The Overland Campaign

In the spring of 1864, many in the North, including President Lincoln, were growing frustrated. Although Lincoln’s armies were achieving success on the battle¬fields, the gruesome toll was becoming increasingly unacceptable. The president needed a general who would ¬ finally put an end to the war. He found him in Ulysses S. Grant, who would close out the conflict a little more than a year after his appointment. Determined to destroy Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, Grant bulked up the Army of the Potomac with the addition of Burnside’s IX Corps, swelling the army’s numbers to nearly 120,000. The campaigns of 1862 and 1863 had inflicted heavy losses on Lee’s army, including some of his most talented commanders, among them “Stonewall” Jackson. In the spring of 1864, Lee’s army was more scattered than Meade’s, but the Army of Northern Virginia was not only capable but also deeply familiar with the Virginia terrain.Grant planned several offensives involving attacks against Richmond, Atlanta, and the Shenandoah Valley. In the north, the Army of the Potomac would strike hard at Lee, while the Union Army of the James would head inland toward Richmond to cut supply lines and then join with Meade’s army. On May 3, 1864, the Army of the Potomac headed for the Wilderness to open the Spring Campaign. The next six weeks saw the most brutal ¬ fighting of the entire war. Repeatedly, Grant brought Lee into battle—notably at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna, and Cold Harbor—yet each time Grant was frustrated in his efforts to destroy the Army of Northern Virginia. Finally, unable to capture Richmond, Grant reached the James River where his forces built a long bridge to facilitate its crossing to attack Petersburg. While Grant had failed to destroy Lee’s army or capture Richmond, the relentless pressure of the campaign effectively sealed the fate of the Confederacy.