Overland Campaign Essay Outline

The Overland Campaign, also known as Grant's Overland Campaign and the Wilderness Campaign, was a series of battles fought in Virginia during May and June 1864, in the American Civil War. The first war in the Overland Campaign was the Battle of the Wilderness.Midnight on May 3-4, 1864, the Army of the Potomac and the Independent Ninth Corps, with approximately 120,000 men, left camps in Culpeper County and headed south toward the Rapidan River fords. They fought in the dense thickets known as the Wilderness of Spotsylvania against the Army of Northern Virginia. Over the course of two days, the armies fought an extremely bloody battle, introducing a new era of violence in the war in the East. Grant suffered some 20,000 casualties in the Wilderness, nearly twice as many as Lee, but his troops had not lost hope. They cheered their new leader when they were given the orders to advance. They had finally found a general determined to lead them to victory

The next battle, the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, lasted for the better part of two weeks …show more content…
It was the final battle of Grant's Overland Campaign and is remembered as one of American history's bloodiest battles. Thousands of Union soldiers were killed or wounded in a hopeless frontal assault against General Robert E. Lee's army. Union cavalry seized the crossroads of Old Cold Harbor, holding it against Confederate attacks until the Union infantry arrived. Both Grant and Lee whose armies had suffered many casualties received reinforcements. On June 2, the remainder of both armies arrived and the Confederates built a detailed series of fortifications seven miles long. Grant said in one of his battle memoirs, “I have always regretted that the last assault at Cold Harbor was ever made...No advantage was ever made. ... No advantage whatever was gained to compensate for the heavy loss we