Overland Campaign: Difference between revisions

|image_size = 300px

|caption = [[Ulysses S. Grant]] and [[Robert E. Lee]], respectively, opposing commanders in the Overland Campaign

|place = [[Virginia]]

|result = Strategic Union victory; See [[Overland Campaign#Aftermath|Aftermath]]<ref>Gordon Rhea, Onto Petersburg, (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2017), 334.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/overland-campaign-1864|title=The Overland Campaign of 1864|date=14 April 2014}}</ref>

|combatant1 = {{flagicon|USA|1863}} [[United States]] ([[Union (American Civil War)|Union]])

|combatant2 = {{flagicon|CSA|1863}} [[Confederate States of America|CSA (Confederacy)]]

|commander2 = [[Robert E. Lee]]

|units1 =

|units2 = [[Army of Northern Virginia]]

|strength1 = 103,875<ref>''Field return of the Army of the Potomac for June 1, 1864'' (Official Records, Series I, Volume XXXVI, Part 1, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924097311744&view=1up&seq=227 page 209]).</ref>–124,232 ("present for duty")<ref>"Present for duty" (April 30, 1864): Army of the Potomac: 102,869; IX Army Corps: 21,363. See ''Abstract from tri-monthly return of the '''Army of the Potomac''', Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, U.S. Army commanding, April 30, 1864 '' (Official Records, Series I, Volume XXXVI, Part 1, [http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moawar&cc=moawar&idno=waro0067&node=waro0067%3A4&view=image&seq=206&size=100 page 198]) and ''Abstract from return of the '''Ninth Army Corps''', commanded by Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside, U.S. Army, for April 30, 1864'' (Official Records, Series I, Volume XXXVI, Part 1, [http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moawar&cc=moawar&idno=waro0067&node=waro0067%3A4&view=image&seq=933&size=100 page 915]).</ref><ref>118,700: according to Eicher, p. 660.</ref>

 

Hancock's men, led by the division of Maj. Gen. [[David B. Birney]], overwhelmed Henagan's small force, which fled across the bridge. Union sharpshooters discouraged Confederate attempts to burn the bridge. Hancock's men did not cross the bridge and seize ground to the south because Confederate artillery was laying down heavy fire against them. At Jericho Mills, Warren found the river ford unprotected and established a beachhead south of the river. General Lee convinced his Third Corps commander, A.P. Hill, that Warren's movement was simply a feint, so Hill sent only a single division, commanded by Maj. Gen. [[Cadmus M. Wilcox]], to deal with Warren's supposedly minor threat. The Union troops were taken by surprise and their right flank was beaten back, but they were supported by three batteries of artillery, which slowed the Confederate advance until Union reinforcements arrived to end the brief battle. The next morning, Lee expressed his displeasure at Hill's performance: "General Hill, why did you let those people cross here? Why didn't you throw your whole force on them and drive them back as [[Stonewall Jackson|Jackson]] would have done?"<ref>Kennedy, pp. 287–89; Grimsley, pp. 139–40; Rhea, ''To the North Anna River'', pp. 300–316, 326; Salmon, p. 285; Welcher, pp. 979–80; Trudeau, pp. 228–35.</ref>

By the evening of May 23, Lee finally understood that a major battle was developing in this location and began to plan his defensive position. He and his chief engineer devised a solution: a five-mile (8&nbsp;km) line that formed an inverted "V" shape with its apex on the river at Ox Ford, the only defensible crossing in the area. On the western line of the V, reaching southwest to anchor on Little River, was the corps of A.P. Hill; on the east were Anderson and Ewell, extending through Hanover Junction and ending behind a swamp. Lee's men worked nonstop overnight to complete the fortifications. The new position represented a significant potential threat to Grant. By moving south of the river, Lee hoped that Grant would assume that he was retreating, leaving only a token force to prevent a crossing at Ox Ford. If Grant pursued, then Lee hoped the pointed wedge of the inverted V would split Grant's army and Lee could concentrate on interior lines to defeat one wing; the other Union wing would have to cross the North Anna twice to support the attacked wing.<ref>Welcher, 980; Grimsley, 141; Rhea, ''To the North Anna River'', 320–25; Salmon, 285; Kennedy, p. 289; Trudeau, pp. 236, 241.</ref>

 

As Lee's army stood in entrenchments behind Totopotomoy Creek, they were short on men. Lee requested that General [[P.G.T. Beauregard]] send him reinforcements from his 12,000-man army, sitting relatively idle as they bottled up Maj. Gen. [[Benjamin Butler (politician)|Benjamin Butler]]'s army at [[Bermuda Hundred Campaign|Bermuda Hundred]]. Beauregard initially refused Lee's request, citing the potential threat from Butler. Lee was determined despite this disappointment. He wrote to President Davis, "If General Grant advances tomorrow I will engage him with my present force."<ref>Grimsley, pp. 153–54; Trudeau, p. 251; Rhea, ''Cold Harbor'', pp. 110–11.</ref>

 

 

Grant began a general advance on May 30. Wright's corps was to move south against A.P. Hill on the Confederate left, while Hancock attacked across the creek against Breckinridge in the center, and Warren moved west toward Early along Shady Grove Road. Wright's advance became bogged down in the swampy land near Crump's Creek, delaying his VI Corps until late in the day. Hancock's skirmishers captured some of Breckinridge's rifle pits, but made little progress against the main Confederate line. Meade ordered Burnside's reserve corps to assist Hancock, but they arrived too late in the day to affect the battle. On the Union left, Warren moved the rest of his V Corps across the creek and began probing west. Lee ordered Early's corps, which was entrenched across Warren's path, to attack the V corps with the assistance of Anderson's corps. Early planned to send the division of Maj. Gen. [[Robert E. Rodes]] on a flanking march along Old Church Road, turning north at Bethesda Church, and following paths that his cavalry had precut through the underbrush to smash into Warren's rear areas.<ref>Furgurson, p. 61; Jaynes, p. 149; Rhea, ''Cold Harbor'', p. 118–20, 122; Trudeau, p. 253.</ref>

On June 9, Meade ordered the construction of a new line of entrenchments in the army's rear, extending northward from Elder Swamp to Allen's Mill Pond. On June 11, the construction was complete and he issued orders for a movement to the James River, beginning after dark on June 12. (Also on June 11, Lee ordered Early's Second Corps to depart for Charlottesville, likewise on June 12.) As night fell on June 12, Hancock's II Corps and Wright's VI Corps took up positions on the new entrenchment line. Warren's V Corps cleared the roads heading south, advancing over Long Bridge and White Oak Swamp Bridge, taking up a blocking position just east of Riddell's Shop, facing toward Richmond while Burnside's IX Corps and Smith's XVIII Corps withdrew from the original line of entrenchments. The cavalry brigade of Col. George H. Chapman, part of Brig. Gen. [[James H. Wilson]]'s division, which did not accompany Sheridan on his raid, screened the roads heading toward Richmond. Burnside headed south, followed by Wright and Hancock. Smith's XVIII Corps marched to White House, where on the morning of June 13 they embarked on steamers for Bermuda Hundred. They arrived at Point of Rocks on the [[Appomattox River]] the night of June 14.<ref>Welcher, p. 994.</ref>

 

 

===Trevilian Station (June 11–12)===

==See also==

{{Portal|American Civil War}}

* [[Troop engagements of the American Civil War, 1864]]

* [[List of costliest American Civil War land battles]]

* [[Armies in the American Civil War]]

* [[Commemoration of the American Civil War on postage stamps]]

* [[Bibliography of Ulysses S. Grant]]

 

==References==

* Bonekemper, Edward H., III. ''A Victor, Not a Butcher: Ulysses S. Grant's Overlooked Military Genius''. Washington, DC: Regnery, 2004. {{ISBN|0-89526-062-X}}.

* Chick, Sean Michael. ''The Battle of Petersburg, June 15–18, 1864''. Lincoln, NE: Potomac Books, 2015. {{ISBN|978-1612347127}}

* [[Bruce Catton|Catton, Bruce]]. ''Grant Takes Command''. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1968. {{ISBN|0-316-13210-1}}.

* Catton, Bruce. ''A Stillness at Appomattox''. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1953. {{ISBN|0-385-04451-8}}.

* Dowdey, Clifford. ''Lee's Last Campaign: The Story of Lee and His Men Against Grant, 1864''. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2011. {{ISBN|1-61608-411-1}}. First published in 1960 by Little, Brown.

* Frassanito, William A. ''Grant and Lee: The Virginia Campaigns 1864–1865''. New York: Scribner, 1983. {{ISBN|0-684-17873-7}}.

* [[J. F. C. Fuller|Fuller, Maj. Gen. J. F. C.]] ''The Generalship of Ulysses S. Grant''. New York: Da Capo Press, 1929. {{ISBN|0-306-80450-6}}.

* Gallagher, Gary W., ed. ''The Wilderness Campaign''. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997. {{ISBN|0-8078-2334-1}}.

* Glatthaar, Joseph T. ''General Lee's Army: From Victory to Collapse''. New York: Free Press, 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-684-82787-2}}.

* Matter, William D. ''If It Takes All Summer: The Battle of Spotsylvania''. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988. {{ISBN|978-0-8078-1781-0}}.

* Power, J. Tracy. ''Lee's Miserables: Life in the Army of Northern Virginia from the Wilderness to Appomattox''. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. {{ISBN|0-8078-2392-9}}.

* [[Jeffry D. Wert|Wert, Jeffry D.]] ''The Sword of Lincoln: The Army of the Potomac''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005. {{ISBN|0-7432-2506-6}}.

 

==External links==

 

{{American Civil War campaigns in the Eastern Theater}}