Carmel Church

The scattered corps of the Union army reunited at Carmel Church, known during the war as Mount Carmel Church, on May 23 before attacking Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee across the North Anna River about three miles ahead. Gen. Winfield Hancock’s Second Corps advanced down the Telegraph Road, modern Route 1, and seized the Chesterfield Bridge, while the Fifth, Sixth and Ninth Corps swung west toward Jericho Mills and Ox Ford. For four days the Union and Confederate armies battled south of the river, adding 3,400 names to the casualty lists. Union Generals U.S. Grant and George Meade made their headquarters at Carmel Church during the initial stages of the battle. Unable to dent Lee’s lines, Grant pulled the Union army back across the North Anna on the night of May 26 and marched to the Pamunkey River crossings several miles east, as the three-week campaign, already the bloodiest in American history, continued.

Virginia · United States