THE OPERATIONS IN VIRGINIA. 
247 
the fords of the Rappahannock to Spotsylvania and then to Hanover 
Town and Cold Harbour and thence to Petersburg. 
When Grant was appointed commander-in-chief of the Federal 
army, he knew that to beat Lee would be no easy task ; but he was 
even more pertinacious than Massena himself, and kept pounding away 
in spite of all kinds of reverses, till he wore Lee out. 
As he wrote, the true plan was to “ hammer continuously against the 
armed force of the enemy and his resources, until by mere attrition , if 
by nothing else, there should be nothing left ” but submission. 
Grant was north of the Rapidan, having got command of Meade’s 
army, which was reinforced to 141,000 men and well supplied ; he 
crossed it successfully by Germania and other fords above Chancellors- 
ville, May 4th and 5th. His plan was to fight Lee, who had about 
50,000, between Culpeper and Richmond if he would stand, then to 
advance straight upon the latter city and invest it from the north and 
west, thereby cutting its communications in these directions ; and then, 
crossing the James River above the city, form a junction with the left 
of Major-Gen. Butler, who, moving with about 30,000 men from 
Fortress Munroe, at the moment when the army of the Potomac crossed 
the Rapidan, was to occupy City Point, advance thence up the south 
side of the James River, and reach a position where the two armies 
might thus unite. 
Grant marched into the Wilderness, thinking that Lee would fall 
back, but to his amazement the latter moved, with three columns, 
towards the Wilderness, and offered battle. A desperate combat of an 
unexampled kind ensued for two days in a dense thicket, from which 
Grant was only too glad to take advantage of the darkness to move into 
more open country, and he made a night march, on the 7th, to 
Spotsylvania, harassed by Stuart’s dismounted cavalry. When the 
Northern column reached the Po river at Spotsylvania Court House, 
they were stopped by the breastworks of the enemy. After manoeuvring 
for a few days, the Federals made a desperate rush on their 
opponent’s position. May 12th, but failed and were obliged to wait for 
reinforcements. Grant then moved to Hanover Junction on the North 
Anna, but Lee saw through the design, and, on May 23rd, had 
anticipated him and repulsed his assault. Meanwhile, Sheridan had 
made a cavalry raid to within touch of Richmond, and killed Stuart at 
Yellow Tavern and returned. 
Grant on the night of the 26th, went towards Hanovertown, preceded 
by Sheridan’s cavalry, and crossed the Pamunkey ; but Lee had marched 
to Cold Harbour, and stopped him again. Both parties threw up vast 
entrenchments and, after some manoeuvring another great action all 
along the confederate line took place on the Chickahominy. After 
daylight, June 3rd, the federals rushed their troops on Lee’s front in 
vain, and with a loss of 13,000 men in half-an-hour. This was a heavy 
blow. Grant had lost 60,000 men in a month, and was repulsed almost 
at the very point where McClellan fought two years before. 
Both parties remained watching each other till June 12th, when the 
Federals moved by their left flank across the Chickahominy, and passed 
the River James on pontoons to City Point, and moved on Petersburg. 
Butler had sailed from Fortress Monroe, and reached Bermuda 
Hundred, a Peninsula opposite City Point, and entrenched himself in 
works to which he was soon confined by General Beauregard from the 
South. He was as completely shut up, to use Grant’s words, “ as if he 
