Battle of North Anna The Battle of North Anna was fought May 23 – 26 , 1864 , as part of Union Lt . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant ' s Overland Campaign against Confederate Gen . Robert E . Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia . It consisted of a series of small actions near the North Anna River in central Virginia , rather than a general engagement between the armies . The individual actions are sometimes separately known as : Telegraph Road Bridge and Jericho Mills ( for actions on May 23 ) ; Ox Ford , Quarles Mill , and Hanover Junction ( May 24 ) . After disengaging from the stalemate at Spotsylvania Court House , Grant moved his army to the southeast , hoping to lure Lee into battle on open ground . He lost the race to Lee ' s next defensive position south of the North Anna River , but Lee was unsure of Grant ' s intention and initially prepared no significant defensive works . On May 23 , the Union V Corps under Maj . Gen . Gouverneur K . Warren forded the river at Jericho Mills and a Confederate division from the corps of Lt . Gen . A . P . Hill was unable to dislodge its beachhead . The II Corps under Maj . Gen . Winfield S . Hancock stormed a small Confederate force at " Henagan ' s Redoubt " to seize the Chesterfield Bridge crossing on the Telegraph Road , but did not advance further south across the river . That night , Lee and his engineers devised a masterful scheme for defensive earthworks in the shape of an inverted " V " that could split the Union army when it advanced and allow the Confederates to use interior lines to attack and defeat one wing , preventing the other wing from reinforcing it in time . Grant initially fell into this trap . As Hancock ' s men failed to carry the Confederate works on the eastern leg of the V on May 24 , a brigade under the drunken Brig . Gen . James H . Ledlie was repulsed from an ill - conceived assault against a strong position at Ox Ford , the apex of the V . Unfortunately for the Confederates , Lee was disabled with an intestinal illness and none of his subordinates were able to execute his planned attack . After two days of skirmishing in which the armies stared at each other from their earthworks , the inconclusive battle ended when Grant ordered another wide movement to the southeast , in the direction of the crossroads at Cold Harbor . Background . Grant ' s Overland Campaign was one of a series of simultaneous offensives the newly appointed general in chief launched against the Confederacy . By late May 1864 , only two of these continued to advance : Maj . Gen . William T . Sherman ' s Atlanta Campaign and the Overland Campaign , in which Grant accompanied and directly supervised the Army of the Potomac and its commander , Maj . Gen . George G . Meade . Grant ' s campaign objective was not the Confederate capital of Richmond , but the destruction of Lee ' s army . President Abraham Lincoln had long advocated this strategy for his generals , recognizing that the city would certainly fall after the loss of its principal defensive army . Grant ordered Meade , " Wherever Lee goes , there you will go also . " Although he hoped for a quick , decisive battle , Grant was prepared to fight a war of attrition . Both Union and Confederate casualties could be high , but the Union had greater resources to replace lost soldiers and equipment . On May 5 , after Grant ' s army crossed the Rapidan River and entered the Wilderness of Spotsylvania , it was attacked by Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia . Although Lee was outnumbered , about 60 , 000 to 100 , 000 , his men fought fiercely and the dense foliage provided a terrain advantage . After two days of fighting and almost 29 , 000 casualties , the results were inconclusive and neither army was able to obtain an advantage . Lee had stopped Grant , but had not turned him back ; Grant had not destroyed Lee ' s army . Under similar circumstances , previous Union commanders had chosen to withdraw behind the Rappahannock , but Grant instead ordered Meade to move around Lee ' s right flank and seize the important crossroads at Spotsylvania Court House to the southeast , hoping that by interposing his army between Lee and Richmond , he could lure the Confederates into another battle on a more favorable field . Elements of Lee ' s army beat the Union army to the critical crossroads of Spotsylvania Court House and began entrenching . Meade was dissatisfied with Maj . Gen . Philip Sheridan ' s Union cavalry ' s performance and released it from its reconnaissance and screening duties for the main body of the army to pursue and defeat the Confederate cavalry under Maj . Gen . J . E . B . Stuart . Sheridan ' s men mortally wounded Stuart in the tactically inconclusive Battle of Yellow Tavern ( May 11 ) and then continued their raid toward Richmond , leaving Grant and Meade without the " eyes and ears " of their cavalry . Near Spotsylvania Court House , fighting occurred on and off from May 8 through May 21 , as Grant tried various schemes to break the Confederate line . On May 8 , Union Maj . Gens . Gouverneur K . Warren and John Sedgwick unsuccessfully attempted to dislodge the Confederates under Maj . Gen . Richard H . Anderson from Laurel Hill , a position that was blocking them from Spotsylvania Court House . On May 10 , Grant ordered attacks across the Confederate line of earthworks , which by now extended over 4 miles ( 6 . 5 km ) , including a prominent salient known as the Mule Shoe . Although the Union troops failed again at Laurel Hill , an innovative assault attempt by Col . Emory Upton against the Mule Shoe showed promise . Grant used Upton ' s assault technique on a much larger scale on May 12 when he ordered the 15 , 000 men of Maj . Gen . Winfield S . Hancock ' s corps to assault the Mule Shoe . Hancock was initially successful , but the Confederate leadership rallied and repulsed his incursion . Attacks by Maj . Gen . Horatio G . Wright on the western edge of the Mule Shoe , which became known as the " Bloody Angle , " involved almost 24 hours of desperate hand - to - hand fighting , some of the most intense of the Civil War . Supporting attacks by Warren and by Maj . Gen . Ambrose Burnside were unsuccessful . Grant repositioned his lines in another attempt to engage Lee under more favorable conditions and launched a final attack by Hancock on May 18 , which made no progress . A reconnaissance in force by Confederate Lt . Gen . Richard S . Ewell at Harris farm on May 19 was a costly and pointless failure . In the end , the battle was tactically inconclusive , but with almost 32 , 000 casualties on both sides , it was the costliest battle of the campaign . Grant planned to end the stalemate by once again shifting around Lee ' s right flank to the southeast , toward Richmond . Opposing forces . Grant ' s Union forces totaled approximately 68 , 000 men , depleted from the start of the campaign by battle losses , illnesses , and expired enlistments . They consisted of the Army of the Potomac , under Maj . Gen . George G . Meade , and the IX Corps ( until May 24 formally part of the Army of the Ohio , reporting directly to Grant , not Meade ) . The five corps were : Lee ' s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia comprised about 53 , 000 men and was organized into four corps : For the first time in the campaign , Lee received sizable reinforcements , including three of the four brigades in Maj . Gen . George E . Pickett ' s division ( about 6 , 000 men ) from the James River defense against the ineffective Maj . Gen . Benjamin Butler and two brigades ( 2 , 500 men ) of Maj . Gen . John C . Breckinridge ' s command from the Shenandoah Valley . Pickett ' s men arrived May 21 – 23 , Breckinridge was assigned temporarily to Lee beginning May 20 at Hanover Junction . May 21 – 23 : Maneuvers to the North Anna . Grant ' s objective following Spotsylvania was the North Anna River , about south , and the important railroad intersection just south of it , Hanover Junction ( the modern village of Doswell , Virginia ) . By seizing both of these , Grant could not only interrupt Lee ' s supply line , he could deny the Confederates their next logical defensive line , forcing them to attack his army in the open , under more favorable terms . Grant knew that Lee could probably beat him in a straight race to the North Anna , so he devised a stratagem that might be a successful alternative . He designated Hancock ' s II Corps to head southeast from Spotsylvania to Milford Station , hoping that Lee would take the bait and attack this isolated corps . If he did , Grant would attack him with his three remaining corps ; if he did not , Grant would have lost nothing and his advance element might reach the North Anna before Lee could . Hancock ' s corps of 20 , 000 men started marching the night of May 20 – 21 , screened by three regiments of Union cavalry under Brig . Gen . Alfred T . A . Torbert , who skirmished with their Confederate counterparts led by Brig . Gen . John R . Chambliss . By dawn on May 21 they reached Guinea Station , where a number of the Union soldiers visited the Chandler house , the site of Stonewall Jackson ' s death a year earlier . The Union cavalry , riding out ahead , encountered 500 soldiers from Maj . Gen . George E . Pickett ' s division , which was marching north from Richmond to join Lee ' s army . After a brief skirmish , the Confederates withdrew across the Mattaponi River to the west of Milford Station , but the 11th Virginia Infantry did not receive the order and was forced to surrender . Hancock had expected to encounter soldiers from Lee ' s main army , so he was surprised to find Pickett ' s men at Milford Station , from which he inferred correctly that Lee was being reinforced . Rather than risk his corps in a fight in an isolated location , he decided to terminate his maneuver . By the afternoon of May 21 , Lee was still in the dark about Grant ' s intentions and was reluctant to disengage prematurely from the Spotsylvania Court House line . He cautiously extended Ewell ' s Corps to the Telegraph Road ( current day U . S . Route 1 ) . He also notified Maj . Gen . John C . Breckinridge , who had just defeated a small Union army in the Shenandoah Valley and was en route to join Lee , to stop at Hanover Junction and defend the North Anna River line until Lee could join him . Meanwhile , Grant started the rest of his corps on their marches . As Warren ' s V Corps began marching toward Massaponax Church , Grant received intelligence about Ewell ' s Corps blocking the Telegraph Road and changed Warren ' s orders to proceed instead to Guinea Station and follow Hancock ' s corps . Burnside ' s IX Corps encountered Ewell ' s men on the Telegraph Road and Burnside ordered them to turn around and proceed to Guinea Station . Wright ' s VI Corps then followed Burnside . By this time , Lee had a clear picture of Grant ' s plan and he ordered Ewell to march south on the Telegraph Road , followed by Anderson ' s Corps , and A . P . Hill ' s Corps on parallel roads to the west . Lee ' s orders were not urgent — he knew that Ewell had miles to march over relatively good roads , versus Hancock ' s over inferior roads . May 21 was a day of missed opportunities for Grant . Lee failed to take the bait of the isolated II Corps and instead marched by the most direct route to the North Anna . That night , Warren ' s V Corps bivouacked a mile east of the Telegraph Road and somehow managed to miss Lee ' s army marching south right next to it . If Warren had attacked Lee ' s flank , he could have inflicted significant damage to the Confederate army . Instead , Lee ' s army reached the North Anna unmolested on May 22 . Grant realized that Lee had beaten him to his objective and decided to give his exhausted men an easier day on the march , following Lee down the Telegraph Road for only a few miles before resting for the night . Battle . May 23 : Chesterfield Bridge and Jericho Mills . On the morning of May 23 , Warren reached Mount Carmel Church and paused for instructions . Hancock ' s corps came up from behind and the two units got hopelessly mixed up on the road . The corps commanders decided that Hancock would continue along the Telegraph Road to Chesterfield Bridge while Warren would cross the North Anna upstream at Jericho Mills . There were no significant fortifications to their front . Lee had misjudged Grant ' s plan , assuming that any advance against the North Anna would be a mere diversion , while the main body of Grant ' s army continued its flanking march to the east . At the Chesterfield Bridge crossing the Telegraph Road , a small South Carolina brigade under Col . John W . Henagan had created a dirt redoubt , and there was a small party guarding the railroad bridge downstream , but all of the other river crossings were left undefended . Grant had been presented with a golden opportunity if he moved quickly enough to take advantage of it . The division of Maj . Gen . David B . Birney led Hancock ' s column on the Telegraph Road . As they began to take fire from Henagan ' s Redoubt , Birney deployed two brigades to attack : Brig . Gen . Thomas W . Egan ' s brigade east of the road and Brig . Gen . Byron R . Pierce ' s brigade to the west . The II Corps artillery opened fire on the Confederates and Col . Edward Porter Alexander ' s First Corps artillery returned fire . General Lee , observing at the Fox house , was nearly hit by a cannonball that lodged in a door frame . Alexander was almost killed by flying bricks when a Union shell hit the house ' s chimney . At 6 p . m . , the Union infantry charged . Egan and Pierce were supported by Col . William R . Brewster ' s brigade . Soldiers stabbed their bayonets into the earthworks and used them as makeshift ladders , allowing their comrades to climb up over their backs . Henagan ' s small force was overwhelmed and they fled across the bridge . They attempted to burn it behind them , but Union sharpshooters drove them off . Hancock ' s men did not attempt to cross the bridge and seize ground to the south because Alexander ' s artillery was laying down heavy fire against them . Instead , they entrenched on the northern bank of the river . At Jericho Mills , Warren found the river ford unprotected . He ordered Brig . Gen . Charles Griffin ' s division to wade across and establish a beachhead . By 4 : 30 p . m . , the rest of the corps crossed on pontoon bridges . Hearing from a prisoner that Confederates were camped nearby at the Virginia Central Railroad , Warren arranged his men into battle lines : the division of Brig . Gen . Samuel W . Crawford lined up on the left , Griffin ' s on the right . Brig . Gen . Lysander Cutler ' s division then began moving onto Griffin ' s right . General Lee convinced his Third Corps commander , A . P . Hill , that Warren ' s movement was simply a feint , so Hill sent only a single division , commanded by Maj . Gen . Cadmus M . Wilcox , along with artillery commanded by Col . William J . Pegram , to deal with Warren ' s supposedly minor threat . Wilcox and Pegram delivered a firm blow . Crawford ' s division suffered heavy damage from the artillery and Griffin ' s division was hit hard by the North Carolinians of Brig . Gen . James H . Lane and the South Carolinians of Brig . Gen . Samuel McGowan . Cutler ' s wing , just arriving in line , was hit by the Georgians of Brig . Gen . Edward L . Thomas ' s brigade , more South Carolinians under Brown , and the North Carolinians of Brig . Gen . Alfred M . Scales ' s brigade ( temporarily commanded by Col . William L . Lowrance ) . Cutler ' s line was broken and his men fled to the rear , but their path of retreat led to the bluffs overlooking the North Anna . Warren ' s V Corps was rescued from a significant defeat by his artillery , commanded by Col . Charles S . Wainwright , which placed 12 guns on a ridge and subjected the Confederates to plunging fire . At the same time , the 83rd Pennsylvania led a portion of Brig . Gen . Joseph J . Bartlett ' s brigade down a ravine and struck the right flank of Thomas ' s Brigade . The Georgians fled , uncovering Scales ' s flank and leaving his men in an untenable position . Seeing that reinforcements from the division of Maj . Gen . Henry Heth would not arrive in time , Wilcox ordered his men to withdraw . He had been outnumbered about 15 , 000 to 6 , 000 . His division suffered 730 casualties , including Col . Brown , who was captured ; Union casualties were 377 . The next morning , Robert E . Lee expressed his displeasure at Hill ' s performance : " General Hill , why did you let those people cross here ? Why didn ' t you throw your whole force on them and drive them back as Jackson would have done ? " May 23 – 24 : Lee ' s defensive line . By the evening of May 23 , Grant ' s line had formed at the North Anna . Warren ' s men dug in on their beachhead south of Jericho Mills . Wright arrived on the northern bank in support of Warren . Burnside stopped near Ox Ford on Wright ' s left , and Hancock remained on the northern bank to Burnside ' s left . Lee finally understood that a major battle was developing in this location and began to plan his defensive position . If he merely fortified the bluffs on the south bank of the river , Warren ' s artillery could enfilade him . Instead , Lee and his chief engineer , Maj . Gen . Martin L . Smith , devised a masterful solution : a five - mile ( 8 km ) line that formed an inverted " V " shape , sometimes called a " hog snout line " , with its apex on the river at Ox Ford , the only defensible crossing in the area . On the western line of the V , reaching southwest to anchor on Little River , was the corps of A . P . Hill ; on the east were Anderson and Ewell , extending through Hanover Junction and terminating behind a swamp . Lee ' s men worked nonstop overnight to complete the fortifications . Breckinridge and Pickett were in reserve on the Virginia Central Railroad . Lee ' s new position represented a significant potential threat to Grant . By moving south of the river , Lee hoped that Grant would assume that he was retreating , leaving only a token force to prevent a crossing at Ox Ford . If Grant pursued , the pointed wedge of the inverted V would split his army . Lee could leave a force of about 7 , 000 on the western arm of the V to keep Warren and Wright pinned down , then launch an attack against Hancock on the eastern arm of the V , concentrating his force to achieve local superiority , about 36 , 000 Confederate to 20 , 000 Union . Warren and Wright could come to Hancock ' s support only by crossing over the North Anna twice , a time - consuming exercise . As Lee had achieved at Spotsylvania Court House ( and Meade at Gettysburg ) , interior lines could be used as a force multiplier ; unlike the " Mule Shoe " at Spotsylvania , however , this position had the advantage of a strong anchor at the apex ( the bluffs above Ox Ford ) , dissuading any attack from that direction . Lee confided to a local physician , " If I can get one more pull at [ Grant ] , I will defeat him . " May 24 : Grant crosses the North Anna . On the morning of May 24 , Grant sent additional troops south of the river . Wright ' s VI Corps crossed at Jericho Mills and by 11 a . m . both Warren and Wright had advanced to the Virginia Central Railroad . At 8 a . m . , Hancock ' s II Corps finally crossed the Chesterfield Bridge , with the 20th Indiana and 2nd U . S . Sharpshooters dashing across to disperse a thin Confederate picket line . Downriver , the Confederates had burned the railway trestle , but soldiers from the 8th Ohio cut down a large tree and the men crossed on it single file . This was soon supplemented by a pontoon bridge and all of Maj . Gen . John Gibbon ' s division crossed . Grant had begun to fall into Lee ' s trap . Seeing the ease of crossing the river , he assumed the Confederates were retreating . He wired to Washington : " The enemy have fallen back from North Anna . We are in pursuit . " The only visible opposition to the Union crossing was at Ox Ford , which Grant interpreted to be a rear guard action , simply an annoyance . Grant ordered Burnside ' s IX Corps to deal with it . To prepare for the river crossing , Burnside ' s division under Brig . Gen . Samuel W . Crawford marched downriver to Quarles Mill and seized the ford there . Burnside ordered Maj . Gen . Thomas L . Crittenden ' s division to cross over at the ford and follow the river ' s southern bank to Ox Ford and attack the Confederate position from the west . Crittenden ' s lead brigade was under Brig . Gen . James H . Ledlie , who was known for excessive drinking of alcohol in the field . Intoxicated and ambitious , Ledlie decided to attack the Confederate position with his brigade alone . Encountering the Confederate earthworks manned by Brig . Gen . William Mahone ' s division , Ledlie sent the 35th Massachusetts forward , but they were immediately repulsed . Ledlie sent an officer back to Crittenden to ask for three more regiments as reinforcements . The request surprised the division commander , who instructed the officer to tell Ledlie not to attack until the full division had crossed the river . By the time the officer returned , Ledlie was completely drunk . When several Confederate artillery batteries on the earthworks were pointed out to Ledlie , he dismissed them and ordered a charge . His men stepped off as a rain began to fall , and in their rush toward the earthworks , the regiments became jumbled and confused . The Confederates waited to open fire until they were at close range , and the effect was to drive Ledlie ' s leading men into ditches for protection . As a violent thunderstorm erupted , the 56th and 57th Massachusetts regiments rallied , but Mahone ' s Mississippi troops stepped out of their works and shot them down . Col . Stephen M . Weld of the 56th Massachusetts was wounded and Lt . Col . Charles L . Chandler of the 57th was mortally wounded . Soon all of the Ledlie ' s men retreated to Quarles Mill . Despite his miserable performance , Ledlie received praise from his division commander that his brigade " behaved gallantly . " He was promoted to division command after the battle and his drunkenness in the field continued to plague his men , culminating in his humiliating failure at the Battle of the Crater in July , after which he was relieved of command , never to receive another assignment . Hancock ' s II Corps began pushing south from Chesterfield Bridge at about the same time that Ledlie was initially crossing the river . Hancock ordered Gibbon ' s division to advance down the railroad . After pushing aside Confederate skirmishers they ran into earthworks manned by the Alabama brigade of Brig . Gen . Evander M . Law and the North Carolina brigade of Col . William R . Cox . Gibbon ' s lead brigade under Col . Thomas A . Smyth attacked the earthworks , but the Confederates counterattacked , and soon most of Gibbon ' s division was engaged . The fierce fighting was briefly interrupted by the thunderstorm as men on both sides paused with concern that their gunpowder would be ruined . As the rain diminished , Maj . Gen . David B . Birney ' s division came to Gibbon ' s support , but even the combined force could not break the Confederate line . Although the Union army had done precisely what Lee had hoped it would do , the Confederate general was unable to capitalize on the situation . Breaking down under the strain of nonstop campaigning , Lee suddenly suffered a debilitating attack of diarrhea and was forced to remain in his tent , bedridden . Unfortunately , he had no suitable subordinate commander to take over during his illness . Lt . Gen . A . P . Hill , who had become sick with an unidentified illness at the Wilderness had returned to duty , but was still sick and had performed poorly the previous day near Jericho Mills . Lt . Gen . Richard S . Ewell was exhausted from his ordeal at Spotsylvania . Maj . Gen . J . E . B . Stuart had been mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern . His strongest subordinate , Lt . Gen . James Longstreet , had been wounded in the Wilderness and his replacement , Maj . Gen . Richard H . Anderson , was still inexperienced in corps - level command . Lee lamented in his tent , " We must strike them a blow — we must never let them pass again — we must strike them a blow . " But Lee lacked the means to execute his plan . Most historians portray Lee ' s experience with the inverted V and his illness as a great lost opportunity . However , some have shed doubt on this interpretation . Mark Grimsley has observed that the source of this view was Lee ' s aide - de - camp , Lt . Col . Charles S . Venable , who gave a speech about it in Richmond in 1873 , which included the " we must strike them a blow " quotation . Grimsley notes that " no surviving contemporaneous correspondence alludes to such an operation , and the troop movements made on the night of May 23 and on May 24 were limited and defensive in nature . " Furthermore , he describes the inverted V as a poor position from which to launch an offensive , lacking depth . Col . Vincent J . Esposito of the United States Military Academy wrote that the success of any Confederate assault was not assured because Hancock ' s men were well dug in . At 6 : 30 p . m . , Hancock warned Meade that Lee ' s position was as strong as that at Spotsylvania Court House . Grant finally realized the situation he faced with a divided army and ordered his men to stop advancing and to build earthworks of their own . His engineers began to construct pontoon bridges to improve the river crossings so that the separated wings of the army could support each other more expeditiously if needed . A significant command change occurred on the evening of May 24 . Grant and Meade had had numerous quarrels during the campaign about strategy and tactics and tempers were reaching the boiling point . Grant mollified Meade somewhat by ordering that Maj . Gen . Ambrose Burnside and his IX Corps would henceforth report to Meade ' s Army of the Potomac , rather than to Grant directly . Although Burnside was a more senior major general than Meade , he accepted the new subordinate position without protest . May 25 – 26 : Stalemate . On the morning of May 25 , Warren ' s V Corps probed A . P . Hill ' s line on the western leg of the V and judged it too strong to attack . Wright ' s VI Corps attempted to flank the Confederate line by crossing Little River , but found that Wade Hampton ' s cavalry was covering the fords . Hancock already knew the strength of the line facing him and did nothing further . For the rest of the day , light skirmishing occurred between the lines and Union soldiers occupied themselves by tearing up 5 miles of the Virginia Central Railroad , a key supply line from the Shenandoah Valley to Richmond . Grant ' s options were limited . The slaughter at Spotsylvania Court House ruled out the option of frontal attacks against the Confederate line and getting around either Confederate flank was infeasible . However , the Union general remained optimistic . He was convinced that Lee had demonstrated the weakness of his army by not attacking when he had the upper hand . He wrote to the Army ' s chief of staff , Maj . Gen . Henry W . Halleck : Aftermath . As he did after the Wilderness and Spotsylvania , Grant now planned another wide swing around Lee ' s flank , marching east of the Pamunkey River to screen his movements from the Confederates . He ordered ( on May 22 ) that his supply depots at Belle Plain , Aquia Creek , and Fredericksburg be moved to a new base at Port Royal , Virginia , on the Rappahannock River . ( Six days later the supply base was moved again , from Port Royal to White House on the Pamunkey . ) He ordered Brig . Gen . James H . Wilson ' s cavalry division to cross the North Anna and move west , attempting to deceive Lee into thinking that the Union army intended to envelop the Confederate left flank . The cavalry destroyed more sections of the Virginia Central Railroad during this movement , but had no significant enemy contact . After dark on May 26 , Wright and Warren disengaged and stealthily crossed over the North Anna . They marched east on May 27 toward the crossings over the Pamunkey River at Hanovertown , while Burnside and Hancock remained in place to guard the fords on the North Anna . The Union cavalry under Maj . Gen . Philip Sheridan had returned by this time to screen the advance . The army ' s eventual goal was the important crossroads of Cold Harbor , southeast . Grant ' s optimism and his reluctance to assault strong defensive lines would be severely tested in the upcoming Battle of Cold Harbor . In the meantime , North Anna had proved to be a relatively minor affair when compared to other Civil War battles . Union casualties for the four days were 2 , 623 . Confederate casualties were not recorded , but based on the bloody fighting between A . P . Hill and Warren , it is probable they suffered between 1 , 500 and 2 , 500 casualties . Battlefield preservation . The North Anna Battlefield Park , opened in 1996 and maintained by Hanover County , Virginia , preserves a small section ( 80 acres ) of the battlefield . Walking trails are available to inspect portions of the left side of the " inverted V " Confederate line up to Ox Ford .