On March 8, 1864, when Ulysses S. Grant arrived at Union Station in Washington, D.C. to assume command of all Union armies no one met him there. He had come on the train with his 13-year-old son Fred, John Rawlins, and Cyrus Comstock. After two unsuccessful attempts to call on Henry Halleck he headed to the Willard Hotel. Few people in the city had ever seen Grant in person so when he approached the front desk to register in a dusty overcoat that covered his uniform the clerk, unimpressed by his appearance, assigned him a small out of the way room on the top floor. Grant without complaint signed the guest register simply “U.S. Grant and son, Galena, Ill.” After reading the signature the previously unimpressed clerk assigned him Parlor #6, the most luxurious suite in the hotel, the same room Lincoln stayed in prior to his inauguration. He would receive his commission the next day, which he accepted with the words “With the aid of the noble armies that have fought on so many fields for our common country, it will be my earnest endeavor not to disappoint your expectations. I feel the full weight of the responsibilities now devolving on me and know that if they are met it will be due to those armies, and above all to the favor of that Providence which leads both Nations and men.”

On March 10, 1864 President Abraham Lincoln issued this short Executive Order “EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D.C., March 10, 1864. — Under the authority of the Act of Congress to appoint the grade of Lieutenant-General in the army, of February 29, 1864, Lieutenant-General ULYSSES S. GRANT, U.S.A., is appointed to the command of the armies of the United States.” Grant’s first order of business was to travel to Brandy Station and meet with General George Meade, commander of the Army of the Potomac. The Union Army had wintered in Culpeper County on the north bank of the Rapidan River. Grant was unsure whether he would keep Meade in command but was impressed with him during their conversion and declined Meade’s offer to resign so that Grant could appoint a man of his choosing. Instead Grant would travel with Meade in the field leaving the execution of his plans to Meade.

Leading the Confederate Army would be General Robert E. Lee. Lee was not familiar with Grant given that he came from the western theater of the war and had met him only briefly during the Mexican War. However, his chief subordinate, James Longstreet, knew Grant well. He was at Grant’s wedding and a relative of his wife. Whether he actually served as the best man at the wedding as widely claimed is not clear. He told Lee “That man will fight us every day and every hour till the end of the war.” Lee was concerned that the Army of the Potomac was being reinforced greatly. By the time the campaign opened his 66,000 men would face 119,000 Federals. The Rebels were camped south of the Rapidan from Orange Court House to Mine Run. Longstreet who had been detached to Tennessee returned to Virginia in mid April. Lee had him camp outside Gordonsville to maintain flexibility until he could better determine Grant’s plan.

Just before the Federal Armies would begin their advance Lincoln would write the above letter to Grant. Grant was going to “hammer continuously against the armed force of the enemy and his resources, until by mere attrition, if in no other way, there should be nothing left to him”. His armies would attack on multiple fronts simultaneously so the Confederates could not move resources from one military theater to another. William T. Sherman would move toward Atlanta, Nathaniel Banks on Mobile, Franz Sigel up the Shenandoah Valley, and Benjamin Butler would land on the Peninsula and move toward Richmond (see the Civil War Trails sign below). Grant instructed Meade “Lee’s army will be your objective. Wherever Lee goes you will go.”

What would follow would be the bloodiest campaign of the war, shown in Hal Jespersen’s map below. In this series we’ll follow the campaign from the Battle of the Wilderness through the Battle of Cold Harbor.

The Battle of the Wilderness Series

The Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse Series

The Battle of the North Anna River Series

The Battles of Totopotomoy Creek Series

The Battle of Cold Harbor Series

Sources

If you are interested in reading more about the campaign I would highly recommend reading Gordon Rhea’s five part collection on the Overland Campaign (The Battle of the Wilderness, The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern, To the North Anna River, Cold Harbor, and On to Petersburg), as well as the Emerging Civil War Series books that cover it (No Turning Back, Hell Itself, A Season of Slaughter, Strike Them a Blow, Hurricane from the Heavens) all of these are currently in print. Back issues of the Blue and Gray magazine on the topic are out of print but available from Ebay or Amazon.