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, towards the end of the American Civil War. Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, general-in-chief of all Union armies, directed the actions of the Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, and other forces against Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Although Grant suffered severe losses during the campaign, it was a strategic Union victory. It inflicted proportionately higher losses on Lee's army and maneuvered it into a siege at Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia, in just over eight weeks.
Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, respectively, opposing commanders in the Overland Campaign
Union staff meeting at Massaponax Baptist Church on May 21, 1864. Grant has his back to the smaller tree with Charles Anderson Dana to his left, while Meade is seated at the far left.
Movement to Totopotomoy, May 25–28, 1864, following the Battle of North Anna
Battle of Totopotomoy Creek, May 30, 1864
Ulysses S. Grant was an American military officer, politician, and the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As commanding general, Grant led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War in 1865 and briefly served as U.S. secretary of war. An effective civil rights executive, Grant signed a bill to create the Justice Department and worked with Radical Republicans to protect African Americans during Reconstruction.
Grant c. 1870–1880
Grant's birthplace in Point Pleasant, Ohio
Grant as a young officer, c. 1845–1847
The Battle of Monterrey during which Grant saw military action