On this date 155 years ago....

On May 4, 1864 - 155 years ago today - the thing gets going.

The Army of the Potomac, nearly 125,000-strong, crosses the Rapidan River at three separate points. From nearby Clark Mountain, Robert E. Lee watched as the massive Union juggernaut crossed the river and attempted to get around his right flank. He immediately sent orders out to his two closest units - the corps under the command of Richard Ewell and A.P. Hill - to move with all possible speed to intercept the Union army before it got into their rear. Orders also went out to James Longstreet's corps, still some distance away, to make for the old Chancellorsville battlefield where Lee hoped to engage Grant and Meade.

Movements on May 4, 1864


The Union host descending below the Rapidan River was one of the most imposing forces seen in military history up to that point in time. Organized into three separate corps and under the overall command of George G. Meade, their objectives for May 4 was to get everyone across the river and through the area known locally as the Wilderness. This was a dense area of near-impenetrable forest that limited the Union army's advantages in artillery and cavalry. Both Grant and Meade knew the Army of the Potomac would be vulnerable to attack in this part of Virginia.

The first mistake of the campaign occurred at the outset. Meade had planned on getting his army through the Wilderness before sunset on the evening of May 4. The massive Union supply train - which could have stretched from the Rapidan River all the way down to the city of Richmond itself - had fallen behind the advance of the army. Meade insisted to Grant that the army halt to give their supply train a chance to catch up. Grant knew it was a gamble to call a halt in the Wilderness but mistakenly calculated that Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia could not move fast enough to intercept them before they were out of the dense thickets and in the open country.

Grant reluctantly agreed with Meade's decision to halt the advance around the Wilderness Tavern. This gave Lee the opportunity he needed to catch the Union army at a massive disadvantage. His force of 65,000 men moved quickly and silently eastward toward the Wilderness. The Union host was not aware of Lee's hasty advance due to the fact that Meade had failed to provide an adequate cavalry screen for his army. Both Meade and Grant were confident that they could encamp for the night and move south out of the Wilderness before Lee could intercept them.

Thus the stage was set for the bloody battle to begin on the morning of May 5.