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Hey everyone, welcome to the 315th episode of our Civil War podcast. My name is

Rich. And I'm Tracy. Hello y'all. Thanks for tuning into the podcast. The first thing

we wanted to say in this opening section is that you can either think of this as

the last episode of the campaign part of the story arc or you can think of it as the

first show of the battle part of the story arc. As Rich mentioned in the last show, we're

splitting up this epic story arc into four parts. The campaign, the battle, the retreat,

and the Gettysburg address. In this episode, the two armies will continue to move toward

a collision at Gettysburg and will end the show with the first shot of the battle on the

morning of July 1st, 1863. Okay, well, when last we left Robert E. Lee, the spy

Harrison on the night of June 28th, had told him that the federal army, rather than

still being massed below the Potomac as Lee had assumed, had actually crossed the river

three days earlier and was now well up in to Maryland. Lee doesn't seem to have been

panicked or even greatly alarmed by this news that the enemy army was only a hard days

march south of the Mason Dixon line. After all, one of the reasons he'd struck north

into Pennsylvania was to draw the Yankees after him. But what did trouble Lee was that

he was hearing vital intelligence about the whereabouts of the army of the Potomac from

a spy rather than from his cavalry chief, Jeb Stewart.

Robert E. Lee had come to trust Stewart to be the eyes and ears of the army. Never before

had Stewart let him down, and so the dashing southern cavaliers fail your hear at such

a critical moment was disturbing to say the least. Lee still hadn't heard from Stewart

since he set off on his ride back on June 25th. Even now Lee had no idea where Stewart

...