After months of planning, Union general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant moved with the Army of the Potomac to fight Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia continuously, aiming to wear it down while pressing toward Richmond. This shift mattered because Grant intended to keep moving and keep contact after battles, rather than retreat and reset.
Grant and Lee fought in dense woods that limited visibility and made artillery hard to use. The battle was bloody and inconclusive, but it set the pattern for the campaign: repeated heavy fighting followed by Union movement south rather than withdrawal.
Instead of retreating after the Wilderness, Grant ordered a night movement toward Spotsylvania Court House to get between Lee and Richmond. This decision mattered because it signaled a sustained campaign of pressure and maneuver, even without a clear battlefield victory.
At Spotsylvania, both armies quickly built trenches and earthworks, and Grant tried repeatedly to break Lee’s line. The long, close-range fighting showed how field fortifications were becoming central to Civil War combat and foreshadowed the siege to come.
Lee set a strong defensive position south of the North Anna River, creating a dangerous situation for the Union army’s separated corps. The result was another stalemate, but it mattered because Lee missed one of his last chances to defeat Grant’s army decisively in open campaign.
After leaving North Anna, Lee took a defensive line behind Totopotomoy Creek while Grant searched for openings and shifted his army southeast. The scattered fighting did not produce a breakthrough, but it drove both sides toward the crossroads at Cold Harbor, near Richmond.
At Cold Harbor, Lee’s entrenched troops repelled major Union attacks, including a large assault on June 3. The outcome mattered because it convinced Grant that direct attacks on prepared lines near Richmond were too costly, pushing him toward a new plan: crossing the James River and targeting Petersburg’s railroads.
Union forces attempted an early attack on Petersburg’s defenses, testing whether the city could be taken quickly. Although unsuccessful, this action highlighted Petersburg’s strategic importance as a rail hub supplying Richmond and Lee’s army.
From June 15–18, Union forces attacked Petersburg but failed to seize the city before Lee’s reinforcements arrived. This missed opportunity mattered because it led both sides to dig in along expanding trench networks, turning the campaign into a prolonged siege around Petersburg and Richmond.
Grant extended Union lines south and west to cut railroads feeding Petersburg, focusing on the Weldon Railroad. The fighting showed how the siege became a contest over transportation routes: whoever controlled rail lines and roads could better supply armies in the trenches.
Union troops detonated a large mine under Confederate lines, creating a crater and briefly opening a gap. Confusion and strong Confederate counterattacks turned the breakthrough into a deadly trap, and the failed assault became a major turning point that prolonged the siege.
In August, Union forces captured and held a section of the Weldon Railroad near Globe Tavern despite repeated Confederate attacks. This mattered because it forced the Confederates to haul supplies by wagon around Union lines, worsening shortages for Lee’s army and tightening the siege over time.
With supplies low and Union pressure growing, Lee approved a surprise attack on Fort Stedman to try to break the siege lines or force Grant to shorten them. The assault was repulsed, and the loss of men made it even harder for Lee to hold the long trench system around Petersburg.
At Five Forks, Union forces defeated Confederates guarding a key road junction near the South Side Railroad, Lee’s remaining major supply route. The victory mattered because it exposed the Confederate right flank and set up Grant’s final assaults against the Petersburg defenses.
On April 2, Union attacks broke through the Confederate defensive lines around Petersburg after months of trench warfare. This breakthrough mattered because it forced Lee to abandon both Petersburg and Richmond, starting the final retreat west that led to surrender.
After retreating from Petersburg and Richmond, Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia was blocked and surrounded near Appomattox Court House. On April 9, Lee surrendered to Grant, effectively ending major fighting in Virginia and marking the outcome of the Overland Campaign and Petersburg siege: the Confederacy’s main eastern army was no longer able to continue the war.
Overland Campaign and Siege of Petersburg (May 1864–April 1865)