Massaponax Church
N 38° 11.590 W 077° 30.599
18S E 280192 N 4230225
Union Gen. Grant and his staff held a conference in Massaponax Church after leaving the Spotsylvania Court House battlefield.
Waymark Code: WMEHT1
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 06/01/2012
Views: 2
In the spring of 1864, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was appointed general-in-chief of the Union army and he launched an offensive against the Confederate army in Virginia. While Federal forces came from the east and south, Grant led the Army of the Potomac on the Overland Campaign from the north driving Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia to Petersburg.
After two days of fighting in the Wilderness, both armies moved south to Spotsylvania Court House on May 7. That battle raged for two weeks. Losses were heavy on both sides, but there was no decisive victory. The Confederate army continually thwarted the Federals with their fortified earthworks.
On May 21, Grant decided to move south hoping to draw Lee and his troops out of their trenches. The general and his staff stopped at Massaponax Church for a brief war council. It was at the church that photographer Timothy O'Sullivan snapped pictures of the conference from the second floor.
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