Wilderness to Petersburg Campaign the name given to the series of battles from the
Battle of the Wilderness to the siege of
Petersburg (1864), during the
Civil War. Initiated by Gen.
Ulysses S. Grant with the Union's Army of the Potomac to defeat Gen.
Robert E. Lee and the Confederate's
Army of Northern Virginia, the campaign began on May 4 when Grant crossed the Rapidian River west of Lee and stopped for the night in the Wilderness near Spotsylvania, Virginia. On May 5, Lee surprised Grant in the two-day indecisive Battle of the Wilderness, which cost 18,000 Federal and 11,000 Confederate casualties. Trying to draw the Confederates out of the Wilderness, Grant headed southeast toward Spotsylvania Court House, but a portion of the Confederate army arrived there first. On May 8, the
Battle of Spotsylvania began, which included combat at the bend in the Confederate earthworks called the “Bloody Angle,” and after a repulse by Confederate artillery on May 18, Grant gave up and swung east and south. Lee divided Grant's army at North Anna Creek by deploying his own army into an inverted “V,” and on May 26, as Grant advanced toward Richmond, Lee drew a strong line along Totopotomoy Creek. On May 30, Lee attacked part of Grant's army near Bethesda Church, and on June 1, the armies clashed in the
Battle of Cold Harbor. On June 3, Grant launched a frontal attack to break Lee's line but was repulsed with 12,000 Union soldiers killed or wounded. On June 12–14, Grant marched to and crossed the James River, heading for Petersburg, the railroad center serving Richmond. The Federals repeatedly attempted to seize Petersburg on June 15–18, but the Confederates withstood the attacks. Grant subsequently initiated siege operations, which continued until April 2, 1865. The campaign, ending in June and strategically a Union success, cost 60,000 Union casualties and perhaps 35,000 Confederate losses.