Chasing Lee's Army of Northern Virginia
- Oliver Groom
- Aug 24
- 5 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Abstract: Grant, after the inconclusive Battle of the Wilderness, ordered his army toward the Spotsylvania Court House, hoping to cut Lee off from Richmond, setting the 111th on a course for more hard fighting in May 1864. The 111th suffered more losses in the war.
Originally written by siblings, George & Deb McGraw, October 2023. Revised and edited by Erika Newcombe, Deb Hall, and Oliver Groom, August 2026.
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, after the inconclusive Battle of the Wilderness, ordered his army south toward Spotsylvania Court House, hoping to cut Gen. Robert E. Lee off from Richmond, setting the 111th on a course for more hard fighting in May 1864. Col. Clinton MacDougall, who, with several other officers, was still in Auburn recruiting replacements for the significantly undermanned regiment, left to rejoin the 111th without orders, arriving at Spotsylvania in mid-May. The exhausted regiment was in terrible shape, having lost half its men. Co. I, which had started in May with nine noncommissioned officers and 42 privates, now only had 21 men, all of whom were left with their uniforms torn and stained when MacDougall arrived to resume his command on May 13.
Grant continued to march his army in pursuit, determined to force Lee into an open battle and crush the Army of Northern Virginia. Before the Battle of the Wilderness, Grant had instructed Maj. Gen. George Meade, “Wherever Lee goes, there you will go also.”
Although the Union suffered severe losses during the Overland Campaign, it proved to be a strategic victory for Grant as the Confederacy suffered proportionally higher losses that could not be replaced, ultimately leading to Lee’s surrender at Appomattox in April 1865. Capt. Henry Perry of Co. B ably commanded the 111th as they left the Wilderness on May 9, 1864. They marched toward the Po River and Capt. Perry led them into action on May 11 near the Landrum house where they, with fixed bayonets, charged and overran a Confederate picket line.
There were a number of cavalry battles in early May while the infantry and artillery engaged in what later became known as “trench warfare” in World War I. Many of the battles were fought with the men behind hastily-made barricades or lying in shallow trenches.
1st Sgt. Esek Hoff of Co. K, who had recently rejoined the regiment in Virginia after his recruiting duty in Auburn, wrote home on May 25 about the Battle of North Anna, which began two days earlier on May 23. “We reached the regiment which was encamped in the woods. We were not there more than twenty minutes before we had to fall in. We marched some two or three miles and lay on our arms all night. The next morning, we were in for a change. Rather quick introduction you might say. Well, we advanced until we came to an opening and lay down and we were under fire an hour and a half. By that time the rebels got a cannon so as to throw grape and canister right in among us. When we fell back, we lost some fifteen or twenty wounded and killed in our Company. Lieutenant Hueston was shot through the wrest as we lay behind a tree. I came out safe thank the lord. Out of those that came back with us, one was killed and three wounded.”
Lt. Edgar J. Hueston was promoted to captain later in May and wounded again in the Appomattox Campaign on March 31, 1865, shortly before the end of the war. 1st Sgt. Hoff wrote in a letter on May 26, 1864, “In about ten minutes after I sent out my letter to you, I was hit with a ball from a sharp shooter in the left arm between the elbow and the wrist. Perhaps between the bones of the forearm going completely through, striking my diary, and failing into the ground. It is not dangerous so do not direct any more letters until you hear from me … Thanking God that the wound was no worse.”
Hoff recovered and was promoted to second lieutenant in October 1864. He mustered out with the regiment at the end of the war.
The month of May saw 33 men captured and sent to the infamous POW camp at Andersonville. Sgt. Daniel Hutchins of Co. D, who was captured on May 10, kept a detailed diary of his time as a prisoner until his release in 1865. The journey to Georgia involved a series of marches and train rides in cattle cars with minimal food and water and few dry places to sleep.
He recorded on May 29 that, “… we arrived at Macon at 6 o’clock and at Camp Anderson at 9:30 AM we were in rolled at noon and put in the miserable prison the camp is about 40 rods square [about 10 acres] containing about 20,000 prisoners and is the dirtiest place I ever saw humans being kept, drew rations of 1/3 loaf cornbread 4 pieces of cooked bacon and 1 gill [4 oz.] of rice.” I will keep up with Hutchins’s diary entries as they provide a unique insight into life as a POW during the Civil War.
The regiment would suffer 260 men killed, seriously wounded, or captured, surpassing its casualties at Gettysburg by eleven individuals.
Five more battle names would find their way to places of honor on the stripes of the regiment’s National Colors proudly carried by the 111th men: Wilderness, Po River, Spotsylvania, North Anna, and Totopotomoy. There was no clear winner in any of these battles. Grant ended the month of May 1864 still chasing Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.
The combined losses for both sides exceeded 68,000 men killed, wounded, or captured. The practice of parole and exchange had broken down because of mistrust, so these men would languish in the overcrowded and underfunded POW prisons of both the North and South.
The Wayne County Historical Society encourages anyone with family members who served and lived in Wayne or Cayuga Counties during the 1860s to contact the Wayne County Historical Society at info@waynehistory.org or (315) 946-4943. If you are not sure about your Civil War ancestry, you can follow up with the link below:
Photos:
1864 sketch of the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House by Edwin Forbes
Post-war image of Esek Hoff (Courtesy of Ken Harris)
Battle of Totopotomoy Creek by Edwin Forbes
Pontoon bridge constructed by the 50th New York Engineers during the Battle of North Anna in 1864
Sources:
New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs, One Hundred and Eleventh Infantry, in Annual Report of the Adjutant-General of the State of New York for the Year 1900: Registers of the One Hundred and Eleventh Infantry, accessed July 2, 2026, “111th Infantry Civil War Roster.”
Wayne Historians Organization. Wayne County Civil War Soldiers. Accessed July 2, 2026. “Wayne County Civil War Soldiers.”
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