Grant's strategy of attrition in the final year of the Civil War

¶ … generalship of Ulysses S. Grant during the last year of the war, and evaluate the impact of Grant's generalship on the outcome of the war.

Ulysses S. Grant became the supreme commander of all Union forces in March of 1864. Grant quickly perceived the weaknesses of the South and realized that General Robert E. Lee was facing critical deficits of manpower and supplies. To drain Lee's army, "Grant repeatedly attacked during the summer of 1864…Grant lost more men than the Confederates, but he replaced these soldiers with new ones" (Ulysses S. Grant, 2009, Ohio History). Every battle Grant lost more men than Lee, he knew that he could afford to lose them, and unlike previous commanders did not retreat to Washington D.C., even when faced with epic slaughter.

The most famous example of this strategy was Grant's Overland Campaign. "At the beginning of May 1864, Grant started toward the Confederate capital at Richmond with 118,000 men. Grant hoped to get around Lee's line and capture Richmond. But his large army could not move fast enough to outmaneuver the smaller Confederate force" (People & events: Grant's greatest battles, 2006, PBS). The battle that ensued was horrific, according to all accounts. At the end of the two-day battle at Wilderness, "Grant had lost almost 18,000 men -- 6,000 more than Lee had" yet Grant declared victory (People & events: Grant's greatest battles, 2006, PBS). After all, "he was headed South, toward Richmond, not back to Washington in retreat. To Grant, even the heavy losses in the Wilderness signified a victory. The Confederates had no reserves to replace the dead and wounded. But Grant could call on a huge supply of civilians to fill the Union armies" (People & events: Grant's greatest battles, 2006, PBS).