Hey everyone, thanks for downloading episode 44 of our Civil War podcast.

I'm Rich.

I'm Tracy. Hello y'all. Welcome to the podcast. Last week we closed the

action at Philippi in Western Virginia with the Confederates Panneke retreat

south to Beverly. A few weeks after that union victory dubbed the Philippi

Races by the Northern Press, news came that the hapless Confederate commander

Colonel George Porterfield had been relieved of command and replaced by

Brigadier General Robert S. Garnett. The 41-year-old Garnett was a Westpoint

graduate and Mexican war veteran and before resigning his commission to go

with Virginia, he was a highly regarded officer in the old US Army. As soon as

Garnett arrived on the scene, he immediately set to work reorganizing and

building up the Confederate force around Beverly. In response, the union

commander, Major General George McClellan, himself moved into the field,

coming over from Ohio with some fresh regiments and linking up with his men

already in the Grafton Philippi area. On June 23rd 1861, McClellan arrived in

Grafton to take personal command of the fight against the rebels. He had never

before commanded so much as a squad in combat, but McClellan, supremely

confident, had no doubt at all he would be successful in this campaign and drive

the Confederates from Northwestern, Virginia.

We thought that since McClellan considered himself God's gift to the Union

War effort, he deserved his own special intro music rather than the plain old

usual drum roll that we use. So that's what this is.

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