Editing Robert E. Lee (section)

===Ulysses S. Grant and the Union offensive===
In 1864 the new Union general-in-chief, Lt. Gen. [[Ulysses S. Grant]], sought to use his large advantages in manpower and material resources to destroy Lee's army by [[attrition warfare|attrition]], pinning Lee against his capital of Richmond. Lee successfully stopped each attack, but Grant with his superior numbers kept pushing each time a bit farther to the southeast. These battles in the [[Overland Campaign]] included the [[Battle of the Wilderness|Wilderness]], [[Battle of Spotsylvania Court House|Spotsylvania Court House]] and [[Battle of Cold Harbor|Cold Harbor]].

Grant eventually was able to stealthily move his army across the [[James River (Virginia)|James River]]. After stopping a Union attempt to capture [[Petersburg, Virginia]], a vital railroad link supplying Richmond, Lee's men built elaborate trenches and were besieged in Petersburg, a development which presaged the [[trench warfare]] of [[World War I]]. Lee attempted to break the stalemate by sending [[Jubal A. Early]] on a raid through the [[Shenandoah Valley]] to Washington, D.C., but Early was defeated early on by the superior forces of [[Philip Sheridan]]. The [[Siege of Petersburg]] lasted from June 1864 until March 1865, with Lee's outnumbered and poorly supplied army shrinking daily because of desertions by disheartened Confederates.