Exploring the most important 55 months in American history
Ulysses S. Grant learns that his Federal Army of the Potomac has lost the race to Spotsylvania Court House to Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Grant approves a massed assault on a salient in Lee’s defense line, which results in more horrific casualties.
Fighting rages a second day in the Wilderness as Ulysses S. Grant learns that Robert E. Lee would not be an easy foe to overcome.
The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia catches the Federal Army of the Potomac in the forbidding Wilderness. Both sides engage in fierce combat, with confusing and chaotic fighting in the dense brush marking the opening of the spring campaign.
In preparation for the Federal offensive, Ulysses S. Grant prepares to direct the Army of the Potomac in battle. Meanwhile, Robert E. Lee plans a defensive Confederate strategy to counter the Federal advance.
Robert E. Lee prepares his Confederate Army of Northern Virginia for active operations against the new Federal general-in-chief, Ulysses S. Grant. Despite being outnumbered and short on supplies, Lee looks to seize the initiative by meeting the Federal Army of the Potomac as soon as it crosses the Rapidan River.
Robert E. Lee, commanding Confederates in northern Virginia, anticipates a Federal offensive as scouts report that officers’ wives are leaving the Army of the Potomac. Initially focused on the west, Lee soon concludes that the impending threat is to his Army of Northern Virginia, which consists of just 40,000 ill-equipped troops.