On this day in the Civil War, after the bloody battle of the Wilderness, Federal General U.S. Grant plans to flank the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. The Confederate army is led by General Robert E. Lee.
In conferring with one of his officers, General Lee states: “General Grant is not going to retreat. He will move his army to Spotsylvania…I am so sure of his next move that I have already made arrangements to march by the shortest practicable route, so that we may meet him there.”
General Robert E. Lee
(Photo Credit: Library of Congress)