Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/467



ONVINCED by his failures that Meade could not lead the army of the Potomac to victory, Lincoln called Lieut.-Gen. U. S. Grant from the West, to the oversight of military operations in Virginia. Meade's army had not only been brought to a high degree of efficiency, by drill and discipline, during its winter encampment in Culpeper, but large numbers of fresh troops were added to it during the closing days of April. Early in that month Grant arrived at Culpeper Court House, having in mind a definite plan of campaign toward Richmond, which he proceeded to put into execution by ordering an advance of Meade's army to the Germanna and Ely fords of the Rapidan, instructing him, "Lee's army will be your objective point. Wherever Lee goes, there will you go;" and adding, that the characteristic of his campaign would be "to hammer continuously against the armed force of the enemy and his resources, until, by mere attrition, if nothing else, there shall be nothing left him but submission." His expressed desire was "to fight Lee between the Rapidan and Richmond, if he will stand."

Sufficiently informed of what was going on in Meade's army, and expecting an early advance, now that the spring was fully opened, Lee rode, on the 2d of May, 1864, to the signal station on Clark's mountain, near Ewell's camps, to overlook for himself—from that grand point of observation, which took within its sweep more than a score of Virginia counties, and from which was plainly visible every Federal camp in the nearby county of Culpeper—any evidences of Meade's intentions. This trained master of the art of military reconnoissancereconnaissance [sic], carefully studied, through his glasses, the field outspread before him, and soon concluded, from the bustle in the Federal camps, that an early movement was in contemplation. It was also evident to him that this movement