Saunders Field
By 1864, President Lincoln realized that he needed victories to remain in office and reunite the nation. In February, he placed Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in charge of all Union armies. Grant would join the Army of the Potomac as it drove into Virginia against Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, beginning the “Overland Campaign” on May 5, when Gen. Gouverneur Warren’s Fifth Corps encountered Confederates on the Orange Turnpike. The armies fought for two days in the heavily wooded “Wilderness.”
Tapp Farm
Union and Confederate commanders realized that the intersection of the Brock and Plank Roads was key to the Union position. On May 5-6, they fought bitterly for this crossroads until Federals under Hancock splintered the Rebel lines. The arrival of Longstreet’s Confederate reinforcements, however, halted the attack and almost broke through Hancock’s Corps. Ultimately, neither army could achieve an advantage and Grant disengaged the army to move for Spotsylvania Courthouse on May 7.