At dawn on May 4, 1864, the 3rd Indiana Cavalry crossed the river at Germanna Ford, scattered the Confederate pickets there, and secured the passage. Engineers quickly laid two pontoon bridges, and the army began pouring across. A Connecticut soldier, astonished by the endless procession of men, wagons, and artillery, wrote that such a force might "overcome the world." Lt. Col. Theodore Lyman, an aide to Gen. George G. Meade, reflected on how strange it would look if every soldier destined to fall in the coming campaign wore a large badge. The Overland Campaign began here because Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia held the Rapidan River's upper fords, blocking the Union army's route to Richmond. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant chose to cross here, beyond Lee's left flank, to maneuver him out of position. The Fifth and Sixth Corps crossed that day and camped near Wilderness Tavern, while Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock's Second Corps crossed downstream at Ely's Ford and the army's enormous wagon train followed. As the Federals marched, they entered The Wilderness, where the campaign's first battle, with extremely heavy losses on both sides, would be fought. Asked how long it would take to get to Richmond, Grant replied, four days, adding with a smile that if Lee objected, the trip would undoubtedly be prolonged.