Grant's Headquarters

Tucked in the woods, down a short trail off Route 20, is the location of Grant's Headquarters.

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Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, commander of all United States armies in 1864, made his headquarters here on a small knoll. Aides, couriers, and other officers buzzed around a village of tents that was the nerve center of the United States Army of the Potomac. Grant variously issued orders, received situation reports, smoked cigars, and whittled to pass the time. General George Meade commanded the Army of the Potomac, and Grant decided to accompany that force as it engaged General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia in a series of battles between here and Richmond known as the Overland Campaign.

The stakes were high, as 1864 was an election year, and the Democratic Party in the north was gaining momentum on a peace platform in opposition to Lincoln. Grant hoped to bolster the Republicans’ chances by fighting and destroying Confederate armies, thus diminishing the south’s ability to wage war. He began that process here on May 5, 1864, as he orchestrated the opening stages of the Battle of the Wilderness, exhibiting a relentless aggressiveness uncharacteristic of his predecessors.