Grant was rumored to be in town for a high-level meeting with the president. The reason for the increased turnout was not hard to guess: Major General Ulysses S. Despite the bad weather, an unusually large crowd had gathered at the White House that evening for one of President and Mrs. March 8, 1864, was a wet, blustery Tuesday in Washington, D.C. Instead, he attempted to outflank Lee by moving to the left, setting the stage for the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse. It produced an important strategic event, however whereas before Union commanders had withdrawn their armies after failing to achieve victory south of the Rappahannock River, Grant did not retreat. Close-quarters fighting among the dense woods created high casualties, but the battle proved inconclusive for both sides. The fighting took place in an area of Virginia where tangled underbrush and trees had grown up in long-abandoned farmland, near the old Chancellorsville battlefield. Lee’s men back to the defenses at Richmond. Grant’s 1864 Overland Campaign against the Confederate army of Northern Virginia that ultimately, after many weeks and horrendous casualties, forced Gen. Soldiers Engaged: Union: 102,000 | Confederate: 61,000Ĭasualties: Union: 18,400 | Confederate: 11,400īattle Of The Wilderness Summary: The Battle of the Wilderness began Lt. Location: Spotsylvania and Orange Counties, Virginia Information about The Battle Of The Wilderness, an 1864 Civil War Battle of the American Civil War

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Shattered union the last cry of freedom