You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast. The French Revolution set Europe ablaze. It was an

age of enlightenment and progress, but also of tyranny and depression. It was an age of glory and

a age of tragedy. One man stood above it all. This was the Age of Napoleon. I'm Everett Rummage, host of The Age of Napoleon podcast.

Join me as I examine the life and times of one of the most fascinating and enigmatic characters

in modern history. Look for The Age of Napoleon wherever you find your podcasts. The podcast. My name is Rich.

And I'm Tracy. Hello, y'all. Welcome to the podcast. As y'all will recall, by the end of the last episode,

it was May 24, 1864, and although the Federals thought the Confederates were falling back from the North Anna River and withdrawing off to the south,

in reality the rebels hadn't retreated, but instead had taken up a new defensive position centered upon Oxford on the North Anna.

The new Confederate defensive position resembled an inverted V with the vertex at

Oxford and the shanks running southwest and southeast to cover Hanover Junction. The entire line was

heavily entrenched since the rebel troops had thrown up earthworks all night and improved

them during the day.

As Confederate Brigadier General Evander Law explained it, the result was that Robert Ely Lee

had placed Grant, quote, in what may be called a military dilemma.

He had cut his army in two by running it upon the point of a wedge,

end quote, with the point of the wedge being at Oxford. Law continued, observing that Grant,

quote, could not break the point which rested upon the river, and the attempt to force it out of place

by striking on its sides

must of necessity be made without much concert of action between the two wings of his army,

neither of which could reinforce the other, while his opponent could readily transfer his troops

as needed from one wing to the other, across the narrow space between them.

In other words, by creating the inverted V position, Robert E. Lee brilliantly retrieved a situation that had seemed badly compromised by the federal bridgeheads across the North Anna at Jericho Mill and

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