on the war room. And the first individual that I'd like to talk

00:01:26.940 about is Henry Harrison Young, who's the leader of Sheridan Scouts. And I want to take you back in time

00:01:34.540 to Christmas, 1864. The lines were stalemated at Petersburg. Many things weren't moving in the front,

00:01:45.060 but things were very active and hot in and around Loudoun County, and specifically the border area

00:01:52.580 in West Virginia. And it's here that Mosby's Rangers are very active and Harris inherits what's left of

00:02:01.820 what's known as the Jesse Scouts. Mosby's Rangers just demolished an entire hunter-killer team that was

00:02:08.820 part of the Jesse Scouts. These were men that were actively pursuing John Singleton Mosby and his

00:02:14.500 Rangers. An entire company of men was annihilated at a place called Meyerstown or Cablestown, that old

00:02:22.100 Cablestown. And what was left were some of the men that Henry Harrison Young had to put together

00:02:28.640 Sheridan Scouts with. And this is an epic story. Harrison Young, Henry Harrison Young, is really one

00:02:36.760 of the great untold, unsung heroes of the American Civil War. He begins the war in 1861 at Bull Run and

00:02:47.400 is immediately drawn to battle. He's extremely heroic. He actually kind of has this sense of thrill

00:02:55.900 in battle in battle and craves it. He is not a man. He's completely fearless in the saddle and in

00:03:03.820 battle. And he rescues a man, for instance, at the Battle of St. Mary's Heights at Fredericksburg,

00:03:11.100 rides into battle in the middle of a massive maelstrom of lead and cannon fire, and picks up a man that's

00:03:19.180 gravely wounded and carries him off the battlefield and does this multiple times. But in 1864, he finds

00:03:27.400 himself being tapped to lead the Scouts. And this guy is extraordinary. He is a chameleon that is a

00:03:37.200 shapeshifter. He wears a Confederate uniform at times to go behind the lines. He'll wear civilian clothes. 0.92

00:03:44.780 He'll act as a peddler even. And one of my favorite stories with Young is that he is able to impersonate

00:03:53.300 anybody. And the Confederates are still, in 1864, very actively recruiting soldiers because they

00:03:59.740 desperately need them. And in the Shenandoah Valley, he goes to a recruiting station and impersonates

00:04:06.380 a young soldier that, you know, wants to join the Confederate army. And a Confederate sergeant

00:04:14.460 recruits him into the Confederate army. And he's asked to show up the next day and join the army.

00:04:24.260 And he literally shows up the next day with a company of his men and captures that Confederate

00:04:32.020 sergeant at pistol point. He goes after, um, high, uh, value targets, but he has to somehow mold

00:04:41.380 his men into a combat fighting force. And it's Christmas. It's right around Christmas day

00:04:48.440 that he puts them on an impossible mission to really, to forge unit cohesion. And he arms his

00:04:57.600 50, 80, 80, 80, so men who are in Confederate uniform. These are Jesse scouts. And they are,

00:05:05.240 this story is chronicled in my new best selling book called The Unvanquished. And what he does is

00:05:11.760 the impossible. If you go to the area around Stroudsburg, there's a place called the Back

00:05:18.340 Road. And it's, it's literally called the Back Road. It's, that's the title of the road.

00:05:23.400 And it's here on the back road in and around the trees that Harris, that, uh, Henry Harrison Young

00:05:31.120 knows that Confederate cavalry always kind of moves into this area and on a patrol. And he positions

00:05:38.540 his men behind a series of trees to ambush them. And it's not just a, a small group of men that he's

00:05:48.020 going after. He literally takes on an entire Confederate, uh, cavalry battalion, uh, hundreds of men

00:05:56.160 strong. He arms his men with the Spencer carbine. This is a repeating carbine. After you pull the

00:06:02.640 trigger, uh, a bullet will fire. Unlike a regular muzzle loading, uh, action, you can fire up to 20 rounds

00:06:09.300 or more a minute with these weapons. They were kind of the, the machine gun of the civil war in many ways.

00:06:14.320 They're also armed with Colt, uh, pistols, uh, to the teeth they're armed and they are behind the

00:06:20.920 trees and they wait for that right opportunity right at Christmas time. And they pounce and they

00:06:27.400 attack, uh, and they basically disrupt this entire Confederate cavalry battalion, which is then set

00:06:35.040 running to the hills. Uh, and, uh, it's, it's, it's just one of the actions that Henry Young and

00:06:43.280 Sheridan scouts become kind of renowned for. They use this sort of terror or psychological warfare

00:06:50.620 against their enemy to basically show up at any time, this element of surprise, um, and then

00:06:57.380 stealth, and then they kill and then they disappear or vanish. Um, and this is something that is a

00:07:02.780 hallmark of today's special operators. Harrison Young, um, Henry Young welds these men into a very

00:07:11.400 cohesive unit. This is called Lincoln special forces in the unvanquished or the Jesse scouts or

00:07:18.020 otherwise known as Sheridan scouts. They literally lead his army in battle, uh, at multiple points.

00:07:25.960 And, um, it's, it's really an extraordinary story. They, they capture, um, multiple high level targets

00:07:33.740 and including Harry Gilmore, who's a partisan alongside John Singleton Mosby. And they capture

00:07:40.160 him in the Shenandoah Valley in a midnight raid. Uh, and it's extraordinary story. I have a great

00:07:47.480 article in Breitbart that's that'll, that, um, that, um, that, that records that, um, that capture of,

00:07:54.100 of Gilmore, but also the, the capture of, uh, Captain Stump. Um, and this guy's nickname was

00:08:02.100 Stump's arsenal because he was a Confederate that was so armed to the teeth. He would literally have

00:08:06.720 five or six pistols and a carbine, uh, at all times on his body. And he was rounded up along with

00:08:14.160 Gilmore by, by Young's men and captured. But what made, uh, Stump unique was he had killed in cold

00:08:22.380 blood, a number of the Jesse scouts. And they said to, uh, Stump, we will give you an opportunity

00:08:29.380 to, to, to, for your life. And that opportunity was, we'll give you 15 paces or so on your horse

00:08:37.660 and, and we will, uh, allow you to put the potential to escape. And, uh, that's exactly

00:08:44.660 what they did. They allowed, uh, Stump, uh, you know, several seconds to, to, to run on his horse.

00:08:50.760 And then the men were such excellent shots with the pistol that he was, he was taken down.

00:08:55.400 And, uh, the, the, the, the men continued to, to lead, uh, Sheridan's army in battle. And they

00:09:03.740 would play a very crucial role at the battle of, um, battle, uh, the battle campaign, the final

00:09:10.940 campaign at Appomattox. It would be the Jesse scouts under, um, under Young that would determine

00:09:20.060 the, the weak points in the line at a place called Five Forks, which is the most, in some ways,

00:09:24.640 one of the most decisive battles of the American civil war. It, they, they determined the weak

00:09:29.680 points in the line and Pickett's line. And it would be here that with the Jesse scouts at his

00:09:35.680 side, the general Sheridan literally charged the line, uh, single handedly and broke it.

00:09:41.560 And this precipitated, uh, general Lee's retreat by about two or three weeks. They were planning on

00:09:48.220 leaving the lines at Petersburg, but now they were forced to leave because they had been outflanked.

00:09:53.860 And as they were being outflanked, it would be the Jesse scouts that would pursue them.

00:09:59.860 You know, the scouts were made up of just really fascinating individuals. One of them was, um,

00:10:05.880 a guy by the name of, um, Woodson, who was a, uh, former Confederate that had come into Young's lines

00:10:15.820 and Sheridan's lines. And he told them that he was, his, uh, his sister was killed, um, or was,

00:10:23.100 I'm sorry, he was insulted by the Confederates. And as a result, he killed his captain. He was,

00:10:29.300 by the insult. And he had to flee Confederate lines and then offered his services as a, um, as a,

00:10:36.120 as a Jesse scout. And he would receive the medal of honor, um, near, uh, near five forks for capturing

00:10:43.600 a Confederate battle flag and helping capture General Berenger, who was a Confederate general

00:10:49.360 at the time, along with Young. They pursued, um, Lee's retreating army. And it's here that they

00:10:56.540 may have played a very decisive role in the entire war by leading Lee's supply trains in the wrong

00:11:02.700 direction. Uh, the, instead of when their first Ronnie pointed at a place called Amelia Courthouse,

00:11:08.360 uh, they, they got, instead of food and supplies, they received a bunch of uniforms and caissons for

00:11:16.620 wagons. It was exactly what they didn't need. And it's, it's rumored and possible. There's evidence

00:11:21.020 that it was Young's men that misdirected the, the, the right, the food trains to the right source.

00:11:27.700 And from there, they capture the supply trains at Appomattox. And, uh, and, and this is a decisive

00:11:37.520 blow because General Lee's army is starving and, uh, they are, you know, very desperate for supplies.

00:11:45.080 The, um, the key here though, is that Henry Young then spends another, another winter or another

00:11:55.780 Christmas in Mexico. And Mexico is really one of the great untold stories of the American Civil War

00:12:03.760 because at the time it was occupied by Emperor Maximilian. And there were 40,000 troops down there,

00:12:09.760 uh, at, at the time. And it would be a regular warfare special operations that would thwart them.

00:12:17.000 And it would be General Sheridan and his 50 or so Jesse scouts that were led by Henry Young

00:12:22.160 that were arming the resistance down there. And, and, and, and basically creating what we now see

00:12:29.760 as a regular warfare today. These were men, these men were really true commandos and they were working

00:12:35.480 with the Mexican, um, guerrilla forces that were down there, arming them, blowing up bridges, destroying

00:12:42.560 French, uh, outposts. And it's here that Henry Young and many of the Jesse scouts mysteriously disappear

00:12:52.740 and they are never heard or seen again. And it's, it's unknown exactly what, you know, where,

00:13:01.960 where they went, uh, there was, is likely a, a coverup on, in terms of, of his actions down there

00:13:08.800 because his duties were unofficial, uh, covert operations, if you will. And, you know, this is a

00:13:16.880 true unsung hero along with many of the other men that were Jesse scouts. They would receive seven

00:13:22.580 medals of honor, uh, during the civil war, um, for their, for, for their valor and actions.

00:13:28.980 Um, but this was a, he would never, he would never return home. And, uh, it was a very solemn time

00:13:38.820 for his mother. The, the book actually ends with his mother's story. And every year, um, after his

00:13:48.880 capture, after that Christmas, she would, she would wait for him. She, he would write every month

00:13:55.460 to her, um, about just to, to keep her informed, to keep her, um, aware, uh, of the, their relationship

00:14:03.960 was that close and special. But every, every, uh, every time that a stagecoach would come into Providence,

00:14:12.820 Rhode Island, she would wait for her son that never returned home. Uh, and that is, that, that,

00:14:22.940 those were many, um, long Christmases without, without her son, uh, and many of the Jesse scouts,

00:14:29.600 uh, faced the same, you know, trial and hardship that, you know, of the, the, the families faced

00:14:36.260 of missing their, uh, their loved ones, which covert warriors of today. Um, you know, we, we've seen

00:14:44.200 that over and over in Vietnam in particular, where special operators go behind the lines and never

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00:16:09.660 Action. Action. Action.

00:16:22.560 I'm Patrick O'Donnell, and I'm hosting the Combat History of Christmas. This has been an annual

00:16:27.920 tradition that we've had on the war room for almost 15 years, Steve Bannon and I. This is really one of

00:16:35.320 my favorite shows that I've done. What I'd like to talk about now is the continuing with the American 0.68

00:16:46.020 Civil War. The great adversary of Henry Young and many other Jesse Scouts was John Singleton Mosby.

00:16:54.120 And Mosby was a Confederate partisan and really arguably the, in many ways, the organizer of

00:17:02.220 American Modern Special Operations Forces, his ideas and principles begin on Christmas. And it's

00:17:10.560 Christmas 1862, specifically in Middleburg, Virginia, at a place called Oakham Manor. And one thing that's

00:17:21.660 amazing about these stories is you can still visit Oakham and visit Middleburg and Loudoun County,

00:17:29.480 where many of the actions that I'm talking about, you can go there, you can visit these places and feel

00:17:35.940 the history and walk the ground. At Oakham, that wintery Christmas day, he approached his boss,

00:17:44.820 Jeb Stewart, who's the leader of the Confederate cavalry, with a specific request. If he could have

00:17:52.160 a small band of men to create a partisan group to attack the Union supply lines in and around Middleburg

00:18:01.580 and Loudoun and Prince William counties. His request was granted, and he was given about six men.

00:18:09.020 And that is the origin, in many ways, of modern special operations forces. These six men would then grow

00:18:16.280 into nearly 1,000. And they would tie down 30 to 40,000 Union troops over the course of the American

00:18:23.420 Civil War. They would ambush supply trains. They would blow up bridges. They would capture Union generals

00:18:32.520 and do, in many cases, the impossible. And Mosby was behind all of this. And it was his vision and

00:18:40.820 leadership. He was only about five foot seven, kind of a wiry guy that was a law student that had kind

00:18:47.760 of a bit of a hothead initially. He literally, he was accosted and insulted and pulled a pistol on his,

00:18:56.080 one of his fellow law students and nearly killed him, which put him in jail for several months.

00:19:01.660 But at the beginning of the American Civil War, he was initially very reticent to secession,

00:19:07.840 didn't really believe in slavery, but fought for his state like many other members of the South.

00:19:16.720 And his beginnings are extraordinary. He's a scout within the Confederate Army, leads a long,

00:19:24.540 one of Stuart's long cavalry rides around Richmond, which is epic and legendary. He's known for gathering

00:19:32.020 intelligence. This isn't his first time as a potential partisan leader. Stuart gives him the

00:19:39.600 opportunity several months earlier. And he's given him only one man this time with a club foot. And,

00:19:48.000 you know, John Singleton Mosby's days as a partisan are very numbered. He travels to a train station

00:19:57.320 and literally a union company of calvary surround him and his horse along with a club footed individual.

00:20:04.840 And he is taken into captivity in the middle of 1862. He is quickly imprisoned at a federal prison

00:20:14.700 and languishes there for several months until there's a prisoner exchange. And this is where

00:20:19.860 John Singleton Mosby really shines. He makes lemons out of lemonade. And literally, in the exchange,

00:20:29.180 he's able to create actual strategic level intelligence out of nothing, basically, just his own sources

00:20:38.680 and intuition. He's on a riverboat, but he senses that the captain of that riverboat is a Confederate

00:20:45.480 sympathizer, a Southern sympathizer. And indeed, he is. He pumps him for information about Union troop

00:20:52.060 movements, who this captain had moved around initially. And through that information, along

00:20:58.940 with his kind of keen eye, where he's able to sort of see some of the units in and around the area,

00:21:04.160 he's able to determine that the Union army is going to attack and wear, which is really extraordinary

00:21:09.580 and miraculous. So after he gets off the boat, he immediately goes to General Robert E. Lee.

00:21:16.540 And he arrives at Robert E. Lee's headquarters in Richmond, this kind of lowly lieutenant.

00:21:22.920 And they initially kind of are very skeptical of what Mosby could bring to the table or offer,

00:21:29.080 because he's just a lieutenant. But he remembers sort of the ride around Richmond with Stuart and some

00:21:34.600 of Mosby's other exploits and listens to him. And this actually literally changes the course of the

00:21:42.740 Battle of Cedar Mountain, which Mosby provides and furnishes actionable strategic level intelligence to Lee

00:21:49.580 through his efforts. Going back to 1863 now, Mosby is very active within the

00:22:04.160 sort of the area in and around Middleburg. And he pulls off one of his greatest exploits

00:22:14.460 by capturing General Stoughton in Fairfax City itself. And this is one of the great special

00:22:25.140 operations stories of all time to capture a high-value target. The key to it is a deserter from the 5th New

00:22:33.080 York Cavalry guy by the name of Yankee Ames, who deserts to Mosby and to the Mosby line. He doesn't

00:22:38.740 like the Emancipation Proclamation. He feels he's being lied to for why he's fighting. He's not fighting

00:22:44.280 for the union per se. And he joins Mosby. He shows up unexpectedly. And Mosby believes that Yankee Ames

00:22:54.220 is telling the truth. And he's given an opportunity to then get a horse. And he has to go back into

00:23:03.060 union lines to Centerville, where there's a massive union encampment, and steal a horse with another

00:23:08.560 ranger. And they are successful in that. And it's big Yankee Ames that is put in the very front

00:23:16.760 of the vanguard on the raid to Fairfax to capture Stoughton. And he understands the call signs and

00:23:23.540 the signals. And they ride in a raging snowstorm and sleet and hail. And in some cases, they're in

00:23:32.620 union uniform or in rain jackets, in most cases, with their Confederate uniforms underneath them.

00:23:38.300 And they ride into Fairfax. And they basically, they seize anybody that they can, that could

00:23:45.780 potentially alert any of the guards. And then they continue to Stoughton's residence. And they

00:23:52.880 knock on the door, go in, and the general is sleeping at the time. And Mosby wakes him up and

00:24:02.800 says sort of these immortal worlds, do you know who John Singleton Mosby is?

00:24:07.680 And the general says, back to Mosby, have you captured him yet? No, it is he who has captured

00:24:13.500 you. And he's brought into captivity. And Mosby scrolls on the fireplace, I am Mosby, just sort of

00:24:22.760 a psychological bit of terror to, you know, let him know, let people know his calling card, who he is.

00:24:29.720 And they then, they go back and to back through the lines and with the general in tow.

00:24:40.540 This continues to, they have a number of raids and amazing actions that the Rangers are part of.

00:24:49.260 And one of them is at, in and around Christmas. And this is the battle for Loudoun Heights,

00:24:55.200 as it's called. And right around Christmas, Cole's Cavalry, which is a Union outfit that is made up

00:25:04.300 of Marylanders, Pennsylvanians, and other loyalists to the Union cause, form a cavalry unit. And they

00:25:11.040 are based in Loudoun Heights. And it's here that they then conduct forays into Mosby's Confederacy,

00:25:18.940 which is in and around Middleburg and Warrington and other areas. And they lead an entire unit into

00:25:26.040 Mosby's Confederacy. Mosby has his men shadow them, provide kind of a psychological terror,

00:25:33.960 just to let them know that they're there. And as they shadow them, they pounce and destroy

00:25:41.980 this entire force of about almost 200 Union cavalrymen. They're surrounded and attacked.

00:25:48.720 One man, the leader of the group, is able to, Hunter, is able to escape on foot 40 miles

00:25:54.980 to Loudoun Heights. It's then that Mosby determines that they are going to destroy

00:26:01.340 the Cole's Cavalry on Union Heights. And he organizes

00:26:05.440 over 100 men to attack this nest of Union cavalry. And in the middle of a snowstorm,

00:26:15.280 they mount up and they move towards Loudoun Heights. And it's, you know, an interesting

00:26:22.840 figure sort of emerges here. A guy by the name of Frank Stringfellow, who is somebody that is in

00:26:28.660 in through the unvanquished multiple times. He's 94 pounds, sometimes dresses in drag to literally

00:26:37.200 act as a spy to elicit information. And it's here he finds a weak spot in the Union lines

00:26:43.740 and they attack. They move through, you know, over 40 miles of territory in the dead of night with,

00:26:52.400 you know, freezing rain and sleet and snow. And they creep up to this Union encampment. And it's

00:26:58.440 Stringfellow that initially attacks before he's supposed to. And he lets out a shout and it alerts

00:27:04.900 the camp. And many men are wounded from the attack. This is an article I also wrote in Breitbart,

00:27:13.400 I'm a Breitbart historian in many ways, called Crimson Snow. And many men are killed or gravely wounded.

00:27:21.600 And the Rangers, the Cole's Cavalry has standing orders to shoot anyone on horseback.

00:27:27.540 One of the men that is gravely wounded is a guy by the name of Paxton. And Paxton,

00:27:33.720 there's an amazing story. Paxton, his family saved a Union Calvaryman and nursed him back to health

00:27:42.520 and then brought him back to Union lines. And they had a standing agreement that if Paxton was ever

00:27:47.540 wounded, they would save him. And he called that Union Calvaryman forward. And they gave him

00:27:54.920 sustenance, even though he was gravely wounded and allowed him the dignity to die with respect.

00:28:02.420 And this is what the Unvanquished is about. It's the hidden war of the American Civil War that you

00:28:07.840 haven't seen. Good morning and Merry Christmas. I'm Patrick O'Donnell and I'm hosting our annual

00:28:30.400 Combat History of Christmas. And we are now talking about the American Civil War and many of the

00:28:38.800 actions of individuals that are in the inflection points of history. John Singleton Mosby being one

00:28:47.120 of them, who was a great partisan or guerrilla leader, arguably one of America's greatest guerrilla

00:28:53.720 leaders in modern history, that changes the course of history with only six men and forms an entire

00:29:01.240 guerrilla group that ties down 30,000 to 40,000 Union troops over the course of the war. He pioneers the

00:29:08.320 tactics and techniques that we now see in modern special operations forces. And one of my favorite

00:29:18.460 Christmas stories of Mosby is his multiple escapes and woundings. He was a man that was only five foot

00:29:28.380 seven, about 127 pounds or so, but escaped death constantly and escaped Union dragnets. And one of

00:29:39.220 those actions was in and around Christmas at a place called Lakeland. And this house, like many of the

00:29:46.240 others in the unvanquished are still there. You can visit these places. And Lakeland at the time, he was

00:29:52.880 riding back from a wedding in his finest clothes. He had an ostrich-plumed hat and a cape. And he was

00:30:02.080 coming back from a wedding in the middle of a snowstorm. And they stopped at Lakeland for dinner.

00:30:10.080 And it's here that they're eating dinner. And suddenly, the house is surrounded by over 100 Union 0.98

00:30:19.720 Calvarymen. And they storm the house. Mosby puts his hands up. And then all of a sudden, a shot comes

00:30:29.700 through the window and hits him right in the stomach, right near the heart. And he is pushed down. And then there's an

00:30:37.300 ensuing melee within the room. And the lights are kind of put out. And they then, the Union officers

00:30:45.240 that are there, then sort of come, you know, basically are able to sort of sort things out.

00:30:51.520 In the meantime, Mosby realizes that it's probably, he's probably about to be not only dead or killed

00:30:59.180 from this mortal wound, but also captured. Somehow, he has the presence of mind to take his coat off,

00:31:07.120 which has two stars on it, representing his rank, and moves it slightly off to the left near another

00:31:14.360 room and hides it. And then he goes back on the floor. And they capture him. And a doctor comes.

00:31:24.240 And they sense, they see where his wound is. And they say it's in his heart. And it's a mortal wound.

00:31:34.480 And Mosby is the presence of mind to almost laugh, because he realizes that his heart is up a little

00:31:42.460 higher. It didn't pierce his heart. But he still thinks he's mortally wounded. And he lays there,

00:31:48.780 they take off his pants and his boots. And they pronounce that he is a, you know, mortally wounded

00:31:54.200 soldier. And then they start to ask the room who this guy is. And the daughter of the room says,

00:32:01.140 we've never seen him before. He just showed up for dinner. And it's one of the great lies of the Civil

00:32:07.080 War. They literally believe it. And they leave this guy on the floor, bleeding to death. And Mosby

00:32:14.980 is gravely wounded. He recognizes that he somehow survived this brush of death and miraculously gets

00:32:26.660 up and moves to the other room. And his guests are absolutely astounded. They then put him in a number

00:32:35.240 of blankets. And he's moved to a safe house. And the Union cavalry then come back looking for their

00:32:43.460 quarry, because they think that they may have killed Mosby. And he's gone. He just disappears.

00:32:50.420 He's the gray ghost. And the gray ghost then makes his way towards Richmond. The newspapers are all

00:32:59.780 ablaze that this guy, Mosby, was killed. And my favorite anecdote from one of the newspapers is,

00:33:09.520 the devil takes care of his own, as Mosby somehow survives just another one of these mortal, 1.00

00:33:17.200 what would have been a mortal wound for pretty much anybody else, and then gets back on in his command

00:33:24.140 and leads his men throughout the rest of the American Civil War, where they do really extraordinary

00:33:33.260 things. The story then shifts a little bit back in time to where the Jesse Scouts form for one of their

00:33:46.400 first raids, which is in and around Christmas. But this is 1863, and it's West Virginia, which is a

00:33:55.280 cauldron of partisan activity. It's here that guerrilla groups are formed on both sides. And it's

00:34:03.780 the Jesse Scouts that are formed to hunt them. The book is about several Jesse Scouts, including a group

00:34:12.060 under the command of Richard Blazer, who's in Ohio. And he's really from my home state and one of the

00:34:18.380 great unsung heroes of the American Civil War. Richard Blazer was a riverboat captain right before

00:34:28.840 the Civil War. He transported supplies up and down the Ohio River near Gallipolis, Ohio, which was his

00:34:37.220 hometown. And at the start of the Civil War, he is an officer in the Union Army, and he's tapped

00:34:45.020 to hunt gorillas because he's got this innate sense of finding people. By the way, I always visit

00:34:52.740 the graves, if I can, of the individuals that I write about. I also walk the ground of all the

00:34:58.540 individuals that I—the stories and the battles that I write about. And I spend years in the archives

00:35:08.360 piecing together the stories of these men to give you an accurate narrative history.

00:35:16.080 It's nonfiction that many—many reviewers have said read like fiction. It puts you there. But it's all

00:35:24.540 based on fact. And one of the things I did is I went to Richard Blazer's grave to find him. And I went

00:35:34.500 there assuming that it would be a small cemetery. And I went to Mount Hill Cemetery, Gallipolis,

00:35:41.780 which is a beautiful cemetery. It overlooks the Ohio River. But it has—I got there, and there were

00:35:47.300 literally thousands upon thousands of tombstones and graves for these people. And I immediately went to

00:35:55.280 where I thought would be a directory. There wasn't one. And I—but I knew that I would find him.

00:36:01.740 And I just prayed. And within maybe 10 minutes, I found Richard Blazer's final resting place.

00:36:13.240 Blazer, as I mentioned, was part of Blazer's independent scouts. And he leads

00:36:18.420 these scouts by leading the Army. And one of those—one of these raids was in and around

00:36:24.940 West Virginia, where they were trying to take out the Southern Railroad that bordered West Virginia

00:36:31.780 and Virginia. This is a Maine lifeline or artery. And Avril's raid, or Christmas raid, took place

00:36:38.820 in the winter of 1863. Background on that is the Confederate Army under General Longstreet,

00:36:47.700 who had been basically loaned to the south near Chattanooga, where they have an amazing battle

00:36:56.880 at Chickamauga. He then is bringing—he's been coming back towards Robert E. Lee. And they surround

00:37:03.440 Knoxville, Tennessee, in a siege. And they need to relieve pressure on that city from Longstreet's 0.99

00:37:12.040 forces. So they launch a desperate and bold raid behind the lines. And it's the Jesse scouts

00:37:17.460 and Blazer scouts that lead General Avril's Army. And this is an epic story behind the lines,

00:37:27.600 where these men have to march and ride 400 miles to various depots that are in Southern Virginia.

00:37:37.080 And, you know, it's through the mountains. It's through the sleet and rain. It's—they are—in many

00:37:45.560 cases, it's so rugged and treacherous that they're wearing out the horses. It's so—the area is such

00:37:54.880 difficult terrain, and they have to walk in many cases. But it's also an area that is infested with

00:38:01.080 the Confederate—the Confederate forces. And the Confederates, it's the Jesse scouts that lead 0.62

00:38:07.080 these men. They're able to do some amazing things. They're able to seize some bridges

00:38:11.640 ahead of time by impersonating Confederates and allowing the Avril's raiding force to cross before

00:38:19.560 they're able to burn the bridges. But the Confederates know what's going on, and they send out

00:38:24.120 six different commands, thousands of Confederates to annihilate General Avril. And it's the Jesse scouts 0.84

00:38:32.840 that have to somehow weave their way through all of this. One of my favorite stories is they're deep

00:38:40.760 behind the lines, and it's near Christmas time, and they need to find another crossing point. There's—there's

00:38:46.600 rivers everywhere. And they—they literally enlist—they try to enlist the services of a doctor that's

00:38:53.080 there. And Avril puts a pistol to this guy's head. First, he initially says, we'll—we'll hire 0.65

00:38:59.400 you for $500. And they said, no, there's no way, because my family's going to be known as a traitor.

00:39:06.280 I won't do it. And then they—they put a pistol to his head. Avril put a pistol to his head and said, 0.93

00:39:11.320 you need to lead us out of here. If you don't, I'll kill you. And he gave him one minute to respond, 1.00

00:39:18.280 and basically put a stopwatch—is watch out. The doctor complied. And they were able to thread their

00:39:25.640 way through southern lines to captivity. But there's an epic story of how one of those—one of those

00:39:34.200 commands. The 14th Pennsylvania is trapped by the bridge—by one of the bridges, which is

00:39:41.800 the Confederates burn, and they're—they're stuck on the—on the wrong side of the river. They have to

00:39:46.840 ford the river. Amazing stories of resilience. And somehow this group has to then trudge

00:39:55.960 another hundreds of miles through all these Confederates that are following them and the 0.84

00:40:03.560 mountains. And they—they make—they make this epic—this epic march that is, you know, truly extraordinary. And

00:40:14.200 as they—they make their way back towards the Union camp, they are—they are somehow expected

00:40:25.240 to—to pay for their uniforms and the shoes that they—that they utilized. I—it's one of the most

00:40:33.560 extraordinary stories that I—I found in the book. They—they had done this extraordinary thing,

00:40:40.840 and many of these men were like the veterans of the Battle of the Bulge that I interviewed.

00:40:43.800 They had frostbite. Their uniforms were rags after all this—traversing all these mountains.

00:40:50.760 And somehow the Union Army was expecting them to pay for new uniforms and shoes. And it's here that

00:40:57.400 Avril interceded and—and was able to get the—the government to not—to not do their typical policy.

00:41:07.640 But this is a—this is a Christmas story for the ages. It's about human endurance. It's about individuals

00:41:14.760 that do the impossible. And in the next segments, we're going to go back in time to our founding,

00:41:22.600 to our greatest story, the story of the American Revolution, the story of the Revolutionary War,

00:41:29.480 where our founders do the impossible. They go against the greatest army and navy in the world at the time,

00:41:39.080 and they—they somehow prevail. But they also create the greatest ideas in world history,

00:41:47.720 our ideas of freedom and liberty, which resonate today and have changed the course of history,

00:41:55.000 and have changed empires, and are more important today, now than ever.

00:42:01.080 I'm Patrick K. O'Donnell, and I'm hosting the Combat History of Christmas. It's our annual

00:42:18.040 tradition that we've done for almost 15 years, Stephen K. Bannon and I. And we're going to go back

00:42:24.200 in time to a topic that we've never really—we've never discussed on The War Room, The Forgotten

00:42:31.400 Christmas of 1775. And this is really an epic story in many ways. The—our first—first units within

00:42:41.800 the United States Army were rifle companies. The American long arm, known as the Pennsylvania

00:42:49.160 long arm rifle, would change history. It was about nine pounds, but it could shoot farther than any

00:42:56.680 other rifle in the world at the time. And it was a—it was a—it was a—a weapon that was

00:43:03.480 a—a circumstance of its environment. And that would be the American frontier, where Americans and rugged

00:43:10.280 individuals had to fend off Native Americans, had to shoot wild game. And this rifle, which has its 0.87

00:43:19.000 origins at the beginning of the 1700s, is—it's in America. And it's unique because it can shoot

00:43:29.320 about 100 yards more than its European counterparts, which are—have their origins in Switzerland and

00:43:37.400 Germany. But it's these rifle companies that are the foundation of the United States Army, and they answer 0.79

00:43:44.200 the call shortly after the Battle of Lexington and Concord, and they make their way up to Boston.

00:43:53.400 And it's in and around the siege lines that the rifle companies have a—play a major role in keeping

00:44:00.600 British heads down and then taking off British heads by their sniping ability. And they fear—the

00:44:07.480 British fear of this weapon tremendously. There's a fascinating story of how one of these

00:44:14.360 Pennsylvania companies has a mutiny, because rifle companies are specialized men. They are able to

00:44:22.440 shoot at a target 200 yards away, in many cases the size of a small plate. Many of these guys can

00:44:28.440 shoot an eye out on a squirrel. They were extremely rugged individuals from the frontier,

00:44:33.880 and in many cases very undisciplined individuals. They didn't have the same discipline requirements

00:44:40.200 as the regular army or militia in and around the siege. And they could do what they want. In one case,

00:44:46.840 they literally won company mutinies. And that—what that does is it leads them with a ticket to Canada.

00:44:53.320 Canada. And the—an epic Christmas in 18—in 1775. And that story is incredible. They have to go

00:45:06.920 through nearly 400 miles of Maine wilderness to get to Quebec and Canada to somehow to take the capital

00:45:16.360 city of Quebec City. And they are under the command of Benedict Arnold, who leads them through the

00:45:23.800 wilds—the wilds of Maine and in the rivers. And to get there, they have to basically go through

00:45:36.760 whitewater rapids. They have to ford multiple waterfalls. And they have to take all their provisions

00:45:44.520 with them. As they get up to Maine, they are given these crude rafts, which are made out of,

00:45:52.040 in many cases, wood that's still green. And when they hit the water, they expand. And many of these rafts

00:45:59.560 fall apart as they're going through this whitewater, or the water. And it's an epic, epic story of

00:46:08.360 endurance and survival. Months in the Maine wilderness, weeks in the Maine wilderness. And

00:46:16.280 these men are constantly under the potential attack from the British as well as hostile Native Americans.

00:46:25.080 But they also have to deal with starvation, because there's never enough provisions around.

00:46:32.920 And as this journey through these rivers and mountains train, there's snow. The men are starving.

00:46:39.800 They're literally eating the buckles or the belts that they have in their cartridge boxes. They're

00:46:46.040 boiling them because they don't have enough food. And it's an incredible story of survival.

00:46:53.880 And it's Arnold and Daniel Morgan and the Pennsylvanians and Virginians and other members of the

00:47:03.320 Continental Army that have to make this epic trek towards Canada. And in the Canadian border area,

00:47:13.560 it's Arnold that is able to get a number of cattle and livestock to his men. And they literally have

00:47:20.760 this kind of an orgy of food where they literally eat some of the cattle nearly as they're alive,

00:47:29.960 which causes many of these men, which had not eaten for days, to literally die from what they had eaten.

00:47:37.960 They then make their way up to Quebec City and they are under strength. They don't have artillery for a proper siege,

00:47:48.200 but they siege Quebec and they wait for the ultimate opportunity, which is a nor'easter that occurs right after Christmas.

00:47:57.960 And it's a massive snowstorm. And they attack in that snowstorm to the city gates.

00:48:08.360 And this story is one for the ages. They literally, they come within a hair's breadth of taking Quebec.

00:48:17.640 There's two different wings that assault from two different sides. And on the, on the, the western side,

00:48:25.400 it's General Montgomery that's leading the attack. And they make their way towards a sort of a crude roadblock,

00:48:33.640 which is manned by a number of troops, including a, there's a, there's a British sailor that's brought

00:48:39.400 off of a ship who's drunk at the time. And they see the approaching this force of led by Montgomery

00:48:47.800 of hundreds of men. And he says to them, they're ordered to retreat. They just decide to flee the

00:48:52.920 area. He's like, I, he said to the people around him, I'm going to fire my cannon one last time.

00:48:59.800 And he touches off the cannon and it's a lucky shot. The grave shot literally hits General Montgomery

00:49:07.320 in the forehead and kills him, which has a tremendously negative effect on the entire attack.

00:49:14.120 That entire wing then retreats and it's Daniel Morgan and his men that assault on the opposite side.

00:49:21.640 And they make their way through various barricades against all odds and are this close

00:49:29.160 to seizing Quebec and taking Canada for, for the United States.

00:49:35.880 It's an incredible story of human endurance. And it's, it's a story that is important because

00:49:46.680 as Americans, we often like to look at the victories, but this is a situation where it was a defeat,

00:49:54.280 but it was a victory of human endurance and courage. That is something that

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Bannon's War Room - December 25, 2024

Episode 4150： A WarRoom Special 2024： Combat History of Christmas

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