Discover the remarkable history of the Battle of the Wilderness...
The year 1864 saw Abraham Lincoln facing an increasingly unpopular war with too few Union victories, and a presidential re-election campaign pitting him against the Democratic challenger and former Union commander General George McClellan. The outlook for both looked dire for Lincoln.

But there was a glimmer of hope for the Union: General Ulysses S. Grant, whose fighting in the Western Theater of the war showed none of the hesitation that Union generals displayed when fighting against Confederate Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Grant was made commander of the entire Union Army and embarked on his Overland Campaign to inflict a war of attrition upon the Confederates. The first encounter between the legendary Lee and the late-blooming Grant would be the Battle of the Wilderness. The Union Army had fought near the Wilderness, and lost, at Chancellorsville the year before. The Confederates were confident that Grant, like his predecessors, would falter at the proven mastery of Lee. But Grant had promised Lincoln that he would not retreat.

The Battle of the Wilderness saw the Union suffer nearly 18,000 casualties compared to the Confederates 13,000 casualties. But while Lee could not afford to lose men, Grant had an endless supply of soldiers. It was a brutal and indecisive battle, but Grant kept his promise to President Lincoln. Instead of retreating, he continued fighting, determined to bring Lee's Army to defeat. The Confederate States of America didn't know it yet, but the new Union commander would not relent until the South was forced to acknowledge its defeat.

Discover a plethora of topics such as

• A New Commander
• The Overland Campaign
• On the Eve of Battle
• Day One
• Day Two
• Aftermath