The document summarizes the key battles between Grant and Lee in Virginia from March to October 1864. Grant was put in charge of all Union armies and launched a campaign against Lee to capture Richmond. They fought intense battles at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor, though Grant suffered heavy losses he kept pressing the offensive. This led to a lengthy siege of Petersburg, cutting off Confederate supply lines, which lasted 10 months and ultimately weakened Lee's forces ahead of the war's end in 1865.

1. Battles for Virginia
Grant Vs Lee
March - October 1864

2. Virginia
 By
the end of 1863 the South was
fighting a war of survival
 The economy was devastated and the
blockade was causing food and other
goods to be in short supply
 Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation
had turned the war into a struggle to
overturn slavery
 The South would get no help from
European nations

3. Virginia
 With
General Ulysses S. Grant’s
decisive victories in Vicksburg and
Chattanooga President Lincoln pulled
him from the west, and promoted him to
be in charge of all Union Armies
 Grant would be starting a renewed
offensive against the great Confederate
General Robert E Lee in another
attempt to capture the Richmond, the
capital of Virginia

4. Virginia - Battle of Wilderness
 Grant
& Lincoln
planned a series of
campaigns starting
in May, 1864 when
they pushed
themselves into the
northern Virginia
wilderness, near the
same place Union
forces had been
defeated at
Chancellorsville

5. Virginia - Battle of Wilderness


Grant drew Lee’s forces
out and they fought a
number of battles
Grant wasn’t about to
be intimidated by
Robert E Lee’s
reputation and even
though he lost far more
men, he kept them on
the offensive instead of
retreating

6. Virginia - Battle of Spotsylvania
 Grant
kept pushing further south, towards
Richmond, he wanted to take a road junction
at a courthouse in Spotsylvania
 Lee got there first and set up a defensive line

7. Virginia - Battle of Spotsylvania




On May 10th Grant
attacked the town
Fighting was intense
and desperate, rain and
mud slowed everything
down
Flying bullets cut
through a tree as the
Confederates
counterattacked
Lee wisely withdrew
rather than losing his
whole army in order to
move to a stronger
position

8. Virginia - Battle of Cold Harbor
 Grant
and his Army
of the Potomac was
just 11 miles
northeast of
Richmond, but still
Lee held his men
between Grant’s
army and their goal
 They fought a major
battle at Cold Harbor
from June 1st - 4th

9. Virginia - Battle of Cold Harbor



Lee’s Confederate soldiers held the land hard and
pummeled Grant’s invasion
One Union soldier said the “dreadful storm of lead
and iron was more like a volcanic blast than a battle”
Grant lost 7,000 men without gaining any advantage,
they would have to find another way into Richmond

10. Siege of Petersburg
 Lee
was forced to order much of his army to
defend the strategic railroad location at
Petersberg
 Grant sent 100,000 men south from Cold
Harbor

11. Siege of Petersburg
A
Confederate
force barely
halted the Union
advance at
Petersburg
 As Lee
reinforced the
city, Grant’s men
attacked the two
railroads that
supplied the
town

12. Siege of Petersburg
 Grant
laid siege to the city, and by August
had cut off most supply routes
 He continued attacking in September and
October, strengthening Union trenches
around the city

13. Siege of Petersburg
 Lee
was facing a
desperate winter of
trench warfare
 He was low on
supplies and
manpower
 The siege lasted 10
months, until March
of 1865

14. Battles for Virginia 1864