Grant Planning a Strategic Maneuver
On May 21, 1864, the day this photograph was taken, Grant pulled his forces from Spotsylvania Court House, where a bitter two-week battle (May 8–21) resulted in 18,000 Union and 10,000 Confederate casualties. He moved his army to the southeast, seeking to outflank Lee’s forces. Photographer Timothy H. O’Sullivan caught up to the Union army’s high command at Massaponax Church, Virginia, and captured this image of Grant (to the left) leaning over a pew and reading a MAP held by General George H. Meade. As Grant plots the army’s movement, his officers smoke their pipes and read reports of the war in newspapers that had just arrived from New York City. Intercepting Grant’s forces, Lee took up fortified positions first at the North Anna River and then at Cold Harbor, where the Confederates scored their last major victory of the war (May 31–June 3). Library of Congress.