The Civil War was made up of months of boredom in camp, weeks of marching on dirt roads and hours of pure horror on battlefields. As the spring of 1864 began to turn Virginia green, the great Union army began to awaken. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had been given overall command, and his orders were to attack on all fronts, toward Atlanta, Ga., and through the Shenandoah Valley, and most importantly to seize Richmond, Va.

The assault on the Confederate capital included most of New Jersey’s regiments.