ABSTRACT
From the earliest days of the campaign, Ulysses S. Grant had his sights fixed on the south side of the James river, and the railroads south of Richmond which were Robert E. Lee’s lifeline. Grant decided to move round Lee’s right flank, although the more open country further west on Lee’s left had obvious attractions for an offensive campaign. The race for Spotsylvania became one of several events in the gruelling campaign of 1864, the outcome of which did not decide the war, but did decide how long it would last. In his days in the west, Grant had seen how Vicksburg, an apple ripe for easy plucking in mid-summer 1862, had been seized a year later only after an arduous campaign and a laborious siege. When William T. Sherman’s campaign began in early May, his orders were to break up Joseph E. Johnston’s army, penetrate into the interior of the Confederacy, and damage its war-making capacity.
