May 4, 1864, saw the Army of the Potomac crossing the Rapidan into the Wilderness, 20 miles downriver from Lee. What if he used a corps instead of a brigade-sized force, Grant mused. Grant believed that the constant regimen of marching and fighting had severely weakened Lee’s army. Donate today to preserve Civil War battlefields and the nation’s history for generations to come. Anderson’s corps, Stuart learned, had bivouacked a short distance away, and soon Rebel infantry filled the gaps in Stuart’s thin line. But Hill’s line held and, by nightfall, the soldiers of both armies were entrenching within yards of each another. This time, he would send Hancock on a march to the southeast in hopes that Lee would try to snag the isolated Union corps. Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, newly appointed head of the Army of the Potomac’s mounted arm, gave the critical assignment of patrolling the roads toward Lee to Brig. Confederates fortified their position with seven miles of powerful entrenchments. By pressing ahead without stopping to fire, the soldiers could overrun the entrenchments and cleave a breach large enough for a fresh force to exploit. Confined to his tent with dysentery, Lee could do little more than hope that his defensive line held. The postponement threw another component of the intended offensive out of whack. Grant concluded that Lee’s Spotsylvania line was indeed impregnable. Help Bring the Western Theater Battlefield Experience Online, Kentuckians: Support Battlefield Preservation Legislation, Virginians: Support Battlefield Preservation Legislation. The Overland Campaign from the Rapidan to the James was coming to a close, and the Petersburg Campaign was about to begin. Gen. John B. Gordon drove back the Unionists in the Mule Shoe’s eastern sector. The next morning, Lee learned that Grant was gone, and that Union infantry had materialized at Hanovertown. Lee’s strengths were his resilience and the fierce devotion that he inspired in his men. Overland Campaign This map on the left side of this page, shows what both generals were aiming to take over during the Civil War. But once again, slipshod coordination thwarted his plan.
May 22 witnessed Lee’s exhausted troops cross the North Anna and encamp south of the river, along the Virginia Central Railroad.
But if the campaign is viewed in its entirety, Grant comes out ahead. On May 23, the Union army converged at Mount Carmel Church, a handful of miles above the North Anna River. Total Union casualties for the entire day approximated 6,000; Confederate losses were about 1,500. Employing the same principles that governed his national strategy, Grant focused irresistible force against his wily opponent. Learning that Federals had crossed at Jericho Mills, Lee ordered Hill to drive them back. On the night of May 20, Hancock started his diversionary march, passing through Bowling Green and entrenching near Milford Station, 20 miles southeast of the armies. For 20 hours in a driving rainstorm, shooting and hand-to-hand combat raged at “Bloody Angle.” “Rank after rank was riddled with shot and shell and bayonet thrusts, and finally sank, a mass of torn and mutilated corpses,” Porter wrote. Grant, however, now understood that Lee had divided his army. Hoping to finally strike a killing blow, Grant hurried Hancock’s corps toward Cold Harbor. Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock’s Union II Corps settled into camps around Chancellorsville, near the Wilderness’s eastern reaches. A different campaign: Union soldiers cheer Grant when they realize that the Army of the Potomac will not retreat after the battle of the Wilderness. As Meade’s Army of the Potomac broke its winter camp 100 miles north of Richmond, Grant ordered the general: “Wherever Lee goes, there you will go also.” So would Grant, who personally accompanied the 115,000-man force as it crossed Virginia’s Rapidan River at dawn on May 4, 1864, to begin the Overland Campaign.
Determined to exploit this opportunity, he directed Meade to concentrate a massive onslaught against Hill on Orange Plank Road.
In many respects, the generals were similar. The next morning, Grant concluded that Lee was retreating and crossed the river in pursuit.
The army’s commander, Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, had performed ably at Gettysburg, but his failure to bring Lee to battle since then had cost him the administration’s confidence. During the night of May 11, concealed by a blinding rain storm, Hancock slogged from the right wing of the Union army to the Brown family farm, half a mile from the Mule Shoe. The release of the Union cavalry arm was to cost the Federals dearly. Unable to find a suitable resting place, Anderson marched until dawn, stopping a few miles northwest of Spotsylvania Court House. For the next 22 hours, men fought in savage, hand-to-hand fighting, the worst at a slight bend known as the "Bloody Angle". The Overland Campaign opened on May 5, when the Union Fifth Corps encountered Confederate troops on the Orange Turnpike. The next morning — May 10 — Confederates under Maj. Gen. Jubal A. The American Battlefield Trust and our members have saved more than 53,000 acres in 24 states! Divisions of the American Battlefield Trust: The American Battlefield Trust is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Since Lee was expecting an attack against the southern part of his line, Grant decided to attack from the north. Misunderstanding what was expected of him, Wilson mounted tentative probes toward the Confederates, found nothing and camped for the evening. Donations to the Trust are tax deductible to the full extent allowable under the law. To reach the Confederates, Hancock had to cross the river twice: first as he marched south, then again when he attacked eastward.
A few miles west, near Wilderness Tavern, stood Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren’s V Corps, and immediately north of Warren’s encampments rose smoke from fires kindled by Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick’s VI Corps. Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell’s Second Corps was to advance along the Orange Turnpike, in tandem with Lt. Gen. Ambrose P. Hill’s Third Corps on the Orange Plank Road, aiming to pin Grant in the Wilderness.
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