Both the Armies of the Potomac and Northern Virginia assess the damage done in the terrible fighting around Spotsylvania on May 12. Ulysses S. Grant, the overall Federal commander, decides to try moving around Robert E. Lee’s Confederate flank once more.
Tag: Ulysses S. Grant
Spotsylvania: Terrible Fighting at the Mule Shoe
Ulysses S. Grant orders a massive Federal assault on a salient in the line of Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. This results in some of the most savage fighting of the entire war and produces significant casualties.
Spotsylvania: Attacking the Mule Shoe
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.
The Battle of the Wilderness: Day Two
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 Battle of the Wilderness
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.
The James River Campaign Begins
Another front opens in Virginia, as Benjamin F. Butler’s Federal Army of the James boards transports at Yorktown to move up the James River and cut the Richmond & Petersburg Railroad.