Overland Campaign/ Grant’s Campaign Battle

1. Overland Campaign/ Grant’s Campaign Battle The war was in Virginia and the war started in May and ended sometime in June of 1864. Made By: Savannah Walker

2. The Overall Information On The Battle • The overland campaign fought against Confederate. • The prominent generals were Ulysses S. Grant for Overland Campaign and Robert E. Lee for Confederacy. • The battle plans changed for Grant during the course of the battle because he used larger numbers to allow progressive shifts to the left by spare Union Corps, while Confederate forces were pinned in there positions by the remaining union forces. The strategy failed because Lee had shorter lines of march and was able to prevent Grant’s forces getting between Lee and Richmond. • The physical geography of the battle site determine military tactics when Grant tried to move quickly through the dense underbrush but Lee had two of his Corp on parallel roads intercept him in the woods in the dark. • The primary objectives of the battle were to take over the confederate capital of Richmond and the destruction of Lee’s army. • The economic resources of the union and confederacy affect the outcome of the battle when the union had the resources to replace lost soldiers and the equipment the confederates didn’t.

3. Overland Campaign VS. Confederacy Overland Campaign • Grant's Union had 316 guns and 118,000 men. • Approximately 55,000 causalities on the union side 7,600 were killed. • On the US side the total of the causalities were 18,400. Confederacy • Lee’s confederate had 274 guns and 64,000 men. • Approximately 32,600 causalities on the Confederate side 4,200 were killed. • On the Confederate side the total of the causalities were 11,400.

4. Biographies and Pictures Biography: Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States. Late in the administration of Andrew Johnson, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant quarreled with the President and aligned himself with the Radical Republicans. He was, as the symbol of Union victory during the Civil War, their logical candidate for President in 1868. When he was elected, the American people hoped for an end to turmoil. Grant provided neither vigor nor reform. Looking to Congress for direction, he seemed bewildered. One visitor to the White House noted "a puzzled pathos, as of a man with a problem before him of which he does not understand the terms." At the outbreak of the Civil War, Grant was working in his father's leather store in Galena, Illinois. He was appointed by the Governor to command an unruly volunteer regiment. Grant whipped it into shape and by September 1861 he had risen to the rank of brigadier general of volunteers. He sought to win control of the Mississippi Valley Finally, on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, Lee surrendered. Grant wrote out magnanimous terms of surrender that would prevent treason trials. As President, Grant presided over the Government much as he had run the Army. Indeed he brought part of his Army staff to the White House. Although a man of scrupulous honesty, Grant as President accepted handsome presents from admirers. Worse, he allowed himself to be seen with two speculators, Jay Gould and James Fisk. When Grant realized their scheme to corner the market in gold, he authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to sell enough gold to wreck their plans, but the speculation had already wrought havoc with business. During his campaign for re-election in 1872, Grant was attacked by Liberal Republican reformers. He called them "narrow-headed men," their eyes so close together that "they can look out of the same gimlet hole without winking." The General's friends in the Republican Party came to be known proudly as "the Old Guard."

5. Overland Campaign Map This is a picture of the map. As you can see that Grant is all the blue lines and that Lee is all the red. It also shows the strategy of the campaign.

6. Pictures of Overland Campaign Battlefield

10. The Conclusion of The Battle • After Lee learned that Grant had cross the James, his worst fear was about to be realized—that he would be forced into a siege of the capital city. Petersburg, a prosperous city of 18,000, was a supply center for Richmond, given its strategic location just south of the capital, its site on the Appomattox River that provided navigable access to the James River, and its role as a major crossroads and junction for five railroads. Since Petersburg was the main supply base and rail depot for the entire region, including Richmond, the taking of Petersburg by Union forces would make it impossible for Lee to continue defending the Confederate capital. This represented a change of strategy from that of Grant's Overland Campaign, in which confronting and defeating Lee's army in the open was the primary goal. Now, Grant selected a geographic and political target and knew that his superior resources could besiege Lee there, pin him down, and either starve him into submission or lure him out for a decisive battle. Lee at first believed that Grant's main target was Richmond and devoted only minimal troops under Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard to the defense of Petersburg as the Siege of Petersburg began. • The Overland Campaign was a thrust necessary for the Union to win the war, and although Grant suffered a number of tactical defeats (most notably Cold Harbor), the campaign was a strategic success for the Union. By engaging Lee's forces and not permitting them to escape, Grant forced Lee into an untenable position. But this came at a high cost. The campaign was the bloodiest in American history: approximately 55,000 casualties on the Union side (of which 7,600 were killed), 32,600 (4,200 killed) on the Confederate. Lee's losses, although lower in absolute numbers, were higher in percentage (over 50%) than Grant's (about 45%).