At the start of campaigning in the spring of 1864, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant was named commander of all Union armies. Grant resolved to strike at the Confederacy on multiple fronts, including a major attack from West Virginia southwest through the Shenandoah Valley. Scorched earth tactics would deny the Confederacy use of this vital agricultural center. Major General Franz Sigel appointed him chief engineer and topographer of the Army of the Shenandoah. Sigel opened the Valley Campaigns of 1864 by taking the Army of the Shenandoah to destroy the railroad center at Lynchburg, Virginia. On May 15, 1864, Meigs was involved in combat at the Battle of New Market. But Sigel was defeated at Newmarket, and retreated to Strasburg, Virginia.