250 to 250:111. Orange Plank Road, Narrated by Tyler McGraw

Heather Cox Richardson and 250 to 250: Orange Plank Road, Narrated by Tyler McGraw

Digital historian Tyler McGraw is a writer for the Emerging Civil War community and host of the podcast The Unfiltered Historian. McGraw recounts how General Ulysses S. Grant's refusal to retreat at the 1864 Battle of the Wilderness marked the turning point that would wear the Confederacy down to surrender.

In May 1864, General Ulysses S. Grant led U.S. forces in Virginia.

• His army fought General Robert E. Lee’s Confederate army.
• They fought at the Battle of the Wilderness.
• The battle was very difficult and caused many deaths and injuries.
• After the battle, Grant decided not to retreat.
• He ordered his army to continue moving south.
• The soldiers cheered when they learned they were moving forward.
• Grant continued to fight Lee’s army in the Overland Campaign.
• Grant wrote, “I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer.”
• The campaign kept pressure on Lee’s army and was part of the U.S. effort to defeat the Confederacy.

POP Interview and Civics Quiz:

• N-400 Part 9:35. If the law requires it, are you willing to bear arms (carry weapons) on behalf of the United States?
• USCIS 100:73. / 128.92. Name the U.S. war between the North and the South. 
• USCIS 128:93. The Civil War had many important events. Name one.
• Read: Who was Abraham Lincoln?
• Write: Lincoln was the president during the Civil War. 

Family Fun

• American Battlefield Trust: : The Civil War in Four Minutes | Animated Battle Map | The Famous Brock Road-Orange Plank Road Intersection | The Overland 160 playlist
• Emerging Civil War: Wilderness Turning Point 050719 |  Civil War to Civil Rights playlist
• NPS: Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania NMP | Junior Ranger Activity Booklets | 150 Anniversary of the Overland Campaign
• National Postal Museum: American Civil War Issue (1995) | The Battle of the Wilderness (1964)
• The Unfiltered Historian: The Unfiltered Wilderness