Bloody Spring: Forty Days that Sealed the Confederacy's Fate

Bloody Spring: Forty Days that Sealed the Confederacy's Fate by Wheelan, Joseph. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780306822063.

For forty crucial days they fought a bloody struggle. When it was over, the Civil Wars tide had turned. In the spring of 1864, Virginia remained unbroken, its armies having repelled Northern armies for more than two years. Robert E. Lees Army of Northern Virginia had defeated the campaigns of four Union generals, and Lees veterans were confident they could crush the Union offensive this spring, too. But their adversary in 1864 was a different kind of Union commander—Ulysses S. Grant. The new Union general-in-chief had never lost a major battle while leading armies in the West. A quiet, rumpled man of simple tastes and a bulldogs determination, Grant would lead the Army of the Potomac in its quest to destroy Lees army. During six weeks in May and June 1864, Grants army campaigned as no Union army ever had. During nearly continual combat operations, the Army of the Potomac battered its way through Virginia, skirting Richmond and crossing the James River on one of the longest pontoon bridges ever built. No campaign in North American history was as bloody as the Overland Campaign. When it ended outside Petersburg, more than 100,000 men had been killed, wounded, or captured on battlefields in the Wilderness, near Spotsylvania Court House, and at Cold Harbor. Although Grants casualties were nearly twice Lees, the Union could replace its losses. The Confederacy could not. Lees army continued to fight brilliant defensive battles, but it never mounted another major offensive. Grants spring 1864 campaign had tipped the scales permanently in the Unions favor. The wars denouement came less than a year later with Lees surrender at Appomattox Court House.