Attrition warfare
Union General Ulysses S. Grant began a war of attrition with the Battle of the Wilderness. That was a change for the Army of the Potomac, which was no longer going after the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia. Grant was now directly going after Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. It was the first battle of the Union Army's Overland Campaign and ended with neither side victorious. The combined casualties totaled 28,000.