Any other general would have done so. Some would have tendered their resignations. But with Grant, it was entirely different, and by this time Lee and the Confederates knew it. As amazed as they were by their smashing defensive victory, the men of the Army of Northern Virginia knew that this was but the beginning: led by Grant, the men in blue would fight them to the bitter end.

In better days, Lee would have gone on the offensive. There was no chance of that now. He had lost roughly 30,000 men in the past six weeks, and he no longer had J. E. B. Stuart to bring him information of the enemy’s movements. Lee, too, was boxed into a situation he could not escape.