Editing Overland Campaign (section)

==Background==

===Military situation===
{{Main|Eastern Theater of the American Civil War}}{{further|American Civil War}}
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[[File:ATLAS OR OVERLAND-PETERSBURG MAP 1.jpg|thumb|Union marches and operations in Central Virginia (1864–65)]]
  [[File:ATLAS OR OVERLAND-PETERSBURG MAP 2.jpg|thumb|Union cavalry operations in Central Virginia (1864–65).]] Image has no good location to place on the page, badly disrupts layout here, may need to go in the other images section at the bottom, or be removed.  All three maps are too difficult to read. I have moved the easier to read map from the Spotsylvania section to here 9/21/2021-->{{further|Battle of Spotsylvania Court House}}
[[File:Overland Campaign May-June 1864.pdf|thumb|upright=1.5|Overland Campaign, from the Wilderness to crossing the James River
{{legend|#ff0000|Confederate}}
{{legend|#0000ff|Union}}]]

In March 1864, Grant was summoned from the [[Western Theater of the American Civil War|Western Theater]], promoted to lieutenant general, and given command of all Union armies. He chose to make his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac, although Meade retained formal command of that army. Maj. Gen. [[William Tecumseh Sherman]] succeeded Grant in command of most of the western armies. Grant and [[President of the United States|President]] [[Abraham Lincoln]] devised a coordinated strategy that would strike at the heart of the Confederacy from multiple directions: Grant, Meade, and [[Benjamin Butler (politician)|Benjamin Butler]] against Lee near [[Richmond, Virginia]]; [[Franz Sigel]] in the [[Shenandoah Valley]]; Sherman to invade [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], defeat [[Joseph E. Johnston]], and capture [[Atlanta]]; [[George Crook]] and [[William W. Averell]] to operate against railroad supply lines in [[West Virginia]]; and [[Nathaniel Prentiss Banks|Nathaniel Banks]] to capture [[Mobile, Alabama]]. This was the first time the Union armies would have a coordinated offensive strategy across a number of theaters.<ref>Salmon, p. 251; Grimsley, p. 3.</ref>

Although previous Union campaigns in Virginia targeted the Confederate capital of Richmond as their primary objective, this time the goal was to capture Richmond by aiming for the destruction of Lee's army. Lincoln had long advocated this strategy for his generals, recognizing that the city would certainly fall after the loss of its principal defensive army. Grant ordered Meade, "Wherever Lee goes, there you will go also."<ref>Hattaway & Jones, p. 525; Trudeau, pp. 29–30. Grant gave similar instructions to Sherman in Georgia, targeting the Confederate army under Gen. [[Joseph E. Johnston]], not explicitly the city of [[Atlanta]].</ref> Although he hoped for a quick, decisive battle, Grant was prepared to fight a [[attrition warfare|war of attrition]]. He meant to "hammer continuously against the armed force of the enemy and his resources until by mere attrition, if in no other way, there should be nothing left to him but an equal submission with the loyal section of our common country to the constitution and laws of the land." Both Union and Confederate casualties could be high, but the Union had greater resources to replace lost soldiers and equipment.<ref>Rhea, ''Wilderness'', pp. 46–47; Eicher, pp. 661–62. McPherson, p. 734, notes that "numerous historians have mislabeled Grant's purpose as a war of attrition": "From the outset he had tried to maneuver Lee into open field combat, where the Union's superiority in numbers and firepower could cripple the enemy. It was Lee who turned it into a war of attrition by skillfully matching Grant's moves and confronting him with an entrenched defense at every turn."</ref>