I am now sending back to Belle Plain all my wagons for a fresh supply of provisions and ammunition, and purpose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer.

Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant wrote this line to the Chief of Staff of the Army on May 11, 1864 shortly after the battle of the Wilderness and during the opening days of the battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse. During the previous six days of fighting, Grant estimated that he had lost roughly twenty thousand men.