The resulting siege of Petersburg (June 1864 – April 1865) led to the eventual surrender of Lee's army in April 1865 and the end of the Civil War. The campaign included two long-range raids by Union cavalry under Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan .

The Rapidan River was the scene of severe fighting in the American Civil War, and historic sites such as Ely's Ford, Chancellorsville, Brandy Station, Kelly's Ford, and the Battle of the Wilderness are nearby.

The Overland Campaign, some 40-odd days of maneuver and combat between the Rapidan and James Rivers, pitted the Civil War’s premier generals — Lt. Gen Ulysses S. Grant for the Union, and Gen. Robert E. Lee for the Confederacy — against one another in a grueling contest of endurance and guile.

Nov 6, 2009 · As the Army of the Potomac crossed the Rapidan River on May 4, Confederate General Robert E. Lee determined that his Army of Northern Virginia would confront the enemy in the dense Virginia woods...

After overwhelming Confederates downstream at Kelly's Ford, Union forces under General John Sedgwick launched a nighttime assault on the Confederates at Rappahannock Station, resulting in a stunning Union victory and forcing Lee to retreat below the Rapidan River.

On the morning of February 6, 1864, the first Union troops under John C. Caldwell’s command crossed the Rapidan. Despite the freezing conditions, at least one brigade under Alexander Hays and 300 skirmishers from the II Corps made it successfully across with limited casualties and captured 30 of the 80 Confederate soldiers guarding the ford.

To distract attention from a planned cavalry-infantry raid up the Peninsula on Richmond, the Federal army forced several crossings of the Rapidan River on February 6. A II Corps division crossed at Morton's Ford, the I Corps at Raccoon Ford.

Oct 7, 2019 · In May and June 1864, General Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the Potomac pushed doggedly toward the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, in the Civil War’s bloodiest military movement: the Overland Campaign.

The Battle of Morton's Ford was a battle of the American Civil War, fought February 6–7, 1864. To distract attention from a planned cavalry-infantry raid up the Virginia Peninsula on Richmond, the Union Army of the Potomac forced several crossings of the Rapidan River on February 6, 1864.

May 7, 2014 · On the morning of May 5, the Union Fifth Corps encountered Confederate troops on the Orange Turnpike, and the Battle of the Wilderness began in earnest. The woods thundered with gunfire, and men...