Grant's strategy for 1864 included the bruising Overland Campaign. The bloodshed of the campaign of attrition began on May 5, in a field in Virginia.
The “Great Sedition Trial” uncovered shocking connections at the time with the German reich that we were fighting, and challenged the idea that the nation was of a single mind during the war. It also challenged exactly how far the national commitment to freedom of speech and opinion reached, especially in extraordinary times.