“Onto Richmond!”

This next week I will be in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I plan on visiting Tunnel Hill, Missionary Ridge, and if I have time, Lookout Mountain. I will also be at the archives on Monday looking at primary sources covering Grant’s Chattanooga Campaign. I would like to find more sources that untangle the messy web of controversies at Chattanooga. Finally, Liberty got the top seed in the Conference USA tournament. The only possible way they could make it to the NCAA Tournament would be to win their conference tournament. Otherwise, I will expect to see them in the NIT.

Grant aimed to get between the Army of Northern Virginia and Richmond during the Spring of 1864 to force the rebel army to attack Grant’s numerically superior army. After continuous stalemate, Grant changed his methods. He wrote to Major General Henry Halleck on 5 June 1864, "My idea from the start has been to beat Lee's Army, if possible, North of Richmond…I will move the Army to the South side of James River." Grant’s objective was now the city of Petersburg, Virginia. Major General Jubal Early claimed Grant gave up Richmond, writing, “in attempting to force his way by land, he had already lost, in killed and wounded, more men than Lee’s entire army; and he was compelled to give up, in despair, the attempt to reach Richmond that way.” But did Grant ever intend to give up on Richmond? An order to Major General Benjamin Butler on 19 June 1864 questions Grant’s decision to abandon the Confederate capitol,

Unless otherwise directed, send a brigade of less than 2,000 men tomorrow night to seize, hold, and fortify the most commanding and defensible ground that can be found north of the James River, and so near the river that with the protection of the gunboats and their own strength, they can always get back to the Bermuda Hundred if attacked by superior numbers. Connect the two banks of the river by a pontoon brigade running from Jones’ Neck to Deep Bottom.

"Deep Bottom" is a strategically significant location, situated just 13 miles southeast of Richmond on the north side of the James River. Grant's interest in establishing a bridgehead on the north side of the James River makes it seem Grant never forgot about the Confederate capitol. Richmond remained an option, and Grant liked options.