Lee had received intelligence around 1:00 AM on the 21st that Federals were moving on the Massapponax Road. Earlier he had told Ewell to be ready to move at a moments notice. Now with the Federals marching he was taking no chances. Concerned that Grant might try and get around his right he ordered Ewell to move the Second Corps south to Snell and then east to Mud Tavern where he was to hold the intersection there with the Telegraph Road, which was the direct road south. Ewell’s men were up at 3:00 AM on the 21st and on the road by 4:00 AM, moving behind Early and Anderson’s Corps they arrived at the tavern about 6 hours later. This not only closed the Telegraph Road as a transportation artery for the Union army but isolated Hancock. After the sun came up, still confused as to what Grant was up to, Lee wanted to make sure that the line in front of him was still occupied. He ordered a battery to open on the Union line, its fire was quickly returned. A sizeable Union force was still there.

The building below is the Mud Tavern it has been remodeled and moved to its current location.

Grant had originally planned to send Warren’s Second Corps down the Telegraph Road but with that now no longer possible at 9:30 AM he ordered Warren’s II Corps to follow Hancock’s route. By 10:00 AM parts of the Second Corps were moving. Warren pulled out in stages and as he did Wright moved east. Wright now occupied the Union right and Burnside the left. Grant and Meade traveled with Warren. By 11:00 AM they had reached the junction of the Massapponax Church Road and Telegraph Road. Grant, Meade and their staffs stopped here for a Council of War. The famous meeting was photographed by Timothy O’Sullivan, shown in a previous post (link).

Grant and Meade and their headquarter’s guard rode ahead of Warren on the Guinea Station Road to the Motley house where they intended to set up their headquarters near the woods behind the house. Here they learned of a group of Rebel Cavalry, the 9th VA, near the Guinea Bridge. Word was sent to Warren’s Corps to hurry forward, while the headquarters guard rode forward to attack the 9th VA. By the time Warren’s men arrived, around 3:45 PM the Virginians had been dispersed. Grant stopped at the Motley house where he lit a cigar. He put the cigar down for a short period and it burned part of the bench. The elderly owner, Edmund Motley, came out and scolded Grant for trying to burn his house down. Grant and his aid Horace Porter walked to the plantation next door, Fairfield, for the more pleasant company of its owner Mrs. Chandler. Members of Warren’s II Corps chased the 9th VA past the Catlett Farm where Warren would set up his headquarters, also shown below, see map below.

Lee, once he received confirmation that Warren was moving south, around noon ordered Ewell to leave enough men to guard the intersection at the Telegraph Road and to start marching south. Ewell left a group of engineers and cavalry on the south bank of the Po River. He ordered Anderson to be ready to follow Ewell at a moments notice. Hill was also ordered to be ready to move via roads further west through Chilesburg and to cross the North Anna River at Island Ford. Lee then moved his headquarters south of the Po River to the Southworth house.

Lee then ordered detachments from Hill and Anderson’s Corps forward at 3:00 PM to try and determined the size and composition of the Federal force in front of him. They reported that the IX and VI Corps were still behind their entrenchments but the II and V Corps had left Spotsylvania Court House. Lee would keep Hill and Anderson where they were for now. By 4:00 PM Grant becoming increasingly concerned about his army now spread out over 20 miles decided to concentrate it and focus on the defensive. Burnside’s IX Corps was ordered to move south down the Telegraph Road. When Curtin’s brigade, at the head of Burnside’s Corps, arrived at the north bank of the river they saw a line of strong earthworks in front of them on the opposite bank. Curtin ordered his brigade to deploy and await the arrival of the rest of the corps.

Burnside arrived after dark. Rather than either attack or probe to see the size of the force ahead of him on the south bank, he decided to turn his entire corps around and follow Warren’s path down the Guinea Station Road. Meanwhile, Warren took up positions east of the Telegraph Road near Mud Tavern and Nancy Wright’s Corner shielding the roads heading south from Guinea Station. Just after Burnside left at 6:30 PM Lee launched a reconnaissance in force to once again determine who was in front of him in Spotsylvania Court House. Hill sent Brigadier Generals Scales and Lane to probe near Zion Church on the Massapponax Church Road. They discovered that Burnside was gone and only Wright’s Corps remained. Lee now knew that the Federals were definitely moving around his right flank and began moving his force toward the south bank of the North Anna River. Anderson’s men were on the road by 8:00 PM. Lee rode with them. They reached the Mud Tavern by 10:00 PM. At that time Ewell was at Golansville nine miles from the river where they camped. Lee would join him there after 2:00 AM. Hill’s Third Corps left last after darkness fell taking a more westerly route.

As Burnside headed back up toward the Massapponax Church, Wright’s VI Corps would have to wait for him there to pass before they could head south. The lack of aggressiveness on Burnside’s part here and on Hancock’s part at Milford Station now ensured that Lee would win the race to the North Anna River, see the map below from Blue and Gray Magazine of the armies locations in the very early morning on the 22nd.

At this point neither army was focused on the offensive. Lee was preoccupied with getting his army to the south bank of the North Anna River ahead of Grant. So much so, that when presented with the opportunity to attack Wright’s Corps, which was now isolated at Spotsylvania Court House with Hill and Anderson’s Corps and destroy one of Grant’s Corps, he instead raced toward the North Anna River. He could not risk Grant getting between him and Richmond. Grant was very concerned about Hancock’s isolated position and the fact that Lee now threatened it without having to use any of his men from Spotsylvania Court House. His corps were spread out over 20 miles and Grant worried that Lee could attack his spread out army, the very thing he had hoped to do to Lee. However, as can be seen from the maps Lee’s army was spread out as well. The advantage for Lee was that he still had a cavalry force and as a result his information about where forces were located was much better than Grant’s. Sheridan had still not returned from his raid on Richmond and it was much harder for Grant’s dispersed corps to communicate with each other. As the Confederates moved south they had no idea how close Warren’s II Corps was to them shown in a close up view of the map below.

Warren could have struck Anderson column at Mud’s Tavern or Ewell’s column at Nancy Wright’s corner but felt too isolated to do so. Nancy Wright’s Corner, and the area where the Lebanon Church and Madison’s Ordinary are shown in the series of images below. Both are no longer standing.

Shown below is the location of Nancy Wright’s Corner at the intersection today between Nancy Wright Drive and Paige Road (38.0904014, -77.5130832). The picture to the right is a view looking to the north on Nancy Wright Drive up what would have been the wartime Telegraph Road.

Just east of here is the area where the wartime Lebanon Church was located. It is now a vacant lot. In the second picture I could see in the tree line evidence that a cemetery was/is located here (38.0885918, -77.4917037). Two companies of the 8th NY Cavalry under Lieutenant Colonel Edmund Pope were to act as screens. They stopped here a little over 1 mile short of the intersection.

About a mile and a half further east, opposite the intersection of the Paige Road and Edgehill Academy Road, is the location of Madison’s Ordinary now a vacant lot, shown in the images below. Lieutenant Colonel Pope established his headquarters here (38.0907445, -77.4857116). Generals Grant and Meade watched Warren’s column pass by the Ordinary on the 22nd.

Lee riding with Ewell’s Corps were on the road by 6:00 AM on the 22nd and reached the Chesterfield Bridge on the north bank of the North Anna River by 8:30 AM. Lee had won the race.

Shown below are images of the modern day bridge over the river.

On the 22nd Grant ordered his corps on the paths shown below on the maps from Blue and Gray Magazine.

Along his march Burnside made his headquarters at Bethel Church on May 22nd.

Grant and Meade headquartered nearby at Blenhiem, the George Tyler home, shown below, also shown is a picture of Blenheim from a postcard.

Grant’s plan was for Warren and Hancock’s Corps to meet at the Carmel Church on the 23rd, shown below. From here Hancock was to turn south and cross the North Anna River at a ford while Warren was to swing west and cross the river at a bridge located at Jericho’s Mill. Burnside and Wright were to follow behind. Meade was against the plan, he reasoned that if Lee was waiting for them on the south bank of the North Anna River it was because Lee had chosen that favorable ground for battle and was well entrenched. Meade preferred to move around Lee’s right and force him to chase them as they headed for Richmond and fight on ground of their chosing. Meade’s strategy was sound but he was overruled by Grant who would continue to fight Lee wherever he found him. Grant’s maps were wrong. There was a bridge not a ford on the Telegraph Road (the Chesterfield Bridge), and a ford not a bridge at Jericho’s Mill. Some local slaves clarified the situation.

On the 23rd Lee allowed his men to rest after their long march. Lee’s army here would be reinforced from several different sectors. With Breckenridge’s victory over Sigel at New Market in the Shenandoah on the 15th, he now moved his 3,600 men to Hanover Junction. With Butler bottled up on Bermuda Hundred, Pickett’s division of 6,000 men could be sent to Lee. Some of them had already begun to arrive at Milford Station in front of Hancock. Hoke’s old brigade of North Carolinians were also sent up from south of Richmond another 1,600 men. With the further addition of Colonel Bradley Johnson’s 2,100 Marylanders, a total of 13,300 men were added to the 40,000 Lee now had giving him over 53,000 men. Grant on the other hand had gained about 19,000 reinforcements but these were mostly men who had never seen combat. With his losses at the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House Grant had a total force of about 68,000 men. This would be as closely matched as the two armies had ever been since the beginning of the campaign. On the morning of the 23rd Lee’s three corps were arranged as shown below, Hill’s Third Corps was furthest west, with Anderson in the center and Ewell to the right. Lee did not have his men entrench because he did not expect Grant to attack him here.

Hill ‘s Corps had crossed the North Anna near the site of the modern-day bridge shown below at 37.9363056, -77.5622166.

Lee was too exhausted to ride and inspected his lines in a carriage. Part of his fortifications on the north side of the river was Henagan’s Redoubt, a three sided fort (the back was open) that sat slightly west of the Chesterfield Bridge along the Telegraph Road. Colonel John Henagan commanded the “Kershaw Brigade” of South Carolinians. The 7th SC was to the west of the redoubt, the 2nd SC in the redoubt, and the 3rd SC to the east extending across the Telegraph Road. As Lee watched around 11:00 AM from across the river, he saw Wade Hampton’s Cavalry division race across a field chased by Torbert’s cavalrymen, they had been fighting a running battle since Milford Station. A sharp fight broke out but the Federals broke it off when they spotted Henagan’s infantry and fell back across Long Creek to the north. Lee observed the action and viewed it as a feint. He fully expected Grant to cross further east across the Pamunkey River. He did not recognize the true meaning of Torbert’s presence. Grant, Meade, Hancock and Warren had arrived at the Carmel Church. Wright and Burnside were also headed there but were behind the other 2 corps. Grant was about to attack.

Next- The Battle Begins May 23, 1864