"In March 1864, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was named general-in-chief of all Union armies. His appointment came at a critical point in the war - it was an election year, and throughout much of the North, people were growing war-weary, tired of learning of battlefield defeats. There was a real chance that US President Abraham Lincoln would fail to be re-elected come November and that a potential successor would strike a disadvantageous peace with the South, just to appease the growing anti-war faction."
"Only after the destruction of Lee's army, Grant believed, could Richmond be taken. To do this, Grant needed to be aggressive. Indeed, he spent his first weeks in command planning a multi-pronged offensive designed to squeeze the Southern Confederacy into submission. In the Western theater, Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman would lead his 100,000-man army into Georgia, beginning the decisive Atlanta Campaign (May-September 1864)."
Ulysses S. Grant became general-in-chief in March 1864 and prioritized aggressive, coordinated offensives to secure decisive Union victories and protect Lincoln's re-election prospects. Grant planned simultaneous operations: Sherman would move into Georgia in the Atlanta Campaign while the Army of the Potomac under George G. Meade would advance from the Rapidan into Virginia. The Overland Campaign (4 May–12 June 1864) focused on engaging and destroying Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia rather than immediately capturing Richmond. The campaign produced over 80,000 casualties and transitioned into the prolonged Siege of Petersburg (June 1864–April 1865).
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