The Overland Campaign for Richmond

In the spring of 1864, many in the North, including President Lincoln, were growing frustrated. Although Lincolns armies were achieving success on the battlefields, 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. Lees Army of Northern Virginia, Grant bulked up the Army of the Potomac with the addition of Burnsides IX Corps, swelling the armys numbers to nearly 120,000. The campaigns of 1862 and 1863 had inflicted heavy losses on Lees army, including some of his most talented commanders, among them Stonewall Jackson. In the spring of 1864, Lees army was more scattered than Meades, 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 Meades 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 battlenotably at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna, and Cold Harboryet 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 Lees army or capture Richmond, the relentless pressure of the campaign effectively sealed the fate of the Confederacy.