Valley campaigns of 1864
1864 American Civil War operations and battles
The Valley campaigns of 1864 began as operations initiated by Union Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant and resulting battles that took place in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia during the American Civil War from May to October 1864. Some military historians divide this period into three separate campaigns. This article considers them together, as the campaigns interacted and built upon one another.
Background
As 1864 began, Ulysses S. Grant was promoted to lieutenant general and given command of all Union armies. He chose to make his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac, although Maj. Gen. George G. Meade remained the commander of that army. Grant kept Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman in command of most of the Western armies.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Valley campaigns of 1864” is 1864 American Civil War operations and battles. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Valley, campaigns and American, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “1864 American Civil War operations and battles” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2543603. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1864.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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Three-step research path
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- Expand the search: follow Valley campaigns of 1864 primary sources, Valley campaigns of 1864 archive and Valley research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Valley campaigns of 1864” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.