A signal gun sounded at 4:30 a.m. on June 3, and the Union army’s southern wing — Smith’s, Wright’s and Hancock’s corps — stepped forward under a deadly hail of lead. Gen. Stephen D. Ramseur’s brigade charged into the Mule Shoe’s western leg, recapturing a stretch of entrenchments. May 4, 1864, saw the Army of the Potomac crossing the Rapidan into the Wilderness, 20 miles downriver from Lee. Grant determined to send an entire corps — Hancock’s force, some 25,000 men strong — crashing into the Mule Shoe while two more corps – the IX on the left, and the VI on the right — assailed the Mule Shoe’s sides, pinching off the huge bubble. Ewell’s Confederates, however, arrived in the nick of time and extended the Rebel line eastward to repel Sedgwick’s offensive. As part of this plan, he would personally accompany the Army of the Potomac to attack Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. At dawn on June 3, Grant ordered a massive assault on the Confederate works, but the attack moved forward piecemeal and with little success. The Army of the Potomac, however, was flush with fresh troops from Washington and with Smith’s XVIII Corps. The stage for this dramatic campaign was set with the Union Army of the Potomac’s repulse of Lee’s foray into Pennsylvania in July 1863. 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. The two men quarreled bitterly, and Meade reported Sheridan’s insubordination to Grant, expecting the commander’s support. The American Battlefield Trust is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Union cavalry rode toward Charlottesville, aiming to wreck the Virginia Central Railroad, and Union forces in the Shenandoah Valley headed toward Lynchburg, terminus of the James River Canal. After collecting their wounded in a temporary truce on June 7, the Union army left its entrenchments in the darkness on June 12 … Known as Cold Harbor, the intersection was to figure importantly in the campaign’s next stage. Turning around, the IX Corps entangled with the VI Corps, creating a messy traffic jam. Please note that the locations and events listed on our itineraries do not reflect any potential closures due to COVID-19. The First American President: Setting the Precedent, Help Save 110 Acres at Three Civil War Battlefields, Preserve 108 Acres of the Most Important Unprotected Battlefield Land, Kentuckians: Support Battlefield Preservation Legislation, Virginians: Support Battlefield Preservation Legislation, How Inaccurate Maps Repeatedly Thwarted Union Major General Ambrose E. Burnside. The next morning — May 10 — Confederates under Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Grant lost about 55,000 men during the Overland Campaign, and Lee about 33,000, allowing the Rebel to claim a victory of sorts. The six-week Overland Campaign had ended, leaving behind numbing losses: the dead, missing, and wounded totaled 55,000 for the Union and 33,000 for the Confederacy. The ailing corps commander, however, misjudged the size of the Union force and sent only one division into battle. Once over the Rapidan, the Union army found itself in a forbidding forest of tangled second-growth known as the Wilderness. Mistakes by Union cavalry aided the Confederate strategy. By his failure to hold the river and inflict a serious reverse on the enemy, Lee had surrendered his last chance of keeping the Union at a distance from the defences of Richmond. In the two months in which the Overland Campaign took place, combined casualties approached 73,000, though the Confederates suffered a much higher percentage of casualties. Something needed to change. Deploying Sedgwick’s Corps on Warren’s left flank, Meade ordered another attack near sundown. During the stormy night of May 13–14, Warren and Wright made a forced march toward the Rebel army’s unprotected right flank below Spotsylvania Court House. While Union cavalry gained possession of the field, Confederate horsemen led by Maj. Gen. Wade Hampton succeeded in discovering the location of Grant’s army while shielding Lee’s whereabouts from Grant. 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. Delaying made no sense — more time would only give the Rebels a chance to bring up reinforcements. Equally disconcerting was Butler’s appearance near Richmond; if Butler attacked the Confederate capital, Lee would have to hurry troops to the city’s defense. In many respects, the generals were similar. Stay up-to-date on the Trust's battlefield preservation efforts, travel tips, upcoming events, history content and more. After Lee learned that Grant had crossed the James, his worst fear was about to be realized—that he would be forced into a siege in defense of the Confederate capital. The Majority of our funds go directly to Preservation and Education. The American Battlefield Trust and our members have saved more than 53,000 acres in 24 states! Formidable earthworks became the norm during the Overland Campaign. Three massive battles and dozens of skirmishes characterized the bloody Overland Campaign. However, to make the figures congruous, the Overland Campaign casualty statistics also include the early actions in the Petersburg Campaign, which ends with the Battle of the Crater. Shortly after sunrise on May 8, Lee’s cavalry chief, Maj. Gen. James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart, ordered the fought-out riders to make a desperate final stand along a ridge called Laurel Hill, overlooking the Spindle family farm. If the commanders are scored by tactical successes, Lee comes out the clear winner. Warren, assuming that the gray-clad forms on Laurel Hill belonged solely to Rebel cavalry, ordered an attack. Each favored offensive operations and were willing to take risks; each labored under handicaps, although of different sorts; and each was bedeviled by subordinates who often seemed incapable of getting things right. Blind to the fact that Lee was marching past his recumbent troops — Sheridan’s horsemen had not yet returned — the Federals let Lee’s army slip by unhindered. The grueling campaign seemed to have dulled the Army of Northern Virginia’s offensive capacity. Near daylight on May 5, Ewell and Hill launched their dual advance, catching the Federals unprepared. A short distance east of the armies, the North Anna merged with other rivers to form the Pamunkey. Sign up to receive emails with our resources for educators to support their work – in the classroom and online. Still hoping to break Lee’s defenses, Meade ordered another assault, this time against Hill on the plank road, spearheaded by Hancock’s corps and some of Sedgwick’s men. Near Milford Station, Hancock sparred with Confederates sent from Richmond to reinforce Lee. As morning approached, Ewell, whose troops occupied the Mule Shoe, became convinced that his line was in danger and asked for the artillery back. Wright’s VI Corps joined the attack, as did Burnside’s IX. The Overland Campaign, also known as Grant's Overland Campaign and the Wilderness Campaign, was a series of battles fought in Virginia during May and June 1864, in the American Civil War. Significant doubts persist about the army’s capability at the commencement of the drive, the amount of reinforcements received, and the total of casualties sustained during the entire campaign and at each … His plan was to hurry reinforcements into the salient to detain the Federal onslaught until he could construct a new defensive line along high ground to the rear. He expected Stuart to pursue, giving him an opportunity to fight the Confederate cavalry. Fighting dismounted, the Rebel horsemen constructed successive lines of fence-rail barricades across the Brock Road. The maneuver would bring the Union army 17 miles from Richmond, and provisions could be shipped in from Chesapeake Bay and unloaded at White House Landing on the Pamunkey. By afternoon on May 9, the armies were digging in; Grant’s lines oriented south toward Spotsylvania Court House and Lee’s troops looking north, barring the Union advance. Confederate General J.E.B. Grant intended the Army of the Potomac to bear the brunt of the combat and decided to make his headquarters there. Sign up to receive email updates about our Warrior Legacy programming for veterans, active duty military and their families. Once again, Lee danced to Grant’s tune, sending Early’s corps to protect Lynchburg and dispatching cavalry to intercept the Union mounted raid, ultimately clashing at Trevilian Station. The Rebels seemed prepared to receive them, so Grant called off the attack. The Overland Campaign was, in many ways, one of the most important campaigns of the war. In Lee’s Army during the Overland Campaign… Secure behind their earthworks, Ewell’s Confederates applauded the attack as an opportunity to settle old scores. The release of the Union cavalry arm was to cost the Federals dearly. Overland and Petersburg Campaigns: 110,675 casualties. Each of these battles is a piece in the puzzle of the larger strategies that characterized the final year of the war. It’s the best general on each side, leading the most famous army on each side, in the area perceived to be most critical by citizens on each side—it had all the elements of high drama and potentially enormous consequences. No one, however, alerted Mott that the assault was postponed, so, promptly at 5:00 p.m., his men started forward, only to be badly mauled and driven back by the Rebel defenders. On the morning of June 1, Anderson’s lead elements attacked Sheridan at Cold Harbor, only to be driven back by concentrated fire from the Union cavalrymen’s repeating carbines. Trevilian Station Station Battlefield, Virginia. The charge succeeded, and Brig. Grant concluded that Lee’s Spotsylvania line was indeed impregnable. In the span of just a few weeks, well more than 80,000 men fell as casualties in the bloodiest campaign of the war. He was determined to defend the river at all costs; if Grant forced him back to Richmond, the war in the East would become a siege that the Confederates must necessarily lose. In terms of casualties, the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House was the bloodiest of the campaign, with over 60,000 combined losses. For two days, men fought in the dense Wilderness. This time, he would send Hancock on a march to the southeast in hopes that Lee would try to snag the isolated Union corps. Burnett’s Tavern was a ramshackle wooden structure at a star-shaped intersection a handful of miles below the armies. Although the Federals had moved deep into Virginia and were closing in on Richmond, the Overland Campaign had cost the Union around 40,000 total casualties in the month, out of an army of about 102,000 men. An asterisk (*) indicates the number includes missing and captured, as well as killed and wounded. It was later said that Confederate infantrymen patted the smoking tubes of the guns with affection. Late on May 9, he ordered Hancock to slip around the western end of the Rebel army and attack the Confederate flank. Civil War Language: How did soldiers talk. Every purchase supports the mission. Lee’s left, however, was firmly anchored on a loop of the Po River. Assuming that Lee could never react quickly enough to attack him in the dense thickets, Meade chose to halt there to give his supply wagons time to catch up. Lincoln’s answer was to summon Grant, the architect of his Western victories, hoping that he might work his magic in the East. Sign up for our quarterly email series highlighting the environmental benefits of battlefield preservation. The attack at Cold Harbor ended the overland campaign against Richmond. To reach the Confederates, Hancock had to cross the river twice: first as he marched south, then again when he attacked eastward. Lee quickly marched to interpose between Grant and Richmond. Shortly after sunrise on May 6, Hancock drove Hill back through the woodland, and, for a few breathless moments, it seemed as though Lee would be captured and his army defeated. The next good defensive position was the North Anna River, 25 miles away, and Lee started his army in that direction. Upton’s attack, like so many before it, had failed because of mistakes by the Union high command. Sheridan had left Grant blind, while Stuart had left Lee enough troopers to reconnoiter Union positions and screen the Confederate infantry. Muddy roads slowed their progress, and they failed to reach their objective until after sunrise. It cost him 7,000 casualties in an hour, and achieved nothing. But can a butcher have regrets. By noon, Grant adjudged the offensive a failure and called it off. CIVIL WAR CASUALTIES RESULTING FROM CAMPAIGNS AND BATTLES OF ROBERT E. LEE [Unless otherwise noted, the numbers are the total of killed and wounded on each side. Worried for the safety of his army, Butler withdrew to Bermuda Hundred, in the angle formed by the confluence of the James and Appomattox Rivers. As the combat heated, Lee forwarded more cavalry toward Cold Harbor and persuaded Beauregard to send a division — Maj. Gen. Robert F. Hoke’s command — from the Richmond defenses. Petersburg, a prosperous city of 18,000, was a supply center for Richmond, given its strategic location just south of the capital, its site on the Appomattox Riverthat provided navigable access to the James Ri… Misunderstanding what was expected of him, Wilson mounted tentative probes toward the Confederates, found nothing and camped for the evening. By evening on June 1, Union and Confederate infantry confronted each other along a north-south axis. Aggressive as ever, Lee decided to remove artillery from the Mule Shoe and bring the guns back to good roads in his rear for an anticipated pursuit of Grant. Sign up for our quarterly email series highlighting the environmental benefits of battlefield preservation. 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. By seizing the road junction, Grant hoped to gain an unobstructed route to Richmond and a chance to strike Lee’s flank and rear. If the article is asserting that the campaign ended in June 1864, then it is far from apparent this was a clear Union victory: - The Union had suffered huge casualties. For several days, sharpshooters plied their deadly trade, and corpses rotted under the scorching summer sun. However, measuring losses against the respective sizes of the armies at the campaign’s outset — Lee had about 65,000 men, and Grant some 120,000 — Lee’s subtractions exceeded 50 percent, whereas Grant’s were about 45 percent. The Overland Campaign was a series of battles in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. Grant had breached the river line without a serious fight. Lee’s next move in his deadly chess game with Grant was to assume a defensive position along Totopotomoy Creek, a marshy stream that intersected Grant’s route to Richmond. However, the 1864 performance of Lee’s army during the strategically and tactically defensive (for Lee) Overland Campaign (including its imposition of massive casualties on the enemy) was achieved by an army that was a mere shadow of the one Lee took command of on June 1, 1862. Warren’s corps was repulsed by Ewell on the turnpike, as was Sedgwick’s, and combat flared for hours between antagonists invisible to one another in the dense spring foliage. It was up to the Army of the Potomac to defeat Lee. But before the guns could return, Hancock’s troops attacked, clambering over the ramparts and sending some 3,000 Confederate prisoners to the rear. Soon the Union army had entrenched, hugging close against the wings of Lee’s wedge. Lee’s plan cleverly suited the military maxim favoring interior lines to the North Anna’s topography. All losses during the campaign were promptly reported at the close of eachaction. The Overland Campaign, fought between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee in the spring of 1864 was, in many ways, the showpiece confrontation of the war. In the end, the repeated Union assaults on Lee's Army took a major toll and drove his army to the brink of disaster at Petersburg. Casualties as a percentage of Pre-War population in the World War 1 - INFOGRAPHIC That 1864 success was due primarily to the fact that Lee had finally been forced to fight on the defensive, … In an impressive display, Ewell’s artillery broke the assault. As the sun rose over Spotsylvania County, Grant learned that Lee now confronted him from a new position stronger than ever. Confederates repulses Federal attacks on May 24, but Lee, sick with dysentery, failed to strike a decisive blow. On the night of May 26–27, Grant stole across the North Anna and headed east. Brig. During the night, Wright’s corps headed for the intersection; orders went out for Smith to march that way as well; and Lee directed Anderson to start south and join Hoke. But if the campaign is viewed in its entirety, Grant comes out ahead. All day, the Rebels prepared for the expected Union assault. While he had not destroyed Lee’s army, he had gutted the Rebel force’s offensive capacity and seriously diminished its ability to affect the outcome of the war. Lee’s army had about 30,000 casualties out of about 67,000 engaged. The answer lies in how one defines winning. Looking to break the impasse at Cold Harbor, Grant again turned to maneuver, this time with an eye to severing Lee’s supply lines. It was a bloody end to a brutal campaign - in total, the month of fighting resulted in 55,000 Union and 33,000 Confederate casualties. His men cheered as they continued on to Spotsylvania Court House. In one of the war’s most brutal episodes, the Confederates sent into the Mule Shoe by Lee held their ground for nearly 20 hours of face-to-face combat. The next day, another Rebel force cobbled together by Gen. Pierre G. T. Beauregard had beaten Butler at Drewry’s Bluff, near Richmond. Grant, however, had a different plan in mind. 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