On this date 155 years ago....

The Union Army was just 24 hours away from launching the climactic campaign of the Civil War.

Ulysses S. Grant, newly minted General-in-Chief of all Union Armies, had made camp with the largest army on the continent at that time - the Army of the Potomac - which was under the command of George G. Meade (victor of Gettysburg). Their ultimate objective would be to flank around Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, get between Lee and Richmond, and force Lee to attack the superior Union force in the open.

For his part, Robert E. Lee knew he had his work cut out for him. His 65,000-man army was outnumbered almost 2-to-1 by his foe, but Lee's main advantage was his army's experience as virtually all of his soldiers were seasoned combat veterans. By contrast, half of the Union army would be going into combat for the very first time. Lee's main goal for the coming campaign was to keep the Union army north of the Rapidan River. Once Grant/Meade made a move below it, Lee's objective would be to drive them back across the river or destroy them as it attempted to flee.

The Grand Strategy of 1864


The famed "Grant vs. Lee" battles would be just one prong of an organized offensive against the Confederacy in the spring and summer of 1864. The Army of the Potomac would concentrate on Lee's army while two other armies would run roughshod through Virginia. The first of these would be Benjamin Butler's Army of the James. Using Fortress Monroe on the Virginia Peninsula as a launching pad, Butler's army would aim for the vital railroad junction just south of Richmond called Petersburg. From there they would threaten Richmond itself. At the same time, Franz Sigel's Army of the Shenandoah would advance up the Shenandoah Valley to remove the vital supply hub from Confederate hands.

West of the Appalachian mountains, William Tecumseh Sherman and his force of 90,000 men would advance from Chattanooga with the ultimate goal of capturing Atlanta. Finally, Nathaniel Banks, operating from New Orleans, was tasked to capture the city of Mobile with his Army of the Gulf.

All of these movements were to take place simultaneously so as to prevent the Confederates from shifting troops around their interior lines to meet the various threats posed to these vital chokepoints.

The launch date for this campaign of campaigns was set for May 4, 1864.