Early in May 1864, General Ulysses S. Grant hoped to end the Civil War by attacking Confederate armies simultaneously throughout the South. As commander in chief of all U.S. armies, Grant accompanied General George G. Meade’s Army of the Potomac as it campaigned against General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Lee sought defended Richmond, the Confederate capital; Grant and Meade maneuvered south and east around Lee’s right flank toward the city. In a series of horrifically bloody battles, the Union generals forced Lee into defensive positions east of Richmond and Petersburg by late June. Instead of battles in the open, trench warfare occupied the next ten months until Lee evacuated the cities in April 1865.