Pontoon bridge over North Anna River

Mistaking refusal of the Confederate right flank as a sign of retreat, Hancock crossed the Telegraph Road bridge on May 24th and headed south in Pursuit. He had stepped into Lee's trap, but Lee failed to spring it. Illness and fatigue had robbed the Confederate commander. Thus, as Hancock pushed south into the jaws of the Confederate army. Lee lay incapacitated on his cot, muttering over and over to himself, "We must strike a blow, we must never let them pass us again, we must strike them a blow."

But the time for striking a blow soon passed. Meade quickly realized the peril of his situation and ordered Hancock to entrench. By the next morning the danger was gone. Firmly dug in, with communications in place, the Union army no longer faced the possibility of annihilation. For two days the armies faced one another across miles of formidable earthworks with neither side venturing to take the offensive. Admitting stalemate on the North Anna, Grant withdrew the Union army across the river on the night of May 26th and sidestepped once more to the southeast.

On the morning of the 24th The Confederate position was strongly intrenched in the shape of a V, the vertex resting on the river near Ox ford.

Burnside was ordered to seize Ox ford, but finding that it was impossible to make a direct attack as the salient of the V was directly opposite, he sent Crittenden's division (formerly Stevenson's) a mile and a half up the river, where it crossed at Quarles' mill. On the south side of the stream Crittenden formed a junction with Crawford's division of Warren's corps and advanced toward the Confederate position at Ox ford with a view of driving the enemy out so that Willcox's division could cross, but the enemy was too strongly intrenched.

On the 25th the 5th and 6th corps with Crittenden's division of the 9th were thrown forward to within 600 or 800 yards of the Confederate line which was found to be well intrenched and traversed to protect it from the enfilading fire of the 9th corps artillery on the north bank of the river.

The line extended from Ox ford on the North Anna to Anderson's mill on the Little river, a distance of a mile and a half. The rest of the 25th and 26th were spent by the Federals in tearing up portions of the Fredericksburg & Richmond and Virginia Central railroads and on the 26th Wilson's cavalry division was sent from the Federal right to demonstrate on the enemy's position. This led Lee to think that the Army of the Potomac was to be moved by the right flank. At nightfall of the 26th that part of the Federal army on the south side of the North Anna was started on a northward movement across that stream and by noon of the 27th the whole of the Army of the Potomac was north of the river.

The Federal losses during the 4 days were 223 killed, 1,460 wounded and 290 missing, though the report of Medical Director McParlin of the Army of the Potomac places the wounded at 2,100. The Confederate losses were not reported, but it is probable that they were somewhat lighter.