Gettysburg on the same day
During this campaign in the lower Mississippi country a large Confederate army had marched north from Virginia, across Maryland into Pennsylvania. This army, under General Robert E. Lee, had won its way as far as Gettysburg. Here, at the end of a great three days' battle, the Confederates were decisively beaten; this defeat came on July 3, and on the very next day came the news that far-away Vicksburg had surrendered to Grant. After defeating the Confederates at Murfreesboro, General Rosecrans was in turn defeated at Chickamauga, and then cooped up in the town of Chattanooga by General Bragg. General Grant was sent to rescue the Union army, which he did in the battles of Lookout Mountain, led by Hooker, and Missionary Ridge, led by Sherman.
Lieutenant-general
169. Great Commander of the Union Armies. President Lincoln saw that General Grant was a great soldier. He sent for him to come to Washington and made him lieutenant-general in command of all the armies of the United States.
The "Wilderness"
Grant took command at once. His first great object was to capture Lee's army. The shortest way to Lee's army lay through the "Wilderness," a part of the country lying south of the upper part of the Rapidan, in Virginia, and covered with a thick forest of tangled underbrush. The route was dangerous. But into the "Wilderness" Grant plunged with his great army. General Lee was there with his troops. The fighting began. For a month it was almost constant charging, back and forth, and there were long lists of dead and wounded. Grant moved his army southward and nearer Richmond. Lee met him in the bloody battles of Spottsylvania and Cold Harbor.
Petersburg taken
Then Grant crossed the James River, south of Richmond, and began the attack on Petersburg. This place was taken in the spring of 1865.
Richmond given up