On May 21, 1864, Union General Ulysses S. Grant moved the Army of the Potomac away from Spotsylvania Court House toward Hanover Junction, now Doswell, to keep pressure on General Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia by threatening a vital rail junction in Hanover County. After checking Grant at the Wilderness on May 5-6 and at Spotsylvania Court House on May 8-20, Lee deployed along the North Anna River to protect Hanover Junction and was reinforced by troops from Confederate victories at New Market and Drewry’s Bluff, giving him a chance to defeat the Union army before it drew closer to Richmond and forced a siege. Grant attacked across the North Anna late on May 23, piercing the river line at Jericho Mill and Telegraph Bridge, and Lee responded by reshaping his defense into an inverted V anchored at Ox Ford. On May 24, Grant advanced across the river into this trap, and by late afternoon his army was split into three parts by the bends of the North Anna, with the Fifth and Sixth Corps at Jericho Mill, the Ninth Corps still on the north bank unable to cross at Ox Ford, and the Second Corps on the south bank near the Fox House. Lee had an opportunity to strike isolated parts of the Union army before they could support one another, but no Confederate attack followed because illness struck Lee and confined him to his tent. Grant recognized the danger that evening and entrenched his men, and after the armies faced each other for two more days he withdrew again in another turning movement to Totopotomoy Creek, less than a day’s march from Richmond. At Ox Ford on May 24, Brigadier James H. Ledlie, after consuming a large quantity of alcohol, disobeyed direct orders and sent his 1,300-man brigade, including the 57th Massachusetts Infantry under Lieutenant Colonel Charles H. Chandler, across an open field against an entrenched Confederate division on the high ground. The attack became a trap as Confederate fire and a violent thunderstorm battered the exposed Union soldiers; Chandler tried to form a line to delay a Confederate counterattack by the Mississippi Infantry, but the 17th Mississippi mortally wounded him and drove his men from the field, capturing 200 Federals and a stand of colors. As Chandler lay wounded, he told his men to save themselves, and the colonel commanding the 17th Mississippi comforted him overnight and returned his personal effects afterward to be sent to his mother.
