Hey everyone, welcome to episode number 166 of our Civil War podcast.

My name is Rich.

I'm Tracy. Hello y'all. Thanks for tuning into the podcast.

With last week's episode, we talked about the action at the Battle of Glendale, which

took place on Monday, June 30th, 1862. Since the beginning of what came to be known as

the Seven Days campaign, Robert E Lee had been seeking to not just push the Union Army

away from Richmond, but he's also been seeking to destroy part or all of the enemy army.

In many historians, looking back on the last day of June 1862, think Glendale was Robert

E Lee's best opportunity to achieve the clear cut decisive victory he'd been seeking.

As darkness brought an end to the fighting that Monday, Robert E Lee tried to understand

why his plan had failed again. He knew that Glendale had been a golden opportunity to

destroy a significant portion of the enemy army, and Lee wasn't the only one to recognize

this. Years later, E Porter Alexander was still haunted by the failure. He said, quote,

when one thinks of the great chances in General Lee's grasp that one summer afternoon,

it is enough to make one cry to give the story of how they were all lost.

Lee Porter Alexander placed most of the blame for the failure on June 30th on Stonewall

Jackson, which we think is fair, but actually there was more than enough blame to go around.

Long street and AP Hill, who did all of the fighting that day, can be absolved of blame,

as Ken McGreeter, who simply obeyed the series of orders he received throughout the day.

The Opalus Holmes also can't be faulted for his performance, since there simply no way

his division alone could have taken Malvern Hill.

Ujjay and Stonewall, though, have, with justification, been singled out for their failures on June 30th,

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