In the spring of 1864, General Ulysses S. Grant, who had taken Vicksburg and won the Battle of Chattanooga, was put in command of all the armies of the Union. He left General William T. Sherman, as we have seen, to command in the West, while he took up his headquarters with Meade in front of Washington. The veteran Eastern armies that had fought so long against each other, between Washington and Richmond, were now to fight to the death, each under the most famous general on its side. Under General Grant and General George G. Meade, the Army of the Potomac moved forward toward Richmond. It encountered Confederate General Robert E. Lee's army in a region of dense woods, full of undergrowth, known as "The Wilderness." Grant's army was much the more numerous, for by this time the South, which had put forth nearly its whole strength from the beginning, was becoming somewhat exhausted. On the other hand, Lee fought behind entrenchments, and, in changing his position, moved on shorter lines than his opponent. For sixteen days, in the Wilderness and around the courthouse in Spotsylvania, Virginia, the armies were so close to each other in the thick brush that the soldiers had to be continually on guard, and so they got little chance for sleep. When they changed positions, the marching was generally done in the night, while the days witnessed the most tremendous fighting that had been seen since the battles of the great Napoleon of France. In sixteen days, the Union army lost 37,500 soldiers, and Lee's losses, though much less, were severe.

Lee was not crushed, but Grant got nearer to Richmond from time to time by secretly moving a part of the army from his right and marching it around to the rear of his other troops, and then pushing it as far ahead on his left as possible. By thus outflanking Lee, Grant compelled him to fall back, that he might not be cut off from Richmond and his supplies. But Lee always managed to fall back in time to be again between Grant's army and Richmond. The two great generals and the two veteran armies were well matched, and neither could gain a complete victory.

This fighting and this moving to the eastward and around Lee's flank were kept up with varying success until Grant got near to Richmond, when, on the 2d of June, 1864, at Cold Harbor, Grant attacked the Confederate works along the whole line. The Union army was repulsed with a loss of nearly six thousand soldiers in an hour. On the 13th of June, 1864, by another rapid march to the left, General Grant's army began to cross the James River. As soon as over, they made an attempt to capture Petersburg, in order to cut off one source of supplies and reinforcements for Richmond. The outer works near Petersburg were carried, but the Confederates fell back to new lines, and received reinforcements. The attempt to drive them out of these by assault failed. The Union troops now built trenches close up to the Confederate works, and the two armies held these frowning lines, face to face, for nine months, until within a few days of the close of the war.

Soon after the siege began, a mine was dug from the trenches of the Union army under an angle of the Confederate works. By this mine a part of the works was blown up on the 30th of July. An attack was made immediately after, but it was badly managed, and only resulted in the loss of a great many Union soldiers.

In all the years of the war there had been a smaller Campaign Carried on in the Valley of Virginia. This fertile valley lies between two ranges of mountains. Its northern end reaches the Potomac not very far away from Washington. In this valley the Confederate General John C. Breckinridge defeated the Union General Franz Sigel at New Market on the 15th of May, 1864. General David Hunter, who took command of the Union troops, defeated the Confederate General John D. Imboden at Piedmont twenty days later. Hunter, with eighteen thousand soldiers, pushed for Lynchburg, which was a place of the greatest importance. He destroyed railroads and worked much damage, but Lynchburg was reinforced in time to save it. Finding his retreat down the Valley cut off. Union General Hunter saved his starving army by making his way into the Kanawha Valley. This took him to the west of the Alleghany Mountains, and quite out of the Valley.

The Valley was thus left open to Confederate General Jubal Early, who marched a Confederate force down to Harper's Ferry and across into Maryland. Early defeated a small force under Union General Lew Wallace at Monocacy on the 7th of July, and pushed straight for Washington, which he might have captured at a dash had he been a little quicker; but reinforcements from Grant's army marched into the works as the assault began, and he was repulsed. He retreated again up the Valley, pursued by a strong force. But, when a part of the Union troops was withdrawn and sent back to Grant, Early attacked and defeated those under Crook at Kernstown, and threw his cavalry across the Potomac again, and into Pennsylvania, where they burned Chambersburg. In getting back into Virginia, this cavalry force was attacked and defeated.

General Philip Sheridan was now given charge of the Union troops on this line. Sheridan was for a long time very wary, determined not to risk a battle against an experienced general like Early without a good chance for success. When Early's force had been weakened by the sending of part of it to Petersburg, Sheridan attacked him and won the Battle of Opequon, or Winchester, on the 19th of September, 1864. Three days later, Sheridan attacked Early in his trenches at Fisher's Hill, having sent a force around to suddenly assail him on one side or flank, while the rest of the Union troops charged the works in front. Early's soldiers, attacked on two sides, were routed and driven farther up the Valley to the south.

Sheridan burned all the barns filled with grain, and carried off all the stock in the Valley, to prevent the Confederates from returning. But when Sheridan went back toward the Potomac, Early, largely reinforced, followed him through this land of starvation. While Sheridan was absent from his troops, a part of Early's army, leaving behind their swords, canteens, and everything that could make a noise, moved in the night along a lonely path until they got around on the flank and behind the Union army, and surprised them while they were asleep. Early, at the same time, with the rest of his troops, attacked Sheridan's army in front. This was the beginning of the Battle of Cedar Creek. The Confederates defeated and drove back the Union troops for four miles, capturing many prisoners. Sheridan, hearing the firing, put spurs to his horse, and rode up the Valley, calling to his fleeing soldiers, "Come, boys, we're going back!" His presence turned the tide, and by night he had defeated Early once more. A few smaller actions ended the campaign, for most of the troops on both sides were needed at Petersburg, Virginia, where the last struggle of all was to take place.