Exploring the most important 55 months in American history
Some 10,000 Federal troops advance on just 2,200 Confederates defending the vital transportation center of Petersburg, south of Richmond. This becomes one of the Federals’ greatest opportunities to destroy the Confederates in Virginia and win the war.
The Federal Army of the Potomac suffers one of its most horrifying defeats while attacking Robert E. Lee’s impregnable Confederate defenses just outside Richmond.
Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia attacks a force from the Federal Army of the Potomac as it crosses the North Anna River. Lee strategically positions his forces while Ulysses S. Grant plans his next move.
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.
Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia launches a massive, desperate charge to destroy the Federal Army of the Potomac once and for all.
Portions of the main armies on the Virginia Peninsula clash in a savage engagement that does little to change the dispositions of either Federals or Confederates.