This year is the sesquicentennial of one of the biggest year of battles during the Civil War. Much of the Virginia Overland Campaign that Grant led was during this time. The Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor all occurred during this time frame. Other than celebrations at Gettysburg last year, there has not been a lot of memorializing of this anniversary period of the Civil War. A well written and interesting description of this time period and the campaigns in 1864 can be found in the National Review. The author is a retired military officer and has been involved in military history. The article can be found here.

“Following his successes in the West at Vicksburg and Chattanooga, Major General Ulysses S. Grant was appointed by Abraham Lincoln as general in chief of the armies of the United States, and the Senate confirmed him as the first lieutenant general since George Washington. Grant believed that, up to that point, Union armies in different theaters had “acted independently and without concert, like a balky team, no two ever pulling together.”
Accordingly, his strategic plan for 1864 called for putting five Union armies into motion simultaneously against the Confederacy.”

Tags: Civil War