Overland Campaign

Overview

The Overland Campaign, also known as Grant's Overland Campaign, the Virginia Campaign, and the Wilderness Campaign, was a series of battles fought in Virginia during May and June 1864, towards the end of the American Civil War. Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, general-in-chief of all Union armies, directed the actions of the Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, and other forces against Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Although Grant suffered severe losses during the campaign, it was a strategic Union victory. It inflicted proportionately higher losses on Lee's army and maneuvered it into a siege at Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia, in just over eight weeks.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Overland Campaign of May–June 1864 marked a decisive shift in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. Under Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, commanding general of all Union armies, the Army of the Potomac under Maj. Gen. George G. Meade sustained severe casualties—over 54,000—against Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Despite those losses, the campaign produced a strategic Union victory: it inflicted proportionately higher losses on the Confederate force, which numbered roughly 60,000–65,000 against a Union strength exceeding 100,000, and within just over eight weeks maneuvered Lee's army into a siege at Richmond and Petersburg. That siege position degraded Confederate strategic mobility and placed the Army of Northern Virginia in a posture from which it could not recover, setting the conditions for the final Union offensives that ended the war.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (3)