Germanna Ford

When the 1864 Overland Campaign began, Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia held the upper fords of the Rapidan River, blocking the Union army’s route to Richmond. Rather than attack Lee head on, Grant chose to cross at Germanna Ford, several miles beyond Lee’s right flank, to maneuver him out of position. On May 4, soldiers of the 3rd Indiana Cavalry crossed the river at dawn and scattered a few Confederate pickets guarding the ford, after which Union engineers laid two pontoon bridges and the army began crossing. A Connecticut soldier, struck by the seemingly endless procession of men, wagons, and artillery, thought such an army might “overcome the world,” while Theodore Lyman of Meade’s staff reflected on how strange it would look if every soldier destined to fall in the coming campaign wore a large badge. The Fifth and Sixth Corps crossed the Rapidan here on May 4 and camped between the ford and Wilderness Tavern, while Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock’s Second Corps crossed farther downstream at Ely’s Ford, followed by the army’s huge wagon train. As the Union columns crossed, they entered the Wilderness, a densely wooded region of thick woods and unusually heavy undergrowth, where the first battle of the campaign would be fought. Burnside’s independent Ninth Corps, coming from north of the Rappahannock River, did not cross at Germanna Ford until May 5. When Lee learned of the Union crossing, he moved eastward with Ewell’s and Hill’s Corps to intercept Grant in the Wilderness, while Longstreet’s Corps moved from near Gordonsville toward the battlefield by way of Brock’s Bridge. Asked how long it would take to get to Richmond, Grant answered, four days, adding with a smile that if Lee objected, the trip would undoubtedly be prolonged.

Virginia · United States