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THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS. Large crown
8vo, $2.00, net. Postage extra.
THE SPIRIT OF OLD WEST POINT. Illustrated.
Octavo, ;?3.oo, ntt. Postage 10 cents.
ETNA AND KIRKERSVILLE, LICKING CO., OHIO.
xzmo, $1. 00, mt. Postage 8 cents.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
Boston and New York
THE
BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
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T^ BA'trLE OF THE ^.
.WILDERNESS ''^**^-
BY
MORRIS SCHAFF
AUTHOR OP
'the SPmiT OP OLD WEST POINT '
WITH MAPS AND PLANS
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
(Cfje laibcrj^be ^tt^i CamliriDge
3910
COPYRIGHT, I910, BY MORRIS SCHAFP
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published October iqto
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This hooh is dedicated to the memory of my mother
€t^atlt}ttt J^art?eH ^a^af£
buried in the little graveyard at Etna Ohio
and whose gentle clay has long since
blended with the common earth
Morris Schaff
LIST OF MAPS
Battle-field of the Wilderness . . . Frontispiece
Country between the Rapidan and Rappahan-
nock 52
Country South of the Rapidan 68
General Map of the Wilderness 122
Country South of the Rappahannock .... 144
THE BATTLE OF THE
WILDERNESS
I
From time to time, one or two friends have urged me
to write of the war between the States, in which, as a
boy, I took a humble part just after graduating at
West Point; but I have always answered that nature
had not given me the qualifications of a historian,
and that, moreover, every nook and corner of the
field had been reaped and garnered. So, I kept on my
way. But not long ago, while in a meditative mood, a
brooding peace settled over my mind, and lo! across
a solemn gorge, and far up and away against the past,
lay the misting field of History. While as in dream-
land my inward eye was wandering bewitched over it,
a voice hailed me from a green knoll at the foot of
which burst a spring whose light-hearted ciu-rent
wimpled away to a pond hard by. "Come over here,"
said the voice, beckoning; and seeing that I stood
still, and wore a perplexed look, it added feelingly,
"You have written your boyhood memories of your
old home, and you have written those of your cadet
days at West Point; am I not dear to you, too? I am
your boyhood memories of the War." At once, from
2 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
the fields of Virginia the Army of the Potomac Hfted
as by magic and began to break camp to go on its last
campaign; its old, battle-scarred flags were fluttering
proudly, the batteries were drawing out, the bronze
guns that I had heard thunder on many fields were
sparkling gayly, and my horse, the same wide-nos-
triled, broad-chested, silky-haired roan, stood sad-
dled and bridled before my tent. The trumpets
sounded; and, as their notes died away, I picked up
the pen once more.
Upon graduating at West Point in June, 1862, I
was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Ord-
nance Corps and assigned to duty under that loyal,
deeply-brown-eyed, modest Virginia gentleman and
soldier. Captain T. G. Baylor, commanding the
Arsenal at Fort Monroe. Fort Monroe, or Old Point
Comfort (which is the loving and venerable historic
name of the place), at that time and throughout the
war was the port and station of greatest importance
on our southern seaboard. Situated practically at the
mouth of the James, it not only commanded the out-
let from the Confederate capital at Richmond, but
also the navigation of the Chesapeake and the Po-
tomac, and offered a safe point for the assembly of
fleets and armies preparatory to taking the offensive.
W^en I reached there, it was the base of supplies for
the Army of the Potomac, then on the last stage of its
disastrous Peninsula campaign, and also for Burn-
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 3
side's army operating on the coast of North CaroHna.
Moreover, it was the rendezvous of our Atlantic
squadrons and of the foreign men-of-war, which,
drawn as eagles to the scene of our conflict, came in,
cast their anchors, and saluted the flag, though the
hearts of most of them were not with us. The little
Monitor was lying there, basking in her victory over
the huge, ungainly Merrimac; and alongside of her,
their yards towering far above her, lay the pride of
the old navy, the Wabash, the Colorado, and the
Minnesota. Vessels, sail and steam, were coming and
going, and the whole harbor was alive with naval and
military activity. Nor did it cease when night came
on; at all hours you could hear the wharves' deep
rumblings, and the suddenly rapid clanking of hoist-
ing engines as ships loaded or discharged their car-
goes; while from off in the harbor we could hear the
childlike bells on the grim war-vessels striking the
deep hours of the night.
It was my first acquaintance with the sea, and I
think I was fortunate in the spot where I gained my
first impressions of it. For never yet have I stood on
a beach where the water, rocking in long, regular beats,
as if listening to music in its dreams, spread away
in such mild union with the clouds and sunshine.
The Army of the Potomac, whose fortunes I was to
share on many a field, had just been through the
fierce battles of Fair Oaks, Gaines's Mill, Glendale
(orFrayser's Farm as it is called by the Confederates),
', tl * |r>^
4 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
and Malvern Hill. In these desperate engagements it
had been driven from the Chickahominy, and was
then huddled around Harrison's Landing on the
north bank of the James, about twenty-five miles
below Richmond. The army had suffered terribly in
this campaign, known as that of the Peninsula; but
the government, though cast down and sorely disap-
pointed at the outcome, immediately responded with
vigor to its needs, and the river and Hampton Roads
were lined day and night with transports taking sup-
plies of all kinds to it, and bringing back the sick and
wounded, of whom there were very, very many. Its
commander was McClellan, perhaps the war's great-
est marvel as an example of personal magnetism, and
one of Fortune's dearest children; yet one who, when
Victory again and again poised, ready to light on his
banner, failed to give the decisive blow. The authori-
ties at Washington, never quite satisfied with Mc-
Clellan and never confident that he would win, har-
bored, I am satisfied, a political dread of him should
success attend him; and now, finding him cooped up
at Harrison's Landing, organized an army to operate
between Washington and Richmond, and had
assigned to its command that really able and much
abused soldier, John Pope, thereby hoping to get rid
of McClellan.
When Pope's army on the upper Rappahannock
was threatened with overthrow, the Army of the Po-
tomac was recalled to Washington. It marched down
THE BATTLE OF THE WttDERNESS 5
the Peninsula to Old Point Comfort, where transports
had been gathered to meet it. During that time
McClellan and his staff were at our officers' mess for
several days, and on one occasion I lunched almost
alone with him. So sweet and winsome was he, that
I ever after was one of his sympathetic and ardent
admirers. Later on I served with Hooker, Burnside,
Meade, and Grant, each of whom in turn followed
him at the head of the Army of the Potomac; but
were that old army to rise from its tomb, not one of
them would call out such cheers as those which would
break when "Little Mac," as it loved to call him,
should appear. He was a short, compact, square-
shouldered, round-bodied man, with a low forehead
and heavily wrinkled brow. >
It took three or four days to embark the troops,
and meanwhile I visited the camps of many of my
West Point friends, and for the first time heard the
trumpets of the dear old army. At last they were all
aboard, and I watched them heading off up the Ches-
apeake and longed to go with them, with my friends
of cadet days, Custer, Cushing, Woodruff, Bowen,
Kirby, Dimick, and others, — all of whose cheery,
young faces seemed to diffuse the very air of glory,
while the colors of Regulars and Volunteers seemed
to beckon me to follow as they were borne away.
The Army of the Potomac had come to be recog-
nized at home and abroad as the country's chief safe-
guard, the one firm barrier to be relied upon to hold
6 THE BATTLE OF THE WH^DERNESS
Washington. For, the National Capital once in the
hands of the Confederates, the cause of the Union
would be irretrievably lost. Non€ saw this fact
clearer than the cold-eyed commercial power of the
North, yet whose heart throbbed with the common
love of the country's ideals. So, all over the North,
and especially in the region east of the Alleghanies
where the most of its rank and file were reared, the
people were proud of the Army of the Potomac; and
at sunrise and sunset, and around every fireside,
offered their prayers for it. Fearful indeed had been,
and were to be, its trials. It had lost much blood, but
the people knew that it was ready to lose still more
before it would yield to a truce or ignominious peace.
From the parapets of Fortress Monroe I saw that
army move away. It soon met its old antagonist, the
Army of Northern Virginia, the flower of the South-
ern armies, on the field of Manassas, and then, just as
autumn's golden glow began to haze the fields, at
Antietam; and at last under Burnside in the short,
cold days of December, it made its frightful assault
on Lee's entrenchments along Marye's Heights, back
of Fredericksburg. It never showed greater valor,
and its losses were sickening. The army wintered on
the Rappahannock, opposite Fredericksburg, and
in sight of the lines it had vainly tried to carry.
Now and then I heard from my friends with the
army, and day after day continued my duties in the
shops, or testing big guns on the beach, wondering if
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 7
the war would be over before I should see any active
service in the field. Thus winter was passed and spring
came — and nowhere does her face wear such a smile
as at Old Point. The last of the migrating birds had
gone over us, the days were lengthening, and I knew
that the army would soon be moving again, and
longed more and more to be with it. But my wonder
and longing were soon to end.
On April 16, Captain Baylor called me into the
office, and with a smile handed me the following: —
War Department,
Adjutant-General's Office,
Washington, April 15, 1863.
Special Orders No. 173
24. First Lieut. Morris Schaff, Ordnance Depart-
ment, is hereby assigned to duty with the Army of the
Potomac, and will report in person without delay to
Major-General Hooker, Commanding.
By Order of the Secretary of War,
E. D. TOWNSEND,
Assistant Adjutant-GeneraL
Great was my delight! I was in my twenty-second
year, and what a mere, undeveloped boy! I bade
good-by to Captain and Mrs. Baylor, and I never
think of them without the tenderest emotion. He and
a little group of friends, — in those days, as now, I
made friends slowly, — all of whom were my seniors,
went with me to the boat, and soon I was on my way.
8 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
Hooker's headquarters were at the Phillips house
on one of the hills known as the hills of Stafford, which
shoulder up in array along the north bank of the Rap-
pahannock. On reporting to him I was assigned as
assistant to his chief of Ordnance, the big-hearted
Captain D. W. Flagler (with whom I had been at
West Point for three years), thereby becoming a part
of the headquarters-staff of the army. I never saw
Hooker's equal in soldierly appearance ; moreover,
there was a certain air of promise about him, — at
least so he impressed me, — as he came riding up
to headquarters just after I got there. His plans
were made, and he was almost ready to move.
A few days after I had reported, he sent for
Flagler, and gave him orders to have a supply of
ammunition at the White House on the Pamunkey,
which, as every one knows, is not far from Richmond,
remarking that he had Lee's army in his grasp, and.
could crush it like that, — closing his hand firmly.
When Flagler came back to the tent, and told me
what the general had said, the big fellow smiled; and,
in the light of what happened, well he might: for
within a few weeks, at Chancellorsville (lying just
within the eastern border of the Wilderness), Hooker
met a crushing defeat, and his laurels, like those of
his predecessors, McClellan, Burnside, and Pope,
were permanently blasted.
The outlook from our headquarters, a truly vener-
able Virginia manor-house, was commanding and
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 9
interesting. Before it, on the other side of the river,
and dreaming of its historic past, lay the old colonial
town of Fredericksburg, in whose graveyard Wash-
ington's mother is buried. At the foot of the hill was
the Rappahannock, bearing on peacefully between
its willow-fringed banks, the Confederate pickets on
one, and ours on the other in open view. Starting at
the river side is a plain running off level as a floor,
nearly a mile, to a line of low encircling hills known as
Marye's Heights. Fences, stone walls, and sunken
roads mark the slopes of these hills, and on Decem-
ber 13, 1863, the ground in front of them was blue,
but not with autumn's last blooming flower, the
gentian, but with our dead. Back of the hills were
fringes of timber, and then the rim of the bending sky.
There lay Lee's intrepid army, under the command of
Longstreet, Hill, and Stonewall Jackson. The view
had a pensive charm for me, and I could look at it
hour after hour.
At last all was ready, and Hooker, masked by the
woods, moved up the river, crossed, and entered the
Wilderness with boldness. He no sooner breathed its
air than he lost all vigor, became dazed, and at Chan-
cellorsville met his fate. In this savage encounter
three of my young friends were either killed or mor-
tally wounded : Marsh, Kirby, and Dimick.
It will be remembered that Stonewall Jackson,
conceded by friend and foe to be the ablest and most
formidable corps commander of modern times, lost
10 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
his life by a volley from his own men at this battle of
Chancellorsville, when on the very verge of deliver-
ing what might have proved a mortal blow to the
Army of the Potomac. As the circumstances of this
event, so momentous to the Confederacy, repeated
themselves with startling fidelity just a year later on
the same road, and not two miles away, in the battle
of the Wilderness, stopping again, but this time for
good and all, Lee's hour-hand of victory, there is
established a mysteriously intimate and dramatic
relation between the two battles, which will be
revealed in its entire significance, I hope, as the
narrative makes its way. On the day Stonewall was
buried the bells of Fredericksburg tolled sadly, and
across the river came to us the plaintive strains of
their bands playing dirges.
After Chancellorsville the defeated army staggered
back to its old encampments, and the writer returned
to the ordnance depot at Aquia Creek. There I saw
Abraham Lincoln for the first and only time. He was
seated in an ordinary, empty freight-car, on a stout
plank supported at each end by a cracker-box. Hal-
leck, in undress uniform, was on his left, a big man
with baggy cheeks and pop eyes. Mr. Lincoln was
gazing off over the heads of the staring groups of
soldiers and laborers white and black, to the silent,
timbered Virginia shore of the Potomac. He seemed
utterly unconscious of all who had gathered about
him. He was on his way to Hooker's headquarters.
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 11
and looked, and doubtless felt, sad enough. The
world knows his features well. Plainer or more un-
predictive externals nature never spread over the
genius to govern; but then she put in his breast as
kind and lyric a heart as ever beat.
Elated by his victory and urged on by the state of
the Confederacy's resources and his natural inclina-
tion for the offensive, Lee, within a month, began the
movements toward the upper Potomac which culmi-
nated in the battle at Gettysburg, where for a time
I remained, collecting the arms that were left on the
field. I little dreamed then, as I rode and walked over
that famous field, what an epoch it marked in the
history of the war. Through the vast amount that
has been written about the battle, and the devoted
spirit in which the field has been preserved, and the
services of those who fell commemorated, an im-
pression prevails that the fate of the Confederacy
was sealed that day, — an impression which a com-
prehensive view of the situation will, I believe, chal-
lenge if not remove. Let me state the grounds of my
disbelief, and, if they do not convince, they may at
least serve as a background for the narrative, aiding
us to weigh the issues hanging on the campaign of
1864.
When Grant was brought on from the West, and
took virtual command of the Army of the Potomac,
in the spring after Gettysburg, the war had been
raging for three years. First and last, the North had
12 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
put into the field rising two million men; and,
although important victories, such as Vicksburg,
Gettysburg, and Missionary Ridge, had been won,
and obviously the North had had the best of it, yet
there is no gainsaying that her condition was peril-
ous and her disappointments great. She had hoped
and had sincerely believed that long ere that time
she would have put down the Rebellion, and keenly
she felt the sneers of the old world as she struggled
for existence. But, notwithstanding her supreme
efforts, the South was in some respects closer knit
than ever, and far from being conquered. '
And now, at the end of three years of desperate war,
she was staggering under a mighty debt, the Confed-
erate cruisers had driven her commerce from the sea,
volunteering, which had begun spontaneously and
with burning enthusiasm, had stopped, and the ad-
ministration had been forced to resort to the draft.
Successive defeats had bred factions within and with-
out the cabinet, -^ factions made up of governors,
editors, and senators, all secretly denouncing Mr.
Lincoln and his administration, and actively plot-
ting to defeat him at the forthcoming convention.
t To make matters worse, the government, fretted
by repeated reverses, had become more and more
irritable, and, as was natural with the continuance
of the war, more and more arbitrary. Those in offi-
cial life who criticised its policies were turned upon
fiercely; the press, never an easy friend or foe to deal
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 13
with in time of peril, was threatened with muzzling,
and some papers were actually suppressed, and their
proprietors imprisoned; the provost-marshals, of
necessity invested with wide but delicate military
authority, often became despotic in their arrests,
and almost habitually haughty in parading of their
office, — their haughtiness aggravated by ignorance,
vanity, and bad manners. Under it all, discontent
had grown and spread, until, by the time the cam-
paign of 1864 was ready to open, in the states border-
ing on the Ohio there was a secret organization said
to have had over four hundred thousand members,
a coagulation of all phases of political hatred and
tainted loyalty, only waiting for a substantial defeat
of the Union army to break out into an open demand
for an armistice, which, of course, meant the recog-
nition of the South.
As a proof of the depth and reality of this over-
hanging danger, see the action of some of the courts,
and the attempt of the legislature of Indiana to
transfer the control of the state's arsenal, with its
eighteen thousand arms, — directly, to be sure, to
three trustees, but in the end to that ostensibly
peace-seeking yet practically traitorous organization.
Meantime throughout the North patriotism was
smothering under the bitterness of faction, and the
blighting evil of indifference to the country's glory,
an indifference that nurses always at the breast of
commercial prosperity. At the same time corruption
14 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
in official life, and dissipation in various forms, ran
riot and made their way, undermining civic morals
and manly virtues. Never were gambling-houses so
common, low theatres so crowded, streets gayer, or
the rotundas of hotels and the richly furnished rooms
of fashionable clubs more frequented by young, able-
bodied, well-dressed "high rollers" and champagne-
drinkers. Yet, let the sound of a drum be heard
in the street at the head of some returning body of
veterans, — whom not one of them had had the cour-
age or manliness to join in defense of the country,
— and lo! up would go the windows of the clubs,
and they and the balconies of every hotel would be
filled with cheering men.
This being the state of affairs, let us suppose that
Lee, at the outset of the campaign of 1864, had de-
feated the Army of the Potomac decisively, and had
driven Grant back across the Rappahannock, as he
had driven Burnside, Pope, and Hooker, — how loud
and almost irresistible would have been the cry for
an armistice, supported (as it would have been) by
Wall Street and all Europe! Where, then, would have
been the victory of Gettysburg? In view of the dis-
parity of numbers and the depleted resources of the
Confederacy, was it possible for Lee to have given
such a blow? Yes, and had not Fate registered her
decree that at the critical moment Longstreet was
to fall in the Wilderness as Jackson had fallen at
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 15
Chancellorsville, he would have come near doing so.
And so, great as was the victory at Gettysburg, I
am not at all convinced that it was decisive, remem-
bering, as I do, how the balance trembled more than
once in the campaign from the Rapidan.
But, however this may be, it must not be forgotten
that, counterbalancing the incongruous gayety and
dissipation that prevailed in our large cities, the
dying down of early ardor, and the disloyal hives
that were ready to swarm, there were thousands of
pure, high-minded, resolute men and women who re-
mained faithful to their ideals and kept the national
spirit alive; who, in sunshine and shadow, for the
glory of the country and their generation, upheld
Mr. Lincoln's hands and stood by him to the last
most loyally. Neither defeat, pleas for peace, nor
desire for ease prevailed against their heaven-inspired
and steel-hardened determination to fight the Con-
federacy to an end; and on them and the army in the
field, I think, the honors of carrying the country
through its perils should fall.
• It is true, and for the sake of history it should be
recorded, that while a great majority of those stead-
fast, loyal people of the North had felt that slavery
was wrong and altogether out of harmony with civil-
ization and the spirit of a free government, yet in the
beginning of the war they had no desire or intent to
interfere with it in the states; so dear were the mem-
ories of the Revolution, and so deep their reverence
i
16 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
for Washington and his fellow slave-holding com-
patriots who had joined Puritan New England in
establishing the independence of the colonies. More-
over, and notwithstanding those galling irritations
which always attend the concession of social and
political dominance, the North had not inherited
any active hates or vindictiveness, although it had
felt deeply of late the repeated scorn and increasing
arrogance of the political leaders of the South, mani-
fested in the discussion of slavery that had been
going on for twenty or thirty years. It is needless to
say that the language in Congress grew more and
more heated, or that it was marked more and more
by asperity of criticism and ugliness of temper and
insolence of bearing. Neither side was fair in judging
the convictions or the situation of the other. The
Disunionist was blind to the inevitable wreck of all
that was dear in social and political life if he destroyed
the Union; the Abolitionist was blind, utterly blind,
to the immediate and lasting evils of having his way
with slavery.
So it went on, till at last, burning with a raging
fever over the John Brown raid, and lashed by a
savage press, the South burst into delirium upon the
election of Lincoln, and madly and vauntingly fired
on the flag, that rippled out in joyful peace with
every breeze that blew over Sumter. The arrogant
leaders of the South meant that shot for a stinging
challenge, and it was so understood. Every beech
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 17
and maple and strong-limbed oak in the North, every
one of her hills and streams, every one of the old fields
and the liberty-enjoying winds that swept them, said,
** Accept the challenge ! Go, Northerners, go and assert
your manhood!" But, Southerners! let me tell you
that as they passed down the walks of the old home
dooryards and out of the gates, followed by eyes that
were dimmed with tears, the evils or the abolition
of slavery did not enter the mind of one in a thou-
sand. Their country and their honor were at stake,
not the destruction of slavery. So it was generally,
far and wide among the great body of the people.
But with the progress of the war, and under the
severe defeats of one army after another, as the South,
out of the depths of her resolution, struck again and
again, the belief took root that God would not bless
their arms while slavery had a recognized legal exist-
ence; and inasmuch as it became obvious that its
death would be at the same hour as that of the Con-
federacy, the influence of long-accepted legal defense
and the golden ties of friendship melted before the
warmth of moral and patriotic emotion. As a result,
Lincoln, sensitive in a marvelous degree to what was
going on deep in the hearts of the common people,
carved emancipation across the sky of those solemn
days, and the army that had left home without pro-
nounced feeling against slavery said, "Amen!" And,
what is more, "Amen!" said all the civilized world.
There was also, coincident with this change, which
18 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
in a sense was political, another in the army, which
was spiritual. Gradually, for in the divine ordering
of progress consecrating spirits reveal themselves
slowly, the consciousness broke at last on the minds
of officers and men that the dearest hopes of man-
kind were appealing to them individually in the name
of duty and honor and all that was sacred, not to
despair or to yield, come weal, come woe, till the
country's supremacy was unchallenged, and the way
cleared for her future. Of nothing am I surer than
of this visitation and the consequent serious, deep,
and exalted mood; and I am fain to believe that every
drop of blood that strained through a heart that lis-
tened to these spiritual heralds and welcomed the
vow, was permanently heightened in its color. When
we realize how meagre had been the advantages
among the rank and file, and how generally humble
and obscure their homes, the marvel grows, and our
hands reach instinctively for garlands for every one
of them who gave up his life or who bore his part
manfully.
Now, a word as to the South. If the disappoint-
ments of the North over the outcome of three years
of war had been deep, those of the South had been
deeper. So sure was she of the poltroonery of the
North, and the indomitable courage of her own sons,
that she had expected at the beginning to achieve
her independence long, long ere the date of the cam-
paign of May 1, 1864. In fact, thousands and thou-
THE BATTLE OF THE WttDERNESS 19
sands of her soldiers believed, as they set off in the
spring of '61 for the Potomac and the Ohio, that the
southern banks of these beautiful rivers were to be
the northern boundaries of their proud and victori-
ous Confederacy; and this before the cotton, then
ready to branch, should all be picked. But there had
been Gaines's Mill, Malvern Hill, Antietam, and
Gettysburg in the east; Shiloh, Missionary Ridge,
Stone's River, and Vicksburg, in the west. No, they
did not get back in time to see the cotton picked;
many of them were never to see it bloom again. Year
after year they had followed the drum, and were still
far from home fighting for their wan, unacknowledged
Confederacy, or sleeping in their graves.
There is pathos in the contrast, as we think of them
walking their sentry-posts to and fro, half-fed and
half-clothed, now under drenching rains, now shiver-
ing under northern winds, their hearts beating low,
— so completely had the scene shifted and their
hopes vanished. And what surprises they had had,
too! Where was the evidence of that poltroonery
in their enemies that they were so sure of? Lo, as
when the heavens at night are troubled, and light-
ning from some black cloud flashes as from a sud-
denly opened furnace door, revealing to us across a
field a wood standing resolute in burnished glory,
so in the light of their own volleys again and again
they had seen the North. More than once, also, they
had witnessed Northern courage, as when the volun-
20 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
teers came on at Fort Donelson and Fredericksburg,
leaving the ground they passed over blue with dead.
No, they had discovered that there was steel and
iron in the Northern blood when it came to battling
for their self-respect and a cause which they believed
to be holy.
Again, when the Confederacy was launched at
Montgomery, the South had the keen pleasure of
seeing it hailed by several of the governments of
Europe as a coming sister in the family of nations.
While in buoyant self-confidence she was sure that
all of them would recognize her sooner or later, yet
it was her chief expectation and desire that England,
with whose landed aristocracy the slave-holders had
made themselves believe there was a natural sym-
pathy, would be the first to reach out a welcoming
hand. But days, months, and years had passed, and
no hand had been extended. On the contrary, either
through fear or interest, all, including England, had
yielded to the demands of her despised adversary
and drawn the mantle of neutrality closely around
them. Before the first day of May, 1864, she had
seen through the sarcasm and mockery of their
greeting smiles. The situation was humiliating to
the last degree. Moreover, the North had driven
the Southern armies back from the Potomac and the
Ohio, it had wrested from them the control of the
Mississippi Valley, and had overrun and desolated
a great share of their home-country.
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 21
In addition, the Confederacy's financial system,
to their distress and mortification, had broken down
completely, and about all their ports had been sealed
up, thus cutting them off from both military and
hospital supplies, and — at the time with which this
narrative is dealing — humanity's pleading cry from
their hospitals was heard day and night. They had
the means neither to succor their own sick and
wounded, nor to discharge their duties to the pris-
oners they held. The luxuries, too, once so abundant
and so hospitably shared, were all gone; rich and
poor were living from day to day on the plainest
food. As in the case of the North, the high wave of
volunteering for service in the field had passed, and
the conscripting officer had become a visitor at every
door, no matter how secluded in the woods or remote
in the mountains the home might be. At his first
visit he called for the boys of eighteen and the men
up to forty-five. Later he came again, and demanded
this time the boy of seventeen and the man of fifty.
Northern men, who after engagements went over the
fields where the Southern dead lay, will recall the
young faces and the venerable gray hairs among the
fallen. I saw a boy with a sweet face, who could not
have been over sixteen or seventeen years old, lying
on his back in a clover-field on the Beverly farm,
within sight of Spotsylvania. He had just been
killed. We had had two or three days of heavy rains,
but that morning it had cleared off smilingly. Only
22 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
a few drifting white clouds were left, and I am sure
that they and the door of Heaven opened tenderly
for his spirit as it mounted from the blooming clover.
Well, so it was, — the boys and all the old men had
been gleaned.
While these bitter experiences and disappoint-
ments were following one another year after year
with their deepening gloom, a profound seriousness,
which is reflected, I think, in the prayers, sermons,
and diaries of the time, spread over the entire South.
As a result, the war's passions and the grounds of
its justification underwent a progressive metamor-
phosis in the minds and hearts of the Southern people,
and especially of its armies, not unlike that which
was going on simultaneously in the North. I some-
times think that a history of the Rebellion cannot
be full, just, or truly enlightening, that does not try
to give us as close and real a view as it can of these
spiritual changes. In the case of the South, it ac-
counts, or so it seems to me, for two very impressive
things, namely, the gallantry with which Lee's army
battled on, when the chance of success was almost
hopeless; and the dearness of the memory of the
Confederacy to all of them, notwithstanding that
they see now, as we all see, that it was best that it
should fail.
,This change in the temper of the South in regard
to the war and its issues embodied itself finally, as
in the North, in a spirit of consecration. And to
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 23
\ what? Her ports closed, her resources nearly ex-
hausted, her dwindling armies suffering for food and
clothing, a wide zone of desolation along her northern
border, and unfriended by one of all the nations of
the world, the South in her chagrin, humiliation, and
despair turned for comfort to mind and heart, as we
all do at last, invoking the guidance and help of her
naturally religious better nature. In that solemn
hour, banishing from her presence the hitherto
baneful companions Arrogance and Disdain, who
had caused her to drink of the full stream of trouble,
she summoned back that master workman. Judg-
ment, to whom in her delirium she had not listened;
and behold, there came with him an immortal youth
whose name is The Future. The former, facing the
cold realities, pronounced slavery dead, whether the
Confederacy lived days or years; and Lincoln's
emancipation proclamation, not the decree of one
man, but the fiat of the civilized world.
While Judgment's verdict grew weightier and more
certain as clearer and clearer became the writing on
the wall, the immortal youth slowly drew back one
of his curtains, revealing slavery becoming more and
more abhorrent as mankind rose in intelligence and
gentleness. Honor and Manliness, those two high-
minded brothers in the Southerner's character,
shrank back at the sight, and declared their unwill-
ingness to leave as the ultimate verdict of history
that the Southland, the home of Washington and
U THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
Jefferson, had plunged the country into war for the
preservation of an institution so repellent. Then up
spoke that mighty, but not over-scrupulous advocate
called Reason; yet on this occasion he spoke with
sincerity unfeigned, saying : —
"If there are wrongs, there are also rights. Man-
kind knows that we of to-day are not responsible for
slavery. It descended to us from our fathers, and
through generations it has knit itself into our homes,
our social and our political life. We cannot separate
ourselves from it at once, if we would, without chaos
and possibly universal massacre. But if our slaves
are entitled to freedom, then we are entitled to
govern ourselves; for that is the first of the heaven-
born rights in the hands of freemen. In other words,
w^e are asking only for our natural rights incorporated
in the rights of our states, which underlie the founda-
tions of the Union;" — and in majesty before the
Southern mind the original sovereignty of the old
colonies, with Washington and Adams at the head,
passed in review. " No, whatever may have been our
delirium at the beginning of the war, we are not fight-
ing for the defense of property in human beings, but
for the ineradicable and unconquerable instinct of
self-government as states; and for our homes."
And lo! at this point of the argument, the light of
their burning homes flashed across the scene; for
hardly a day or night passed that somewhere the
Southern sky was not lit by them. Whereupon,
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 25
leader and oflScer and man in the ranks rose as one,
and facing the immortal Youth, in whose eyes lay
the question of justification, exclaimed resolutely:
"On the ground of the right of self-government we
will stand; and committing our souls to God and our
memories to those who follow us, let history record
what it may as to our justification in the years and
days to come." And thus having answered the ques-
tion in the eyes of The Future, reverently and calmly,
they fell on their knees and asked God to bless them.
There, reader, we have the spring of their fortitude,
and there we touch the tender chords which keep the
memory of the Confederacy dear.
And really, friends, sure of the grounds of their
construction of the Constitution and in the shadow
of the clouds that overhung them, addressed by all
the voices of their and our common nature, and
moved by those deep currents which flow in every
heart, could any other possible conclusion be ex-
pected of a proud people? I think not. -c
And now, having set forth, I trust with fidelity,
I know with charity, the state of affairs North and
South, as well as I can; and having brought into
view, as faithfully and vividly as lies in my power,
the spirits which animated both armies, my narrative
will go on.
After Gettysburg, Lee, with what must have been
a heavy heart, led his sorely wounded army back
26 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
into Virginia. Then, passing through the upper gaps
of the Blue Ridge, he took his stand once more behind
the Rappahannock, near whose banks lower down
he had played as a boy. Meade followed him, and
when I was recalled from Gettysburg and rejoined
his headquarters, I found them near Fayetteville,
a little hamlet between Bealeton and Warrenton.
They were pitched on a rise in a heaving old planta-
tion more or less shadowed by a scattered growth
of young pines. I was glad to get back. The month
I had passed at Gettysburg, however, was very
interesting, and has left many memories, most of
them dear to me. But after a battle is over and the
army gone, you see the obverse side of glory so plainly
that you long to get away from the blood-stained
fields, and the ever-speaking loneliness of the shallow
graves, to join your young, light-hearted friends
around the cheering camp-fires.
A few days after my return an incident took place
which I think I should have laughed over whether
we had gained a victory at Gettysburg or not. The
tent I occupied was nearly opposite that of Colonel
Schriver, Inspector-General on the staff. The old
Colonel was rather spare, stern, and always neatly
arrayed. About church- time, one very sunshiny
Sabbath morning, I noticed him walking back and
forth before his tent in high and brilliantly polished
cavalry boots, with prayer-book in hand, reading
his prayers. I thought what a splendid example of a
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 27
follower of Jesus! and wished that I had the courage
to perform my devotions so openly, and acknowledge
that while I was a soldier of the Army of the Potomac
I was also a soldier of the Cross. Suddenly I heard
him call out, "James! James IT^ James was his
strapping young colored boy, and had a very nappy
head. I looked up. The Colonel had halted, and his
eyes were glaring across his well-defined nose toward
James, who, sprawled out and bareheaded, was sun-
ning himself with several other headquarters darkies
behind the tent, and had probably gone dead asleep.
"What are you up to there, you damned black
rascal ! " roared the Colonel. " Lift those tent-walls ! "
James was on his feet with startling rapidity, and
dived for the tent-ropes. Up came the prayer-book,
out went the Colonel's left foot, and when I saw his
lips begin moving again reverently, boylike, I tum-
bled down on my bed and nearly died laughing.
Even now a smile ripples as I recall the scene. Surely,
our inconsistencies are a blessing, for they are one
of the perpetual fountains of amusement.
The army was occupying the north bank of the
Rappahannock, from Kelly's Ford, a few miles below
where the Orange and Alexandria Railroad crosses
the river, up to Warrenton. It had almost recovered
from its severe engagement, and was beginning to
realize the magnitude and significance of the victory
it had won. That mild and deep joy which a soldier
always feels when he has met danger and done his
28 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
duty was in the hearts of alL Camp was bound to
camp, corps to corps, and officer to private, by the
ties of a new sense of high fellowship which proved
to be abiding. This inspiring relation, the most val-
uable in an army's life, had been smelted, so to
speak, in those three trying days at Gettysburg when
cavalry, infantry, and artillery, line-officers, staff -
officers, and privates in the ranks had witnessed
each other's steady, heroic conduct. And the result
of this supreme test of courage was that officers and
men of the Army of the Potomac felt that respect
for one another and that pride in one another that
only a battlefield can create. Whoever will read the
story of Gettysburg will gain a notion how and why
these ties were formed. Every living veteran who
was there will recall Webb, Gushing, Woodruff,
Haskell, and Hall; the latter carried as mild a face
as graced the West Point battalion in my day. I saw
Haskell frequently, and I have no doubt that Duty
and Courage visit often, and linger fondly, around
the spot where he fell at Cold Harbor.
Allow me to add what I know to be true, that no
matter how high or how low may be an officer's rank,
no matter where he was educated, what name he
bears, what blood may be in his veins, or what wealth
at his command, if, when he is going up under fire,
mounted or dismounted, a private or non-commis-
sioned officer near him advances beside him with
undaunted face, — more than once it was a lad from
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 29
a farm or humble walk in life, — all the claims of
rank, wealth, and station are lost in admiration and
sympathetic comradeship. What is more, he never
forgets the boy.
In this connection I trust I may refer with" pro-
priety to what a member of the Supreme Court of
the United States, a learned judge who carries some
of the country's best blood, and who spilled some of
it on several fields, told me one evening, before a
quietly burning wood-fire, of an impression made
on him at the Wilderness. In the midst of darkness
and widespread panic, veteran regiments and bri-
gades of the Sixth Corps breaking badly, an oflScer
who had only casually gained his attention called
out above the din, in a voice of perfect control,
"Steady, steady — Massachusetts!" The gallant
regiment steadied, and the incident left, as an endur-
ing memory, the cool voice of the obscure officer still
ringing across the vanished years.
Nay, we think, in fact we know, that the final test
of the soldier is when the colors move forward or the
enemy comes on at them. Thank God for all the
tender and iron-hearted young fellows who have
stood it! %
From that camp dates my first deep interest in
the unfortunate Warren, for it was there, while
messing with him and his fellow engineer-officers on
the staff, that I saw him day after day at close range.
The glory of having saved Round Top was beginning
30 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
to break around him, and shortly after, as a reward,
Meade assigned him to the command of Hancock's
corps, Hancock having been wounded at Gettysburg.
But however keen and full may have been his in-
ward joy, the joy of having done his duty, and saved
a glorious field, it altered not his bearing, — which was
that of the thoughtful, modest scholar rather than
the soldier, — nor did it kindle any vanity in look
or speech. It may have accounted, however, for the
manifestation of what seemed to me a queer sense
of humor, namely, his laughing and laughing again
while alone in his tent over a small volume of "lim-
ericks," the first to appear, as I remember, in this
country. He would repeat them at almost every
meal, and, I think, with wonder that they did not
seem nearly so amusing to others as they did to him.
I am satisfied that it takes a transverse kind of humor
to enjoy limericks.
There was a note of singular attraction in his voice.
His hair, rather long and carried flat across his well-
balanced forehead, was as black as I have ever seen.
His eyes were small and jet black also, one of them
apparently a bit smaller than the other, giving a
suggestion of cast in his look. But the striking char-
acteristic was an habitual and noticeably grave
expression which harbored in his dusky, sallow face,
and instead of lighting, deepened as he rose in fame
and command. Now, as I recall his seriousness and
almost sympathy-craving look as an instructor at
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 31
West Point, and think over his beclouded, heart-
broken end, I never see the name of Five Forks that
I do not hear Sheridan peremptorily relieving him
just after the victory was won, and while the smoke
of battle still hung in the trees. From my youth, I
have seen Fate's shadow falling across events, and I
incline to believe that evil fortune took up its habita-
tion in that deeply sallow, wistful face long before
he or any one else dreamed of the great Rebellion.
But, be that as it may, in that sunny field at head-
quarters of the Army of the Potomac, I gained my
first boyhood impressions of Warren, whose sad fate
haunts that army's history.
And now, on those soft mountain and valley winds
of memory, which always set in when anything pen-
sive warms the heart, are borne the notes of the
bugles sounding taps in the camps around us on those
long-vanished August nights. Camp after camp takes
up the call, some near, some far. The last of the clear,
lamenting tones die away sweetly and plaintively
in the distance, and back comes the hush of night
as of old. Again the sentinels are marching their
beats slowly, most of them thinking of home, now and
then one, with moistened eyes, of a baby in a cradle.
Peace to the ashes of Warren, peace to those of the
sentinels of the Army of the Potomac who walked
their posts on those gone-by, starry nights.
L
II
After several abortively offensive movements by
each of the armies during the autumn of 1863, they
went into winter quarters: Lee, with his army well
in hand, on the south bank of the Rapidan; Meade,
between the Rapidan and the Rappahannock. The
former's headquarters were among some pines and
cedars at the foot of Clarke's Mountain, near Orange
Court House; the latter 's were on a knoll covered
with tall young pines about a mile and a half north-
west from Brandy Station. The bulk of the army
of the Potomac was around Culpeper and Stevens-
burg; one corps, the Fifth, under Warren, stretched
northward along the Orange and Alexandria Rail-
road— at present the Southern — as far as Calver-
ton; the Sixth was between the railroad and Hazel
River, a little tributary of the Rappahannock, the
Second around Stevensburg, the First and Third,
consolidated before we moved with the other three,
were about Culpeper. Lee's principal depot for sup-
plies was at Orange Court House, ours at Brandy,
where I passed the greater part of the winter in
charge of the ordnance depot.
The town, about midway between Culpeper and the
Rappahannock, then had only three or four houses
and a one-story, unpainted, lonely sort of a building
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 33
for receiving freight. A good deal of military history
of interest is connected with Brandy ; for in the
rolling fields of the plantations about it, Lee, just
before setting out for Gettysburg, reviewed Stuart's
cavalry, ten to twelve thousand strong. The dew was
still on his great victory at Chancellorsville, won in
the month before, and the review, according to all
accounts, was a pageant, drawing people from far and
near. Ladies, young and old, of Culpeper, Charlottes-
ville, and more distant points in Virginia, were there,
and around some of the horses' necks, and hanging
from the cantles of the saddles, and at the heads of
the fluttering guidons, were bouquets and bunches
of wild flowers which they had brought with them.
They were proud, and justly so, of their sons, bro-
thers, and lovers; and I really believe that the future
of the Confederacy never looked so fair to them, or
to those at its helm as on that June day.
It will be remembered that in the deep mist of the
morning following the review our cavalry crossed the
Rappahannock and gave Stuart desperate battle
right around Brandy; and it is a matter of history
that our mounted force had its baptism on that field.
For two years it had been a negligible quantity, and
scorned by its enemy ; but from then on to the
end our cavalry met the enemy sternly, with increas-
ing bravery and effectiveness. The battle lasted
nearly all day and was very severe; Buford, Gregg,
Custor, Merritt, Kilpatrick, and the lamented Davis,
34 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
were all there. My tent at the station, pitched after
dark and partly floored, I discovered later was over
the grave of some one who had fallen in those re-
peated charges. The other day I wandered over those
same fields: cattle and sheep were grazing up the
slopes where the squadrons had marched in the June
sunshine; killdeers with banded necks and bladed
wings, turtle-doves, meadow-larks, and serenely
joyous little sparrows were flying and singing where
the flags had fluttered and the bugles sounded. (
In view of the fact that the bulk of the supplies
to meet the daily wants of the army, then consisting
of a hundred thousand men, and between forty and
fifty thousand animals, were sent to Brandy, it is easy
to imagine that it was a very busy place. Of course
they all came by rail from Washington and Alex-
andria. Those for the ordnance, hospital, and cloth-
ing departments were put under cover in temporary
buildings, while forage, and unperishable quarter-
master and commissary stores, were racked up and
covered by tarpaulins along the track and sidings.
Some of the piles were immense, and from morning
till night trains of army wagons were coming and
going, or stood occupying all the open space around
the station, waiting for their turn to load.
In the history of the Fifth Massachusetts is the
following letter from one of the sergeants of the
battery. It is dated April 30, 1864.
"The next battle will be a rouser! The rebels of
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 35
Lee's army are all ready for us, and are said to be
ninety thousand. They will give us a tough pull if
my opinion amounts to anything.
"To-day I was up to Brandy Station. You can
form no idea of the bustle and confusion at this
depot when the army is getting ready to move. It
looked to me as if a thousand or more wagons were
waiting to load, and there were immense piles of
ammunition and all kinds of Ordnance Stores, etc.,
etc., and piles of boxes of hard bread as high as two
and three-story houses. It reminded me some of a
wharf in New York with twelve or fifteen ships load-
ing and unloading."
The trains were generally in charge of sergeants,
but were often accompanied by their brigade and
division officers, so that those of us at the head of
depots gained a wide acquaintance throughout the
army. Frequently these officers staid with us for
dinner; and as my fellow messmate was Dr. J. B.
Brinton of Philadelphia, in charge of the medical
supplies, and as surgeons, like certain aspiring young
lawyers, never cease to talk about their cases, I
knew a good many surgeons well, and understood
at least a part of their professional lingo.
The wagons were generally drawn by six mules
driven by negroes, who rode the nigh wheeler and
managed the team by a jerk line to the nigh leader.
In these days it may seem like a shiftless way to
drive a team, but it worked well, and possibly be-
36 THE BATTLE OF THE WH^DERNESS
cause the darkies and the mules, through some me-
dium or other, understood each other perfectly; at
any rate, the drivers talked to their teams as if they
comprehended every word said to them; and some-
times it was worth listening to, when the roads were
bad and some of the wagons ahead of them were stuck
in the mud. "Calline" (Caroline, the nigh leader),
giving her an awakening jerk of the line, "stop
dreamin' with dem y'ears o' yourn." "Jer'miah"
(Jeremiah, the off wheeler), "you'll think the insex
is bit'n you if you don't put dem sholdahs agin dat
collah." "Dan'l" (Daniel, the wheeler he is on),
giving him a sharp dig in the ribs with his boot-heels,
the road getting heavier every minute, "no foolin',
you old hahdened sinnah!" "Member, Mrs. N'nias"
(Mrs. Ananias, off leader), "if dis yere wagon sticks
in dat hole ahead o' you, you'll wish you're down in
the dakh grave 'longside dat lie'n husband o' yourn."
And, on reaching the worst place in the road, yelling
"Yep! Yah!" loud enough to be heard half-way from
Washington to Baltimore, every prophet and lady
mule in the team knew what to expect if the wagon
stuck, and generally the faithful creatures pulled it
through.
In one of the teams of the ammunition-trains that
came to the depot, there was a little bay mule, the
leader, that wore a small and sweetly tinkling sheep-
bell. I stroked her silky nose and neck often and was
always glad to see her. On the Mine Run campaign.
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 87
one of the abortive campaigns referred to above, in
December, 1863, while riding from Ely's Ford to
Meade's headquarters at Robertson's Tavern on the
Orange and Fredericksburg pike, a road which will
be mentioned over and over again later, I overtook a
long train. My progress by it was necessarily slow,
for it was a pitch-dark night and the road narrow and
very bad. But when I got near the head of the train
I heard the little tinkling bell, and soon was along-
side the faithful creature tugging away to the front.
It may seem ridiculous, but I felt I had met a friend,
and rode by her side for quite a while. I do not re-
member seeing her again till the army was crossing
the James near Fort Powhatan.
While I do not wish to encumber the narrative
with a burden of figures, yet it may interest the
reader to know that we had in the Army of the
Potomac, the morning we set off on the great cam-
paign, 4300 wagons and 835 ambulances. There
were 34,981 artillery, cavalry, and ambulance horses,
and 22,528 mules, making an aggregate of 57,509
animals. The strength of the Army of the Potomac
was between ninety-nine and one hundred thousand
men. Burnside, who caught up with us the second
day of the Wilderness, brought with him about
twenty thousand more.
My original telegraph book, now before me, shows
that I called for and issued between April 4 and May
2, the day before we moved, in addition to equip-
88 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
ments and supplies of all kinds for infantry, artillery
and cavalry, 2,325,000 rounds of musket and pistol
cartridges as a reserve for what was already on hand.
"When Sheridan returned from his Trevihan raid and
battle, we then had gone as far on our way toward
Richmond as the White House, Mrs. Washington's
attractive old home on the Pamunkey. At the men-
tion of the memorable place, back comes the odor
of mint being brewed in a julep, mint gathered in
the famous war-stricken garden; and back come also
a squad of dust-covered soldiers removing tenderly
the bodies of their gallant commanders. Porter and
Morris, killed at Cold Harbor, from ambulances,
and bearing them aboard the boat for home. While
at White House I ordered 88,600 rounds of pistol
and carbine ammunition for Sheridan's command
alone. When we reached City Point a few days later
— the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor lay
behind us — I called, on one requisition, for 5,863,000
rounds of infantry and 11,000 rounds of artillery
ammunition, this 11,000 in addition to a like amount
received at White House.
I should be untrue to my memory of Brandy if I
did not record my high regard for my messmate
through all that long winter of '63 and '64, Dr. J.
B. Brinton, an assistant surgeon in the regular army.
Transparency in minerals is rare, and always carries
a suggestion of refinement; in the characters of men
it is supreme, overtopping genius itself. It was Brin-
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 39
ton's steady characteristic, and in all the long pro-
cession of friends that have blest my way through
life I recall no one more humanly real, or who had
more natural sweetness, or who cherished better
ideals. Moreover, there was a fountain of quiet joy-
ousness about him, too, and I fondly believe that the
recording angel has but little in his book against
either of us for those winter days and nights. For
I know we passed them without envy, hatred, or
malice toward any one in the world.
There was an incident in our life at Brandy, con-
nected with Gettysburg, which possibly is worth
relating. Batchelder, whose map of the battlefield
of Gettysburg is authority, and whom we had fallen
in with while we were there, asked to join our mess
at Brandy when he came to the army to verify the
positions of the various commands. One night, just
after we had sat down to dinner, he entered quite tired.
"Well," he announced, taking his place at the table,
"I have been in the Second Corps to-day, and I believe
I have discovered how Joshua made the sun stand still.
I first went to regiment and had the oflScers mark
on the map the hour of their brigade's position at a
certain point. Then I went to regiment in the
same brigade; they declared positively it was one or
two hours earlier or later than that given by the other.
So it went on, no two regiments or brigades agreeing,
and if I hinted that some of them must certainly be
mistaken, they would set me down by saying, with
40 THE) BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
severe dignity, 'We were there, Batehelder, and we
ought to know, I guess'; and I made up my mind
that it would take a day of at least twenty hours
instead of thirteen at Gettysburg to satisfy their ac-
counts. So, when Joshua's captains got around him
after the fight and they began to talk it over, the
only way under the heavens that he could ever
harmonize their statements was to make the sun
stand still and give them all a chance." Any one
who has ever tried to establish the exact position or
hour when anything took place in an engagement
will confirm Batchelder's experience; and possibly,
if not too orthodox, accept his explanation of Josh-
ua's feat.
My duties called me daily to Meade's headquar-
ters; and when his Chief of Ordnance, John R. Edie of
Pennsylvania and of the class ahead of mine at West
Point, was away on leave I took his place there per-
manently. Meade at this time was in his forty-ninth
year, and his Gettysburg laurels were green. His face
was spare and strong, of the Romanish type, its com-
plexion pallid. His blue eyes were prominent, coldly
penetrating and underhung by sweeping lobes that
when cares were great and health not good had a
rim of purplish hue. His height was well above the
average, and his mien that of a soldier, a man of
the world, and a scholarly gentleman. He wore a
full, but inconspicuous beard, and his originally deep
chestnut, but now frosted hair, was soft and inclined
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 41
to wave on good, easy terms with his conspicuous and
speaking forehead. His manners were native and
high-bred, but, alas! they reared a barrier around
him which cut him off from the love of his army,
and I doubt if it would ever have rallied around
him had he been relieved and recalled, as it did
around McClellan. In social hours, when things were
going well, no man in civil or military life would
outshine him in genial spirits or contribution of easy
and thoughtful suggestive speech.
He had, too, that marvelous instrument, a rich,
cultivated voice. But nature had not been alto-
gether partial: she had given him a most irritable
temper. I have seen him so cross and ugly that no
one dared to speak to him, — in fact, at such times
his staff and everybody else at headquarters kept as
clear of him as possible. As the campaign progressed,
with its frightful carnage and disappointments, his
temper grew fiercer — but, save Grant's, everybody's
got on edge, and it was not to be wondered at.
Nevertheless, Meade was a fine, cultivated, and gal-
lant gentleman, and as long as the victory of Gettys-
burg appeals to the people he will be remembered
gratefully, and proudly too. In camp his military
coat, sack in cut, was always open, displaying his
well-ordered linen, vest, and necktie; when mounted,
he wore a drooping army hat, yellow gauntlets, and
rode a bald-faced horse with a fox-walk which kept
all in a dog-trot to keep up with him, and on more
42 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
than one occasion some one of the staff was heard
to say, "Damn that horse of Meade's! I wish he
would either go faster or slower."
Hancock, who commanded the Second Corps, was,
like Hooker, a very handsome, striking-looking man;
both were of the military type and looked and moved
grandly. He was symmetrically large, with chest-
nut hair and rather low forehead, but authority
was in his open face, which, when times were storm-
ing, became the mirror of his bold heart; "so that
in battle," says Walker, his distinguished Inspec-
tor-General, " where his men could see him, as
at Williamsburg and Gettysburg, he lifted them
to the level of his impetuous valor. But when
he was surrounded by woods and he could not see
his enemy, as at Ream's Station and the Wilder-
ness, he was restless and shorn of much of his effec-
tiveness, very unlike the great commander he was
as he rode up and down his lines, inspiring them
with his electrical energy, until severely wounded,
when Pickett was coming on." When he returned to
duty I happened to be at Meade's headquarters.
Some one observed, "There's Hancock," who was
just dismounting. Meade came hurrying out from his
quarters, bareheaded and with illuminated face —
I can hear his rich-toned voice as he said, "I'm glad
to see you again, Hancock," and grasped the latter 's
outstretched hand with both of his. They had not
seen each other since the great day.
THE BATTLE OF THE WH-DERNESS 43
Sedgwick, who commanded the Sixth Corps, was
stocky, had short, curhng chestnut hair, was a bache-
lor, and spent lots of time playing solitaire. His
whole manner breathed of gentleness and sweetness,
his soldiers called him Uncle John, and in his broad
breast was a boy's heart. I saw him only a few
hours before it ceased to beat at Spotsylvania.
Sheridan joined the army just before we moved
and so I saw much less of him than of any of the
other corps commanders. He was not of delicate
fibre. His pictures are excellent, preserving faith-
fully the animation of his ruddy, square face and
large, glowing dark eyes. With his close army asso-
ciates he threw off rank and fame and made many
a night memorable and loud, and Lee's final over-
throw is due in great measure to him. He had a
genius for war and his name will last long.
Meade's chief of staff was Humphreys, and as so
much of the success or failure of an army hangs on
that position, a word about him will not be out of
place. Moreover, his services were great as a corps
commander, for after we got in front of Petersburg,
Hancock, on account of his Gettysburg wound, had
to give up command, and Meade assigned Hum-
phreys to succeed him at the head of the famous
Second Corps. He was a small, bow-legged man,
with chopped-off, iron gray moustache; and when he
lifted his army hat you saw a rather low forehead, and
a shock of iron-gray hair. His blue-gray dauntless
44 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
eyes threw into his stern face the coldness of ham-
mered steel. I never saw it lit up with joy but
once, and that was long after the war, as he met an
old classmate at West Point on graduation day.
And yet off duty, by his simple manners, unfailing
in their courtesy, and his clear, easy, and informing
talk, he bound friends and strangers to him closely.
Look at him well: you are gazing at a hero, one
who has the austere charm of dignity and a well-
stored mind. Like a knight of old, Humphreys led
his division against the heights of Fredericksburg;
and at Gettysburg, on the second day, he was only
driven from the Emmitsburgh road salient after a
most desperate defense, probably saving the line. He
graduated in the class of 1831, Meade in that of 1835.
And now I come to two men on Meade's staff
whose names hke daisies in a meadow dot the his-
tory of the Army of the Potomac: Seth Williams,
who was the Adjutant-General, and General Henry
J. Hunt, Chief of Artillery. To set them forth so
that the reader would see them and know them as
they were, would give me keen pleasure, for there
never was a sweeter-tempered or kindlier heart than
Williams's, or a braver one than Hunt's. Williams's
hair was red, his face full, open and generous, and
always lit up as if there were a harp playing in his
breast. At Appomattox, when Lee was going through
the trying ordeal of surrendering his army, the only
one of all in the room whom he greeted with anything
THE BATTLE OF THE WH-DERNESS 45
like cordiality was Williams; for all others his face
wore its native dignity. Williams was from Maine,
and had been Lee's adjutant at West Point when
he was superintendent.
Hunt, the chief of artillery, whose complexion was
about the color of an old drum-head, had rather dull
black eyes, separated by a thin nose. His West Point
classmates loved him, and called him "Cupid." He
was lion-hearted, and had won brevet on brevet for
gallant conduct. At Gettysburg it was Hunt, riding
through the storm, who brought up the fresh bat-
teries and put them into action at the critical moment
of Pickett's charge. Both he and Williams have long
since made their bed in the grave.
There is a great temptation to dwell on other mem-
bers of the staff. On Ingalls, the chief quartermaster,
a classmate of Grant's: a chunky, oracular-looking
man who carried sedulously a wisp of long hair up
over his otherwise balding pate, and who, besides
being the best quartermaster the war produced,
could hold his own very well with the best poker
players in the army or Congress, and in those days
there were some very good ones in both Senate and
House. On McParlin, the head of the medical depart-
ment, Duane, the chief engineer, Michler, Mendell,
and Theodore Lyman of Boston, of Meade's staff. All
were my seniors, and their character and services I
remember with veneration. Especially would I love
to dwell on those who were about my own age, not
46 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
one of us over twenty-five, mere boys as it were:
Sanders, Bache, Bates, Edie, Cadwalader, Biddle,
Pease, and handsome George Meade, with whom
I passed many a pleasant hour. So far as our services
or personaHties had significance, we were like the
little feathery clouds which sometimes fringe great
ones as they bear steadily on. And, truly like them,
we have melted away. The big clouds, on the other
hand, that we accompanied, at more or less dis-
tance, with such light hearts. Grant and Meade, are
lying richly banded low down across the glowing sun-
set sky of History. When I visited the knoll, a few
weeks ago, where Meade had his headquarters, and
where we all passed a happy winter, — it is now
bare, clothed only in grass, with here and there an
apple tree or a locust in bloom, that have taken
the places of the young pines, — I thought of them
all. It is needless to say that the scene from the
old camp offered its contrasts. WTiere desolation
had brooded, clover was blooming; in the fields
where the bleaching bones of cattle, horses, and
mules, had stippled the twilight, the plough was
upturning the rich red earth with its sweet, fresh
breath of promise. In short, the choral songs of
Peace and Home had replaced the dirges which
underlie the march of glory.
Grant had his headquarters in the Barbour house
in Culpeper, now the site of the county jail. At this
time he was in his forty-second year, having gradu-
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 47
ated at West Point in 1843. I am not vain enough
to think that anything I may say will add to the
world's knowledge of him. Several of his personal
aides, and many admirers, have written books about
him which like sconces throw their beams on his per-
sonality and remarkable career, but neither they as
friends or the predacious critics who have driven their
beaks fiercely into him, have yet revealed to me the
source of the fascinating mystery in his greatness.
When he came to the Army of the Potomac — I
remember the day well — I never was more surprised
in my life. I had expected to see quite another type
of man: one of the chieftain-type, surveying the
world with dominant, inveterate eyes and a certain
detached military loftiness. But behold, what did
I see? A medium-sized, mild, unobtrusive, incon-
spicuously dressed, modest and naturally silent man.
He had a low, gently vibrant voice and steady,
thoughtful, softly blue eyes. Not a hint of self-con-
sciousness, impatience, or restlessness, either of mind
or body; on the contrary, the centre of a pervasive
quiet which seemed to be conveyed to every one
around him — even the orderlies all through the cam-
paign were obviously at their ease. I often looked
at him as I might have looked at any mystery, as
day after day I saw him at his headquarters, es-
pecially after we had reached City Point, — the
Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor, with
their frightful losses, lying behind us.
48 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
There was nothing in his manner or his tone or his
face that indicated that he had ever had anything
to do with the victories of Fort Donelson, Vicksburg,
and Missionary Ridge, or that his unfinished task,
so momentous for the country, troubled him. There
was certainly something evoking about him. What
of the earth, earthy, what of exceeding greatness,
what dim constellation of virtues, were looking out
of that imperturbable but sadly earnest face.^* At
one time, and not long before the period dealt with,
lean Want had sat at his table. Few tried companions
frequented his door or cheered his fireside then. The
war comes on, the spirit of the age, as I believe, in
the guise of Opportunity knocks at his door, and
without powerful friends to back him, and with no
social or political influence to clear the way for him,
in less than four years, never courting advancement,
never resenting malevolent criticism or ill treatment,
tempted always, there he was aloft in the country's
eye the winner of its telling victories, a Lieutenant-
General in command of all the armies of the North,
and with the destiny of the Republic hanging on him!
Has Genius ever shown her transcendency more mas-
terfully?
It is needless for me to add that, marvelous as this
career had been, the future was to unfold it, rising
far above the level of wonder. If his antagonist Lee
be the culmination of the gentleman and soldier of
our land, and of all lands, Grant made the splendor
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 49
of his background for him by putting into the hith-
erto hard face of war two humanizing features, chiv-
alry's posies so fragrant with glory, magnanimity
and modesty in the hour of Victory.
There was one man on Grant's staff whose name
should not be forgotten; in fact, it ought to be carved
on every monument erected to Grant, for it was
through him. Colonel John F. Rawlins, his chief of
staff, that Grant's good angel reached him her steady-
ing and uplifting hand. He was above medium size,
wore a long black beard, and talked in a loud, em-
phatic voice. Sincerity and earnestness was the look
of his face.
He had on his staff three of my West Point ac-
quaintances, Comstock, Babcock, and Porter. Com-
stock had been one of the instructors in mathematics;
Babcock and Porter had been in the corps with me.
Captain Hudson of his staff I have good reason for
remembering; for I was playing "seven-up," with
him and the late Admiral Clitz of the navy, when
my ordnance depot at City Point was blown up by a
torpedo brought down from Richmond, and placed
by a couple of daring Confederates clothed in our
uniform on the deck of a barge loaded with artillery
ammunition. Our innocent game was going on in
the tent of Captain Mason, who commanded Grant's
escort. First came the explosion of the depot, that
shook the earth and was felt for miles; then a solid
shot tore through the mess chest. I doubt if a game
50 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
of cards ever ended quicker than that one. We
fairly flew from the tent, and at once came under
a shower of bursting shells and falling wreckage.
One of the barge's old ribs, that must have weighed
at least a ton, dropped right in front of Clitz.
Changing his course, he uttered only one remark, the
first half of the 35 th verse of the 11th chapter of the
Holy Gospel of Saint John. Then, with eyes on the
ground, and wondering, I suspect, what would come
next, he passed at great speed right by Grant, who
in his usually calm voice asked, "Where are you
going, Clitz?" The admiral hove to, and then
streaked it for his war vessel, and we never finished
the game.
The youngest and nearest my own age on Grant's
staff was "Billy" Dunn, one of the best and truest
friends I ever had. He had reddish hair and naturally
smiling eyes, and died not long after the war. Peace,
peace be on the spot where the brave and sweet-
hearted fellow sleeps!
The looming gravity of the situation North and
South, which I have tried to depict, left no doubt, I
think, in the minds of Grant and Lee, that the com-
ing campaign called on Lee to give Grant a crushing
defeat at the very outset of the campaign; or at least
a blow that would send him reeling back across
the Rapidan, leaving him stunned and helpless for
months, as Burnside and Hooker had been left before
him. For he knew, and every observer of the times
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 51
knew, that such a defeat would give to the dastard
Peace Party, on whom the last hope of the Con-
federacy hung, immediate and bold encouragement
to declare "the War a failure," and at the coming
presidential election,Lincoln's administration, pledged
to its continuance, would be swept away. In that
case, every leader and private in the Confederate
Army knew that, once their inwardly despised friends
got hold of the helm, under the cowardly cloak of
humanity they would ask for an armistice. That
granted, the goal would be reached and their weary
Confederacy, weighted down with slavery, would
be at rest. The children of the leaders of the Peace
Party of the North ought to thank God for balking
their fathers' incipient treason; for where would
their present pride of country he? The last hopes
then of reaching a harbor called on Lee for a vic-
tory; our country's destiny on Grant, for the com-
plete destruction of Lee's army; for until then there
could be no peace with safety and honor.
Little would it avail or does it seem necessary for
me to discuss the military problem that confronted
these two great Captains. What they might have done
by throwing their armies this way and that I '11 leave
to the bass-drum wisdom of theoretical strategists.
The moves they made were determined primarily,
as in all campaigns, by the natural features of the
country, the safety and facility of obtaining supplies,
and the exigencies of their respective governments.
52 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
As has been said, Grant's and Lee's armies were
on the Orange and Alexandria, now the Southern,
Railroad. Each was about the same distance from
his capital, whose capture meant in either case the
end of the war. The Confederacy would have its
place among nations if Lee took Washington, its
death beyond resurrection if Grant took Richmond.
Grant's headquarters at Culpeper were about sixty
miles southwest from Washington; Lee's at Orange
Court House, sixteen or eighteen miles farther south,
were in the vicinity of seventy miles northwest from
Richmond; in geometrical terms, the armies were
at the apex of a flat isosceles triangle, its base a line
running almost due north and south from Washing-
ton to Richmond. Twenty-odd miles to the west,
beyond the camps of both armies, rose in matchless
splendor the azure sky-line of the Blue Ridge, behind
which lies the Valley of the Shenandoah, Lee's gate-
way for his two invasions of the North, and availed
of by him for repeated strategical movements
whereby he forced the Army of the Potomac to fall
back for the safety of Washington. We all see now
that a point convenient to the Baltimore and Ohio
road at the foot of the valley should have been forti-
fied, garrisoned, and guarded as tenaciously as Wash-
ington itself.
Down from this beautiful range come the Rappa-
hannock and the Rapidan, — rivers whose names we
shall repeat so often, — which, after flowing through
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THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 53
many an oak and chestnut wood and by many a
smiling plantation, meet in the northern belt of the
Wilderness, about twenty miles as the crow flies east
of Culpeper, and nearly the same distance west of
Fredericksburg. These rivers, the Rappahannock
somewhat the larger, the Rapidan the faster, hold
rich secrets of the struggle, for many a night the
armies camped on their banks, and many a time
crossed and recrossed them, sometimes in victory,
and after Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville in
dismal defeat. And now that I speak of them, I
see them flowing in their willow-fringed channels
and I hear their low musical tongues once more.
-The country through which they run, and our corps'
camps during the winter of 1863-4, can best be seen
from the top of Mt. Pony, a wooded detached foothill
of the Blue Ridge, that rises abruptly near Culpeper.
From its top, looking north, the railroad is seen bear-
ing on from the Rappahannock, through an undu-
lating farming section, that is green and lovely: first
past Elkwood, then Brandy, and by one plantation
after another, on into the old and attractive town of
Culpeper. Somewhat to the northeast, four or five
miles away, and about equidistant from Brandy and
Culpeper, is a hamlet of a half-dozen age-worn houses
called Stevensburg, sitting at the foot of a bare hill
that looks like a giant asleep. It is Cole's or Lone
Tree Hill, so called from a single tall primeval tree that
spread its leafless limbs against the winter's morning
54 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
and evening skies. On and around this hill were the
camps of Hancock. A short while before we moved,
Sheridan assembled the second and third divisions
of his cavalry near Stevensburg. Custer had his
headquarters in the Barbour House, and Wilson at
the old Grayson Manor, known as Salubria, where
Jefferson on many an occasion was a guest and where
Lady Spottswood is buried. Stevensburg, like so
many of the old dreaming country towns of Virginia,
has proud memories of distinguished sons.
From the northwest comes into the little village
the road from Brandy, and from the west that from
Culpeper; both are mighty pleasant ones to follow
in May, when the rolling fields on either hand are
dotted with herds of grazing steers and the meadow-
larks are piping their clear, high, skyey notes. When
we set off for the Wilderness, Meade and his staff,
followed by the Sixth Corps, came down the one from
Brandy; Grant and his staff, followed by Warren
with the Fifth Corps, on that from Culpeper. At the
village these roads enter the main one that was built
in Washington's boyhood to connect Stevensburg
with Fredericksburg. This old highway is narrow,
and its course from Stevensburg is almost due east,
sometimes skirting lonely clearings but warping its
way most of the time through sombre woods, woods
with a natural deep silence, but flaming here and
there with clumps of azaleas in their season. At Ely's
Ford it crosses the Rapidan, which three or four
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 55
miles farther on falls into the Rappahannock. At
Sheppard's Grove, midway between Stevensburg and
Ely's Ford, a road branches off to Germanna Ford on
the Rapidan.
Alone in the woods along this road, and standing
close by it, is a little frame house painted white.
In its narrow dooryard and under each window to
the right and left of the door is a yellow rose-bush,
and on passing it lately, attracted by the beautiful
roses then in full bloom and the open door, I ven-
tured to stop and make a call. I discovered that a
pensioner, one of our old cavalry soldiers, lived there.
He was not at home, but his wife, a frank, naturally
pleasant gray-haired woman, seated in her rocking-
chair, told me that she was bom near by, her people
rankly Southern, and that she fell in love with her
Yankee husband while he was a sentinel at her
father's house. After the war — and she remembered
the volleys in the Wilderness well — her lover came
back, they were married, bought the little farm, built
the house, and transplanted the roses from the old
home: and as I rode away I thought of the red rose
of Lancaster and the white rose of York.
About a mile and a half beyond their little clear-
ing is Germanna Ford on the Rapidan. From there
runs a road to Stevensburg that crosses on its zigzag
way a pretty brook and passes through the famous
Willis plantation. All the roads that I have men-
tioned, and over which we moved, are intersected by
56 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
many country roads that are but little more than
tracks through the woods and fields.
There are two streams flowing through the land-
scape that spreads from Mt. Pony, which I should
like to mention, for I am indebted to them for many
a pleasant murmur, and because their mingled
waters, pouring over the dam at Paoli Mills, now
known as Stone's, told me where I was in the still
hours of the night, when misled by a guide while
carrying Grant's first despatches from the Wilder-
ness. They are Jonas and Mountain runs. The
former, much the smaller, rises in the fields beyond
Brandy, the latter among the foothills of the Blue
Ridge. They meet near Lone Tree Hill, and Moun-
tain Run winds on northeastwardly to the Rappa-
hannock, its course through stretches of oak, pine,
and cedar forest, where wild turkeys breed and red-
birds sing. WTien I was down there the other day,
the miller at Clarico's Mill, three or four miles above
Stone's, told me that a tame turkey, perfectly white,
had joined a flock of wild ones and roamed the neigh-
boring woods with them, — which suggests that our
natures, like theirs, perhaps, are not changed by the
feathers we wear.
Finally, before leaving Mt. Pony there is one
more feature to which I wish to call attention. To
the south, after traversing a gently sloping country
sprinkled with farms and woods, the fences between
the fields pomponed by small dark green cedars, the
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 57
eye catches the top of a blue veiled peak. It is Clarke's
Mountain, beyond the Rapidan, and was Lee's signal
station. But the particular feature to which I wish
to direct the reader's eye lies east of Clarke's Moun-
tain, a vast expanse of forest green, in spots almost
black, and reaching clear to the distant circling hori-
zon. Gaze at it long and well, for that is the Wilder-
ness, and when I saw it last from the top of the moun-
tain great white clouds were slowly floating over it.
In its wooded depths three desperate engagements
were fought between the Army of the Potomac and
the Army of Northern Virginia, — Chancellorsville,
Wilderness, and Spotsylvania, — in which, first and
last, over sixty thousand men, whose average age
did not exceed twenty-two years, were killed and
wounded. A circle described from Piney Branch
Church on the Catharpin road with a radius of five
miles will take in all these fields.
What is known as the Wilderness begins near
Orange Court House on the west and extends al-
most to Fredericksburg, twenty-five or thirty miles
to the east. Its northern bounds are the Rapidan
and the Rappahannock, and, owing to their winding
channels, its width is somewhat irregular. At Spot-
sylvania, its extreme southern limit, it is some ten
miles wide. There, as along most of its southern
border, it gives way to a comparatively open country.
This theatre of bloody conflicts is a vast sea, so to
speak, of dense forest — a second growth more than
58 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
a century old. It is made up chiefly of scrubby,
stubborn oaks, and low-limbed, disordered, haggard
pines, — for the soil is cold and thin, — with here
and there scattering clumps of alien cedars. Some of
the oaks are large enough to cut two railroad ties,
and every once in a while you come across an acre or
two of pines some ten to twelve inches in diameter,
tall and tapering, true to the soaring propensities of
their kind. But generally, the trees are noticeably
stunted, and so close together, and their lower limbs
so intermingled with a thick underbrush, that it is very
difficult indeed to make one's way through them.
The southern half of this lonely region may be
designated as low or gently rolling; but the northern
half, along the rivers, is marked by irregularly swell-
ing ridges. Where the battle was fought, which is
at about the heart of the Wilderness, and especially
on Warren's front, the surface of the ground resem-
bles a choppy sea more than anything else. There,
like waves, it will heave, sometimes gradually and
sometimes briskly, into ridges that all at once will
drop and break in several directions. Soon recover-
ing itself, off it will go again, smoothly ascending
or descending for a while, then suddenly pile up and
repeat what it did before, namely, fall into narrow
swales and shallow swamps where willows and alders
of one kind and another congregate, all tied together
more or less irrevocably by a round, bright-green,
bamboo-like vine.
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 59
There is something about the scrawny, moss-
tagged pines, the garroted alders, and hoary willows,
that gives a very sad look to these wet thickets;
and yet, for a few weeks in May and June, from them
a swamp honeysuckle, and now and then a wild rose,
will greet you joyously. As might be expected where
the trees stand so thickly as they do in the Wilderness,
a large number are dead. Here and there a good-
sized oak has been thrown down by a storm, smashing
everything in its way and pulling up with its roots
a shock of reddish-gray earth, making a bowl-shaped
pool on whose banks the little tree-frogs pipe the
solitude. Others in falling have been caught in the
arms of their living competitors and rest there with
their limbs bleaching, and now and then is one stand-
ing upright, alone, with lightning-scored trunk and
bare, pronged limbs, dead, dead among the living
green. The woods everywhere abound in tall huckle-
berry bushes, from whose depending limbs hang
racemes of modest, white, bell-shaped flowers.
As in all the woods of Virginia, there are many
dogwoods scattered about. Both they and the huckle-
berries were in full bloom when the battle was going
on, the dogwoods, with outspread, shelving branches,
appearing at times through the billowing smoke like
shrouded figures. I wonder how many glazing eyes
looked up into them and the blooming bushes and
caught fair visions !
Running through the Wilderness its entire length
60 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
is what is known as the Fredericksburg and Orange
Court-House Turnpike, a famous post road in the
old stage days. Leaving Fredericksburg, it bears
almost due west till it reaches the heart of the Wil-
derness; there it crosses Wilderness Run, and then,
diverting its course slightly to the south of west,
aims straight for Orange Court House, some eighteen
miles away. At the time of the war the stage-day
glory of the road and its old taverns, DowdalFs at
Chancellorsville, the Wilderness overlooking the run
of the same name, Robertson's at Locust Grove, was
all gone; most of the stables and some of the houses
were mere ruins, and the road-bed itself lapsed into
that of a common earth road. When the system of
plank roads came into vogue, about 1845, one
was built a few miles south of, but more or less
paralleling, the Turnpike. It is known as the Orange
and Fredericksburg Plank road, and at the time of
the battle was in about the same forlorn state as its
old rival, the Pike. If the reader has interest enough
in the narrative to consult a map, he will see the
relation of these roads to each other at the battle-
field, and will be able to locate three other roads,
namely the Brock, Germanna Ford and the Flat Run
roads, also two runs. Wilderness and Caton's, and
the Lacy farm. These are the natural features in the
richly crimsoned damask, so to speak, of the battle
of the Wilderness.
V The Lacy farm is a part of a once large domain
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 61
known as Elkwood, and has what in its day was a
stately homestead. Its fields, leaning against a ridge,
all face the morning sun. The two runs, Wilderness
and Caton's, may well be called Warrior Runs, for
at their cradles and along their voiceless banks more
men lost their lives, and more blood mingled with
the leaves that fall around them, than along any
two runs in our country, I believe. Caton's is much
the smaller and heads among the swales, in the angle
between the Germanna Road and the Pike. It loiters
down through the woods with many feathery branches
till it meets the Germanna Ford road, and then runs
alongside of it to within a few rods of the Pike, when
it strikes across and falls into Wilderness Run; some-
time before they part, the road and the cowslip-
gilded stream are in a narrow crease between two
ridges. Wilderness Run drains all the trapezoid be-
tween the Pike, the Plank and the Brock roads, or,
in other words, the battlefield. After leaving its
cradle, around which so much youthful blood was
shed, it flows noiselessly under willows and alders,
gleaming in the sunlight and moonlight past the Lacy
house, on to the Rapidan.
The clearings throughout the Wilderness, save the
Lacy farm and the openings about Chancellorsville
and Parker's store at the time of the war (and it is
almost as true now), are few and small. Many of
them are deserted, and their old fields preempted by
briars, sassafrgis, dwarf young pines and broom, be-
62 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
neath whose dun, lifeless tops the rabbits, and now
and then a flock of quail, make their winter homes.
There are several of these little clearings in the
battlefield, but the lines so ran in reference to them
that they did not allow the artillery of either army
to play a part. These lonely places are connected
with one another and the roads by paths that are
very dim and very deceitful to a stranger. Their real
destination is known only to the natives, and the
lank cattle that roam the woods, getting a blade here
and a blade there, oftentimes up to their knees in
the swales and swamps for a tuft. The lonely kling-
klang-klung of their bells on a May morning is pen-
sively sweet to hear.
This whole mystery-wrapped country is a mineral
region, holding pockets of iron ore and streaked with
lean insidious veins of gold-bearing quartz. On ac-
count of these ores Colonel Spottswood, for whom
the County of Spotsylvania is named, became the
owner of large tracts of the Wilderness. He uncov-
ered the ore-beds, built iron furnaces, and converted
the primeval forest into charcoal to feed them. Some
of the pits, and many of the wood roads from them
and the ore-beds to the furnaces, are still traceable.
All this was at an early day, as far back as the reign
of King George II; for the colonel speaks of him in
his deeds as his Sovereign Lord. The present timber
aspect is due entirely to the iron furnaces and their
complete destruction of the first noble growth.
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 63
My mind never turns to those long-since cold fur-
naces that a mantled figure, mysterious but very real,
does not arise before me, and which, like a portentous
note, now and again keys the narrative. Lo! there
it is, its uplifted hand pointing toward a resurrected
procession of dim faces, and as they move in ghostly
silence I hear it saying: By the labor of slaves chiefly
those iron furnaces were reared; it was they who
mined the ore, cut down the woods, and faithfully
tended the lonely smouldering pits (in the solemn
hours of the night, alone in the woods, what a vo-
cation that was for reflection on the rights and wrongs
in life, — some of the pits were not far from where
Stonewall Jackson and Longstreet received those
fateful volleys from their own men); they who at
last tapped the stacks of their molten, red metal,
metal that sooner or later found its way, some into
the holy uses of bar-iron and utensils, and some, alas!
into cruel manacles clasping possibly the wrists of
a Spottswood slave who after long days of enforced
and unpaid labor had more than once in the dead
hours of night sat before the pit, his cheek resting
in his broad hand, looking with gentle eyes plead-
ingly into the face of his hard fate.
Who knows what happened there, what heart-
breaking, due to slavery and to slavery alone, and
which the Wilderness was witness to or moved by
mournings of far distant exiles! Is our fellow mor-
tal robed in green and called Nature nearer to us than
64 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
we realize? And was there a Spirit of the Wilderness,
that, as tears gathered in eyes of fathers and mothers
over separation from children and home, recorded an
oath to avenge the wrong? Else why did the Wilder-
ness strike twice at the Confederacy in its moments
of victory? Who knows!
m
I AM free to confess that the strategy, grand tactics,
and military movements of the Civil War, stirring
as they were, are not the features which engage my
deepest interest, but rather the spirit which ani-
mated the armies of North and South. That, that is
what I see. And while my mind's eye is gazing at
it with emotion, on my ear fall the sounds of ring-
ing trowels in the hands of workmen rearing a new
wing to the old battlemented Palace of History, an
addition not to house the tale of soldiers engaged,
soldiers killed and wounded, or to preserve the records
of the charge of this regiment upon that, or the
slaughter of one division by another. No, no, not
the multitude of dead, or the pictures of their glaz-
ing eyes and pleading, bloodless hands, shall engage
the pen that fills the records of that new wing. We
do not know what the genius of history will treasure
there, yet we know that on its hearth a fire will burn
whose flames will be the symbol of the heroic pur-
pose and spirit that beat in the hearts of the pale,
handsome youths who strewed our fields. And where
the beams from those flames strike against the walls,
new ideals will appear, and up in the twilight of
the arches will be faintly heard an anthem, an an-
them of joy that new levels have been reached by
66 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
mankind in gentleness and in love of what is pure
and merciful. Wars that will not add material for
this extension of the old Palace ought never to be
fought.
So then, before the movements begin and our
blood mounts, let us in peaceful, thoughtful mood
take a view of our enemies, not of their numbers or
position, but fix our attention rather on Lee's char-
acter and the spirit of his army, two ethereal but
immortal elements. True, what we are gazing upon
is not so clearly defined as the Army of Northern
Virginia in camp on the banks of the Rapidan, but
the everlasting things that appeal to us are never
quite distinct; and yet how real they are and how
they long for expression in Art, Worship, Charity,
Honor, and high chivalric deeds.
But be all this as it may, what was it that so ani-
mated Lee's army that, although only about one-half
as strong in numbers as we were, they came near
overthrowing us in the Wilderness, and held their
lines at Spotsylvania, although we broke them sev-
eral times? In all seriousness, what sustained their
fortitude as they battled on, month after month,
through that summer, showing the same courage day
after day, till the times and seasons of the Confeder-
acy were fulfilled?
Well, to answer this, I know no better way than
to propose a visit to the Army of Northern Virginia,
say on the night of January 18, 1864. But before
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 67
setting off on our quest, let us recall that, through
either exhaustion, mismanagement, or unavoidable
necessity, supplies for man and beast were, and had
been, so meagre that there was actual suffering, and
not forget that it was an unusually severe winter.
The snow from time to time was four and six inches
deep, and again and again it was bitter cold. We do
not know what the weather was on that particular
night of January 18, but in the light of the following
letter to the Quartermaster-General of the Confed-
eracy, does it seem unfair to assume that snow cov-
ered the ground, and that the wind was blowing
fiercely.^ Or does it seem unfair to fancy that Lee,
on hearing it howl through the cedars and pines near
his headquarters, thought of his poorly clad, half-fed
pickets shuddering at their lonely posts along the
Rapidan, and took his pen and wrote to the Confed-
erate Quartermaster-General?
Headquarters Army of Northern Virginia, Ja^y 18tl>, 1864.
General: — The want of shoes and blankets in
this army continues to cause much suffering and to
impair its eflBciency. In one regiment I am informed
that there are only fifty men with serviceable shoes,
and a brigade that recently went on picket was com-
pelled to leave several hundred men in camp who were
unable to bear the exposure of duty, being destitute
of shoes and blankets.
Lee's correspondence seems to show that this state
68 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
of affairs continued, and that repeated pleas were
made both for food and for clothing. Whatsoever
may have been the response to them throughout the
winter, those who saw the contents of the haversacks
taken from the dead or wounded in the Wilderness
will remember that they contained only a few pieces
of corn-bread and slices of inferior bacon or salt pork.
Well, in this want do you find any explanation of
Southern fortitude? No, but it helps us to appreciate
it truly.
With this prelude, let us go on with our visit.
And as we breast the fierce wind, and tramp on
through the snow from camp to camp, what is it that
we hear from those houses built of logs or slabs? Lo,
men are preaching and praying earnestly; for during
those bleak winter nights, so have the chaplains
recorded, a great revival was going on; in every
brigade of the sixty odd thousand men, the veterans
of Gaines's Mill, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg
were on their knees asking God to forgive their sins,
to bless their far-away homes and beloved Southland.
One of the officers of a battery tells us in its history
that right after retreat they always met for prayer
and song, and that when the order came to march
for the Wilderness, while the teams stood ready to
move, they held the battery long enough to observe
their custom of worship.
In those sacred hours when the soldiers of North-
ern Virginia were supplicating their Creator through
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 69
his Son to forgive them all their sins, and imploring
his hand to guide them on in the paths of righteous-
ness, I think we find at least profoundly suggestive
material for the answer to the question: Whence
came the spirit that animated and sustained their
fortitude through those eleven months of battle?
The sense of peace with God is as much a reality as
the phenomenon of dawn or the Northern Lights.
Moreover, hear what Carlyle says about an idea:
"Every society, every polity, has a spiritual prin-
ciple, the embodiment of an idea. This idea, be it
devotion to a man or class of men, to a creed, to an
institution, or even, as in more ancient times, to a
piece of land, is ever a true loyalty; has in it some-
thing of a religious, paramount, quite infinite char-
acter; it is properly the soul of the state, its life;
mysterious as other forms of life, and, like those,
working secretly, and in a depth beyond that of
consciousness."
Do not the losses and sufferings of the Southern
armies and people tell us that there was an idea, some-
thing of a religious, paramount, quite infinite char-
acter, possessing the South? If they do not, go stand
among the graves in the Confederate cemetery at
Spotsylvania, and you certainly will hear from the
tufted grass that a principle was embodied in an idea.
1 In seeking for the answer to our question there is
one thing more to be mentioned, — the strength that
came to the Army of Northern Virginia through the
70 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
personality and character of Lee; a strength so
spiritual and vital that, although he and most of his
army are in their graves, it still lives, preserving and
consecrating the memories of the Confederacy. I
sincerely believe that with him out of the Rebellion,
so-called, its star that hangs detached but glowing
softly over those bygone days would long since have
set.
Two forces contributed to his ascendency, one
fortuitous, of the earth earthy, the other fundamental
and celestial, that of ideals. By birth he belonged
to one of Virginia's noted families and by marriage
he was connected with Washington, Mrs. Lee being
the granddaughter of Mrs. Washington. Thus he
had the advantage of the regard which prevailed
throughout the South for distinguished ancestry
supported by wealth, character, and attainments.
Furthermore, nature in one of her radiant moods
had made him the balanced sum in manners and looks
of that tradition of the well-bred and aristocratic
gentleman transmitted and engrafted at an early
age through the Cavaliers into Virginia life. More-
over, she had been generous with her intellectual
gifts, bestowing abilities upon him of the very high-
est order.
But for his military prowess he had something
vastly more efficacious than ancestry or filling the
mould of persistent traditions. He had the generative
quality of simple, effective greatness; whereby his
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 71
serenely lofty character and dauntless courage were
reactive, reaching every private soldier, and making
him unconsciously braver and better as a man. So
it is easy to see how the South's ideal of the soldier,
the Christian, and the gentleman unfolded, and was
realized in him as the war went on. His army was
made up chiefly of men of low estate, but the truth
is that it takes the poor to see ideals.
Taking into account, then, these mysterious yet
real forces, religion, martial skill, and exalted char-
acter, we have all the elements, I think, for a com-
plete answer to the question we have raised. But
now, let the following extracts from Lee's letters
leave their due impression of what kind of a man he
was at heart; for it is by these inner depths of our
nature that we stand or fall, whether we were born,
as he was, in the same room of the palatial mansion
of Stratford where two signers of the Declaration of
Independence were born, or as Lincoln, in a log cabin
in Kentucky. The first was written to his son Custis
on the 11th of January, 1863, just about a year be-
fore our fancied visit to his camp : —
Camp, 11th January, 1863.
I hope we will be able to do something for the
servants. I executed a deed of manumission, em-
bracing all the names sent me by your mother, and
some that I recollected, but as I had nothing to refer
to but my memory I fear many are omitted. It was
72 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
my desire to manumit all the people of your grand-
father, whether present on the several estates or not.
Later, he sent the following: —
I have written to him [a Mr. Crockford] to request
that Harrison [one of the slaves] be sent to Mr.
Eacho. Will you have his free papers given him? I
see that the Va. Central R. R. is offering $40 a month
and board. I would recommend he engage with
them, or on some other work at once. ... As re-
gards Leanthe and Jim, I presume they had better
remain with Mrs. D. this year, and at the end of it
devote their earnings to their own benefit. But what
can be done with poor little Jim? It would be cruel
to turn him out on the world. He could not take care
of himself. He had better be bound out to some one
until he can be got to his grandfather's. His father is
unknown, and his mother dead or in unknown parts.
In a letter to his son, W. H. F. Lee, who had just
been released from captivity, and whose wife Char-
lotte had died : —
God knows how I loved your dear, dear wife, how
sweet her memory is to me. My grief could not be
greater if you had been taken from me; and how I
mourn her loss! You were both equally dear to me.
My heart is too full to speak on this subject, nor can
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 73
I write. But my grief is for ourselves. She is brighter
and happier than ever, — safe from all evil and await-
ing us in her heavenly abode. May God in His mercy
enable us to join her in eternal praise to our Lord and
Saviour. Let us humbly bow ourselves before Him,
and offer perpetual prayer for pardon and forgive-
ness. But we cannot indulge in grief, however mourn-
fully pleasing. Our country demands all of our
strength, all our energies. ... If victorious, we
have everything to hope for in the future. If de-
feated, nothing will be left us to live for. This week
will in all probability bring us work, and we must
strike fast and strong. My whole trust is in God, and
I am ready for whatever He may ordain. May He
guide, guard, and strengthen us is my constant prayer.
Your devoted father,
R. E. Lee.
In the foregoing reference to Lee, and to the spirit
of his army, I trust there is some food for reflection,
and somewhat that is informing. For I cannot make
myself believe that a true history of the war can be
written, fair to the South and fair to the North, that
does not try at least to make these spiritual forces
real. Surely due measure cannot be given to the gal-
lantry of the soldiers of the North, who won victory
for their country at last, if we do not realize what
they had to overcome in the almost matchless cour-
age of their adversaries.
74 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
But let no one be deceived, — Lee's soldiers were
not all saints, nor were ours. In his, as in all armies,
there were wretches guilty of most brutal conduct, —
wretches who habitually rifled the dead and wounded,
— sometimes under desultory firing, as when our
lines after assaults were close, — crouching and
sneaking in the darkness, from one dead body to
another, thrusting their ogreish hands quickly and
ruthlessly into pockets, fumbling unbeating breasts
for money and watches, and their prowling fingers
groping their way expectantly along the pale, dead
ones for rings. Thank God! the great mass of the
armies. North and South, respected the dead, and
turned with aversion from those ghoulish monsters,
the barbarous and shameful outcome of bitter and
prolonged war. But there are vermin that breed in
the darkness of the cellar walls of cathedrals and
lonely country churches; and yet a holy spirit breathes
around their consecrated altars, and in the voices
of the bells and the tops of the spires catch the
first gleam of dawn. So, so it is, and so, so it was with
both armies that went into the Wilderness.
IV
Everything being ready, Grant, on Monday, May 2,
directed Meade to put the army in motion at mid-
night of the following day for the lower fords of the
Rapidan. Grant at the same time notified Burnside,
then along the railroad north of the Rappahannock,
to be ready on the 4th to start at a moment's notice
for Germanna Ford. The orders to carry this into
effect were written by Humphreys, Meade's Chief of
Staff, and were sent to the corps commanders the
same day, who at once, in compliance with them,
placed guards around all the occupied houses on or
in the vicinity of their line of march, to prevent in-
formation being carried to the enemy that the army
was moving.
^ Early on Tuesday morning the depots at Brandy
began to ship back to Washington. It was a very
busy day for me and for every one else in charge of
stores. Trains were backing in to be loaded with
surplus stores; fresh troops, infantry and cavalry,
were arriving and had to be supplied at once, whole
regiments in some cases, with arms and equipments.
Teams stood, waiting, the drivers clamorous for their
turn to load with ammunition or delayed supplies;
others under the crack of their drivers' whips, quickly
taking their chance to unload condemned stores, and
75 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
all more or less impatient because they could not be
served immediately, so as to get back to their com-
mands who were preparing to move.
If, in the midst of the hurly-burly, you had gone
out where the condemned stores were received, I
believe that you would have seen and heard much to
amuse you. These stores were usually sent in charge
of a corporal or sergeant, and were talHed by a
couple of my men. One of them. Corporal Tessing,
it would have delighted you to see, he was such a
typical, grim old regular. His drooping moustache
and imperial were a rusty sandy, streaked with gray,
his cheeks furrowed, his bearing and look like a
frowning statue. The other, Harris, his senior, was
a mild, quiet, open-eyed, soft-voiced man, with
modesty and uprightness camped in his face. Well,
if the stores came from a regiment of cavalry, the
corporal in charge, booted and spurred, — and such
an air ! — would pick up a few straps, some of them
not longer than a throat-latch, and possibly having
attached to one or two of them an old nose-bag,
would announce brazenly to Tessing or Harris who
would be tallying, "two bridles, three halters, and
four nose-bags." If an infantryman, he would throw
quickly into a pile an old wrinkled cartridge-box, a
belt or two, and a bayonet-scabbard, and sing out,
**five sets of infantry equipments complete." If an
artilleryman, he might point with dignity to a couple
of pieces of carefully folded, dirt-stained, scarlet
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 77
blankets, and in a voice of commercial deference
observe, "three horse-blankets."
And so it was with everything their commanding
oflScers were responsible for: they tried to get receipts
for what was worn out, what had been lost, and now
and then for what they had traded off to a farmer or
sutler. If you could have seen Tessing's face as he
turned it on some of those volunteer corporals when
they tried to beat him! He rarely said anything to
the young rascals; now and then, however, he ad-
dressed the very unscrupulous in tones, terms, and
looks that could have left but little doubt as to what
he thought of them. They never disputed his count,
but pocketed their receipts, and off they went as
light-hearted as birds. He and the old sergeant lost
their lives at the explosion of the depot at City
Point: the former was literally blown to atoms; how
and where I found the sergeant is told in "The Spirit
of Old West Point." Heaven bless their memories,
and when I reach the other shore no two hands
shall I take with warmer grasp than the hands of
these two old soldiers; and, reader, I believe they
will be glad to take mine, too.
Count the stores as carefully as they might, there
was sure to be a generous allowance, so that by the
time we reached City Point I was responsible for a
vast amount of stuff that was n't there. But let me
confide that, when the depot exploded, all those
absent stores had in some mysterious way gotten
78 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
to the James; and I am free to say that I loaded them,
and everything under the heavens that I was charged
with and short of, on that boat or into the depot-
buildings, and thereby balanced the books to the
complete satisfaction of everybody, and I believe
with the approval of Honor and Justice.
At last all was done at Brandy, and a little be-
fore midnight the train with my ordnance supplies
on board was under way for Alexandria; its engine,
old Samson, laboring heavily. I waved good-bye to
my faithful Regulars and tired colored laborers, and
turned in.
That night all the camp-pickets were called in,
rations and ammunition issued, and perfect silence
maintained after taps sounded.
During the afternoon of Tuesday, the Second
Division of cavalry under Gregg, then at Paoli Mills,
moved southeastward to the road already described
connecting Stevensburg and Fredericksburg. He
struck it at Madden's,and followed it eastward till he
came to Richardsville, a hamlet about two and a half
miles from Ely's Ford. There he went into bivouac,
with orders from Sheridan to keep his command out of
sight as much as possible. About ten o'clock p. m. a
canvas pontoon train that had been brought up from
the Rappahannock drew into his sleeping-camp,
rested till midnight, and then, preceded by an ad-
vanced guard, set out for the river. When daylight
broke they were at the ford, and Gregg, after laying
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 79
the bridge, one hundred and fifty feet long, moved
on up with his cavalry to Chancellorsville.
Meanwhile Hancock at midnight awakened his
great Second Corps, and at two a. m. set off with it
from Lone Tree Hill, to follow Gregg. His troops kept
in the woods and fields till they came to Madden 's,
so as to leave the road free from Stevensburg to that
point for Warren. The Madden's referred to is an old
farmhouse on a gentle knoll, with some corn-cribs,
log-stables, and huddled fruit trees where chickens
and turkeys roost, all overlooking a flat field to the
west that is dotted with blackened stumps of pri-
meval oaks. It is about a third of the stretch from
Stevensburg to the river.
Dawn had broken, and the morning star was
paling, when the head of the Second Corps reached
the bluffy bank of the Rapidan at Ely's Ford. There
it halted for a moment while the wooden pontoon
bridge that accompanied it was laid. The river
spanned, the corps filed down and began to cross
into the Wilderness. Hour after hour this bridge
pulsed with the tread of Hancock's twenty-seven
thousand men, veterans of many fields. The swell-
ing bluffs offer more than one point where in fancy
the reader might sit alone and overlook the moving
scene. I wish for his sake that with one stroke of
this pen, as with a magic wand, I might make it real.
The river flowing on in sweet peace, glimmering
with the morning sun; accumulating masses of in-
80 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
fantry waiting for their turn to join the never-
ending column in blue blossomed by the colors,
colors that had flashed their crimson on many a
field; the bridge rumbling under the heavy wheels of
the batteries; guns, men, and colors crossing over the
river to win glory at last for their country. Yes,
there go the men and the guns against whom Pickett
made his mighty charge and who hurled him back
into immortality. There go the men and guns who
within ten days will carry the Bloody Angle at Spot-
sylvania. Oh, gallant Second Corps, led on by Webb,
Birney, and Smyth; Hays, Brooke, and Carroll; Miles,
Barlow, and Gibbon, my heart beats as I recall your
deeds of valor! Having crossed, they took the sadly
quiet country road which makes its way through
thickety sombre pines and surly oaks and by ragged
forlorn openings, to their old battlefield of Chan-
cellorsville, where so many of their comrades were
sleeping their last long, long sleep.
Hancock with his staff reached Chancellorsville by
nine-thirty, his last division about three p. m. Some
of his troops had marched over twenty-three miles,
which, inasmuch as they carried three days' rations,
their muskets, and fifty rounds of ammunition, —
under a hot sun and with not a leaf stirring, — was
a hard tramp. On Hancock's arrival, Gregg moved
on several miles to the south, along the old Furnace
road which just about a year before Stonewall Jack-
son had taken to reach the Brock road and from there
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 81
to strike the right of Hooker's army, posted over the
identical field where Hancock's corps had now gone
into bivouac. A reference to this last, fateful move
of Jackson will be made when we come to place the
army before the reader's eye as night fell that first
day, and after all had reached their allotted camps.
Gregg picketed heavily on the roads coming from the
direction of Hamilton's Crossing where Sheridan
under misinformation had located the bulk of the
Confederate cavalry.
And now, leaving Hancock at Chancellorsville,
let us turn to Wilson and Warren; the former com-
manded Sheridan's Third Cavalry Division. At dark
on Tuesday, his pontoon train took the road for
Germanna Ford. When it got within quick reaching
distance, a half-mile or so, of the river, it halted in
the thick woods. It was then ten o'clock, a moonless
but beautiful starlit night. At three o'clock the Third
Indiana Cavalry, under Chapman, cautiously drew
near the ford, waited till dawn appeared among the
trees, then hurried down, forded the river, and brushed
away the startled Confederate pickets of the First
North Carolina Cavalry who had their reserve in the
old, briery field overlooking the ford.
Meanwhile, the bridge material was brought for-
ward, and Wilson was on hand with the rest of his
division, which included Penpington's and Fitzhugh's
batteries of light artillery. By half-past five — the
sun rose at 4.49 — two bridges, each two hundred
82 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
and twenty feet long, were thrown, the three thou-
sand horsemen meanwhile fording the river, and by
six o'clock all the trains and batteries of the cavalry
division had crossed, and the head of Warren's Corps,
which had marched from the vicinity of Culpeper at
midnight, was drawing near. The infantry in sight,
Wilson pushed on, up toward the Lacy farm, and the
Fifth Corps, Ayres with his Regulars in the lead, be-
gan to cross. The troops, once they gained the bluff,
threw themselves down and rested by the roadside
while they ate their breakfast, and then followed
Wilson up the narrow and deeply over-shadowed
road.
The Sixth Corps began its march at four o'clock
from beyond Brandy for Stevensburg. There it fell
in behind Warren, and followed him to Germanna
Ford. Sheridan left the first division of his cavalry,
under Torbert, to mask the upper fords of the Rapi-
dan and to look out for the rear of the army as it
moved away from its winter-quarters. Later he with
his staff threaded the infantry, and after crossing the
river at Germanna established his headquarters on
Wilderness Run, about midway between the ford and
Chancellorsville.
Several hours before Warren and Hancock began
their march the enormous supply-train, in bands of
from twenty to two hundred wagons, headed east-
ward on lanes and roads for Richardsville. They
were rumbling by my tent at Brandy all through the
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 83
night. Grant's, Meade's, and the different corps head-
quarters-trains, and half of the ammunition and am-
bulance trains moved with the troops.
The sun had just cleared the tree-tops when Meade
with his staff came by, and I mounted my horse,
saddled and groomed by my colored boy Stephens,
and joined them. The whole army was now in mo-
tion, and I cannot convey the beauty and joy of
the morning. The glad May air was full of spring.
Dogwoods with their open, enwrapped blossoms,
that have always seemed to me as though they
were hearing music somewhere above them in the
spring skies, violets and azaleas, heavenly pale little
houstonias, and the richly yellow primroses, which
here and there beautify the pastures and roadsides
of this part of old Virginia, were all in bloom, and
the dew still on them.
Never, I think, did an army set off on a campaign
when the fields and the bending morning sky wore
fresher or happier looks. Our horses felt it all, too,
and, champing their bits, flecking their breasts at
times with spattering foam, bore us proudly. When
we gained the ridge just beyond Stevensburg, which
commands a wide landscape, an inspiring sight broke
on our eyes. To be sure, we had been riding by troops
all the way from Brandy, but now, as far as you could
see in every direction, corps, divisions, and brigades,
trains, batteries, and squadrons, were moving on in
a waving sea of blue ; headquarters and regimental
84 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
flags were fluttering, the morning sun kissing them
all, and shimmering gayly from gun-barrels and on
the loud-speaking brass guns, so loved by the can-
noneers who marched by their sides. Every once in
a while a cheer would break, and on would come
floating the notes of a band. As I recall the scene of
that old army in motion that morning, its brigade,
division, and corps, flags, some blue, some white,
and some with red fields, whipping over them, with
its background of Pony and Clarke's Mountain, and
away in the west the Blue Ridge looming with her
remote charm, a solemn spell comes over my heart,
and it seems as if, while I look back through the
Past at the magical pageant, I hear above me the
notes of slowly passing bells.
The troops were very light-hearted, almost as
joyous as schoolboys; and over and over again as we
rode by them, it was observed by members of the
staff that they had never seen them so happy and
buoyant. The drummer-boys, those little rapscal-
lions, whose faces were the habitual playground of
mischief and impudence, were striding along, caps
tilted, and calling for cheers for Grant, or jeering,
just as the mood took them; but there was illumina-
tion in every soldier's face. Was it the light from the
altar of duty that was shining there? No one knows
save the Keeper of the key of our higher natures,
who some day will open the doors for us all.
Soon after we left Stevensburg, to my surprise.
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 85
General Hunt, by whose side I was riding, suggested
that we take it easy, and let the rest of the staff go
ahead, for it never was comfortable to keep up with
that fox- walk of Meade's horse; so we fell to the rear,
and I really felt proud to have him ask me to ride
with him, for he was so much older, and held such
a high place at headquarters and in the army gen-
erally. We struck across the country, and while
watering our horses at a run of considerable flow, —
it rises well up among the oak timber of the old Willis
plantation, one with the greatest domain of any along
the Rapidan, — Hunt's eye fell on the violets that
strewed its banks, and he insisted that we dismount
and pick some of them. The violets here, and those
in the Wilderness, are large and beautiful, the two
upper petals velvety and almost a chestnut brown.
As we lounged in the refreshing shade, he manifested
so much unaffected love and sentiment for the wild
flowers and the quiet of the spot, — the brook was
murmuring on to the Rapidan near by, — that the
stern old soldier whom I had known was translated
into an attractive and really new acquaintance. I
do not remember ever to have seen him smile, yet I
never read the story of Pickett's charge, or recall
him at the Wilderness or Spotsylvania, without
having that half -hour's rest on the banks of the run
come back to me.
The road we were on, the old Stevensburg plank,
and the one from Madden's which had been taken by
86 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
two of Warren's divisions, meet at Germanna Ford,
both roads availing of short narrow ravines to get to
the water's cheery edge, for the Rapidan here is flow-
ing right fast. Under the open pines on the bluff we
found Warren, Meade, and Grant, with their head-
quarters colors. They and their staffs, spurred and
in top boots, all fine-looking young fellows, were
dismounted and standing or lounging around in
groups. Grant was a couple of hundred yards back
from the ford, and except Babcock, Comstock, and
Porter, he and all of his staff were strangers to the
oflScers and the rank and file of the army. His head-
quarters flag was the national colors; Meade's, a
lilac-colored, swallow-tailed flag having in the field
a wreath inclosing an eagle in gold; Warren's Fifth
Corps, a blue swallow-tail, with a Maltese cross in
a white field.
'■ Down each of the roads, to the bridges that were
forty or fifty feet apart, the troops, well closed up,
were pouring. The batteries, ambulances, and am-
munition trains followed their respective divisions.
Of course, in the three years of campaigning many
oflScers, of all branches, — and I honestly believe I
knew every captain and lieutenant in the artillery
with the army, — had become acquaintances and
personal friends of my own as well as of members
of the various staffs assembled; and warm greetings
were constantly exchanged. Hello, Tom! Hello,
Bob! Good-morning, Sandy, old fellow, and how
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 87
did you leave your sweetheart? How are you,
John, and you, too, Mack, dear old boy! And on
with their radiant smiles they went.
If the reader could take his place by my side, on
the bare knoll that lifts immediately above the ford,
and we could bring back the scene; the Rapidan
swinging boldly around a shouldering point of dark-
ened pines to our right, and on the other side of the
river the Wilderness reaching back in mysterious
silence; below us the blue moving column, the tat-
tered colors fluttering over it in the hands of faithful-
eyed, open-browed youths, I believe that the reader
would find an elevated pleasure as his eyes fell on
the martial scene. And if we could transport our-
selves to the banks of the James, and should see the
army as I saw it on that June day, heading on after
it had fought its way through the Wilderness and
Spotsylvania and by Cold Harbor, leaving behind
those young faces whose light now gives such charm
to the procession all hidden in the grave, I believe
that both of us would hear, coming down from
some high ridge in our spiritual nature, the notes of
a dirge, and our hearts with muffled beats would
be keeping step as the column moved over the
James.
But, thank God! that scene of June is not before
us now. No, we are on the Rapidan, it is a bright
May morning, the river is gurgling around the reef
of black projecting boulders at our feet, and youth's
88 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
confident torches are lit in our eyes, and here comes
the small band of Regulars. That solid-looking man,
with an untended bushy beard, at their head, is
Ay res. The tall slim man with that air of decision,
stalking walk, drooping moustache and sunken
cheeks, who commands the division, is Griffin, one
of my old West Point instructors. At Gettysburg,
when Longstreet's men had carried the Peach
Orchard and broken Sickles's line, and were coming
on flushed with victory, driving everything before
them. Griffin's Regulars, then under Sykes and Ayres,
were called on and went in. They were only 1985
strong, but they fought their way back, leaving 829
killed or wounded. Out of the 80 officers in one of
the small brigades, 40 were among the killed or
wounded.
Reader, let me tell you that I never think of the
Regulars without a feeling of pride and affection for
them all. For the first real soldier I ever saw, the
one who conducted me — on reporting at West
Point, a light-haired, spare, and rather lonely looking
boy — to the barracks that were to be my home
for four years, was a Regular; moreover, all of my
springtime manhood was spent as an officer among
them, and let me assure you that if in the other world
there shall be a review of the old Army of the Poto-
mac, I shall certainly fall in with the Regulars.
And here, brigaded with them, comes a regiment,
the One Hundred and Fortieth New York, to which.
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 89
for the sake of a boyhood's friend who fell at their
head, I wish you would uncover. It is Pat O'Rorke's,
a cadet and sojourner at West Point with me, to
whom this pen has referred on another occasion.
That regiment followed him up the east slope of
Round Top, and there looking out over the field is
a monument which tells with pride the sacrifices it
made. Ryan, "Paddy" Ryan, — so Warren called
him when some one of the staff asked him who that
young officer was that had just tipped his cap to
him smiling as he rode by, — Ryan, a graduate of
West Point, tawny-haired and soldierly, is leading
it now. At the close of the next day, the first of the
Wilderness, of the 529 of the One Hundred and
Fortieth who went into action up the turnpike, cheer-
ing, only 264 reported with the colors. The rest were
in the hospital wounded, or lying dead imder the
stunted, sullen pines; a few were on their way to
Southern prisons.
And there, just coming on the upper bridge, is
another regiment in the same division, the Twentieth
Maine, a worthy companion of the One Hundred and
Fortieth and the Regulars. Its record at Round Top,
where it was on the left of O'Rorke, under Chamber-
lain, is thrilling; and it was still under that same
scholar, soldier, and gentleman, a son of Bowdoin,
at Appomattox, when the overthrown Confederate
army came marching along, under Gordon, with
heavy hearts, to stack their arms, and say fareweU
90 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
to their dearly loved colors. Chamberlain ordered
his line to present arms to their brave foes. Gordon,
who was at their head, with becoming chivalry
wheeled his horse, and acknowledged duly the unex-
pected and touching salute. Yes, the guns you see
them bearing now were brought to a present, and
those old battle-torn colors were dipped. It was a
magnanimous and knightly deed, a fit ending for the
war, lifting the hour and the occasion into the com-
pany of those that minstrels have sung. I feel glad
and proud that I served with an army which had men
in it with hearts to do deeds like this. The total
killed and wounded of this regiment in the war was
528.
That large man, fifty-four years old, with silvered
hair and nobly carved features, is Wadsworth who
has only about forty-eight hours to live, for he was
killed Friday forenoon, and the writer has every
reason to believe that he bore the last order Warren
ever gave him. But before I reached him, his lines
were broken, and our men were falling back in great
confusion, and he was lying mortally wounded and
unconscious within the Confederate lines. His bri-
gade commanders are Cutler and Rice, the latter
a Yale man who, when dying a few days after at
Spotsylvania, asked to be turned with his face to
the enemy. In W^ads worth's division is the Iron
Brigade of the West, made up of Seventh and Nine-
teenth Indiana, Twenty-Fourth Michigan, First
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 91
New York, Second, Sixth, and Seventh Wisconsin.
They too were at Gettysburg, — in fact, the fate of
that day pivoted on their bravery, — and proudly
may they tread those bridges to-day.
Those troops just ahead of the battery that is now
coming on to the lower bridge are the rear of the
Maryland brigade. Its front is with that head-
quarters flag you see in the column over the top of
willows and trees on the other side of the river. It
is known as the Iron Brigade of Maryland, and is
made up of the First, Fourth, Seventh, and Eighth
Maryland.
If ever you should visit the field of Spotsylvania,
you will find standing in the Spindle farm, within
reach of the evening shadows of an old wood, and
amid tufts of broom-grass, a gray rectangular stone,
and on one of its faces you will read "Maryland
Brigade," and on another this legend, a copy of an
order given by Warren, then in the road about where
Sedgwick was killed the following morning: "8th May
1864. Never mind cannon, never mind bullets, press
on and clear this road," — meaning the road to
Spotsylvania, that lies but a mile and a half beyond.
On the south face is, "Nearest approach on this
front."
I saw the troops with my own eyes as they tried
gallantly to carry out Warren's order, wondering
at every step they took how much longer they could
stand it under the withering cross-fire of artillery and
92 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
musketry; and the whole scene came back to me viv-
idly as I stood by the stone the other June day. And
I '11 confess freely, it came back with a sense of pen-
siveness such as always attends a revisit to one of the
old fields. I got there about the same hour as that of
the charge, and the day resembled exactly that of the
battle, one brimming with glad sunshine; that kind
of a May morning when new-shorn sheep look so
white in the fields, the brooks ripple so brightly,
and joy is in the blooming hawthorn.
But there, by the stone, all was very still, — silence
was at its highest pitch. Huge white clouds with
bulging mountain-tops, pinnacled cliffs, and gray
ravines were floating lazily in the forenoon sky, and
across the doming brow of one of them whose shadow
was dragging slowly down the timbered valley of the
Po, a buzzard far, far above earth's common sounds,
was soaring half-careened with bladed wing. There
were no men or herds in sight, the only moving thing
was an unexpected roaming wind. Suddenly the
leaves in the near-by woods fluttered a moment, and
then the broom-grass around waved silently as the
wandering wind breathed away. My left hand was
resting on the stone, and a voice came from it saying,
as I was about to go to other parts of the field, — to
where brave, sweet-hearted Sedgwick laid down
his life and our batteries had stood, — "Stay, stay
a while! I stand for the men you saw marching across
the Rapidan, who after facing the volleys of the
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 93
Wilderness were called upon to move on at last under
the severe order, 'Never mind cannon, never mind
bullets, but press on and clear this road.' Here many
of them fell. Stay a while, I love to feel the warmth of
a hand of one who, as a boy, served with them. Do not
go just yet, for, here alone throughout the long days in
the silence of the dead broom, I am sometimes lonely."
And so, dear reader, I might call your attention
to deeds like theirs which have been done by about
every one of the veteran regiments that cross the
river this morning, but something tells me that I
ought to refrain, and proceed with the narrative.
As soon as the last of his troops were across — it
was well on toward noon — Warren mounted his
big, heavy, iron-gray horse and, followed by his staff,
the writer among them, started up the Germanna
Ford Road for the Lacy farm and the opening around
the Wilderness Tavern. Warren's adjutant-general
was Colonel Fred Locke; his chief surgeon. Dr.
Milhau, whose assistant was my friend. Colonel
Charles K. Winne of Albany, New York, — and
may every day of his declining years be sweet to him.
Warren's chief personal aide, and one of the very
best in the army, was Washington Roebling, the
builder of the Brooklyn Bridge, and a man whose
fame is wide. Warren's brother Robert, a boy of my
own age, was also an aide. I find, by referring to my
book of dispatches, that I sent my camp blankets to
him at Culpeper the night before we moved. Besides
94 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
those mentioned there were eight or ten other officers
connected with the staff; so that, when we were under
way on the narrow road, followed immediately by
headquarters guards, couriers, and servants, we made
quite a cavalcade behind the general.
After all these years there are only three distinct
memories left of the march. First, its seeming great
length, — and yet it was only about four and a half
miles. But the eye met nothing to distract it; to be
sure now and then there was a field, and on the right-
hand side, and not far apart, were two little old
houses. When passing over the road last May, the
houses were gone, a superannuated cherry tree was
trying to bloom, and a feeble old rheumatic apple
tree had one of its pain-racked, twisted boughs
decked in pink and white. But the most of the way
the road's course is through stunted oaks, lean, strug-
gling bushes, pines with moss on them, obviously
hopeless of ever seeing better days, the whole scene
looking at you with unfathomable eyes. Second, the
road was strewn with overcoats which the men had
thrown away. The wonder is that they had carried the
useless burden so far, for the day was very warm, with
not a breath of air; moreover, they had been march-
ing since midnight, and were getting tired. The other
memory is almost too trifling to record, but, as it
was the only time I burst into a hearty laugh in all
the campaign, I shall be loyal to it, and give it a
place alongside of the stern and great events.
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 95
About half-way to the Lacy house we come to Flat
Run, which steals down out of the woods and heads
right up where the battle began. Its tributary branches
are like the veins of a beech-leaf, frequent and almost
parallel, coming in from both sides, and bordered all
the way with swamp or thicket. When we reached
it, and while several of us with rein relaxed were
letting our horses drink, my friend Winne approached
on our right hand. The wagons and batteries ahead
of us had ploughed through, deepening and widen-
ing the deceitful stream into a mud-hole. Winne's
horse, rather thirsty, and undoubtedly looking for-
ward with pleasant anticipations of poking his nose
into refreshing water, had barely planted his fore
feet in it before he turned almost a complete somer-
sault and landed Winne full length in the water.
W^hen, to use the language of the New Testament, he
came up out of the water, his cap had disappeared,
and he certainly was a sight. Well, heartlessly and
instantaneously we youngsters broke into howling
delight. Thereupon Winne's lips opened and his lan-
guage flowed freely, marked with emphatic use of
divine and to-hellish terms both for us and his poor
brute, which was fully as much surprised as any one
at the quick turn of events. The doctor's address
soon reduced our loud laughter to suppressed giggles,
which brightened our way for a good many rods, and
which still ripple along the beach of those bygone
years.
96 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
When Griffin's division, leading the advance of
W'arren's corps, reached the Pike, it moved out on
it for a mile or more to the west, the road rising
steadily, and there in the woods beyond the leaning
fields of the Lacy farm it went into bivouac. Griffin
pitched his tent alongside the old road and just at
the edge of the woods. Little did he or his men
dream, as they rested after their long march, — how
sweet the fragrance of the boiling coffee, how soft
the pine needles under hip and elbow, how refreshing
every soft breeze on the forehead, how still the woods
and with what lovely serene delight the sunshine
sifted down through the intermingled branches of the
trees ! — yes, Httle did Griffin or his men dream that
Early's Confederate division of Ewell's corps would
go into bivouac along the same road and only three
miles away.
Crawford's division of Warren's corps, next in the
column, on gaining the Pike took the grassy Parker's
Store Road, which winds up Wilderness Run through
the Lacy plantation. He halted near the mansion
and made it his headquarters for the night. The
house is about a half mile from the Pike, faces the
east, and has some venerable trees in the door-
yard.
Wadsworth, next in line, camped opposite Craw-
ford on the east side of the run, picketing toward
Chancellorsville. The regiment sent on this duty
was the Second Wisconsin, Cutler's brigade, and its
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 97
adjutant, G. M. Woodward of La Crosse, Wisconsin,
says that where he estabhshed the line of pickets the
ground here and there blazed with wild azaleas, and
at first presented no evidence that it had ever been
the scene of battle; dismounting he soon found scat-
tered in every direction the debris of war — knap-
sacks, belts, bayonets, scabbards, etc. Farther on he
saw what appeared to be a long trench about eight
feet wide, filled up and mounded, its edges sunken
and covered with grass, weeds, and wild flowers.
This picket-line ran undoubtedly through Stonewall
Jackson's field hospital of just a year before, to
which he was carried when wounded.
Robinson, who brought up the rear of the corps,
camped on the Germanna Road, the middle of his
division about where Caton's Run comes down
through the woods from the west.
Some of the batteries parked on the Lacy farm,
others with the trains in the fields back of the de-
serted old Wilderness Tavern. This old stage-house,
indicated on all the maps and mentioned many times
in orders and reports, was a two-storied, hewn-log
house in its day, standing on the north side of the
Pike, at the top of the ridge about three hundred
yards east of Wilderness Run. It overlooked all the
Lacy estate, and had the reader stood in its lonely
dooryard as the sun was going down and the shadows
of the woods were reaching into the fields, the men of
Crawford's and Wadsworth's divisions, all preparing
98 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
their evening meals, the smoke of their little fires lift-
ing softly over them, would have been in full view
below him. From the same point, should some one
have directed his eye to a banner with a white field
and a red Maltese cross in the centre, a mile or so
to the west, at the edge of the woods, it would have
been GriflSn's.
Warren made his headquarters near the Pike, on
the bare ridge which separates Wilderness and Ca-
ton's runs, and about opposite the knoll that Grant
and Meade occupied during the battle. At supper
that night he was in fine spirits, cheerier at heart, I
believe, than ever afterwards, unless it was on the
field of Five Forks just before he met Sheridan, who,
in that passionate moment, then and there peremp-
torily relieved him, just as the veterans of the Fifth
Corps, whom he had led so often, were cheering him
over the victory he had helped to win. Sheridan's
harsh dealing with him, however, was not wholly un-
studied; for Warren's relations with Grant, which felt
their first strain in the Wilderness and at Spotsyl-
vania, had been at the breaking-point, and Sheri-
dan knew it. Moreover, Grant during the day had
sent his trusted aide Babcock to him, with authority
to relieve Warren in case he should not come up to
the mark. In fact, then, and in extenuation of
Sheridan's conduct, who knows all that Babcock
said, or his look and tones? But that awful hour
of storm for Warren has long since drifted by, and
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 99
his saddened mind found the grave's repose. I
have no doubt, however, that when they finally met
in the other world, the impulsive Irishman asked
and received his pardon.
After supper I filled my pipe and sat alone, on an
old gray rail-fence near by, till the sun went down
and evening deepened into a twilight of great peace.
A brigade camped up the run was singing hymns
and songs that I had heard at home as a boy; and,
probably with feelings deeper than my own, the
timber of the Wilderness listened also. Slowly out
of the sky bending kindly over us all, — woods, the
Lacy fields, the old tavern, and murmuring runs, —
the light faded softly away and on came night.
Sedgwick's divisions were in bivouac along the
Germanna Ford Road as far as Flat Run; Getty
next to Warren, then Wright, in the old Beale plan-
tation fields; and behind him, just this side of the
river, Ricketts, who had crossed the Rapidan about
a quarter of four.
Sheridan had pitched his headquarters a third of
a mile or so east of the Sixth Corps, near the work-
ings of an old gold mine; orderlies, with his cavalry
corps flag, were stationed on the Germanna Road to
show the way to his camp. Custer, perhaps the
lightest-hearted man in the army, with whom as a
cadet I whiled away many an hour, was back just
this side of Stevensburg, his brigade guarding the
rear of the army and especially the trains at Rich-
100 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
ardsville. Davies, with another brigade of cavalry,
was at Madden's; in fact, all of Sheridan's first
division was posted from the Rapidan to the Rap-
pahannock at eight o'clock that beautiful May
night.
Wilson with the Third Division was at Parker's
store, one brigade picketing up the Plank Road to
the west and front, the other to the east and south.
When I was there last May, a couple of apple trees
were in bloom, and on the roadside I met an old
Confederate whose tawny beard was streaked with
frost. "Can you tell me where General Wilson was
camped.f^" I asked. He replied, "Stranger, he was
camped all around over that field and all around
yonder," waving his hand sweepingly; "but I was
off with Rosser's cavalry. It is very quiet now, sir."
And so it was.
The trains were crossing at Ely's and Culpeper
Mine fords and going into parks near Chancellors-
ville.
Grant and Meade, after crossing the river, estab-
lished their headquarters near a deserted house whose
neglected fields overlooked the ford. At 1.15 p. m.,
Hancock and Warren having met with no opposition
in their advance. Grant telegraphed for Burnside to
make forced marches until he reached Germanna
Ford. There is reason to believe, it seems to me, that
it would have been better had Burnside been brought
up nearer before the movement began. For, as it
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 101
was, his men were nearly marched to death to over-
take us; and as a result, they were altogether too
fagged out for the work they were called on to do the
morning of the second day. The same criticism, how-
ever, can be made on Lee's failure to bring Long-
street within striking distance. Though, to be sure,
in his case, he did not know whether Grant would
cross the Rapidan at the fords above or below him;
if above, then Longstreet was just where he would
have needed him. I have always suspected that Lee
feared a move on that flank more than on his right,
for there the country was so open that he could not
conceal the paucity of his numbers, as in the Wilder-
ness. But, however this may be, while Hancock's,
Warren's, and Sedgwick's men on our side, and Hill's
and Ewell's on Lee's, were resting around their
camp-fires, Burnside's and Longstreet's were still
plodding away, long after their comrades in the
Wilderness were asleep. Such, then, were the move-
ments and the camping-places of the Army of the
Potomac on the 4th of May.
Meanwhile the enemy had been moving also.
Ewell reports that, by order of General Lee, his corps
and division-commanders met him on Monday, May
2, at the signal station on Clarke's Mountain, and
that he then gave it as his opinion that Grant would
cross below him. It was the last time that Lee and
his valiant subordinates ever visited that charming
spot, with its wide, peaceful view. If ever the reader
102 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
should be in that vicinity, I hope he will not fail to
go to the top of the mountain.
At an early hour on Wednesday it had been re-
ported from various sources to Lee that Grant was
under way. By eight o'clock this news was fully con-
firmed and he transmitted it through the proper
channels to his corps-commanders, with orders to
get ready to move. Sorrel, Longstreet's adjutant-
general, at nine o'clock notified General E. P. Alex-
ander — a soldier and a gentleman whose name will
last long — as follows: "Many of the enemy's camps
have disappeared from the front, and large wagon-
trains are reported moving through Stevensburg.
The lieutenant-general commanding desires that you
will keep your artillery in such condition as to enable
it to move whenever called upon." It was the artil-
lery that under Alexander tried to shake our lines
at Gettysburg before Pickett's charge. The same
despatch was sent to Longstreet's division-command-
ers, Field and Kershaw. The former was our in-
structor in cavalry at West Point, and rode at the
head of the troop that escorted Edward VII, when
as Prince of Wales he came to W^est Point in the fall
of 1860.
It is reasonably clear that by eleven o'clock at the
latest Lee was convinced that Wilson's and Gregg's
crossings of the Rapidan were not the beginning of
a raid, or a feint to cover an advance up the river,
but the opening of the campaign. Apparently he
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 103
seems not to have hesitated, but set his army of
sixty-odd thousand men in motion for the Wilder-
ness, taking the precaution to leave Ramseur with
three brigades at Rapidan station, to meet any pos-
sible danger behind the mask of our cavalry under
Custer. Ewell, who commanded his Second Corps,
consisting of Rodes's, Johnson's, and Early's divi-
sions, was to draw back from the river to the Pike
and, once there, to march for Locust Grove, some
eighteen miles to the eastward and within, as has
been related, three miles of where Griffin camped.
His Third Corps, A. P. Hill's, at Orange Court
House, was to take the Plank Road for Verdierville
or beyond. It had about twenty-eight miles to go.
Longstreet at Gordonsville and Mechanicsburg
was first ordered to follow Hill, but later, at his sug-
gestion, he took roads south of the Plank leading into
the Catharpin, which strike the Brock Road, the key
of the campaign, at Todd's Tavern. From his camp
to where his men met Hancock the morning of the
second day, east of Parker's store, was forty-two
miles. None of Lee's corps got well under way before
noon; and by that time over half of Hancock's and all
of Warren's were across the river. It was after dusk
when Ewell passed through Locust Grove; and the
bats were wavering through the twilight over the
heads of Hill's men as they dropped down to rest at
Verdierville. Longstreet's veterans, those who in the
previous autumn smashed our lines at Chickamauga
104 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
and who left so many of their dead at Knoxville,
were still on the march.
Sometimes, when alone before my wood-fire, my
mind floating over the fields of this narrative, and
one after another of its scenes breaking into view,
I have been conscious of wishing that with you,
reader, at my side, I could have stood near their line
of march. I should like to have seen those men,
— and so would you, — the heroes of the Peach-
Orchard and Round Top at Gettysburg, as well as
of Chickamauga. I should like to have seen also the
North Carolinians of Hill's corps who, with the
Virginians, made Pickett's charge. But above all I
should like to have s.een the face of the officer who,
on the succeeding night, hearing the pitiful cries
for water of our wounded in Griffin's front, could
stand it no longer and crawled over the breastworks,
notwithstanding the persistent fire from our lines,
made his way to where one of our wounded men lay,
took his canteen, and, groping to a little branch of
Wilderness Run, filled it and brought it to his stricken
enemy and then went back to his own lines. If ever
the spirit of that Good Samaritan should come to my
door, he shall have the best chair before my fire; I'll
lay on another stick of wood and let its beams kiss
his manly face as we talk over those bygone days.
Yes, I wish that with a reader who would enjoy such
a scene I could have stood under a spreading-limbed
tree on the roadside and seen Field and Kershaw,
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 105
Ewell and Gordon, Heth and Alexander, march on
their way to the Wilderness.
Stuart began to draw in his cavalry toward Ver-
dierville as soon as he knew of our movement. The
regiments which had wintered in the vicinity of
Hamilton's Crossing and at Milford on the Freder-
icksburg and Richmond Railroad directed their
march by way of Spotsylvania ; Rosser set out from
Wolf Town in Madison County, passed through
Orange Court House, and camped beside Hill. Fitz
Lee came in from the neighborhood of Gordonsville
and bivouacked on the Catharpin, near enough to go
to Rosser's aid the next morning.
Lee encamped in the woods opposite the home
of Mrs. Rodes, near Verdierville.
Able critics have blamed him for fighting Grant
in the Wilderness. They maintain that he might have
avoided all of his losses there by going at once to
Spotsylvania, and entrenched, for they assume that
Grant would have followed the same system of re-
peated assaults that he did after the Wilderness, and
that he would have met with severer repulses. It will
be conceded, knowing Grant as we do, that in all
probability he would have gone straight at his adver-
sary, and that no works which Lee could have thrown
up at Spotsylvania or elsewhere would have daunted
him: the appalling record of that battle-summer
would certainly seem to justify such a conclusion.
And, by the way, one among the reasons which con-
106 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
tributed to make it so deadly may be found possibly
in the fact that Grant came to the army with an
impression that in many of its big engagements under
McClellan, Pope, Hooker, and Meade, it had not
been fought to an end. However this may have been,
long before we got to the James River the grounds
for a like impression, I think, were gone. At any
rate, go ask the slopes before the Confederate works
at Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg what
they think about it, — if they even dream that the
Army of the Potomac was not fought to its limit.
Perhaps there was a better way than Grant's way
of handling the gallant old army but I find no fault :
I am only sorry so much blood had to flow. We
are in the habit of thinking it was a war between
North and South; not at all, it was between two
mutually antagonistic forces vastly older than our
country — it was the final death grapple on this
earth of Freedom and Slavery, and the sacrifice of
sons North and South had to be made, bringing
many tears.
In regard to the wisdom of Lee fighting in the
Wilderness, I think we can be sure of one thing, —
that his decision was not the result of sudden im-
pulse. For what he should do with his army, little
as compared with Grant's, when spring should open,
had no doubt been weighed and re-weighed, as night
after night he sat before his green-oak fire at the
foot of Clarke's Mountain. His critics, moreover, will
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 107
agree that he was too good a tactician not to know
that, if he should adopt the defensive from the out-
set and go to Spotsylvania, Grant could flank not
only that position but any position he might take
between there and Richmond. Again, those who find
fault with him for fighting in the Wilderness will
have to acknowledge, we believe, that he was too
good a general not to realize that any backward
steps he might be forced to make, for any reason
whatsoever, would have a bad effect on the spirit
of his army. Of course, he knew that sooner or later
in the campaign he would have to assume the offen-
sive, and take his chances. It is obvious that in case
of defeat, the nearer Richmond he should be the
more serious might be the results: he had had one
experience of that kind at Malvern Hill, which is
within ten miles of Richmond, and I am sure he
never wanted another like it; for all accounts agree,
and are confirmed by what I have heard from Con-
federates themselves, that his army and Richmond
were on the verge of panic.
In justification of the plan that he followed, where
is there a field between the Rapidan and Richmond
on which his sixty-five thousand men could have
hoped to attack Grant's one hundred and twenty
thousand under such favorable conditions.^ where his
numbers would be so magnified in effectiveness, and
Grant's so neutralized, by the natural diflSculties and
terror of the woods .^ — for dense woods do have a
108 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
terror. Again, where on the march to Richmond
would the Army of the Potomac, from the nature of
the country and the roads, be more embarrassed in
the use of its vastly superior artillery, or in concen-
trating its strength, if battle were thrust upon it
suddenly?
Save right around Chancellorsville, the region was
an almost unknown country to our people, while to
Lee and his men it was comparatively familiar. He
himself was thoroughly acquainted with its wooded
character, paths, runs, and roads. Moreover, he
knew the military advantages they afforded, for he
had tested them in his campaign against Hooker.
Taking all this into account, then, it seems to me
that in planning his campaign to strike at Grant
just when and where he did, he planned wisely. For
it presented the one good chance to win a decisive
victory, which, as I have said before, was absolutely
necessary to save the life of the Confederacy. It is
true Lee failed to win the victory he had planned and
hoped for. But little had he reckoned upon a second
intervention of Fate: that the spirit of the Wilder-
ness would strike Longstreet just as victory was in his
grasp as it had struck Stonewall.
Reader, if the Spirit of the Wilderness be unreal
to you, not so is it to me. Bear in mind that the
native realm of the spirit of man is nature's king-
dom, that there he has made all of his discoveries,
and yet what a vast region is unexplored, that re-
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 109
gion along whose misty coast Imagination wings
her way bringing one suggestion after another of
miraculous transformations, each drawing new light
and each proclaiming that nature's heart beats with
our own.
A little before sundown, when all were in camp
for the night. Grant issued his orders for the next
day. Sheridan was to move with Gregg and Torbert
against the enemy's cavalry, who at that hour were
supposed to be at Hamilton's Crossing, and who, as
a matter of fact, were not there at all. Wilson, with
his Third Cavalry Division, was to move at 5 a. m.
to Craig's Meeting House, on the Catharpin Road,
the one that Longstreet had chosen for his approach.
Warren was to take Wilson's place at Parker's store;
Sedgwick to move up to Old Wilderness Tavern,
leaving one division at Germanna Ford till the head
of Burnside's corps appeared; in other words, he
was to occupy Warren's present position with his
whole corps across the Pike. Hancock was to ad-
vance by way of Todd's Tavern to Shady Grove
Church on the Catharpin Road, and from there,
about three and a half miles south of Warren, throw
out his right and connect with him at Parker's store.
Of the infantry, Hancock had by far the longest
march to make, about twelve miles; the others only
very short ones, not more than three or four miles.
The trains were to be parked at Todd's Tavern.
None of the moves, as we have stated, were
110 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
long, or apparently any part of a well-defined series
of movements, but, rather, precautionary. They
neither seriously threatened Lee's communications
with Richmond, nor indicated an active offensive,
but were clearly made with a view to allow Burnside
to overtake the army, and to get the big, unwieldy
supply-trains a bit forward; for there was practically
only one narrow road, and not a very good one at
that, from where they were then halted to Todd's
Tavern. It was for these reasons, I think, that
Grant's orders did not push the army on clear through
the Wilderness the second day. But whatsoever may
have been the reason, there is something very strik-
ing in his repetition of Hooker's delay of the year
before. All vitality (and bluster, for that matter)
was Hooker till he reached the heart of the Wilder-
ness, but no sooner was he there than he became
mentally numb and purposeless as though he had
breathed some deep, stagnating fumes. A year,
almost to a day, the army marched again, briskly
and cheerily, to the heart of the Wilderness; and
before its bivouac fires had died down, — indeed,
before the sun had set, — the orders for the follow-
ing day seemed to indicate that the lotus in the
fateful region's gloom was again at work. While
aides are carrying the orders to their respective des-
tinations for the next day's march, the day ends,
and twilight comes on.
After night had set in, Meade, having disposed of
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 111
all his current official duties for the day, came over
from his headquarters — they were only a few steps
away — and joined Grant before a large camp-fire
made of rails. Grant's staff withdrew to a fire of
their own, and left them alone.
Meade was Grant's senior by about ten years, and
the paths of their lives had run widely apart; un-
clouded sunshine had fallen richly on Meade's,
adversity's blasts had blown fiercely across Grant's.
They were practically strangers to each other as they
met at this camp-fire, and we may credit Meade, as
he took his seat in its mellow blaze, with a wandering
curiosity, a keen interest to fathom the medium sized
diffident man with the marvelous career. He would
not have been human without it; for as Grant had
risen in his mighty flight, there had drifted to him
as to every old officer of the army, minute details of
the awful eclipse under which he had left it and the
hard, honest trials he had met in supporting his family.
Knowing ourselves and our fellow men as we do,
it is not unreasonable then to imagine Meade, a man
of the world, of cultivation, and at home in society
and clubs, following Grant's motions and speech with
the unobtrusive yet keen observation of men of his
class; or to imagine Grant having to meet from him,
as from all his old fellow officers of the army, that
searching look which had met him invariably since
his emergence from obscurity. But I can easily see
Meade's curiosity disarming, and his noble, fiery
112 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
nature breathing naturally and strengthening in the
soothing influence of Grant's deep calm; every ut-
terance of his low vibrating voice gliding modestly
from one grasp of a subject to another, every tone
simple and un-self-conscious, every thought as dis-
tinct and fresh as a coin from the mint.
I have no doubt that Grant's naturally sweet,
modest nature, together with the auguries, which
were all good, made Meade's first camp-fire with him
a pleasant one; and that, before its flames and in the
wild charm of the place, was born the spirit of loyal
cooperation which he showed to his chief on every
field and clear to the end.
Our country owes a great deal to both of these
men; justice, but not more than justice, has been
done to Grant. Meade has never had his due. As
I look back and see his devotion day and night in
that last great campaign, his hair growing grayer,
and the furrows in his face deeper, under its trying
burden, and then, when it is all over and the cause
is won, see him relegated to the third or fourth place
in official recognition and popular favor, I feel deeply
sorry, knowing, as I do, how the country's fate hung
in the balance when he was called on to take com-
mand of the Army of the Potomac. I hope his last
hour was comforted, that there came to him out of
the Past the cheers of his countrymen, greeting his
victory at Gettysburg.
After his death it was found that his system had
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 113
never recovered from the wound he received at
Charles City Cross Roads.
From all accounts they were both cheery over
having the army across the Rapidan. Anxiety over
their first move was all gone. The stubborn resistance
that Lee might have offered to their crossing of the
river had not been made; and now that they were
well established on his flank, he would be forced to
decisive action: he would either have to fight it out
at once, or fall back and ultimately undergo a siege.
In the way they misconceived what Lee would do,
there is almost a suggestion of fatality. For although
there is no absolute corroborative evidence to sup-
port the conclusion, yet the movements show that
what they expected was this: that he would hastily
withdraw from his works and place his army to
receive, but not to give, attack. Hooker had yielded
to the same illusion. In forecasting his Chancellors-
ville campaign, he had imagined that when Lee at
Fredericksburg found that he was on his flank at
Chancellorsville, he would fall back from Fredericks-
burg and contest the way to Richmond. The differ-
ence between the results in Hooker's case and in
Grant's was wide: the former was driven from the
field in almost utter disaster; Grant met Lee's attack
in the Wilderness, threw him back, and pushed on
undaunted.
Had Meade and Grant, — as they sat there, the stars
over them and the Rapidan swirling along, now and
114 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
then breaking into a gurgle, — had they known that
Ewell was within three miles of Warren, it would
have been, I think, quite another camp-fire, and
Meade might never have gained those first fine im-
pressions of Grant which were so honorable to him
and so valuable to the country, for whose sake, I
sincerely believe. Fortune so turned her wheel that
they might be made that night.
It is a matter of singular interest that all this time
Lee's position was barely suspected, and his purpose
entirely unknown to either of them. And how it all
came about is one of the mysterious features of the
Battle of the Wilderness. Let me state the circum-
stances, and I promise to make the account as short
and comprehensible as I can.
W^ilson, with his third division of cavalry, reached
the Lacy farm about half -past eight in the forenoon;
halted, and sent patrols westward and southward,
that is, out on the Pike toward Locust Grove and
along the county road to Parker's store. At noon,
when the head of Warren's corps bore in sight, he set
off for Parker's, first sending orders to the scouting
party on the Pike to push out as far as Robertson's
Tavern (now, and by the Confederates during the
war, called Locust Grove) and, after driving the
enemy away from that place, to ride across country
and join the division in the neighborhood of Par-
ker's store. Wilson, with the bulk of his division,
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 115
on arriving at the store about two o'clock, sent a
strong reconnoissance up the Plank Road, with di-
rections to keep an active lookout for the enemy.
In a despatch to Forsythe, Sheridan's chief of staff,
dated 2.10 p. m., he said, "I send herewith a civilian,
Mr. Sime, a citizen of Great Britain. He says he
left Orange yesterday 2 p. M.; Longstreet's corps lies
between there and Gordonsville; passed at the latter
place; Ewell and Hill about Orange Court House.
Troops well down toward Mine Run [about half-way
between the Lacy farm and the Court House], on
all the roads except this one [the Plank] ; none on this
nearer than seven miles to this place. I have sent
patrols well out in all directions, but as yet hear of
nothing except few light parties scattered through
the by-roads."
Sheridan sent the following despatch to Meade, —
the hour not given, but presumably toward sundown :
"I have the honor to report that scout sent out the
first road leading to the right from Germanna Ford
went as far as Barnett's Mill at or near Mine Run
[Barnett's Mill is on Mine Run], found the enemy's
pickets. Also the scout sent out on the second road
to the right [the Flat Run Road that intersects the
Pike where the battle began] went to within one-half
mile of Robertson's Tavern, found a small force of
the enemy's cavalry on picket. It was also reported
that a brigade of rebel infantry was sent down to
Barnett's Mill or Mine Run yesterday."
116 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
These scouts referred to were probably individ-
uals in Confederate uniform, for Sheridan always
kept a group of these quiet, daring men about him
on whom he called for hazardous service.
At 7.40 p. M. Wilson again reported to Forsythe:
"I have executed all orders so far. My patrols have
been to the Catharpin Road. Did not see Gregg,
and only two of the enemy; also to within one mile
of Mine Run on Orange Pike [Plank .P] skirmishing
with small detachments of the enemy. Patrol to
Robertson's Tavern not yet heard from."
Ten minutes later, or at 7.50 p. m., Wilson sent
this despatch to Warren: "My whole division is at
this place [Parker's store], patrols and advanced par-
ties well out on the Spotsylvania and Orange roads.
No enemy on former, and but small parties on this.
Drove them six miles or to within one mile of Mine
Road. Patrol from here toward Robertson's not yet
reported. Rodes's division reported to be stretched
along the road as far as twelve miles this side of
Orange. Will notify you of any changes in this
direction."
Here we have all the recorded information that
Meade could have received of the enemy up to when
he joined Grant at his camp-fire.
Probably the reason why Wilson's report as to
Rodes's position made no impression on Humphreys
or Meade — for it must be assumed that it reached
them — was because they interpreted it as meaning
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 117
his winter-quarters, which was nothing new, for
prisoners and deserters had given them that infor-
mation during the winter, and they had so located
him on a map kept for the purpose. Their interpreta-
tion accounts, too, for neither Warren nor Sheridan
making any further suggestion to Wilson as to Rodes's
whereabouts. The fact is that at that very hour of
7.50 p. M. he was bivouacked just behind Johnson's
and Nelson's battalion of artillery two miles south
of Locust Grove, and the head of Hill's corps was
east of Verdierville.
There is but one explanation for this mysterious
indifference in the presence of an enemy, namely,
that Grant and Meade were possessed with the idea
that Lee, as soon as he should find that we had
crossed the Rapidan, would hasten from his lines to
some position beyond the Wilderness. No fog ever
drifted in from the sea, wrapping up lighthouses
and headlands, that was deeper than this delusion
which drifted in over the minds of Grant and
Meade, and, so far as I know, over corps and divi-
sion-commanders as well.
But how about Wilson's patrols.? And especially
that one he had sent toward Locust Grove.? This is
probably what happened. It got to Locust Grove
before noon, having scattered into the by-roads and
paths the videttes of the First North Carolina
cavalry whom they had brushed away from the ford
at daybreak.' From there I assume they went on to
118 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
Mine Run, which they found ghnting brightly down
through the old fields from one clump of willows
to another. Beyond the run, and in full sight, rose
Lee's breastworks of the year before, not a flag fly-
ing on them or a soul in them. All was peaceful
at Mine Run. After a while, having scouted up and
down the run as far as Barnett's Mill on the north,
and off toward the head of the run on the south,
they rejoined the main patrol at Locust Grove.
No one disturbed them, and there they waited till
they saw the sun approaching the tree-tops, and
then they obeyed their orders and struck off
through the woods for Parker's store. The chances
are that their dust had barely settled before on came
Ewell. Had they stayed at Locust Grove a few hours
longer, what would have happened.'^ Why, the orders
issued at 6 o'clock would have been countermanded
at once. Warren and Sedgwick would have struck
at Ewell early in the morning, and Hancock, instead
of going to Todd's Tavern, would have reached
Parker's store by sun-up, and probably before noon
a great victory would have been won.
Is there nothing mysterious in all this.^ Knowing
the situation as we now do, does it not add interest
to that camp-fire of old rails, before which Grant and
Meade are sitting smoking.? Does it not give a weird
echo to the bursts of laughter of their staffs.? Laugh
on, gay children of fortune ! and meanwhile the spirit
of the Wilderness is brooding.
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 119
Lee's camp-fire was in the woods opposite the
house of a Mrs. Rodes near Verdierville; and it must
have been a cheery one, for General Long, his miHtary
secretary, says that at breakfast the following morn-
ing he was in unusually fine spirits, chiefly over the
fact that Grant had put himself in the meshes of the
Wilderness, just as Hooker before him had done,
giving him the one chance to overbalance his one
hundred and twenty thousand men.
From Grant's headquarters to Lee's was, as the
crow flies, between nine and ten miles; and a circle
with its centre where Warren was in camp and a
radius of six miles would have taken in the bulk of
ours and half of Lee's army. And yet the Army of
the Potomac lay down to rest, unconscious that they
were almost within gunshot of their old foe!
Happily all of their camps were on less gloomy
and fated ground than Hancock's. His were on the
old battlefield of Chancellorsville, and some of his
regiments found themselves on the identical lines
where they had fought in that engagement. The
ground around their camp-fires, and for that matter
everywhere, was strewn more or less with human
bones and the skeletons of horses. In a spot less
than ten rods square, fifty skulls with their cavern-
ous eyes were counted, their foreheads doming in
silence above the brown leaves that were gathering
about them. In sight of a good many of their camp-
fires, too, were half -open graves, displaying arms and
120 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
legs with bits of paling and mildewed clothing still
clinging to them: — oh, war's glory, this is your re-
verse side! — On all hands there were tokens of the
battle: shriveling cartridge-boxes, battered and rick-
etty canteens, rotting caps and hats, broken artil-
lery-carriages, barked and splintered trees, dead, or
half-dead, dangling limbs, and groves of saplings,
with which the woods abound, topped by volleys as
if sheared by a blast. Of course, there was line after
line of confronting, settling breastworks, whose shal-
lowing trenches nature was quietly filling with leaves
and dead twigs. All these dismal reminders met the
eyes of Hancock's men until they were closed in
sleep. I do not know how it would have affected
others, but I think that if I had been sitting before
one of those camp-fires, night having well come on
and the whippoorwills, of which there are thou-
sands that make their homes in the Wilderness, re-
peating their lonely cries, and the fire drawing to its
end should have suddenly kindled up as fires do, —
and mortals, too, sometimes before they die, — and
thrown off a beam into the darkness upon one of
those skulls, it seems to me that I should have felt a
low, muffling beat in my heart, and heard the rap
of life's seriousness at its door.
Hancock's tent was in the old peach-orchard.
(What is there about a peach-orchard that war
should choose it for the scene of battles? There was
the battle of Peach-tree Creek near Atlanta, the
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 121
Peach-Orchard at Gettysburg, and now Hancock
is in the old peach-orchard at Chancellorsville, where
the battle raged fiercest. Does war love the red blos-
som, or did the blood of some noble-hearted soldier
quicken the first peach-bloom of the world?) It is
reasonable to believe that the whole disastrous scene
of the year before must have passed in review before
Hancock. But the feature of the battle that would
come back to him, I think, with most vividness, and
make the deepest impression on him as a corps-com-
mander, was the flank attack that Stonewall Jackson
made. In fact, judging from his own reports of the
first two days' fighting at the Wilderness (which took
place within less than three miles of where he slept),
he not only thought about it, but dreamed about it.
For, the entire time he was fighting Hill, he was
haunted with the fear, paralyzing a great share of
his customary aggressive and magnetic usefulness,
that Longstreet would come up on his left by way
of Todd's Tavern and give him a blow on his flank
such as Jackson had given Howard.
I wonder. Reader, if the ghost of Stonewall did
not really come back.? You see, it was about the
anniversary of the night on which he received his
mortal wound, and the old armies that he knew so
well were on the eve of meeting again. What should
be more natural than that he should come to this
side of the river, that river whose beckoning trees
offered such sweet shade to the dying soldier.? Did
im THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
I hear you say that you thought he did? Why lo! here
he is on the field of Chancellorsville, looking for his
brigade, — for his old legion of the Valley. Let us
draw near. "They are not here, Stonewall; these
men you see are Hancock's men." And now he goes
to the peach-orchard, for no soldier ever took part in a
battle who does not have a longing to see the ground
the enemy defended. He approaches Hancock's tent,
— they had known each other in the old army, —
with his right hand — his left arm you remember
was amputated two inches below the shoulder — he
draws the walls softly, and looks in on the gallant
friend of other days. Perhaps it was then that
Hancock dreamed Longstreet was on his flank.
I Stonewall closes the tent and seems to ponder;
is he debating where he shall go next.^ Shall it be
off to where he parted with Lee to make his great
flank movement via the old Furnace Road where
Gregg's cavalry outposts, saddled and bridled, are
now dozing, or shall it be back to where he met the
fatal volley? The latter has won. If you will follow
him, so will I, for the road, the woods that border
it, and the spot to which he is going, I know right
well. And now that he has reached there his lips
seem to move; is it a prayer he is offering? Or is he
addressing some aide, telling Hill as on the night of
the battle to come up and Pender to push right on?
Abruptly, and with almost a gasp, he fastens his
astonished gaze on a cowled figure that has emerged
GENERAL MAP
OF THE
WILDERNESS
SCALE Of MILES
1-Where Longstreet wxt'wounded
2->Where Stonewall was mortally wounded
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 123
from the trees and is looking at him. Is it the
Spirit of the Wilderness, whose relentless eyes met
his as he fell, and does he read in their cold depths
the doom awaiting Longstreet? Who knows his
thoughts as he turns away from the fated spot and
sets off up the Orange Plank Road, for his melan-
choly heart yearns to be with Lee and his valiant
corps once more. And now he has reached the junc-
tion of the Orange and the Brock roads which is
in the midst of woods; the stars, although hazy and
dim, light the crossing a little and he halts. Down
the latter, up which he rode on his historic march,
he looks long and wistfully; is he expecting his old
corps again? Deep is the silence in the slumbering
woods. A little bird in its dreams utters one strain
of its lonely wood-note and then is still; and now
instead of oncoming troops across the Brock Road
from east to west, the direction Stonewall is going,
and with the soft pace of a phantom, flits the cowled
figure, turning her face hastily toward him as she
enters the sullen oaks. With a sigh he moves on to-
ward Parker's store, and when he draws near where
Mahone's men fired on Longstreet, something on his
left attracts his attention and he pauses suddenly.
Whose hands are those pulling aside the bushes
and overhanging limbs? Lo! there again is the
Spirit of the Wilderness, with the same ominous,
relentless look. A moment's glance is exchanged.
The figure withdraws, the branches swing back into
lU THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
place, and the ghost of Stonewall moves on, with
troubled brow.
Hark! he hears something. It draws nearer, and
now we can distinguish footsteps; they sound as if
they were dragging chains after them through the
dead rusthng leaves. Presently, off from the roadside
where two oaks press back the tangle, admitting a
bit of starlight, Stonewall sees a gaunt, hollow-
breasted, wicked-eyed, sunken-cheeked being. Be-
hold, she is addressing him! "Stonewall, I am Slav-
ery and sorely wounded. Can you do nothing to stay
the Spirit of the Wilderness that, in striking at me,
struck you down?"
"No, no," says the ghostly commander, impa-
tiently waving the staring creature away. "Your
day, thank God! has come. To-morrow morning
Lee will strike, but it will not be for you."
"And is this history?" comes a peevish voice from
the general level of those who are as yet only dimly
conscious of the essence and final embodiment of
History. Yes, it is a little sheaf out of a field lying
in one of its high and beautifully remote valleys.
Such then is the chronicle of the first day of the
campaign. And now it is midnight; all save the
sentinels are asleep, and the whippoorwills are still
chanting.
At Warren's headquarters we breakfasted early, and
at 5 A. M., just as the sun had cleared the tree-tops,
he sent the following despatch to Humphreys: —
"My command is just starting out. As I have but
little ways to move, I keep my trains with me in-
stead of sending them around by the plank road,
which I fear might interfere with the main trains,
which I understand to be those to be assembled at
Todd's Tavern."
A half-hour later he notified Getty, camped back
at Flat Run on the Germanna Road, that Griffin, in
conformity with Meade's orders of the night before,
would hold the Pike till he (Getty) got up. At the
same time he sent word to the officer in charge of
the pickets in Griffin's front not to withdraw till the
column got well in the road on the line of march to
Parker's store. He then mounted his big, logy dapple-
gray, wearing as usual his yellow sash of a major-
general, and started to follow Crawford and Wads-
worth, who from his camp he could see were already
under way, passing the Lacy house. Just as he was
reaching the Pike, — we had not left camp three
minutes, — a staff officer, riding rapidly, met him
and, saluting, said that General Griffin had sent him
126 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
to tell General Warren that the enemy was advancing
in force on his pickets.
I do not believe that Warren ever had a greater
surprise in his life, but his thin, solemn, darkly sallow
face was nowhere lightened by even a transitory
flare — Hancock's open, handsome countenance
would have been all ablaze. There was with Warren
at this time, as I recall, only Colonel Locke, Dr.
Winne, the general's brother Robert, and Lieutenant
Higbee, an aide who had been on his staff for a good
while, and who was a very brave man. Warren first
turned to me and said, "Tell Griffin to get ready to
attack at once"; then, for some reason, perhaps
because of my youth and inexperience, he told Higbee
to take the message, and at once notified Meade as
follows : —
"6 A. M. General Griffin has just sent in word that
a force of the enemy has been reported to him coming
down the turnpike. The foundation of the report is
not given. Until it is more definitely ascertained no
change will take place in the movements ordered."
I (And now he yielded to one of his weaknesses,
referred to by Grant in his Memoirs, namely, inform-
ing his commanding officer what should be done.
He had another and more fatal one, that of comment-
ing at times unfavorably, regardless of who were
present, on the orders he received.)
"Such demonstrations are to be expected, and
show the necessity for keeping well closed and pre-
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 127
pared to face Mine Run and meet an attack at a
moment's notice. G. K. Warren."
Before the above despatch left headquarters an-
other aide came in and Warren added : —
" 6.20. Bartlett (Griffin's advanced brigade) sends
in word that the enemy has a line of infantry out
advancing. We shall soon know more. I have
arranged for Griffin to hold the pike till the 6th corps
comes up at all events. G. K. W."
He then sent this order to Griffin : —
' "Push a force out at once against the enemy, and
see what force he has."
Even Warren had not quite thrown off the delu-
sion that Lee was falling back; but within three hours,
like a fog, it lifted, not only from his mind but from
Meade's and Grant's also.
Griffin, on receipt of these orders, forwarded them
to Bartlett, who sent at once the Eighteenth Massa-
chusetts and Eighty-third Pennsylvania, the former
on the right, the latter on the left of the Pike. When
they reached the pickets, still on their posts of the night
before, skirmishers were thrown out, who promptly
engaged those of Ewell, driving them back, and
quickly ascertaining that the enemy was there in
strong force. On this reconnaissance Charles H. Wil-
son of Wrentham, Company I, Eighteenth Massachu-
setts, was killed, the first to fall in the campaign. He
was only eighteen years old, and the son of a farmer.
In a short time after these orders were sent to
128 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
Griffin, Meade with his staff came up hurriedly to
Warren, and, hearing what he had to say, exclaimed
emphatically, "If there is to be any fighting this side
of Mine Run, let us do it right off."
I have seen many statements as to what Meade
said, but I was within ten feet of him, and recall with
distinctness his face, his language, and its tones.
Meade then sent this despatch back to Grant, who
was still at his camp waiting for Burnside. It was
received at 7.30 a. m.
"The enemy have appeared in force on the pike,
and are now reported forming line of battle in front
of Griffin's division, 5th Corps. I have directed Gen.
Warren to attack them at once with his whole force.
Until this movement of the enemy is developed, the
march of the corps must be suspended. I have,
therefore, sent word to Hancock not to advance
beyond Todd's Tavern. I think the enemy is trying
to delay our movements and will not give battle,
but of this we shall soon see." (General Meade, may
I ask when Lee ever declined battle with you.^ All
your doubts on this point will soon be removed,
however; for he is right on you and means to deliver
a blow, if he can, that will send you reeling, as he
sent Hooker, back across the Rapidan.)
Grant, on receipt of this unexpected news from
Meade, replied, "If any opportunity presents itself
for pitching into a part of Lee's army, do so without
giving time for disposition."
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 129
Meanwhile Warren, having hurried aides off to
Crawford and Wadsworth, the former to halt, the
latter to move up on Griffin's left, established his
headquarters at the Lacy house. From there he sent
this message, dated 7.50 a. m., to Griffin: —
"Have your whole division prepared to move for-
ward and attack the enemy, and await further in-
structions while the other troops are forming."
He then rode, and I went with him, to Wadsworth,
who had halted about a mile beyond the Lacy house.
Where we overtook him there was an old chimney
that probably marked the home of one of Major
Lacy's overseers. I remember it very distinctly, for
one of Warren's staff having observed that a bare
little knoll near the chimney would be a good place
for a battery, he observed coolly that when he
wanted advice from his staff he would ask for it.
I have always thought that it was an uncalled-for
snub on the part of Warren, but a great deal must be
excused when a battle is pending; I doubt, however,
if Grant or Sedgwick or Thomas under any stress
ever spoke to a young officer or soldier in a way or
tone that made him uncomfortable.
Wadsworth was just forming his division, to the
right of the Parker's Store Road which at that point
and for quite a distance runs almost west, following
up the main branch of Wilderness Run. Warren said
to him, "Find out what is in there," indicating the
deep woods. And did they find something? Yes, in-
130 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
deed they did — many their eternal rest. We then
went back to the Lacy house, and Warren soon set
off to see Griffin.
By the time Warren's aide overtook Crawford (it
was just eight o'clock), the head of his division had
reached the Chewning farm which lies somewhat
beyond where Wadsworth was forming. The ground
from the run rises up sharply to its rather high,
dipping, and swerving fields, which, when I saw them
last, were beginning to clothe themselves in spring-
time green. The heaving plateau is on swings east-
ward around the valley of Wilderness Run, like the
rim of a great kettle, falling away at last in the angle
between the Brock and the Plank roads into many
zigzag, swampy ravines, the heads of the easterly
branches of the Run.
Two roads connect Chewning's with the Plank,
one through the woods to the Store about a mile
south; the other follows the rim of the kettle for
a while and then breaks away to the Widow Tapp's.
Let any one stand on the rolling fields now and he
will recognize at once their value to us could we have
held them.
In acknowledging the receipt of Warren's orders,
Crawford said : —
"There is brisk skirmishing at the store between
our own and the enemy's cavalry. I am halted in a
good position."
The cavalry he saw were the Fifth New York,
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 131
five hundred strong, whom Wilson had left to hold
the place till Crawford should arrive. They were not
skirmishing, however, with cavalry, but with the
head of Heth's division of Hill's corps — the same
one that opened the battle of Gettysburg. And here
is what had happened. On Wilson's departure for
Craig's Meeting House, Colonel Hammond, a very
gallant man, in command of the Fifth New York,
sent two companies under Captain Barker of Crown
Point, New York, to scout the road toward Verdier-
ville. He had not covered more than two miles before
he ran up against Heth marching leisurely in column.
The Captain, a resolute man as you can readily
see on looking into his steady dark eyes, dismounted
his men, formed them as skirmishers across the road,
and notified Hammond, who at once came up with
the rest of the regiment. Of course they were
driven back, but not without making a fine stub-
born resistance and meeting with heavy losses. By
the time Crawford reached Chewning's, Hammond
had been pushed to Parker's store. Roebling then
with Crawford hastened to the store, and Ham-
mond told him that perhaps he could hold on fifteen
minutes longer, whereupon Roebling hurried back
to Crawford; but it was too late for him to inter-
pose behind Hammond. Moreover, a heavy skir-
mish line from Heth's leading brigade was being
thrown out toward him. He formed one brigade
facing toward the store, the other west, and by that
132 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
time Hammond had been driven from the store and
Heth with his main column was slowly following
him, unmindful apparently of Crawford's position
on his flank.
When Crawford's despatch, quoted above, reached
corps headquarters, Warren was still with GriiSfin;
and it was sent to Meade, who, judging from the
indorsement he put upon it, — "I have sent to
Wilson, who I hope will himself find out the move-
ment of the enemy," — was not even at that early
hour — it was just after nine — in a very good
humor.
Had Warren's orders to Crawford been delayed
twenty or thirty minutes in delivery, the entire day's
operations would have been changed, for his advance
would have brought him into immediate contact with
the Confederate infantry and Lee's plans would have
been disclosed at once. It is all conjecture what would
have been the moves Grant would have made in that
case, but the chances are, however, that Hancock
would have been diverted to the junction of the
Brock and Plank roads; that Getty would have been
pushed immediately to the Chewning farm, and with
Hancock forcing his way to Parker's store, and those
open fields firmly in our possession, it would have
made Lee's position very critical. If Warren, after
giving Wadsworth his orders to find out what was
in the woods to the left of Griffin, had continued
up the road to Crawford, his quick eye would have
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 133
taken in the strength and importance of the Chewn-
ing plateau at a glance, and he would have repeated
his brilliant coup on Round Top by bringing Wads-
worth right up to hold it as he had brought up
O'Rorke. But that was not to be; fate had decided
that Lee and not Grant was to hold these fields.
Warren, on reaching GriflSn, impressed with the
seriousness of the situation as he saw it in front of
him and practically ignorant of that in front of
Crawford, ordered Wadsworth to connect with
GriflSn's left and Crawford to join Wadsworth's left
as quickly as possible. When this order came to
Crawford, Roebling, who was then with him, sent
in all haste this despatch to Warren : "It is of vital
importance to hold the field where General Crawford
is. Our whole line of battle is turned if the enemy
get possession of it. There is a gap of half a mile
between Wadsworth and Crawford. He cannot hold
the line against attack." *
Warren's only reply was curt. Crawford was to
obey the orders he had received. Meanwhile, Warren
in a despatch dated 10.30 had directed Wadsworth
to "Push forward a heavy line of skirmishers followed
by your line of battle, and attack the enemy at once
and push him. General Griffin will also attack. Do
* I beg to acknowledge my obligations to Col. Washington A. Roeb-
ling, Warren's chief of staff, for the valuable aid his notes have given
me ; and to Prof. Theodore Lyman, son of Col. Theodore Lyman,
Meade's most confidential staff oflScer, who has allowed me to consult
his gallant father's notes of the battle.
134 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
not wait for him, but look out for your left flank."
This injunction as to Wadsworth's left flank was
obviously due to Warren's fear that, owing to the
character of the country, Crawford's division might
be delayed in joining him.
This order to Wadsworth is so inconsistent with
what actually transpired that it can only be ac-
counted for by the fretful nagging which had be-
gun on Warren from headquarters, and by the fact
that Griffin, Ayres, and Bartlett, having visited their
skirmish lines and discovered that the enemy were
in strong force, were averse to moving unpreparedly,
and had so notified him. Colonel Swan of Ayres's
staff, whose account is altogether the clearest and
most comprehensive yet written of that part of the
field, says he went back to Warren at least twice,
at Griffin's behest, to report the gravity of the situa-
tion, and that Warren used sharp language to him
the second time. Colonel Swan says, "I remember
my indignation. It was afterwards a common report
in the army that Warren had just had unpleasant
things said to him by General Meade, and that
General Meade had just heard the bravery of his
army questioned."
The ground for the latter might have been some
heedless remark from one of Grant's aides who had
come with him from the West. But however this
may be, such was the situation and its feverishness
at eleven o'clock on Warren's front. It should be
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 135
said that while Wadsworth and Crawford were trying
to get into line Griffin had thrown up some pretty
strong breastworks, for he was feeling the weight of
the force in his front.
And now let us leave the pestered Warren and see
what was going on elsewhere. As soon as Grant
could communicate the necessary orders to Burn-
side as to the disposition of his troops at the ford, he
came to the front with all speed: it was then about
nine o'clock. On his arrival he found Meade and
Sedgwick standing near the Pike, and after a short
consultation he and Meade pitched their headquar-
ters near by, on a knoll covered with pines from four
to seven inches in diameter, the ground strewn with
needles and bits of dead limbs. It is now part of an
open leaning field, with here and there an old tree
dreaming of the past; and nearly opposite, on the
Pike, is a little frame chapel, its bell on Sunday
mornings pealing softly over it.
They had barely dismounted before news of im-
portance besides Crawford's first despatch came in.
Captain Michler of the engineers, whom Meade had
sent to reconnoitre to the right of Griffin, had been
suddenly fired on while making his way through the
thickety heads of Caton's Run. After satisfying him-
self that trouble was brewing, he hurried down the
Flat Run Road to its junction with that from Ger-
manna, and notified Meade of the situation. Wright,
with his division of the Sixth Corps, was moving
136 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
along unconscious of danger; but as soon as he
heard Michler's story he formed his division, facing
it west, and soon orders came to move up and join
the right of Griffin. He had to advance through
about the most broken and confusing district of the
Wilderness; his left, under Upton, having to cross
all the branches of Caton's Run, which are densely
packed with bushes, vines, and low-limbed trees.
Meanwhile, to the wonder of headquarters, no
news had come from Wilson; but it is easy of expla-
nation. Not having received counter-instructions
and the enemy having made no demonstration, he
had set off promptly for Craig's Meeting House on
the Catharpin Road. His division got there at eight
o'clock; and shortly after its leading brigade engaged
Rosser and drove him westward several miles. Rosser
was soon reinforced, and pushing Wilson back got
possession of the road to Parker's store, thus cutting
him off from communicating with Meade.
Every little while, however, as the morning had
worn on, wounded men had come down Wilderness
Run from the gallant Hammond's command, all
telling the same story of the advance of Hill toward
the Brock Road. Meade realized his danger; with
the junction of the Brock and Plank roads in Lee's
possession, Warren's position would be turned and
Hancock at Todd's Tavern completely isolated from
the other corps. So about half -past ten Getty, who
had been lying near headquarters, with the third
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 137
division of the Sixth Corps, — waiting, shall I say, for
the delusion to lift that Lee was retreating? — was
ordered to move thither with all haste, and head off
Hill. At the same time Hancock, who, dismounted,
was resting in a pine grove beyond Todd's Tav-
ern, was told to come up without delay and support
Getty.
Meanwhile Winne and the other surgeons were
busy locating their hospitals and getting ready for
what they knew was coming. And by ten o'clock
the yellow flags of the first, second, and third di-
visions of the Fifth Corps were flying on the ridge
east of Wilderness Run; that of the third was first
near the Lacy house, but later moved back with the
rest; those of Wright's and Rickett's divisions of the
Sixth Corps were behind them respectively to the
east of the Germanna Road; that of Getty, and later
those of Hancock's corps, were pitched near Lewis
Run among the fields of the Carpenter farm, which
when I saw them last were in blading corn.
Sheridan had made an early start for Hamilton's
Crossing, but finding he was on a wild-goose chase,
turned back toward Todd's Tavern, and, fortunately,
his leading division under Gregg reached there just
in time to relieve Wilson, who after severe fighting
had been driven rapidly by Rosser and Fitz Lee
from the right of Lee's advance.
The absence of any news from Wilson, the threat-
ened danger on the Plank and Brock roads, and the
138 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
delay of Warren, all added to the intensity of the
situation; and impatience at Meade's and Grant's
headquarters grew apace as the sun rose higher.
Again and again inquiries were made of Warren
when Griffin would move, and each time with more
edge, for no one at headquarters shared his conviction
that the situation called for a thoroughly organ-
ized and formidable attack; why, it was only a rear
guard! Moreover, had any one of the eager, self-
sufficient headquarters staff tried to put a division
or even a regiment in line, he would soon have real-
ized the difficulties and would have had abundant
charity for Warren. It is true that the delay that
morning was almost inexplicable. But once a division
left the roads or fields it disappeared utterly, and its
commander could not tell whether it was in line with
the others or not. As it turned out, they were almost
as disconnected when they struck the enemy as if
they had been marching in the dark. Yet it took
nearly four hours to get ready to form, and when the
orders came to go ahead, divisions were still looking
for each others' flanks.
By half -past eleven Meade, with Heth advancing
every minute toward the Brock Road, could stand
the delay no longer, and, whether or not Wright was
abreast with Griffin, "Send him ahead!" was the firm
command from headquarters.
The situation, then, on our side, thirty minutes
before the battle began, is as follows; Bartlett's
THE BATTLE OF TEE WILDERNESS 139
brigade of Griffin's division is forming in two lines of
battle on the south of the Pike. The first line is the
Eighteenth Massachusetts and Eighty-third Penn-
sylvania, the latter next the road; the second line,
the One Hundred and Eighteenth Pennsylvania and
Twentieth Maine, the First Michigan deployed as
skirmishers. Ay res is moving up by the flank of regi-
ments in column of fours, through the tangled cedars
and pines on the right of the Pike, the One Hundred
and Fortieth New York, Pat O'Rorke's old regiment,
on the left of the first line, and then the Regulars.
In the second line, its left on the Pike, is the One
Hundred and Forty-sixth New York, then the Ninety-
first and One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Pennsylvania.
Upton's men, the left of Wright's division of the
Sixth Corps, are elbowing their way through a tangle
like that Ayres is worming his way through, trying to
overtake and connect with him. In fact when I was
there last spring Upton's ground seemed to me the
worse, but both were bad enough. Wright's second
brigade, made up entirely of troops from New Jersey,
is on Upton's right and across the Flat Run Road
(they too were in the network of undergrowth).
Wright himself is close behind them on the road and
Sedgwick, the best wheel horse, so to speak, in the
army team, is in the corner of the old Spottswood field
where the Flat Run Road leaves the Germanna Ford.
Wadsworth, mounted on his iron gray, lighter in
color than Warren's, is following up his division that
140 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
is trying to advance in line of battle to join Bartlett's
left. Cutler is on the right with the Iron Brigade, the
Twenty-fourth Michigan on its left. Stone is in the
centre of the division, Rice on the left. Daniel W,
Taft, a brave, one-armed Vermont veteran, who was
with Rice in the Ninety-fifth New York, tells me that,
as they advanced, a wild turkey, the first and only
one he ever saw, broke from a thicket ahead of them.
The Maryland brigade of Robinson's division is in
reserve behind Stone, Robinson's other division
ready to support Griffin.
Getty at the head of his division has reached the
junction of the Brock and Plank roads. He was
there just in time, for with his staff and escort, al-
though under fire of the tall North Carolinians who
had driven Hammond back, he held them off till
Wheaton coming up at run formed across the Plank
Road, saving the key of the battle-field. There were
bodies of Confederate dead within less than two
hundred feet of this vital point. Hancock, urged by
orders from Meade, is riding rapidly ahead of his
corps up the Brock Road to join Getty. His troops
are coming on, too, as fast as they can, sometimes
at double-quick, but all are greatly delayed by
artillery, trains, and horsemen, the road being very
narrow and bordered by such thick woods that they
cannot draw off into them to clear the way for the
infantry.
For three or four miles this side of Todd's Tavern
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 141
the road is packed with his sweltering troops, for
it is very hot in the still woods. The main heavy
supply trains that had followed Hancock's troops to
Todd's Tavern have faced about and are making all
speed for Chancellorsville, where the artillery re-
serve is going into park.
Wilson is being roughly handled but his pursuers
are suffering too. Sheridan, under a cloud of trail-
ing dust, is returning from his wild-goose chase
(and by the way he had the effrontery to claim that
it was Meade's fault and not his that the march
had been made, — in fact, his orders were based
on his own report of the location of the Confeder-
ate cavalry, — which if borne in mind, as well as
Meade's temper, may account in part for the char-
acter of their future relations). At headquarters,
anxiety with Meade and Humphreys is increasing
over Hill's move toward the Brock Road. The eagle
spirit in Meade is up, and a captious wonder per-
vades his and Grant's staff why Warren does not at-
tack. No one seems to know or care whether Upton
is alongside of Griffin or not; even up to that hour a
good many of the wise ones among them were pretty
sure that there was nothing very serious in front of
Warren.
Burnside's corps suffering with heat is marching
as fast as it can for Germanna Ford, the rear of the
column, Ferrero's colored division, is on the other
side of the Rappahannock.
142 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
The batteries in the Lacy fields and on the over-
looking ridge east of Wilderness Run stand hitched
ready to move, the buglers following their captains
as they go from section to section of their batteries,
the gunners lying down or leaning against their well-
loved pieces. There is one battery close behind
Griffin. Ammunition-wagons from the various sup-
ply-trains have drawn out and taken positions as
close as they dare to their respective brigades. The
ambulances, too, have come forward and are wait-
ing for their pale passengers.
At last Meade's imperative orders have reached
Warren, Griffin's lines are moving, and every one
at headquarters is in momentary expectation of
hearing the first volley. One who has never been
through it cannot realize the tensity of that hour in
the Wilderness: we knew it was the beginning of the
end, victory for us at last or victory for them.
Grant is sitting with his back against a young pine,
whittling and smoking, his modest, almost plaintive,
face as calm as though he were sitting on a beach
and waves were breaking softly below him. The sun
is in the meridian, not a cloud marbles the sky, and
Wilderness Run is glistening down through the fields.
In the woods not a living leaf is stirring, and the
dead ones are waiting to pillow softly the maimed
and dying. "The mortally wounded will be so
thirsty!" says a spring beauty blooming on the bank
of the little run that crosses the Pike in front of
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 143
GriflSn. "And some of them I Tcnow will cry for
water," observes a violet sadly. "And if they do, I
wish I had wings, for I'd fly to every one of them,"
exclaims the brooklet. "We know you would, sweet-
heart," reply violet and spring beauty to their light-
hearted companion of the solitude. "And if one of
them dies under me, I'll toll every bell that hangs
in my outstretched, blooming branches," declares a
giant huckleberry-bush warmly. "But hush ! hush I "
cries the bush, "here they come!"^
^^^^>v
^
■*.'■■■"
i .3
i
if)
fUuiU ik
VI
And now let us take a quick survey of what had gone
on meanwhile in Lee's lines. Lee himself with a
blithe heart had breakfasted early at his camp near
Verdierville on the Plank Road. At eight o'clock the
night before, he had sent this despatch to Ewell
through his Adjutant-General, Taylor: "He wishes
you to be ready to move early in the morning. If
the enemy moves down the river (that is, toward
Fredericksburg) he wishes to push on after him. If
he comes this way, we will take our old line [that is,
the one of the autumn before at Mine Run]. The
general's desire is to bring him to battle as soon now
as possible."
The reason for bringing Grant to battle at once
may have been strengthened by a despatch that he
had received from Longstreet during the forenoon,
in response to one he had sent him as to Grant's
movements. "I fear," says Longstreet, "that the
enemy is trying to draw us down to Fredericksburg,
Can't we threaten his rear so as to stop his move?
We should keep away from there unless we can put
a force to hold every force at West Point in check."
Longstreet doubtless had in mind the possibility of
Butler's command, then organized at Fort Munroe,
being carried to the mouth of the Pamunkey.
Rappahannock
Sta.
Wkeatleyls Ford
y / \ / ^^^ L juoi
Mountain Run
'nelV):':Fqrd ,
'Rocky Ford \^ \^ Richard- s.For^d
Itu Ford
Blind \ t'-*.
J'ord ^\fordi
Bankftead't'--
Ford ^4^ Orang-e\
Cjoiirt Hc)use\
iJackson's Shop /
Gordonsville,
Mechanicsbni^ a'^y \
?^ =
COUNTRY SOUTH
OF THE
RAPPAHANNOCK
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 145
Heth and Wilcox, who had bivouacked on the
Plank Road, the former this side of Lee, the latter
beyond, were setting out leisurely for Parker's store.
Anderson's, Hill's other division, was still back on
the upper side of the Rapidan, the other side of
Orange Court House, but under orders to come for-
ward. Ramseur of Rodes's division, Ewell's corps,
who with his own brigade and three regiments of
Pegram's had been left to resist any crossing between
Rapidan station and Mitchell's ford, was making
a reconnoissance toward Culpeper, so completely
had his old West Point friend Custer bluffed him all
through the afternoon while we were moving.
Longstreet, having marched from four o'clock of
the previous day and a good share of the night, was
now at Brock's Bridge over the North Anna and
already under way again. Stuart, Rosser, and Fitz
Lee were assembling their cavalry beyond Craig's
Meeting House, — at least twenty odd miles from
Hamilton's Crossing, where the general orders of
the night before had placed them. R. D. Johnston's
brigade of Ewell's corps which had lately been sent
to guard the bridges over the North and South
Anna were on their way back stepping fast: they
claim they made the march of 66 miles in 23 hours,
but I don't believe it. That kind of time can be
made going from a fight but not to it.
When dawn came on, it found Ewell's corps arous-
ing; all of his troops save Rodes and Ramseur were
146 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
along the Pike, Edward Johnson's division in ad-
vance and within a few miles of Griffin. The First
North Carolina cavalry, whom Wilson had scattered
away from Germanna Ford in the morning, by
dusk had re-collected and gone on picket ahead and
around E well's infantry; and just after sunrise they
began feeling their way down the Pike, toward
Warren. If they had held back a while. Griffin's
pickets would all have been withdrawn to rejoin the
moving column, and Ewell could have sprung on
Warren most viciously.
Major Stiles, in his "Four Years under Marse
Robert," a book of living interest, gives us a glimpse
of the early morning up the Pike. He says: "I found
him [General Ewell] crouching over a low fire at a
cross roads in the forest, no one at the time being
nigh except two horses, and a courier who had
charge of them, and the two crutches. The old hero,
who had lost a leg in battle, could not mount his
horse alone. The general was usually very thin and
pale, unusually so that morning, but bright-eyed and
alert. He was accustomed to ride a flea-bitten gray
named Rifle, who was singularly like him, if a horse
can be like a man. He asked me to dismount and take
a cup of coffee with him." Ewell told the major,
while they were drinking their coffee, that his orders
were to go right down the road and "strike the
enemy wherever I could find him."
% About eight A. M., after his corps was moving.
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 147
Ewell sent Major Campbell Brown of his staff to
report his position to General Lee. Lee sent word
back for him to regulate his march down the Pike by
that of Hill on the Plank Road, whose progress he
could tell by the firing at the head of his column; and
that he preferred not to bring on a general engage-
ment before Longstreet came up. Either Colonel
Taylor had misunderstood Lee, or Lee for some rea-
son had changed his mind. Had he not done so and
tried to put his plans of the night before in execution,
another story would certainly have been written
of the campaign. Hancock would have been stopped
long before he had made Todd's Tavern, and his
corps would have been swung over into the Brock
Road, which would have effectually stalled off Hill.
And although Ewell might at first have staggered
Warren and Sedgwick, he never could have driven
them from the ridge east of Wilderness Run where
they would have been rallied; for Hunt would have
had it lined with artillery, and it would have been
another Cemetery Ridge for the Confederate in-
fantry. That the chances of war are fickle, I own,
but I sincerely believe that if Lee had struck at us
early that morning he would have suffered a terrible
defeat before sundown, and, instead of the blithe
heart at sunrise, when twilight came on he would
have carried a heavy one. For Mahone, Anderson,
Ramseur, Johnston, and Longstreet would have been
beyond reach to give a helping hand to Ewell and
148 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
Hill. So I am inclined to think that Colonel Taylor
misunderstood Lee: which in a measure is confirmed
by his moves that morning, all pointing to a manifest
desire not to precipitate a general engagement. For
does any one suppose that Hammond's five hundred
men could have held Hill's veterans back had they
known that Lee wanted them to go ahead? Strangely
and interestingly enough, Lee's chances, owing to
changing his mind, were growing better and better
the farther and farther away Hancock and Wilson
were moving from the strategic key of the field. But
the truth is that Lee that forenoon knew but little
more about Grant's movements than Grant knew
about his.
However that may be, Ewell, after hearing from
Lee, regulated his march accordingly, slowing up
Jones, of Johnson's division, who was in the lead,
and who had felt Griffin's and Wadsworth's videttes
south of the Pike, having pushed the latter nearly
to the western branch of Wilderness Run. When he
got to the Flat Run Road which crosses the Pike
diagonally, as will be seen by consulting the map,
Ewell sent the Stonewall brigade (James A. Walker,
who must not be confounded with Henry H. Walker
of Hill's corps) down it to the left. Soon, through his
field-glasses, from one of the ridges that straggle
across the Pike just this side of its intersection by
the Flat Run Road, he caught sight of Getty threading
his way up across the leaning field east of Wilderness
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 149
Run. Thereupon he halted Jones and sent Colonel
Pendleton of his staff to report his position to Lee
and ask instructions; and no doubt Pendleton told
Lee about the column of troops seen moving toward
the junction of the Brock and Plank roads. While
Pendleton was away, and our people showing more
and more activity and earnestness, Johnson, com-
manding Ewell's leading division, began to arrange
his brigades in line as they came up.
Now in those days there was an old field (it has
since grown up) about five-eighths of a mile east of
the crossing of the Pike by the Flat Run Road. It
was narrow, deserted, occupying a depression be-
tween two irregular ridges, and extended both sides
of the Pike which crossed it a little diagonally nearer
its southern end. The east and west sides sloped
down to a gully in the middle, the scored-out bed
of a once trembling primeval wood-stream; in its
palmy days the Pike crossed it on a wooden bridge.
The field was known as the Saunders or Palmer field,
and was about eight hundred yards long north and
south, and four hundred yards wide. It was about
the only open, sunshiny spot along the four and a
haK to seven or eight miles of our battle-line, if we
include Hancock's entrenchments down the Brock
Road. The last crop of the old field had been com
and among its stubble that day were sown the seeds
of glory. The woods were thick all around the field,
but the ground east and north of itj in the angle
150 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
between the Pike and the Flat Run Road was very
broken, its low humpy ridges cradling a network of
marshy, tangled places, the birthplace of mute lonely
branches of Caton's Run, and everywhere crowded
with cedars and stunted pines. In truth, I know of
no place in the Wilderness where nature seemed
more out of humor than right here in the making
of it.
Johnson drew Jones back to the west side of the
field, his left resting on the Pike, his line of battle
stretching off into the woods. He posted Steuart's
brigade on the other side of the road, then Walker's
and then Stafford's as they came up; their fronts
reaching from the Pike northward almost, if not
quite, to Flat Run itself.
Millidge's battery was posted at the junction of
the roads. Dole and Battle were getting into posi-
tion on the right of Jones, and coming on behind
them was Rodes. J. B. Gordon, the eagle of E well's
corps, was coming down the old Pike, ready to plunge
wherever the smoke of battle rose.
Lee repeated to Pendleton the same instructions
as before, not to bring on an engagement until Long-
street was up. Obviously Lee had greatly under-
estimated the distance Longstreet had to cover.
Pendleton got back to Ewell about 11.30. By that
time Kirkland's brigade of Heth's division, Hill's
corps, followed by Cooke, had driven Hammond
almost to the Brock Road. Scales of Wilcox's di-
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 151
vision of the same corps was standing off Crawford,
while Lane and Thomas were getting into position
in front of McCandless, who was trying to connect
with Wadsworth. Such was about the situation of
both armies at 11.30 A. M.
Griffin's and the right of Wadsworth's division
formed about three-quarters of a mile east of the old
field. In the formation for the advance, Sweitzer's
brigade of Griffin's division had given place on the
left of Bartlett to Cutler, of Wadsworth's division,
and had formed in reserve behind Bartlett. On Cut-
ler's left was Stone, then Rice. The Maryland bri-
gade of Robinson's division was in reserve behind
Stone and Rice. From the Pike to the left of McCand-
less it must have been fully a mile and three-quarters,
and all through thick woods.
Wadsworth's brigades and their supports were or-
dered by Warren to move by the compass due west.
Now a compass is a trusty friend and has guided
many a ship steadfastly and truly through darkness
and storm on the open sea, but it is out of its element
and worse than nothing as a guide for an army
fighting in woods like those of the Wilderness. It
was natural though for Warren, the skillful engineer,
to rely upon it, but under the circumstances, and
with the woods as they were, it was utterly impracti-
cable. The first one hundred yards of underbrush,
and then one of those briar-tangled ravines, and all
reliance on the compass was gone. Self-protection, if
152 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
nothing else, called on the regiments and brigades to
try to keep in touch with each other, whatever the
compass might say. As a matter of fact, only one of
the commands was guided by it, — McCandlesg, who
had the opening of the Chewning fields on his left
to help him. But it ended in taking him away from
everybody, and in coming mighty near to causing
him to lose his entire brigade. For Wadsworth's peo-
ple on McCandless's right naturally swung toward the
Pike, thus leaving a wide gap between him and Rice.
Well, as already stated, when they began to move,
it was almost noon. The troops tried at first to
advance in line of battle from the temporary works
which had been thrown up while the reconnaissances
and preparations had been going on; but owing to
the character of the woods, they soon found that was
out of the question, and had to break by battalions
and wings into columns of foiu's. So by the time they
neared the enemy, all semblance of line of battle was
gone and there were gaps everywhere between regi-
ments and brigades. Regiments that had started in
the second line facing west found themselves facing
north, deploying ahead of the first line. As an ex-
ample of the confusion, the Sixth Wisconsin had been
formed behind the Seventh Indiana, with orders to
follow it at a distance of one hundred yards. By run-
ning ahead of his regiment, the colonel of the Sixth
managed to keep the Seventh in sight till they were
close to the front; but when the firing began, the
.THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 153
Seventh set out at double-quick for the enemy and
disappeared in a moment; and the next thing was an
outburst of musketry and the enemy were coming
in front and marching by both flanks.
But there was almost the same state of affairs on
the other side, except that the Confederates, being
more used to the woods, observed the general direc-
tion better and handled themselves with much more
confidence and initiative than ours, when detached
from their fellows. For instance, the Forty-fifth
North Carolina, of Daniels's brigade, having lost
all connection with the rest of its brigade, stumbled
right on to Stone or Rice, and before they knew it
were within a few rods, only a thickety depression
between them. Ours were the first to fire, but the
aim was too high and scarcely any one hurt; the
return volley, however, so says the regiment's his-
torian who was present, was very fatal, and our men
broke, leaving a row of dead. Cases of this kind
could be repeated and re-repeated of what took
place in the Wilderness; and I am free to say that,
as I walked through the woods last May, looking for
the old lines, more than once I halted with a feeling
that some spectral figure, one of those thousands
who fell there, would appear suddenly and ask me
where he might find his regiment. As a proof of the
savage and unexpected encounterings, a line of
skeletons was found just after the war, half-covered
in the drifting leaves, where some command. North-
154 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
ern or Southern, met with a volley like that of the
Forty-fifth North Carolina, from an unseen foe. It
is the holding of the secrets of butchering happenings
like these, and its air of surprised and wild curiosity
in whosoever penetrates the solitude and breaks its
grim, immeasurable silence, that gives the Wilder-
ness, I think, its deep and evoking interest. i
The woods being somewhat easier for Bartlett's
troops to move through than for those in front of
Ayres, he gained the eastern edge of the old field quite
a little ahead. His first line no sooner came out into
the light than Jones, from the woods on the other
side of the field, opened on it. Our men dashed down
to the gully and then up the sloping side at them,
and at once became hotly engaged. As the second
line cleared the woods, Bartlett rode galloping from
the Pike, flourishing his sword and shouting, "Come
on, boys, let us go in and help them."
Meanwhile Cutler, on Bartlett's left, with his Iron
Brigade, made up of western regiments, whose mem-
bers were more at home in the woods than their
brothers of the East, had gotten considerably ahead
of Bartlett's men, and swinging more and more
toward the Pike at every step, struck Jones's and the
left of Dole's brigade, and, going at them with a cheer,
smashed through, capturing three battle flags and
several hundred prisoners. In this attack Battle's bri-
gade directly behind Jones was so severely handled,
also by Cutler and Bartlett, that it fell back in
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 155
great confusion with Jones's broken regiments for
a mile or more. Dole's right held on, and Daniels,
moving up and going in on his left, met Stone's and
Rice's bewildered commands, some of whom were
really firing into each other, and soon stopped all
their headway. ^^ '■
When Ewell witnessed Jones's and Battle's over-
throw, he hastened back to Gordon, who was just
arriving from his bivouac beyond Locust Grove, and
implored him to save the day. Gordon moved his
strong brigade well to the south of the road; they
formed quickly, and at his stirring command dashed
at Cutler's and Bartlett's men, who, by this time,
were in great disorder, besides having met with
severe losses. As showing their jumble, the Seventh
Indiana, that started on Cutler's extreme left, had
fought its way clear round to the Pike, while the
Sixth Wisconsin, that tried to follow it, found itself
deep in the woods beyond one of the wandering
branches of Wilderness Run, at least a quarter of
a mile away from the Seventh. A company of the
Twentieth Maine, that had started in Bartlett's sec-
ond line, came out on the Pike a half-mile west of
the field; and, behold, on their return, they were be-
yond a Confederate line of battle advancing toward
their first position. This little command, only seven-
teen of them, now behaved so well that I think they
deserve mention as well as the exploits of brigades
and corps. The lieutenant, Melcher, gave the order.
156 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
" Every man load his rifle and follow me." Having
drawn near the Confederates, intent under fire from
our broken men in front, Melcher formed in single
rank, he on the right, his first sergeant on the left,
and taking deliberate aim, fired, and then with a
shout charged. Their attack was a surprise and
could only have happened in the Wilderness. With
two killed and six wounded they fought their way
through, using sword and bayonet, but brought off
thirty-two prisoners which were turned over to the
provost marshal. Suppose every company in the
army had had officers and first sergeants like that!
Such was the state of our lines when Dole's, and
those of Battle's and Jones's brigades that had ral-
lied, went in with Gordon, all giving their wildest
"rebel yell." And, reader, let me tell you I heard
that rebel yell several times; and if you had been
there, with the scary feeling one is apt to have in
strange, deep woods, the chances are about even,
I think, that your legs would have volunteered to
carry you to the Lacy farm, or for that matter to the
other side of the Rapidan. I mean only that that
would have been your first feeling as you heard them
coming on; but I dare say you would have faced the
enemy right well.
Well, as I have said, what was left of Rice, Stone,
and the Maryland brigade, — all somewhat shaky,
if not already falling back under the advance of
Daniels, — Gordon, Dole, and Battle struck just at
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 157
the right time, and practically sent everything flying,
but the dead, before them. Bartlett's troops fell
back, in great disorder, to the east of the old field and
the works they had made in the morning; most of
Cutler's and those on the left did not stop till they
reached the Lacy farm. There, after great exertion,
Wadsworth, who was deeply mortified and in high
temper, rallied them. I recall very distinctly their
condition, for I was right among them.
f Jones and his aide, Captain Early, a nephew of the
distinguished Confederate General Early, were killed
trying to rally their brigade. I happened to be at
Grant's headquarters that afternoon or the next
morning, just after the news of his death was received,
and overheard some one ask, "What Jones is that?"
Ingalls, our chief quartermaster, exclaimed with sur-
prised regret, "Why, that is Jones, J. M.; we called
him *Rum' Jones at West Point." There is a stone
on the south side of the Pike, about a mile and a
quarter west of the old field, marking the spot where
he fell.
Roebling, who was coming back from Crawford,
says in his notes: —
"I found the little road (the Parker's store road)
crowded with stragglers and large crowds of soldiers
pouring out of the woods in great confusion and al-
most panic-stricken. Some said they were flanked,
others said they had suddenly come upon the enemy
lying concealed in two lines of battle in the thick
158 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
underbrush, and that our men had broken at the first
volley. Cutler's brigade came back in good order
bringing a number of prisoners; the ^nd Division
Baxter's brigade came back in much less confusion."
Mr. G. M. Woodward, adjutant of the Second
Wisconsin of Cutler's brigade, writes me that just
after he had given orders for the regiment to break
ranks, and fall back to the Parker's Store Road from
which they had moved, all the field officers and two
of the captains being either killed or wounded and
the regiment outflanked by Gordon's or Dole's coun-
ter-charge, he concluded he would stay behind a little
and discover, if he could, the enemy's line of advance.
While peering around, he suddenly heard a deep bass
voice: "Adjutant, what be I going to do with this
flag?" Turning, he saw Davidson the color-bearer
standing bolt upright in the woods, all alone, grasp-
ing the flagstaff. Of course Woodward gave the
necessary orders which the brave color-sergeant was
waiting for, and together, under a rattling fire, they
rejoined the regiment.
And here, reader, let me bring in a word from my
friend Dr. Winne, to whom you have already been
introduced; and were you to meet him, you would
wish that there were more in the world like him.
"When Wadsworth's demoralized division was re-
forming at the Lacy house," says the doctor in his
letter to me, "I saw a wonderful example of the
triumph of mind over matter which I have never
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 159
forgotten; and I can almost see the boy's face yet.
The shattered division was just moving back to the
hne when I noticed the youngster in his place going
to what may have been his death, with pallid face
and trembling lips, yet with his head erect and eyes
to the front, going to meet Fate like a gentleman
and soldier." I hope, and so do you, reader, that the
boy lived through it and on into a good old age, his
brave heart ever his cheerful companion, and beating
proudly on every fifth of May.
As soon as Wadsworth's men were brought into
some kind of order, — and it only took a moment,
for once out of the woods and where they could see
their colors, all rallied save now and then a man whose
heart was not made for war, — I went to the front.
And as I reached there Bartlett was reforming, Sweit-
zer and Robinson having relieved him and stayed
the enemy from advancing. He had been wounded
in the cheek, and the blood was trickling down on his
breast. His complexion was fair and his hair very
black, his hat was off, and I can see his bleeding face,
as well as GriflSn's deeply glum one, across all the
years.
So much for the engagement south of the Pike.
Ayres, commanding Griffin's right wing on the north
side of the road, after overcoming annoying and de-
laying hindrances, brought his regiments into some
sort of line just before they reached the old field,
resting his left, the One Hundred and Fortieth New
160 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
York, on the road. By this time Bartlett with Cutler
had gotten across the south end of the field and had
disappeared pursuing Jones; but Steuart's men in the
woods on the other side of the field, the continuation
of Jones's line, had stood fast, and with their fingers
on the triggers were poising among the cedars, scrub-
oaks, and young pines, watching Ayres; and as soon
as the One Hundred and Fortieth, with their colors
flying, came into the field, opened on them with pre-
meditated, withering fire. The regiment, under its
gallant yellow-haired leader, "Paddy" Ryan, charged
down to the gully and up to the woods, losing heavily
at every step. Receiving also a bitter cross-fire from
their right, they swerved to the left, the color com-
pany astride the Pike, and then at close range grap-
pled with the enemy. The Regulars to their right,
under a murderous fire, crossed the upper end of the
field in perfect alignment, entered the woods, and be-
gan an almost hand-to-hand struggle. But Walker's
and Stafford's Confederate brigades, with nothing
in the world to hinder, — for the Sixth Corps was
not nearly up, — poured deadly voUies into them.
The One Hundred and Fifty-fifth and Ninety-first
Pennsylvania Volunteers went valiantly to their
support. And as the Second, Eleventh, Twelfth,
Fourteenth, and Seventeenth Regulars are advancing
in the open field under heavy fire, let me say that a
steady orderly march like that is what calls for fine
courage. It is easy, my friends, to break into a wild
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 161
cheer, and at the top of your speed be carried along
by excitement's perilous contagion even up to the
enemy's works. But to march on and on in the face
of withering musketry and canister, as the Regulars
are doing now and as Pickett's men did at Gettys-
burg; or as the Sixth Maine, with uncapped guns,
resolutely and silently went up to the works at
Marye's Heights, and, by the way, carried them; or
as I saw the colored division marching on heroically
at the explosion of the mine at Petersburg, their
colors falling at almost every step, but lifted again
at once, — I say, that is a kind of courage which sets
your heart a-beating as your eye follows their flut-
tering colors.
Meanwhile Griffin, to help the One Hundred and
Fortieth to break the enemy's line, sent forward a
section of Battery D, First New York, a move of
great danger, — and the guns never marched with
the Army of the Potomac again. The section, under
Lieutenant Shelton riding a spirited chestnut and ac-
companied by his Captain, Winslow, on a bald-faced
brown horse, trotted down the Pike and over the
bridge and went into action briskly; the air around
them and over the whole field hissing with minie
balls. In the edge of the woods, and on both sides
of the Pike, at less than two hundred yards away,
the One Hundred and Fortieth was fighting almost
muzzle to muzzle with the First and Third North
Carolina. The first and only round from the sec-
im THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
tion crashed through the woods, ploughing its way
among friends and foes, and instead of helping,
made it much harder for the brave men. And just
then, too, — the One Hundred and Fortieth dreading
another round every moment, — on came Battle's
and Dole's rallied brigades against their left. Pat
O'Rorke's brave men — who helped to save Round
Top, the gallant Pat losing his life there — stood
the unequal contest for a moment and then broke.
The guns now tried to retire from a position to
which many thought they should not have been or-
dered. But it was too late. Ayres's second line, which
had followed the One Hundred and Fortieth and the
Regulars with strong hearts, had been suffering at
every step by the bitter and continuous cross-fire
from their front and unprotected flank; and by the
time they had reached the farther side of the field were
so mowed down that they could save neither the day
nor the guns. The One Hundred and Forty-sixth of
this second line reached the gully as the guns tried
to withdraw, but was completely repulsed, and many
of them made prisoners. Their horses being killed
and officers wounded or captured, and the enemy
on top of them, the sun-sparkling guns fell into
the hands of the enemy. The brave Shelton was
wounded and made a prisoner, his proud chestnut
was killed.
It was at this juncture that, pursued by Gordon's,
Dole's, and Battle's brigades, back came Bartlett's
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 163
men, almost in a panic. They rushed into the field
and actually ran over the North Carolinians about
the guns, many of whom had taken refuge in the
gully. The Sixty-first Alabama, of Battle's brigade,
was so close behind our people that they hoisted
their colors on the pieces and claimed their capture,
till the North Carolinians emerged from the gully
and said No I
By this time Regulars and Volunteers were driven
back with heavy loss to the east side of the field.
The victorious Confederates could not pursue be-
yond the guns, or even stand there, for Sweitzer's
of GriflSn's, and the First brigade of Robinson's di-
vision, under my friend Charles L. Pierson, a gentle-
man, together with our rallied men, now poured such
a fire into them from the east side of the field, that
they fled back to their lines on the edge of the
woods. Meanwhile the gully was full of their men
and ours, most of whom were wounded, and who did
not dare to show themselves.
In an attempt to recapture the guns — whose loss
Griffin, the commander of our West Point battery
in my day, felt deeply — the Ninth Massachusetts,
an Irish regiment, and the Ninetieth Pennsylvania
suffered frightfully, adding to the thickly lying dead
in the old field. Its last year's crop, as already told,
was corn; and sweeter by far were the rustling of
its swaying blades and tasseling tops than the sting-
ing flights of the bullets and the cries of the wounded.
164 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
O ! violets, innocent little houstonias, flaming aza-
leas, broom-grass, struggling pines, cedars, oaks,
gums, and sassafras, now dotting the field, when the
south wind blows and the stars call out, "This is the
fifth of May," do you break into your mellow speech
and commemorate the boys I saw lying there beyond
the reach of friendly hands? Yes, I know right well
you do: and Heaven bless every one of you; and so
says every Northern oak and elm, and so says every
poplar and Southern pine that borders the old fields
of home.
The guns stood there that night and all through
the next day, for the fire was so close and deadly
from their lines and ours that no one could approach
them. When Gordon broke Sedgwick's line at dusk
the following night, to the right of the Sixth Corps,
the enemy availed themselves of our confusion to
draw them off.
On the repulse of Griffin and Wadsworth, Craw-
ford was drawn well down on the Parker's Store Road
and began to entrench. Thus by half -past one War-
ren's corps had been thrown back with heavy loss;
and all because the Sixth Corps had not been able to
connect with it. Upton's troops did not get abreast
of Ayres's bleeding brigade till three o'clock, and
the ground where they had fought had burned over.
He drove the enemy from an advanced position —
for no one in the Army of the Potomac had greater
courage or more soldierly abilities than Upton — and
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 165
then entrenched. In front and behind his lines were
many scorched and burned bodies of our men and of
the Second, Tenth, Fourteenth, and Sixteenth regi-
ments of Stafford's Confederate brigade, who, with
James A. Walker's, enveloped the right flank of the
Regulars.
Brown's and Russell's brigades of the Sixth Corps,
on Upton's right, greatly impeded as he had been in
their advance through the scrub-oaks, saplings of all
kinds, and intermingling underbrush, came in con-
flict with Early's division, which, after the repulse
of Griffin, had been pushed well out on Johnson's
left, and, under Hays, Stafford, and Pegram, was ad-
vancing between Flat Run and the road of that name.
Russell, on the right, gave them a sudden and severe
check, capturing almost entire the Twenty-fifth Vir-
ginia of Jones's brigade, which after regaining its
hope and courage had been moved to the left. In
this engagement, or subsequent ones, for fighting was
kept up on and off till dark, Stafford was killed and
Pegram severely wounded.
As soon as they had driven us back on Griffin's
front, the enemy began to strengthen their entrench-
ments and brought guns down to their line. Our men
did likewise; so, besides musketry, the field was swept
with canister, for they were only four hundred yards
apart; off on the right, in Sedgwick's front, the lines
in some places were within pistol-shot of each other.
The woods on the Confederate side got on fire and
166 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
burned widely. "Suddenly, to the horror of the liv-
ing," wrote a member of the Seventh Indiana who
was lying along the Pike, wounded, about where
Jones was killed, "fire was seen creeping over the
ground, fed by dead leaves which were thick. All
who could move tried to get beyond the Pike, which
the fire could not cross. Some were overtaken by
the flames when they had crawled but a few feet,
and some when they had almost reached the road.
The ground, which had been strewn with dead and
wounded, was in a few hours blackened, with no dis-
tinguishable figure upon it."
Some time after his repulse, Grifiin, in miserable
humor, rode back to Meade's headquarters, and in
the course of his interview allowed his feelings to get
away with him, exclaiming in the hearing of every
one around that he had driven Ewell three-quarters
of a mile, but had had no support on his flanks. Then,
boihng still higher, he censured Wright of the Sixth
Corps for not coming to his aid, and even blurted out
something so mutinous about Warren, that Grant
asked Meade, "Who is this General Gregg.? You
ought to arrest him." Meade, however, kept his tem-
per and said soothingly, "It's Griffin, not Gregg,
and it's only his way of talking." This flurry of Grif-
fin's was a part of the aftermath of the delusion that
Lee would not take the offensive; but in view of all
the near and remote consequences of that delusion,
the most of which are obvious, it is but a wisp. There
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 167
is nothing in the campaign which approaches the in-
terest which that delusion has for me. Sometimes
as I ponder over it, I think I hear voices near and yet
far away, and something within tells me that they
are chanting one of Fate's old and weird melodies, —
and then all is still.
It seems probable, with what we know now of the
situation, that, if Griffin had not been sent forward
till Upton had joined him, Ewell would have been
driven far away from where Major Stiles found him
boiling his coffee. And I wonder where he would have
boiled it the next morning: possibly far back on the
banks of Mine Run, or, more likely, on the head-
waters of one of the streams bearing off to the North
Anna, for Lee would have had to fall back in that
direction till he met Longstreet. Wherever he may
have breakfasted, for me Ewell has always been an
interesting character. Major Stiles tells us that he
was a great cook. "I remember on one occasion later
in the war," says the major, "I met him in the outer
defenses of Richmond, and he told me some one had
sent him a turkey-leg which he was going to * devil';
that he was strong in that particular dish; that his
staff would be away, and I must come around that
evening and share it with him." The major had a
part of the deviled turkey-leg and a happy evening
with the general. It was this same grim, kind-hearted
old Ewell who reported that Stonewall Jackson once
told him that he could not eat black pepper because
168 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
it gave him rheumatism in one of his legs ! It would
have been well for soldiers in Banks's army if Stone-
wall had "unbeknownst" eaten some black pepper
before he got after them in '62; it might have saved
them a part, at least, of that awfully hot chase back
to the Potomac.
They say that Ewell looked very sad as he sat
before a camp-fire the night he was captured at Sail-
or's Creek, a few days before Lee surrendered.
And now let us turn from Warren, Griffin, and
Sedgwick, to Getty, who reached the junction of the
Brock and Plank roads about the very hour when
Warren began his attack. That historic point might,
not only for the sake of the services they rendered
that day, but for services on many other fields, be
called Getty's or Hammond's Crossing. Perhaps a
descriptive word or two as to its adjacent natural
features will aid the reader to see — and I wish he
might hear, also — the stirring events that took place
there; for I believe that no crossing of country roads
on this continent ever heard, or perhaps ever will
hear, such volleys.
The roads, the ground of their low banks a dull
brick-red, cross each other at a right angle in the
midst of dense, silent woods which are chiefly oaks,
medium-sized, shaggy and surly, the ground beneath
them heavily set with underbrush. The Brock then
bears on south some four miles, through whippoor-
will-haunted woods, to Todd's Tavern, and thence
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 169
on through woods again to Spotsylvania. About
half-way between the junction and Todd's Tavern,
the Brock is intersected by a narrow-gauge railroad
which runs from Orange Court House to Fredericks-
burg. Having reached Parker's store on its way east
from Orange Court House, the railway swings off
southerly from the Plank with a long curve, till it
comes to the Brock, and then darts across it. When
the war came on, its narrow location had just been
cleared through the woods, and the roadbed graded.
It will be seen in due time what use Longstreet made
of this roadbed; how his flanking column under the
handsome and gallant Sorrel formed there and swept
everything before it to the Plank Road as he charged
due northward through the woods, gray and pun-
gent with the smoke of battle and burning leaves.
From the junction west to Parker's store is about
two and a half miles, and east to where Jackson
met his fatal volley on the battle-field of Chancel-
lorsville is less than a half-hour's rapid walk.
The spring-head of the most easterly branch of
W^ilderness Run crosses the Brock a third or a half
mile north of the junction. Over dead leaves and
dead limbs and around low tussocks, crowned when
I saw them last with blooming cowslips, the darkish
water comes stealing out of the gloomy woods on
the east side of the road, glints at the sun, and
then disappears in those to the west. This branch
soon spreads into a zigzagging morass falling in
170 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
with others Hke it which head near the Plank Road
and creep northward, separated by low, tortuous,
broken ridges, the dying-away of the heaving pla-
teau that sweeps around from Chewning's. The
waters of all of them unite at last in Wilderness
Run. In these shallow depressions bamboo-like vines
abound, tangling all the bushes, but here and there
is an azalea amongst them, and, when the battle was
going on, dogwoods were in bloom along their banks
and on the ridges between them. These alternating
ridges and swampy interlaced thickets twill the coun-
try, that lies inclined like a canted trough in the angle
between the Brock Road and the Plank. It was the
scene of very, very bitter fighting, and there many
men of both armies were lost.
The ground on the south side of the Plank is gently
wavy, and about its junction with the Brock may be
called dry, level, and firm; but in less than a mile to
the west, low ridges are met with like those on the
north side, between which are thickety morasses
again; but they drain off southward into affluents of
Jackson's Run, one of whose branches is a compan-
ion of the Brock Road for a while. These waters
saunter their way into the Po and Ny and then on at
last into the Pamunkey, while those in the morasses
on the north side of the Plank flow into the Rapidan
and then into the Rappahannock. The land gener-
ally, however, is higher on the south than on the
north side of the road, and not nearly so broken;
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 171
but on either side one can barely see a man thirty
yards away.
About a mile and three-quarters west of the junc-
tion the Plank emerges from the glooming woods into
a clearing of twenty or thirty acres; it is a very quiet
spot, and over the most of it the broom-grass is wav-
ing. The northern edge of this humble little estate
follows the abrupt, bulging descents of the Chewning
circular ridge which encloses the basin of Wilderness
Run. It is the Widow Tapp's place; her small house,
with companion corn-crib and log stable, stand
several hundred yards from the road and partly
masked by meagre plum and cherry trees. In this
old dun clearing Lee made his headquarters during
a part of the struggle, and by the roadside just at the
border of the woods is the stone with, "Lee to the
rear, say the Texans," inscribed upon it.
Getty's leading brigade, Wheaton's, on the run,
as already recorded, reached the Plank Road by
noon, and with all haste deployed astride it, the
Ninety-third Pennsylvania on the left, the One
Hundred and Thirty-ninth Pennsylvania on the
right, and succeeded, after losing quite a number
of men, in checking Heth's advance. As fast as the
other brigades of the division came up, they were
formed in two lines, Eustis on the right of Wheaton,
and the ever-gallant Vermont brigade under Lewis
A. Grant on the left. Learning from prisoners that
he was confronted by two of Hill's divisions, Heth's
172 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
and Wilcox's, Getty immediately began to throw up
breastworks along the Brock Road, to the right
and left of the junction. While thus engaged, his
troops skirmishing briskly along their entire front,
Hancock, preceding his corps at a fast gallop, reined
up before him, looking the soldier through and
through, — and I can see his high-headed and high-
withered sorrel, with nostrils expanded and pride in
his mien that he had brought his gallant rider to
the scene of action.
It took but a moment for Getty to make the sit-
uation clear to Hancock, whose animated face that
morning, and every morning, was handsomely stern
with a natural nobility of manner and an atmo-
sphere of magnanimity about him. It was then after
one o'clock, and by this time, although unknown to
Getty, Warren's repulse was almost complete. Han-
cock at once sent his staff-oflScers back, directing di-
vision and brigade commanders to hurry the troops
forward with all possible speed. His martial and
intense spirit so imbued his corps, and his relations
with it were of such a personal character, that his
fervor in the face of the threatening situation was
communicated like a bugle-call to the entire column.
But on account of the road being blocked by the
trains and artillery, the men were greatly impeded
in their march. About half-past two, Birney's, Han-
cock's leading division, bore in sight, and under
orders formed hurriedly on Getty's left, continuing
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 173
the latter's line of entrenchments so as to be ready if
Hill should come on, which was momentarily expected
by Getty.
And so, as one after another of his perspiring
divisions closed up, each formed on the other's left
and entrenched: Birney, Mott, then Gibbon, and
last Barlow, whose division was thrown forward of
the Brock Road on some high, clear ground which
commanded an immediate sweep of country; and
there, save two batteries, Dow's and Ricketts's, all
the artillery of the corps was massed. Barlow's line
then bowed eastward across the Brock Road, not far
from where the railway crosses it.
Meanwhile Warren's repulse had made headquar-
ters very anxious, and as early as half-past one, or-
ders suggesting an advance had been sent to Getty.
But, believing that Heth and W^ilcox were both in
front of him, and evidently in no mood to yield, and
Hancock's men almost at hand, he used his discre-
tion and waited for their coming, his understanding
with Hancock being that, as soon as he was ready,
they should go forward. In harmony with this un-
derstanding, on Birney's arrival, Getty withdrew
Eustis into reserve, moved Wheaton to the north
side of the Plank Road, and Lewis H. Grant by flank
till his right rested on it. Both brigades, save their
heavy skirmish lines, were on the Brock Road behind
their temporary works.
Birney's and Mott's divisions, as soon as their tire-
174 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
some march was over, began, by Hancock's orders, to
throw up a continuation of Getty's breastworks along
the west side of the road. The old works, now sunk
to low, flattened ridges, and covered with bushes
and saplings, some of which are quite large, seem
almost endless as you travel the lonely road to
Todd's Tavern.
^ The news from Griffin's front growing more and
more disturbing, Humphreys, Meade's chief of staff,
at a quarter after two reported the serious results to
Hancock, who in reply said that two of his divisions,
Birney's and Mott's, in conjunction with Getty,
would make an attack as soon as they could get ready.
This was not the response headquarters had hoped
for, but that he would spring to the attack; for the
situation demanded it. Minutes followed minutes,
worser and worser came the news from Warren,
and not a sound from Hancock's and Getty's guns.
Meade could stand it no longer and sent Colonel
Lyman of his staff with a peremptory order to Getty
to attack at once, with or without Hancock. It was
the same kind of an order in terms and spirit which
had sent Griffin ahead without knowing whether
Upton was ready to help him.
Humphreys, in confirming Meade's orders to Han-
cock to attack, directed him to support Getty with
a division on his right and another on his left,
**but the attack up the Plank Road must be made
at once." Accordingly Hancock ordered Birney to
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 175
send one of his brigades, Hays's to Getty's right.
Hays, that very gallant man, moved as fast as he
could up the Brock Road past the junction, but
Getty, having caught the spirit of his orders and
knowing that he could not wait for any shifting of
Hancock's troops, had given the command forward;
and before Hays reached his position his men had
cleared their works and were desperately engaged. It
was then 4.15 p. m.
VII
And now, having established our forces at the junc-
tion, let us go back and establish theirs; let us go to
where Lee had bivouacked in the woods near Mrs.
Rodes's, and follow the train of events which, as the
day progressed, had put Heth ready to plunge at
Getty; for, as a matter of fact, he was just about to
take the offensive when Getty struck at him. The
sun rose that morning at 4.48, — I saw it come up,
a deep poppy red, — and by the time it started to
clear the tree-tops, Lee was breakfasting and his
trusty, heavily-built, iron-gray horse. Traveller,
stood saddled, ready for him to mount. Lee was
fifty odd years old, about six feet tall, nobly hand-
some, unmistakably dignified and reserved, his gray
trimmed beard darkening as it mounted his sub-
duedly ruddy cheeks, and his enlightened, dauntless
eyes, a warm brown hazel. As has been said before,
he was very cheerful while he breakfasted with his
staff. It may be interesting to know that it was
his habit in the field not to loiter at the table, but
to leave it early, so that his young and light-hearted
friends might enjoy its freedom. He conveyed the
impression to all of them that morning — how a reli-
ant spirit in a commander spreads through his staff!
— that at heart he was looking forward to a victory
over Grant.'
THE BATTLE OF THE WH^DERNESS 177
The troops of his small, punctilious, courageous,
and mysteriously impressive Third Corps commander
A. P. Hill, who had been with him on so many fields,
were just moving, and "Jeb" Stuart, his buoyant
and reliable cavalry leader who had bivouacked that
night in rear of the picket-reserve and some distance
beyond the infantry, and, according to his biographer.
Major McClellan of his staff, was conducting the
advance of Hill's corps.
There are no two of the Confederate generals who
are more vitally interesting to me than Stuart and
Hill, although I never saw either of them that I know
of; they may, however, have visited West Point and
passed unnoticed in the stream of young and old
officers who were coming and going to their Alma
Mater when I was there. But, however it may
have been, everything I hear or read of Stuart is ac-
companied with a sense of nearness: I catch sight
of his fine features, his manly figure, his dazzling,
boyish blue eyes, his flowing, brownly auburn beard,
and hear his voice ringing with either command or
glee. It is said that rarely was his camp-fire lit
that he did not make it joyous, his voice leading in
chorus and song. And now the mystic bugles of his
troopers are sounding taps from the Rapidan to the
James in his old camps, and, hark! as they die
away, "Jeb" is still singing on, for woods and fields
and running streams all love the memory of a happy
heart.
178 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
Nature made him a cavalry leader by instinct, and
a very sweet character. All of his old army and West
Point friends never wearied in testifying to their
affection for him. He met his mortal wound just a
week after the morning we are dealing with. W^hen
told that death was very near he asked that the
"Rock of Ages, cleft for me," might be sung, and
with his failing breath joined as they sang around his
bed. When in the field he always wore a yellow cav-
alry sash, and a felt hat with a black plume.
Why Hill has been so interesting is perhaps be-
cause there is always something very keen to me in
the courteous dignity, care of personal appearance,
and a certain guarded self-control, of officers who
are small in stature, but naturally "military," and
whose lives and movements are in harmony with all
forms of military etiquette. They say he was quiet
in manner, but when aroused and angered, was hard
to appease. He wore his coal-black hair rather long,
and his face was bearded, his eyes rather sunken, and
his voice sharp and stern. But what kindles an en-
during, historic light about him is that, when both
Stonewall Jackson and Lee were dying, he, this little,
punctilious, courteous soldier, was in their misting
vision. Stonewall said, as he was fading away, "Tell
A. P. Hill to prepare for action "; Lee, like Stonewall,
was back on the field and murmured, "Tell A. P.
Hill he must come up." Well, well, flowers of Vir-
ginia! go on blooming and blooming sweetly, too.
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 179
by the grave of each of them as this narrative wends
its way.
Kirkland's brigade of North Carolinians of Heth's
division was in front that morning, and moved leis-
urely; for Hill had had the same instructions as Ewell,
to develop our lines but not to bring on a general
battle till Longstreet should overtake them. "Never
did a regiment march more proudly and deter-
minedly than the Twenty-sixth North Carolina as
it headed the column for the battle of the Wilderness.
We passed General Lee and his staff." So says its
historian.
It was the same regiment that charged at Gettys-
burg and lost so heavily on the first day, led by those
two fine young men, Burgwyn and "Rip" McCreery,
both of whom lost their lives. I wonder if, for the
sake of boyhood's memories which I shared with
McCreery at West Point, the reader will consent to
allow the current of events to eddy for a moment
around him and Burgwyn. At Gettysburg their regi-
ment, the Twenty-sixth, waiting for the command,
"Forward," was lying down in the edge of the
wheat-field that waved up to McPherson's woods.
After a while Burgwyn, spare, refinedly and deli-
cately handsome, gave the long-waited-for com-
mand, "Attention!" The lines sprang to their feet,
the color-bearer stepped out four paces to the front,
and at the command, "Forward!" the regiment,
eight hundred strong, moved resolutely across the
180 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
field toward our men, who were standing partially
protected by a stone wall. The engagement soon be-
came desperate, and after the colors of the Twenty-
sixth had been cut down ten times, McCreery seized
them and, waving them aloft, led on; but within a
few paces he was shot through the heart, and his
Virginia blood gushed out, drenching the colors.
Burgwyn took them from McCreery's flaccid hand,
— and again I see that thin, nervous hand sweeping
the holy air of the chapel in impassioned gesture as
he delivers his Fourth of July oration, — a moment
later a minnie ball goes tearing through Burgwyn's
lungs, and, as he falls, swirling, the flag wraps about
him. The lieutenant-colonel of the regiment kneels
by his side and asks, "Are you severely hurt, dear
colonel?" He could not speak, but pressed his
friend's hand softly and soon passed away.
The Twenty-sixth, with its gallantly commanded
Confederate brigade, finally carried the position; and
it adds interest and, I am sure, stirs a feeling of pride
in every Northern breast, that the Twenty-sixth's
worthy opponent that day at Gettysburg was the
Twenty-fourth Michigan, now present in the Wilder-
ness, whose exploit of capturing the colors of the
Forty-eighth Virginia has already been given. Nine
oflScers and men carried the flag of that Michigan
regiment during the action at Gettysburg; four
of them and all the color-guard were killed. The
Twenty-fourth was from the shores of lakes Erie
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 181
and Huron, the Twenty-sixth from the slopes of the
mountains of western North Carolina. In one of the
North Carolina companies there were three sets of
twins, and, when the battle was over, five of the six
were lying dead with Burgwyn and "Rip" McCreery.
And now to go on with the narrative, Kirkland's
brigade was followed by Cooke's, also made up en-
tirely of North Carolinians, and then came Walker's
and Davis's brigades, the latter from Mississippi,
the former from Virginia. Wilcox with his division
followed Heth. While Ewell was marshaling rather
cautiously in front of Griffin, Heth kept on slowly
down the Plank Road, and every once in a while
from the southwest came the boom of Wilson's guns,
who, three or four miles away, on the Catharpin
Road, was already engaging Rosser right valiantly.
At last Heth was in reach of the Brock Road, but
Wheaton's sudden appearance put a new aspect on
affairs. Kirkland pushed his skirmish line hard up,
and WTieaton not budging, Heth notified Hill that
he had reason to believe a strong force was in his
front. Before this news could reach headquarters,
Lee, his mind being wholly taken up with what had
just happened on Ewell's front, namely, the over-
throw of Jones's and Battle's brigades and the sav-
age fighting inaugurated on the Pike, had ordered
Wilcox to move toward the danger-point. Wilcox
left McGowan and Scales to look after Crawford, and
pressed northward through the woods with his other
182 THE BATTLE OF THE WH^DERNESS
brigades. Lane's and Thomas's. Riding ahead of his
troops, he found Gordon, and had barely spoken to
him when a volley broke from where he had left his
men. The musketry he heard was between his people
and McCandless, who, having failed to make any
connection with Wadsworth, was moving forward by
compass, and, as it proved, right into the arms of
Wilcox's two brigades, which very soon disposed of
him, capturing almost entire the Seventh Pennsyl-
vania. This case illustrates well the chance collisions
which marked the fighting in the Wilderness, owing
to the density of the woods.
After Warren's repulse, Sedgwick not threatening
seriously, Ewell having entrenched himself firmly and
apparently safely before both of them, Lee gave at-
tention to the news sent by Heth in regard to our
stubborn lines at the junction, and about half -past
three he sent this message to him by Colonel Mar-
shall, his chief of staff: "General Lee directs me to
say that it is very important for him to have posses-
sion of Brock Road, and wishes you to take that po-
sition, provided you can do so without bringing on
a general engagement."
And here let me make this comment on Lee's mes-
sage. All authorities agree that his orders in every
case to those in front that day were qualified by the
caution not to bring on a general engagement. Or-
ders of this kind are embarrassing; for a corps or di-
vision commander never knows how far to push his
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 183
successes. Their evils had a good illustration at Get-
tysburg. There Lee used identically the same lan-
guage on the first day; and when Trimble urged Ewell
to take advantage of the complete overthrow of our
First Corps and follow up our disordered troops and
seize the Cemetery Ridge, he replied that he had or-
ders from Lee not to bring on a general engagement.
Lee's indeterminate, and therefore hampering orders,
I believe, lost him the battle of Gettysburg.
Heth replied in effect that the only way to find out
whether it would bring on a general engagement was
to make the attempt; and while Marshall returned
for a reply, he formed his division across the Plank
Road in line of battle, ready to go ahead if that should
be the command. Cooke's brigade was in the centre,
the Fifteenth and Forty-sixth on the right, the Twenty-
seventh and Forty-eighth North Carolina on the left
of the road. Davis's brigade, made up of the Second,
Eleventh, and Forty-second Mississippi, and the
Fifty-fifth North Carolina, was on Cooke's left.
Walker was on the latter 's right, Kirkland in reserve.
The line on which Heth's troops were formed had
not been chosen for the special advantages of defense
it offered, but rather by chance, for he expected to
be the assailant. A better one, however, as it turned
out, could not have been selected. It conformed to
the low, waving ridges between the morasses, offer-
ing splendid standing ground, and was almost invis-
ible until within forty or fifty yards. Ready to go
i84i ;the battle of the wilderness
ahead or ready to hold, there they were when the
quick, sharp, cracking fire of the skirmish-line told
them that the Union's defenders were coming.
Now let us turn to Getty: it is about half after
four, — that hour when the elms in the northern
meadows were beginning to lengthen, the cows to
feed toward the bars, the thrushes, in the thickets
where the dog-tooth violet and the liverwort bloom,
to strike their first clear ringing notes, and the benig-
nant serenity of the day's old age to spread over
fields and flock-nibbled pastures. It was then that
the men from the North, from Pennsylvania, New
York, and far-away Vermont, heard the expected
order to advance. As they leap over the breast-
works, for a moment the scarlet in their colors splash
among the fresh green leaves in the edge of the
woods, but almost in the twinkling of an eye, the
lines of men in blue, the guns, and the rippling flags,
disappear. Soon crash after crash is heard, cheers,
volleys, and more wild cheers, and in a little while
gray smoke begins to sift up through the tree-tops;
and in a little while, too, pale, bleeding fellows, limp-
ing or holding a shattered arm, some supported by
comrades, others borne on litters., begin to stream
out of the woods. " ^ i
Getty, the cool, intellectually broad-based man,
moved forward with his men; between him and them
and immediately in front of him was a section (two
guns) of Ricketts's Pennsylvania battery. Within
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 185
less than a half-mile his troops had met Heth's al-
most face to face, and in the lengthening shadows
they plunged at each other. Wheaton's men on the
north side of the road encountered half of Cooke's
and all of Davis's brigade posted on the hither side
of the tangled morasses already mentioned, and in
some places, at not more than one hundred and fifty
feet apart, they poured volley after volley into each
other. And so it was on the south side with the gal-
lant Vermonters: they, too, met the enemy face to
face; and I have no doubt that the traveling stars
and roaming night-winds paused and listened as the
peaks in the Green Mountains called to each other
that night, in tearful pride of the boys from Vermont
! who were lying under the sullen oaks of the Wilder-
ness; for never, never had they shown more bravery
or met with bloodier losses.
Hays, who had been sent just as the action began
to Getty's right, after having double-quicked to his
position, rested for a moment and then moved for-
ward, the Seventeenth Maine on his extreme right.
As Davis reached far beyond Wheaton's right. Hays
soon came up against him and joined battle at once.
Owing to the nature of the ground, — the zigzagging
morasses were between them, — continuous lines
could not be maintained by either side, and the re-
sult was that wings of regiments became separated
from each other; but, together or apart, the fighting
was desperate, and it is claimed that Hays's brigade
186 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
lost more men than any other of our army in the Wil-
derness. Hays himself (a classmate of Hancock, both
being in the class after Grant's) during a lull rode
down the line of battle with his staff, and when he
reached his old regiment, the Sixty-third Pennsyl-
vania, that had stood by him so gallantly in re-
pulsing Pickett's charge, he stopped. While he was
speaking a kindly word, a bullet struck him just
\ above the cord of his hat, crashing into his brain;
he fell from his horse and died within a few hours,
and a braver spirit never rose from any field.
^- When Birney sent Hays to Getty's right, he led
his other brigade (Ward's) to Getty's left. As soon
as Birney moved, Mott was ordered by Hancock to
go directly forward with his two brigades from the
Brock Road, which would bring him up on Birney's
left. The fighting became so fierce at once and the
musketry so deadly, that aide soon followed aide to
Hancock, who was posted at the crossing, from Bir-
ney, Getty, Hays, and about every brigade com-
mander, calling for help. At 4.30 Carroll was sent
for and ordered to support Birney, who, as soon as
he came up, advanced him to the right of the Plank
Road. Owens's brigade of Gibbon's division followed,
and was put in on the left and right. Brooke, who had
the rear of Hancock's column as they moved in the
morning, and had been halted at Welford's Furnace
on the road from Chancellorsville to Todd's Tavern,
made his way as fast as he could through the woods,
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 187
his men quickening their steps as the volleys grew
louder; he reached the Brock at 5.30 and at once
pushed into the fight, joining Smyth of Barlow's di-
vision, who, being nearer, had proceeded with his
gallant Irish brigade to the line of battle to take
the place of one of Mott's brigades that had barely
confronted the enemy, when, receiving a couple of
volleys at close range, panic seized it and it broke
badly, unsteadying for a moment the troops on its
right and left; this brigade did not stop till it
crouched behind the breastworks it had left along
the road. Miles's and Franks's brigades of Barlow's
division had become engaged also.
At an early hour in the afternoon, Williams's North
Carolina Confederate battery of Poague's artillery
battalion went into position between Widow Tapp's
house and the woods, throwing little epaulements in
front of their pieces. As soon as Heth became heavily
engaged, Lee, who was close by, having established
his headquarters in the old field, sent orders to Wil-
cox to return at once to the Plank Road, — for he
could not mistake what the volume of the musketry
meant, — and directed Scales and McGowan in per-
son to go to Heth's support, Crawford meanwhile
having withdrawn from their front, to within a mile
of the Lacy house.
When McGowan received his orders his brigade
had just formed in the Widow Tapp field, and the
chaplain of the First South Carolina was holding
188 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
prayer. And there, with the setting sun sweeping
them, the roar of Heth's and Getty's musketry
breaking on them, the clergyman in front of the
ranks, their heads bowed on hands grasped one
over the other at the muzzle of their guns, he, with
uncovered head, palm to palm, and reverently up-
lifted face, was praying, as the order came for
them to go to Heth's support. The command,
"Attention!" rang out, the oflficers' swords lifted
quickly, up went the guns, and away marched the
brigade.
Wilcox, on receipt of the urgent orders, set his two
brigades, Thomas's and Lane's, in quick motion, filed
across the Chewning farm in sight of the signal oflScers
on Crawford's new line, and then took the wood-
road — leaf -strewn and shadow-mottled — that joins
Chewning's and Widow Tapp's, skirting the abrupt
descents to Wilderness Run. Through the timber,
and over the tree-tops in the valley, he caught dis-
tant views of Grant's headquarters and the old
Wilderness Tavern. He caught sight, too, of Wads-
worth moving past the Lacy house.
Grant and Meade happened to be at Warren's
headquarters at the Lacy house as our signal officers
reported the march of Wilcox's column. Grant at
once ordered a diversion to be made by Warren
against Heth's flank and rear, and inferring from
Wilcox's move that Lee was detaching from Ewell,
had ordered Warren and Sedgwick to renew the at-^
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 189
tack on their fronts immediately. Wadsworth, terri-
bly chagrined over the conduct of his division in the
attack up the Pike, was anxious to retrieve the re-
putation of his troops, and asked to be sent against
Heth. Accordingly Warren sent him and Baxter's
brigade of Robinson's division. It was nearly six
o'clock as he filed down across the fields, Roebling
leading the way.
When Wilcox reached Lee he reported to him what
he had seen through the timber, and Lee sent the
following despatch at once to Ewell: —
May 5, 1864, 6 P. M.
Lieutenant-General Ewell,
Commanding, etc.
General: The commanding general directs me to
repeat a message sent you at 6 p. m. The enemy per-
sist in their attack on General Hill's right. Several
efforts have been repulsed, and we hold our own as
yet. The general wishes you to hurry up Ramseur,
send back and care for your wounded, fill up your
ammunition, and be ready to act by light in the morn-
ing. General Longstreet and General Anderson are
expected up early, and unless you see some means
of operating against their right, the general wishes
you to be ready to support our right. It is reported
that the enemy is massing against General Hill, and
if an opportunity presents itself and you can get Wil-
derness Tavern ridge and cut the enemy off from the
river, the general wishes it done. The attack on Gen-
190 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
eral Hill is still raging. Be ready to act as early as
possible in the morning.
Yours, most respectfully,
C. Marshall,
Lieutenant-Colonel
and Aide-de-Camp.
Of all the despatches in the War Records relating
to the battle, this one has more intrinsic interest than
any other for me. It not only coordinates the move-
ments of Wilcox, Wadsworth, and Sedgwick, but it
reveals at a flash the workings of the minds of both
Grant and Lee. Let us revert to the situation, il-
lumed by the light it throws.
Grant and Meade, accompanied by several of their
staffs, have come over to Warren's headquarters at
the Lacy house. Grant is mounted on "Egypt," or
" Cincinnati," a black-pointed, velvety-eared, high-
bred bay, and Meade with drooping hat, on his old
fox-walk, "Baldy/* While on the lawn under the
same old venerable trees that are dreaming there
still. Grant is told that a signal oflScer on Crawford's
line has just seen a column of troops marching
rapidly toward Heth, — Locke's despatch to Hum-
phreys confirming the news is dated 5.45 p.m.; with
lightning speed, he catches the significance of the
news, and moves Wadsworth to fall on Heth's flank,
and at the same time orders Warren and Sedgwick
to strike at once at Ewell.
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 191
Wadsworth is hardly on his way before Wilcox
reaches Lee and tells him what he had seen through
the timber. Lee's inferences, the converse of Grant's,
flood in at once: Grant is weakening his line in front
of Ewell, and, as the volleys come rolling up one after
another from Heth and Getty, Lee tells Ewell to make
a dash if he can for the ridge east of Wilderness Run.
Could we have anything better than these orders
to show the clear-sightedness, quick resolution, swift
unhesitating grasp, and high mettle of both Grant
and Lee? their instinctive discernment of the signifi-
cance of the shifting phases of battle? Grant's in-
domitable will to take advantage of them; Lee's
warrior blood boiling with the first whiff of the smell
of battle, and his tendency to throw his army like a
thunderbolt out of a cloud at his adversary? And, by
the way, that smell of battle always set Lee ablaze,
and with his quick comprehension of the immediate
moves to be made, augmented by the warmth of
his fiery spirit, I think, was the source of the influence
he shed around him as he fought a battle.
Lee had some advantages over Grant that after-
noon. Grant was a stranger to his army, Lee knew
his, and his army knew him; Lee was where he could
see the field, Grant where he could not; Lee knew
the country well, Grant had never before entered
its fateful labyrinth. Moreover, Lee knew what he
wanted to dq^ what the fate of the Confederacy
called on him to do, and the above despatch of
I
192 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
Colonel Marshall's, ringing with its resolute purpose,
tells how he hoped to do it.
But, but, Colonel Marshall, allow me your ear for
a moment: there is a quiet, modest, blue-eyed, me-
dium-sized man down on that knoll near the Lacy
house, — cut a short vista through these pines behind
you, and you can see where he is in the distance,
— whom at last at Appomattox you and Lee will
meet; and, strangely enough, the ink-bottle you are
now using will be used then to draw the terms of
surrender; down on the knoll is a gentle- voiced man
who has an undismayable heart in his breast, and
he will meet you to-morrow morning when Long-
street, Anderson, and Ramseur have come, and
every morning thereafter, to the end of the Rebel-
lion, with blow for blow.
Wilcox's pregnant interview with Lee ended, he
put Thomas's brigade on the left of the Plank Road,
and, guided by the continuous roar of musketry, it
moved forward toward Heth's battered lines. Lane's
brigade was to form on Thomas's left, but just as
it reached Hill, Scales, on Heth's right, was smashed,
and Colonel Palmer of Hill's staff led it thither.
At ten minutes of six — the sun dropping toward
the tree-tops, and twilight, owing to the density of
the woods, gathering fast — Lyman, who had stayed
at Hancock's side to give Meade timely information
as to the progress of events, reported; "We barely
hold our own; on the right the pressure is heavy.
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 193
General Hancock thinks he can hold the Plank and
Brock roads, but he can't advance."
Between half -past five and six o'clock the enemy —
McGowan's and Kirkland's brigades having come
in to relieve Heth's exhausted troops in front of Getty
— charged, and for a moment planted their colors
beside one of the guns of Ricketts's section, whose
horses had been killed. But Grant's and Wheaton's
lines, although thrust back momentarily by the sud-
den onslaught, braced and drove the Confederates
away from the guns. A little later Carroll and Owens,
Brooke, Smyth, and Miles came up, and relieved
Grant, Wheaton, Hays, and Ward. Carroll then
fought his way in the twilight fairly across the now
riddled swamp, sent the Eighth Ohio up the south
and the Seventh West Virginia up the north side of
the road, beyond the disabled section where Captain
Butterworth of his staff and Lieutenant McKesson
of the Eighth, by the aid of squads from the Eighth
Ohio and Fourteenth Indiana, dragged back the guns;
Lieutenant McKesson receiving a severe wound.
The battle raged on. Wheaton's men on the north,
and the Vermonters on the other or south side of the
road, with Ward's brigade, were still standing up to
it, although suffering terribly. The Confederates in
front of them had the advantage of a slight swell in
the ground, and every attempt to dislodge them had
met with slaughter. Birney sent a couple of regiments
to their support. About sundown the commanding
194 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
oflScer of the Fifth Vermont was asked if he thought,
with the help of Birney's men, he could break the
enemy's line. "I think we can," replied the stout-
hearted man. And when Birney's men were asked
if they would give their support, they answered, "We
will," with a cheer. And again they went at the
enemy's hue, which partially gave way — it was
probably Scales; but so dense were the woods that
a break at one point had mighty little moral effect
to the right or left, with troops as steady as theirs
and ours.
When Palmer got back to the road there he found
Stuart and Colonel Venable of Lee's staff sitting on
their horses in the dusk, and told them that Lane
had become engaged. Venable exclaimed, "Thank
God! I'll go back and tell Lee that Lane has gone
in, and the lines will be held."
Yes, and here is what he met, so says the report
of the Sixty-sixth New York: "The rebels came
marching by the flank, distant about ten paces. It
being dark, they were at first taken for friends, but
the illusion was soon dispelled, and Colonel Ham-
mell gave the order to fire, which was promptly
executed, with fatal effect. It proved to be the
Seventh North Carolina." The report adds that
they advanced again in line of battle, but were re-
pulsed, leaving their dead and wounded. But they
did hold the lines.
The sun having gone down, darkness soon settled
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 195
around them all, but the struggle did not end. Never
was better grit shown by any troops. They could not
see each other and their positions were disclosed only
by the red, angry flashes of their guns. Their line
stretched from about two-thirds of a mile north of
the Plank Road to a distance of a mile and a half
south of it. And so, shrouded in the smoke, and stand-
ing or kneeling among their dead, both sides kept on.
All other sounds having died away, the forest now at
every discharge roared deeply.
"All during that terrible afternoon," wrote the
historian of the Forty-sixth North Carolina, Cooke's
brigade, "the regiment held its own, now gaining,
now losing, resting at night on the ground over which
it had fought, surrounded by the dead and wounded
of both sides." The Fifty-fifth North Carolina in
Davis's brigade that had fought Hays took into the
action 340 men. At the end of the battle it is related
in their history that "34 lay dead on the line where
we fought, and 167 were wounded. They were on
one side of a morass and we on the other." The his-
torian asserts that the sergeant of the Confederate
ambulance corps counted 157 dead Federals the fol-
lowing day along their brigade-front. "The record
of that day of butchery," says the same authority,
"has often been written. A butchery pure and sim-
ple, it was unrelieved by any of the arts of war in
which the exercise of military skill and tact robs war
of some of its horrors."
196 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
"At one time during the fighting of the fifth," ac-
cording to the historian of the Eleventh North Caro-
lina, Kirkland's brigade, "the brigade lay down
behind a line of dead Federals so thick as to form
partial breastworks, showing how stubbornly they
had fought and how severely they had suffered."
This statement seems almost incredible, but it will
not be forgotten that Kirkland was in reserve when
the action began and was not called on till late, so
that, as the brigade went in with McGowan, the men
had a chance to see the death and destruction that
had taken place. This brigade, out of 1753, lost 1080.
(The night before Lee's army was forced formally
to lay down its arms and give up its colors at Appo-
mattox, the survivors of the Eleventh North Caro-
lina of the above-mentioned brigade took the old flag
which they had borne at the Wilderness, into a clump
of young pines, and there, collecting some fagots,
gathered sadly about it in the darkness and burned
it.)
At the close of the battle this regiment and all the
other regiments of Heth's and Wilcox's divisions
were staggering, and it is highly probable that if the
engagement had begun an hour or so earlier, defeat
would have overtaken them. Or, had Wads worth
been sent earlier, the chances are that Heth could not
have withstood his flank attack. '
There was no engagement during the war where
the private soldiers of the army showed greater valor
i
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 197
than up the Plank Road that afternoon. Bear in
mind that they did all their fighting amid the um-
brage and terror of the woods, and not under the eye
of a single general officer; not one in twenty could see
his colors or his colonel. There was none of the in-
spiration of an open field with stirring scenes. No,
they fought the battle alone, their only companion
the sense of Duty who was saying to them, to those
obscure boys from the Green Mountains of Vermont,
from Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York, and
Ohio: "Stand fast for your country, stand fast for
the glory of the old home, for the honor of the gray-
haired father and mother." Let garlands be given,
too, to Heth's and Wilcox's men, and if I were the
son of one who stood there that day under the ban-
ner of the Confederacy, I 'd feel proud of my blood.
At last, about eight o'clock, the volleys that had
been so thundering and dreadful stopped almost
suddenly. [No one who was with the Army of the
Potomac that night will ever forget the immediate
silence; Getty's and Birney's scarred and well-tried
veterans were led back to the Brock Road, and
there, beside its lonely, solemn way, they lay down
and rested. And what is this movement of mind and
heart? It is imagination lifting the veil from the
inner eye, and lo! we see Honor proudly standing
guard over them all.
Getty's division on that day and the next met with
the heaviest loss experienced by any division during
198 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
the war, and his Vermont brigade of this division lost
more men on that afternoon of the fifth than the en-
tire Second Corps. Of the officers present for duty,
three-fourths were killed or wounded.
There is no occurrence of the day that I remember
with more distinctness than the setting off of Wads-
worth's command that afternoon. I can see the men
now moving down the field in column to the road,
and then following it up the run for a piece toward
Parker's store. They formed in two lines of battle
and entered the swampy tangles, guided by Colonel
Roebling. Their progress, trammeled by the nature
of the woods, was slow; within a half-mile or so they
struck the skirmishers of Thomas's brigade of Wil-
cox's division, who had just been posted on Heth's
left. Wadsworth pushed them steadily back, till
darkness came on and he had to halt. The extreme
right of his line was now nearly at the foot of the
abrupt slopes running down from the Widow Tapp's
old field, his left perhaps three-quarters of a mile
from the Brock Road. His front was parallel to the
Plank Road, a half to five-eighths of a mile from it,
the ground about him broken and the woods very
dense; and there, on the dead leaves and among
spice-bushes, spring beauties, violets and dogwoods
in bloom, they passed the solemn night through. The
men say, however, as well as those on Hancock's
lines, that they were restless; their position had been
reached practically in the dark, and they were so
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 199
close to the enemy that both spoke in whispers, and
all realized the inevitable renewal of the struggle in
the morning. Roebling got back to the Lacy house,
his most valuable notes tell me, about nine o'clock.
When Wadsworth was moving toward Hancock,
Russell's and Brown's brigade of the first division
of the Sixth Corps, on the extreme right of the line
beyond GriflBn and Upton, made and received coun-
ter and vigorous attacks on Ewell's left, the Confed-
erate brigades commanded by Stafford, Pegram, and
Hayes. Stafford was mortally and Pegram very se-
verely wounded, and the Twenty-fifth Virginia of
Jones's brigade, which had been transferred to the
extreme left along with Gordon's, lost its colors and
over two hundred men to the Fifth Wisconsin of Rus-
sell's brigade.
And here may I be allowed to say that all the flags
save one captured from the enemy in the Wilderness
were taken by western regiments. The Twenty-fourth
Michigan captured the colors of the Forty-eighth
Virginia, the Fifth Wisconsin those of the Twenty-
fifth, the Twentieth Indiana those of the Fifty-fifth,
the Seventh Indiana those of the Fiftieth Virginia;
the Fifth Michigan those of the Thirteenth North
Carolina. The Eighth Ohio and the Fourteenth In-
diana retook Ricketts's guns. The men from the West
were probably no braver, man for man, than those
of the East; but I think their success was wholly be-
cause so many of the men were woods- wise. From
200 THE BATTLE OP THE WILDERNESS
their youth up, both by day and by night, they had
roamed through woods under all sorts of sky and in
all sorts of weather, and so their depths had no ter-
ror for them; like their enemies, they were at home
in the timber, and could make their way through it
almost as well by night as by day. And I have often
thought that perhaps it was this common knowledge
of the woods that gave our western armies so many
victories. A Confederate line coming on, or rising
up suddenly and breaking into their sharp, fierce
yells, did not greatly surprise or set them quaking.
And yet, although all my boyhood was passed in the
grandly deep, primeval forests of Ohio, I am free to
own that I never heard that "Rebel" yell in the
woods of Virginia that its old fields behind us did not
seem at once to become mightily attractive.
Reference should be made, as a part of the day's
serious history, to the cavalry engagements under
Wilson and Gregg. The former's encounter with
Rosser and Fitz Lee has been mentioned; it was se-
vere, and Wilson, overpowered, had to take his way
as best he could to Gregg at Todd's Tavern, who
bristled up, and with Davies's brigade, the First
New Jersey and First Massachusetts Cavalry, met
the confident pursuing enemy and drove them back
to Corbin's bridge, but only after a loss of ninety-
odd killed and wounded.
When night and exhaustion put an end to the fell
struggle between Hancock and Hill, it may be said
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 201
that the first day of the battle of the Wilderness was
over. And what a day it had been! Where now were
the plans, hopes, and roseate forecasts which the
self-reliant natures of both Grant and Lee had made,
as they were looking forward to it the night before?
All transmuted into solemn, speechful reality. Grant
had telegraphed Halleck as soon as he had crossed
the Rapidan safely: "Forty-eight hours now will
demonstrate whether the enemy intends giving bat-
tle this side of Richmond." With his intuitive wis-
dom, he had predicted truly; yet, as a matter of fact,
he did not know or care when or where the battle
should begin. He meant to find Lee, clinch, and have
it out with him for good and all, wholly undisturbed
as usual over possible results. And behold, the day
had banished the uncertainties of the night before,
and had brought him just where he had wanted to be,
in conflict with his famous adversary.
But, imperturbable as he was, I feel sure it had
brought some disappointment to him, — not be-
cause Lee had obviously the best of it, but because
he himself had discovered the Army of the Potomac's
one weakness, the lack of springy formation, and au-
dacious, self-reliant initiative. This organic weak-
ness was entirely due to not having had in its youth
skillfully agressive leadership. Its early commanders
had dissipated war's best elixir by training it into a
life of caution, and the evil of that schooling it had
shown on more than one occasion, and unmistakably
202 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
that day, and it had had to suffer for it. But never,
on that day or any other, did an army carry its bur-
dens of every kind, and it had many, with a steadier
or a more steadfast heart.
But I had better leave the battle's tactics to those
who make a special study of military campaigns, ven-
turing the following personal incident for the con-
sideration of those young, cocksure critics who have
never been in a big or a little battle, and who are
surprised at the mistakes that Grant and Lee made,
and contemplate with supreme satisfaction what
would have happened had they been there and in
command of either army. One night, some time in
the winter before we started for the Wilderness, when
I was dining with Duane, TurnbuU, Michler, and
Mackenzie of the engineers, in their spacious pine-
bough-decorated mess room, they discussed Burn-
side's hesitation when Mr. Lincoln, having finally made
up his mind to relieve McClellan, offered him the com-
mand of the Army of the Potomac. I listened a while,
and then piped up that Burnside should not have
had any such doubts of himself, that he had been
educated for that business and kind of emergency,
that it was n't very much of a job, etc., and wound
up — the bottle had moved faithfully, yet with gen-
teel moderation — that if I were offered the command
I 'd take it. Whereupon my astounded listeners flung
themselves back in their chairs and there was some-
thing between a howl and a roar of laughter as they
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 203
threw their eyes, filled with pity and humor, across
and down the table at a mere snip of a thin-faced
boy. Well, of course, I stuck to it — I should have
taken command of the Army of the Potomac.
Now if, at the end of that first night, say at nine
o'clock, Mr. Grant should have sent for me and said,
"I'm thinking of assigning you to the independent
command of one of the empty ambulances," — let
alone turning the command of the Army of the Po-
tomac over to me, — "and want you to get it safely
out of this," I think I should have said, "Mr. Grant,
I'm not very experienced in handling ambulances,
and if you can get anybody else I'll not object," so
dark was the outlook and so deeply had I been im-
pressed by the responsibilities that encompassed
him.
Dear military critics, however vast may be your
knowledge of the art of war, and however boldly your
youthful confidence may buckle on its sword and
parade to the imaginary music of battle, let me tell
you that if you are ever on a field where your coun-
try's life is hanging as ours hung on Grant's, or as
the cause of the South hung on Lee's shoulders, I'll
guarantee that you will not volunteer to take the
command of anything, but will wonder that more
mistakes are not made.
And here answer might be given to the inquiry
which is often raised, coming sometimes from those
who have been carried away by delving in the tac-
204 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
tics of battle, and sometimes from those who have
become warmly interested in its history: namely,
what did the officers at corps and army headquar-
ters have to say about it among themselves during
its progress, and especially at the close of that first
day in the Wilderness. In the sense in which the
question is asked, nothing, absolutely nothing. For
who could possibly have penetrated the rapidly
evolving events and seen what the critic sees now
so clearly? Who could have told us where the gaps
lay between Ewell and Hill, where Longstreet was,
and the importance of bringing Burnside's two divi-
sions up to the Lacy farm that afternoon so as to
be ready for the next morning?
It is hardly necessary to say that for officers or men
to discuss or pass judgment upon the events and
conduct of a battle would be death to discipline, and
instead of an army, the country would be relying
for its life upon a mob. In all my service with the
Army of the Potomac, from Chancellorsville to
Petersburg, sometimes in the eclipse of defeat, some-
times in the very verge of yawning disaster, never
did I hear discussion, or more than barely a word
of criticism or protest, over any feature of a cam-
paign, except after Cold Harbor, and then only for
a day. Soldiers and officers see so little of the field
that they do not give weight to their immediate sur-
roundings or experience.
The question of what the officers at headquarters
THE BATTLE OF THE WH-DERNESS 205
said to each other about the battle in its progress,
and how they felt, is a very natural one, and its an-
swer may be a minor but essential part of the story
itself. I do not know what Grant, Meade, Rawlins,
and Seth Williams may have said to each other, or
what they may have talked about, but whenever
an aide came back from the front and had reported
to the General or chief of staff, he would take his
place among his fellows, and their first question
would be, "Where have you been. Bob, or Tom, or
Mack," " how is it going up there, old fellow?"
For every one, from the time the battle began, was
keen to learn its progress. "Been up [or over] to
lines. They are holding their own mighty well
— Colonel So-and-So [or our dear little *Dad,' or
Bill] has just been killed — old General 's com-
mand is catching perfect h — 1, say, fellers, where
can I get something to eat [or drink], I'm hungry
[or dry] as the dickens." That is about a fair sam-
ple of the conversation at headquarters while a bat-
tle is going on, so far as my experience goes.
For the information of those who have followed
the paths of peace, let me say, without seeming di-
dactic, that the commanding general and his corps
commanders are rarely where the artists have depic-
ted them, on rearing horses, leading or directing amid
a sheet of fire. There are times, however, when the
artist is true to life: as when Sheridan, seeing Ayres
and his Regulars recoiling for a moment under ter-
206 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
rific fire at Five Forks, dashed in; and there and then
with those flashing eyes, amid the smoke of battle, he
might have been painted. And so too, Warren, for
that same day he seized the colors on another part
of the field, and led on. But, as a rule, the corps com-
mander chooses a position where he can best see
his troops as they engage. The test of his genius is
in choosing the critical moment when he will join
them, and I 'd suggest to my old Alma Mater, West
Point, that it should impress upon its future generals
the importance of catching the crisis in a battle and
showing them the weight of their presence with
their troops. In that glowing characteristic Sheri-
dan rose above about all of our commanders. Sup-
pose McClellan had shown himself and ridden his
lines at Gaines's Mill, or Bragg at Chickamauga,
might not the outcome have been different? Owing
to the nature of the Wilderness, Grant had few
chances to seize opportunities of that kind. At
Spottsylvania, the night Upton was making his as-
sault and breaking their lines temporarily, he was
close up, and I sat my horse not far from him.
There were two or three lines of battle within thirty
or forty paces of each other and of him. The fire
that reached us was considerable; an orderly carry-
ing the headquarters standard was killed, and a
solid shot struck an oak five or six inches through,
squarely, not thirty feet from us, shivering it into
broom slivers; but through it all Grant wore the
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 207
same unperturbed, quiet, but somewhat pleading
face.
But, to return to the Wilderness and the impres*
sions it made, it goes without saying that the first
day was a disappointing one, and that the desperate
character of the fighting and the attendant losses
had stamped themselves deeply. There was no de-
jection, however, the army from top to bottom was
looking forward to the coming day's trial with reso-
lution and hope.
Notwithstanding that Lee had repulsed Warren
and had badly shaken the morale of his entire corps,
and also that of Mott's division of Hancock's corps, i
had held Sedgwick in check, fought Hancock and
Getty to a standstill, thrown Wilson back, and brought
the formidable movement up with a sudden jarring
stop, yet seemingly Grant at the close of the day —
and I saw him once or twice — was not troubled,
and he issued orders with the same even, softly warm
voice, to attack Lee impetuously early the next morn-
ing all along his line.
If the day had brought some disappointments
and anxious foreshadowings to Grant, it must have
brought some to Lee also. For he had hoped that
when Grant should find him on his flank ready to
take the offensive, that he, like Hooker, would be-
come confused and undecided, thereby giving Long-
street and the rest of his forces time to come up,
and to repeat Chancellorsville. The results of the
*' lay <s
208 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
day had put another face on his hopes. Grant was
neither undecided nor confused; he had made a
savage drive at him, and when, at eleven o'clock that
night, all the news had come in, Lee undoubtedly
was duly thankful that he had held his own, as his
despatch to the Confederate Secretary of War dated
at that hour shows. He said in reporting the day's
doings: —
. "By the blessing of God, we maintained our po-
sition against every effort until night, when the con-
test closed. We have to mourn the loss of many brave
officers and men. The gallant Brigadier-General
J. M. Jones was killed, and Brig.-Gen. L. A. Staf-
ford I fear mortally wounded while leading his com-
mand with conspicuous valor."
His greatest blessings, however, were that Warren
was not allowed to wait till Wright came up, that
Getty had not attacked an hour earlier, and that we
had not seized and held the Chewning farm.
When the firing ceased on Hancock's front, to
those of us around the Lacy house and at Grant's
headquarters the silence was heavy and awesome.
But soon the stars were shining softly and the mer-
ciful quiet of night came on; and wheresoever a mor-
tally wounded man could be reached who was crying
for water and help, — some of them in high, wild de-
lirious screams of despair and agony, others with just
enough breath left to be heard, alas ! too often, only
by the bushes around them, — surgeons and friendly
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 209
comrades, and sometimes their foes, stole to them
and did all they could for them.
I wonder what was going on in the breast of the
Spirit of the Wilderness as the woods darkened. I
wonder, too, as the spirits of those youths rose above
the tree-tops all through that night, I wonder if they
asked which was right and which was wrong as they
bore on, a great flight of them, toward Heaven's gate.
On and on they go, following the road Christ made
for us all, past moon and stars, — the air is growing
balmy, landscapes of eternal heavenly beauty are
appearing; in the soft breezes that kiss their faces
there is the faint odor of wild grapes in bloom, and
lo! they hear a choir singing, "Peace on earth, good
will toward men!" And two by two they lock arms
like college boys and pass in together; and so may it
be for all of us at last.
After supper, which did not take place until the
day's commotion had well quieted down, I happened
to go into the Lacy house, and in the large, high-
ceiled room on the left of the hall was Warren, seated
on one side of a small table, with Locke, his adjutant
general, and Milhau, his chief surgeon, on the other,
making up a report of his losses of the day. Warren
was still wearing his yellow sash, his hat rested on
the table, and his long, coal-black hair was stream-
ing away from his finely expressive forehead, the
only feature rising unclouded above the habitual
gloom of his duskily sallow face. A couple of tallow
210 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
candles were burning on the table, and on the high
mantel a globe lantern. Locke and Milhau were both
small men: the former unpretentious, much reflect-
ing, and taciturn; the latter a modest man, and a
great friend of McClellan's, with a naturally rippling,
joyous nature.
Just as I passed them, I heard Milhau give a figure,
his aggregate from data which he had gathered at
the hospitals. "It will never do, Locke, to make a
showing of such heavy losses," quickly observed War-
ren. It was the first time I had ever been present
when an oflScial report of this kind was being made,
and in my unsophisticated state of West Point truth-
fulness it drew my eyes to Warren's face with wonder,
and I can see its earnest, mournfully solemn lines yet.
It is needless to say that after that I always doubted
reports of casualties until oflScially certified.
Shortly after, Warren, accompanied by Roebling,
went to a conference of the corps commanders which
Meade had called to arrange for the attack which
Grant had already ordered to be made at 4.30 the
next morning.
I passed through the house, and out to the place
where the horses were, in charge of the orderlies. I
found mine among others in the semi-darkness of
one of the open sheds of the old plantation's cluster-
ing barns, gave him the usual friendly pat, and stroked
his silky neck as he daintily selected from the remain-
ing wisps of his ration of hay.
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 211
All the space between the garden, the back of the
house, and the barns, was loosely occupied by the
bivouacs of the headquarters orderlies, clerks, team-
sters, officers' servants, cooks and waiters of the va-
rious messes, provost-guards, etc., who on a campaign
form quite a colony about corps and army headquar-
ters. The soldiers, in groups of two or three, were
sitting around their little dying fires, smoking; some
with overcoat and hat for a pillow, already asleep.
The black cooks, coatless and bareheaded, were
puttering around their pot and kettle fires, with the
usual attendant circle of waiters sitting on their
haunches, some with their long, sinewy arms embrac-
ing languidly their uplifted knees, eyes of some on the
fire, chins of some on their breasts and eyes closed,
all drowsily listening to some one's childlike chatter;
others on their backs, feet towards the fire, and snor-
ing loudly. And around them all, and scattered about,
are the baggage and supply-wagons, their bowed
white canvas tops, although mildewed and dirty,
dimly looming, outlined by being the resting-place
for stray beams wandering through the night. The
mule teams, unhitched but still harnessed, stand
facing each other across the wagon-pole where their
deep feed-box is still resting. Some are nosing in it
for an overlooked kernel of oats or corn, or a taste
of salt, some among the bits of forage that have fallen
to the ground, some nodding. Their driver is asleep
in or under the wagon, and his rest unbroken by the
212 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
every-once-in-a-while quick rattling of the looped-up
trace-chains, as one of his mules lets drive a vicious
kick right or left at its army mate.
All up and down Wilderness Run, all over the once
tilled fields of the Lacy farm and the old, gullied, pine
and brier-tufted ones uplifting east of the run, little
fires are blinking as they burn low. Some are those of
batteries, some of trains, and some, at the top of the
ridge, those of the hospitals of the Fifth Corps, where
the surgeons, with roUed-up sleeves, are at their
humane tasks in the operating tents, instruments by
them which they handle with skill and mercy, as one
after another the mutilated and perforated bodies
of the boys who have been willing to risk their lives
for the country are brought in and laid on the table
before them, their anxious eyes scrutinizing the sur-
geon's face for a sign of hope as he examines their
wounds and feels their fluttering pulses. Heaven bless
their memory, all of them, and wherever the dust
of one of them lies, I know the feeling mother earth
holds it tenderly.
- And now, reader, it is drawing late. Great, majes-
tic, and magnanimous Night has come down, cover-
ing the Wilderness and us all in mysterious silence.
Let us take a couple of these folding camp-chairs
and go out and sit in the starlight on the lawn of the
old Lacy house. Here is my tobacco-pouch; fill your
pipe, and I '11 try to convey to you the situation at
this hour on the field, and then we will turn in. There
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 213
are one or two incidents that I 'd like to tell you also,
and if I forget to mention them as I go along, I wish,
before I get through, that you would jog my memory.
Meade's commodious living tents are pitched on
the east side of the Germanna Road, directly oppo-
site the knoll which he and Grant have occupied all
day. Grant's are at the foot of the knoll, and a big,
balloon-topped Cottonwood or poplar waves over the
spot still. Their tents are about two hundred yards
apart, and Caton's little warrior Run is between
them. Their headquarters tents, flaps thrown back,
are indicated by colored lanterns on poles in front of
them; and in them a candle or lamp is burning, and
on a camp-chair before them, or writing at a table
within, is an adjutant-general on duty for the night.
Couriers are standing about with their horses sad-
dled, and out where the Germanna Road meets the
Pike, is a mounted orderly to point the way to aides
coming in from the lines, who have occasion to visit
headquarters. And let us hope that blessed sleep
on her noiseless wings has found her way without
the aid of the sentinel at the Pike to the tents of
both Meade and Grant.
There is no moon, the stars are dim, and all is
hushed. The night air is permeated with the odor of
freshly-burnt-over woods, for the fire spread widely
and is still slumbering and smoking in chunks and
fallen trees. Here and there it has climbed up the
grape-vines or the loose bark of a dead trunk, and
214 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
aloft throws out little tremulous torch-like flames
from their scraggly-limbed tops, pulsing beacons
over the dark woods. Single ambulances are still
coming and going, and now and then one is picking
its way slowly and carefully with its suffering load
across the fields.
Up the Pike, barely visible by the light that falls
from the starry maze, from those lamps that are hung
to show our minds the way to Another's headquarters
far, far above Grant's and Meade's, both armies are
lying behind their newly-thrown-up breastworks,
which stretch from Flat Run well across the Pike
. toward Chewning's, and are more or less parallel and
close. On Sedgwick's and some of Warren's front
I they are within pistol-shot of one another, and all
along between them are many dead and wounded,
whose cries and moans can be heard, but cannot be
relieved, so persistent is the firing. Sedgwick's head-
quarters are on the Flat Run Road not far from where
it joins the Germanna. Upton, Brown, Russell, Sha-
ler, Morris, and Seymour of his corps, like Griffin,
Ayres, Robinson, and Bartlett of Warren's, are up
in the woods close behind their troops, blessed, I
hope, with refreshing sleep. ^
Ewell has his headquarters bivouac on the Pike,
and I suppose his flea-bitten gray, Rifle, that Major
Stiles claimed resembled him, — if so. Rifle must
have been a lank, serious-looking horse, with a high
broad forehead, rather bony eye-sockets, and lean.
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 215
scooped-out cheeks, for such were the prominent
features of EwelFs face, — Rifle, more or less visible
on account of his chalky color, is not far away, tied
to a sapling; and, as his rider has lost a leg, he, out
of sympathy or weariness, is probably resting one
hind leg on its toe and dreaming. EwelFs general
hospital, his surgeons as busy as our own, is back
near Locust Grove, whence at an early hour in the
evening a batch of our prisoners, about twelve hun-
dred in number, most of them from Warren's corps,
had set out for Orange Court House. In the middle
of the night they met Ramseur and Mahone hurry-
ing toward the front.
Had I been one of the unfortunate prisoners I know
that I should have wished over and over again, as I
trudged along that night, that I was lying dead back
on the field with my fellows, rather than about to
face a long term in Confederate prisons, so greatly
did I dread them after seeing the wrecks that came
down the James from Richmond when I first went to
Fort Monroe.
Hancock is bivouacked on the Plank Road a short
way east (within a hundred yards) of the Junction,
and he may or may not be asleep, for, at his inter-
view with Meade, the latter cautioned him to keep
a strict lookout for his left in the morning — hinting
at the possibility of Longstreet striking him in the
Stonewall Jackson way. Birney has been told that he
is to lead in the morning, and the various brigade
216 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
commanders of his division and Getty's have had
their positions assigned them. Sheridan is at Chan-
cellorsville; Wilson and Gregg are so encamped as
to cover the roads that come in at Todd's Tavern.
On the Widow Tapp field, dimly lit by the faint
starlight, and silent, save that now and then a travel-
ing cry from the wounded in the woods passes over it,
Lee, Hill, and Wilcox are camped close up to their
well-fought, tired troops, and their headquarters are
not far apart. Hill is described as sitting alone at
a late hour before a small, languishing fire, made of
a few round, crossed-over sticks, near one of the guns
of Williams's battery whose right wheel is just on the
edge of the road, facing Birney. Wilcox has been to
see Hill and asked for permission to withdraw his
lines so as to reform them, and the little, punctilious
man, who is not very well, has told him to let the men
rest.
The reason why Wilcox made this request is ex-
plained by the adjutant of the Eighteenth North
Carolina in his account of the Wilderness. It seems
that when Brooke struck Lane's brigade, the Eight-
eenth was badly shattered, and, breaking, disap-
peared in the darkness. The adjutant, while seeking
it, got lost, suddenly found himself within our lines,
and after cautiously making his way to avoid this
body of men and then another in the woods, all at
once struck the Plank Road, knew where he was,
followed it up to our pickets, and then, staking his
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 217
life against captivity, dashed ahead through them.
On reaching the edge of the woods he saw a white
horse standing out in the Tapp field and, going closer,
recognized it as General Wilcox's. He sought the
general and told him that there was nothing, ab-
solutely nothing, between his lines and ours. Wilcox
was cross, and would not listen to him, dismissing
him sharply with an aside that there was a brigade
in front of his line. The adjutant at last found his
regiment, told his fellow officers his story, and they,
in view of the danger, went to Wilcox and assured
him of their adjutant's truthfulness and good judg-
ment. Thereupon Wilcox made his visit to Hill. Later
he tells us that he went to see Lee, whose tent was
within less than two hundred yards, in reference to
the same matter. On his entering, Lee remarked that
he had made a complimentary report on the conduct
of his and Heth's division and, holding up a note, that
he had just heard from Anderson, that he was going
into bivouac at Verdierville, and that he had sent
word to him and to Longstreet to move forward so
as to relieve the divisions which had been so actively
engaged.
Longstreet at that hour was bivouacking at Rich-
ard's shop on the Catharpin Road. When we first
entered Richmond the following April, the diary of
an officer of his corps was picked up in the street by
some one of our men, and in it is this entry: —
"Thursday, May 5th. Marched at three o'clock
218 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
this morning. Rested after marching thirteen miles,
and cooked some rations. After resting a while re-
sumed march, marched 20 miles and camped at dark
five miles from the battle-field."
That made a total of thirty-three miles, and as the
day was exceedingly hot, especially in the woods,
the men must have been very tired.
Lee's orders to Longstreet, carried by that crystal
aide, Venable, were to move at 2 a. m., the same hour
as that Grant had set for Burnside. Longstreet had
a mile or two farther to march, but, unfortunately
for us, he had not, on this occasion at least, "a genius
for slowness," and was on the very nick of time.
The troops on the move then are Ramseur and
Mahone on their way to reinforce Lee's lines, and
Ferrero, my old West Point dancing-master, tip-
toeing along with his colored division to reach Ger-
manna Ford and swell Burnside's corps.
And that now is the story of the night.
"But you have not told me," exclaims my friend,
knocking the ashes out of his pipe, "of the personal
incidents you asked to be reminded of." Well, do not
fill your pipe again, I '11 promise not to be long. There
is the body of a young oflScer lying alone in the woods
pretty well south of the Plank Road. It is that of
Colonel Alford B. Chapman, aged twenty-eight years,
of the Fifty-seventh New York. There is a little
pocket note-book beside his lifeless hand, and on one
of the open leaves he has written his father's name
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 219
and address and these words: "Dear Father: I am
mortally wounded. Do not grieve for me. My dear-
est love to all. Alford." I do not know, but I doubt
if Death anywhere in the Wilderness has met more
steady eyes than those of this dying, family-remem-
bering young man. He was brigade officer of the day,
and his duties had called him into the engagement
very early; and when, toward dusk, his regiment
advanced to fill a gap on account of the lines being
extended southward to meet the overlapping of Lane's
big North Carolina brigade, it came across Chap-
man's body, the first it knew of his fate.
And while we are on Hancock's front let me refer
to Hays, and, if ever you go along the Brock Road,
you will come to a cast-iron gun standing upright
on a granite base surrounded by an iron picket
fence. It marks the near-by spot where he fell, and
is on the right-hand side of the road about where
the easterly branch of Wilderness Run crosses it, a
little this side of the Junction. He was a very gallant
officer, and his lonely monument will appeal to you.
There is something illustrative of the man, and mys-
teriously prophetic, in a letter he wrote to his wife
the morning of the day he was killed: "This morning
was beautiful," said the letter, "for
* Lightly and brightly shone the sun,
As if the morn was a jocund one.'
Although we were anticipating to march at 8 o'clock,
it might have been an appropriate harbinger of the
no THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
day of regeneration of mankind; but it only brought
to remembrance, through the throats of bugles, that
duty enjoined upon each one, perhaps before the set-
ting sun, to lay down a life for his country."
It was a translation worthy of the prophets of old
that he gave to the notes of the bugles; and the rev-
erential, kindly mood — and to think it was his last!
— hailing the sun as the harbinger of the day of re-
generation of mankind! Oh! the sanity and spread
of the primary emotions!
The other incidents are these, one of which was
referred to early in the narrative, namely, the relief
of one of our men on Griffin's front by a Confederate
officer. The circumstances were as follows: the Con-
federate, touched by the cries of our men, — he had
been trying to sleep, — crawled over the works on
hands and knees in the darkness, till he reached a
wounded man, who turned out to be a lieutenant of
a western regiment, if I remember right, and asked
what he could do for him. "I am very, very thirsty,
and I am shot so that I cannot move." The good
Samaritan crawled to the little brook, — it wimples
still across the old Pike, — filled a canteen and came
back with it, and, after propping the wounded man's
head, went his way. A little while afterwards another
Confederate came prowling toward the wounded man
and, thinking he was dead, began to feel for his watch.
The lieutenant remonstrated, but the hard-hearted
creature took the watch, saying, "You will be dead
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 221
before long, and will not need it." Here we have the
extremes of our natures, and how they stand out! the
manly and angelic, the brutish and satanic! I know
the name of the prowler; but of the other, the noble
fellow, I do not. If I did, it should appear on this page
and live as long as I could make it live. This story
I got from my friend, Mr. Jennings of the Wilderness,
who had it from the lips of the western lieutenant
himself, who, a few years ago, came back to the old
battle-field, and the first place he visited was the lit^
tie brook; and I have no doubt it murmured sweetly
all through that night, full of a native happiness at
seeing once more its acquaintance of other days.
: The other incident is found in the diary of Cap-
tain Robert E. Park, Company F, Twelfth Alabama,
Battle's brigade, Rodes's division. "Crawled ovei?
the works with two canteens of water to relieve some
of the wounded, groaning and calling aloud in front
of the line. Night dark, no moon and few stars, and
as I crawled to the first man and offered him a drink
of water, he declined; and, in reply to my inquiries,
told me that he was shot through the leg and body
and was sure he was bleeding internally. I told him
that I feared he would not live till morning, and
* I am indebted to Mrs. and Mr. Jennings for opening their door to
me as the day was ending on my last visit to the Wilderness; I was tired,
hungry, and chilled, and no stranger ever met a more hospitable welcome.
Their house stands nearly opposite where Grant had his headquarters,
and while I sat before the crackling fire my eye rested on the spot, over
which a cold gray mist was drifting.
222 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
asked him whether he was making any preparation
for leaving this world. His reply was that he had
not given it a thought, as his life had not been one of
sin, and that he was content. He was about twenty
years of age, and from a northwestern state."
Guides of the upper world ! I have only one request
to make, that you point out to me that boy; for I
should like these earthly eyes to rest upon the calm
depths of his heroic and innocent face; and I have
no doubt his kind benefactor. Captain Park, will be
there too.
And now it is near midnight, and all is very, very
still. "Hark, what is that I hear?" you ask. It is
some staff officer's horse at a brigade headquarters
up in the woods, neighing for a mate which will
probably never march with him again. Let us turn
in.
VIII
Meade, in transmitting to his corps commanders
Grant's orders for the renewal of the battle, directed
them to send their train-guards, as well as every
man who could shoulder a musket, to join the ranks
by daylight; adding that staff oflScers should be sent
at once to his headquarters to learn from the chiefs
of departments the location of their special trains and
conduct the guards to the front. This order took a
deal of hard night-riding to fulfill, and some of those
who carried it did not get back to their respective
headquarters till long after midnight; for the main
trains were scattered about Chancellorsville and along
the Ely's Ford Road wherever they could haul off
into an opening, and on account of the darkness were
hard to find.
Meade, as already told, asked his corps commanders
to come and see him in reference to the movement
in the morning; and, having had quite a conference
with them, sent Lyman over with this message to
Grant: "After conversing with my corps commanders,
I am led to believe that it will be difficult, owing to
the dense thicket in which their commands are lo-
cated, the fatigued condition of the men rendering
it difficult to rouse them early enough, and the neces-
224 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
sity of some daylight, to properly put in reinforce-
ments. All these considerations induce me to suggest
the attack should not be made till six o'clock instead
of 4.30." It was then half-past ten and Grant had
retired; he was aroused, and changed it to five; and
says in his Memoirs that he was sorry he made the
change, and I am sure he was right. In view of the
fact that the sun rose in a clear sky at 4.47, and, as
every one knows, dawn at that season begins at latest
by four o'clock, — I remember its coming on, scat-
tering light like the sower it is, at every step; for we
breakfasted early that morning; the mist that had
gathered during the night was lifting and all but a
few of the stars had faded and gone, — I say, until
I saw Colonel Lyman's notes, I always wondered
why Meade made this request of Grant to postpone
the attack an hour and a half, till the sun had risen
above the trees; but I think the notes disclose the
reason.
It will be recalled that two of Burnside's divi-
sions were in bivouac just this side of the Rapidan,
and that his was a separate command independent
of Meade, hence all his orders had to emanate from
Grant. Accordingly for the morning's attack Grant
sent them to him direct through Colonel Comstock
of the engineers, one of my instructors at West
Point, a tall, sedate man, and Grant's most mod-
est, able, and confidential aide. They were in these
terms: —
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 225
Head Quarters Armies of the United States,
Near Wilderness Tavern,
May 5, 1864, 8 p. M.
Lieutenant-General Grant desires that you start
your two divisions at 2 a M. to-morrow, punctually,
for this place. You will put them in position between
the Germanna Plank Road and the road leading from
this place to Parker's Store, so as to close the gap
between Warren and Hancock, connecting both. You
will move from this position on the enemy beyond
at 4.30 A. M., the time at which the Army of the Po-
tomac moves.
C. B. COMSTOCK,
Lt.-Col. & Aide-de-camp.
It seems that Burnside came to Grant's headquar-
ters after the receipt of this order, and then joined
Meade. At the close of his interview with Meade and
the other corps commanders gathered there, he said,
as he rose, — he had a very grand and oracular air,
— "Well, then, my troops shall break camp by half-
past two!" and with shoulders thrown back and
measured step disappeared in the darkness.
( After he was out of hearing, Duane, Meade's Chief
of Engineers, who had been with the Army of the
Potomac since its formation, said: "He won't be up
— I know him well ! " — I can see Duane's face, hear
his quiet voice, see his hands slowly stroking his full,
long, rusty beard, as he says, "He won't be up — I
know him well!" — And apparently that was the
226 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
opinion of them all, that he would n't be up by 4.30
— for they knew him well, too, and recognized what
Lyman says of him, that he "had a genius for slow-
ness." But each one felt the importance of his join-
ing them before they tackled Lee again, for they had
had about all they could do to hold their own that
afternoon. So, fresh troops being very desirable, and
knowing him as they did, they wanted to make sure
of them by allowing him an extra hour and a half to
get them up.
And I suspect that Meade, convinced that they
were right, that Burnside would not be up in time,
made use of thickets and want of daylight rather
than the real reason, to ask for the postponement
of the attack. As we shall see, it turned out just as
Duane predicted.
Burnside represented a well-recognized type in
all armies, the California-peach class of men, hand-
some, ingratiating manners, and noted for a soldierly
bearing, — that is, square shoulders, full breast, and
the capacity on duty to wear a grim countenance,
while off duty all smiles and a keen eye to please, —
who, in times of peace, not only in our country but
everywhere, invariably land in high places, and who
almost as invariably make utter failures when they
are given commands on the breaking out of war.
And are not their failures accounted for by the fact
that their minds have been entirely devoted to look-
ing out for the main chance, to being agreeable and
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 227
well-groomed, rather than to the deep serious phases
of life? — I am satisfied that reflection is the pole
star of genius, — hence, when they are confronted
by the inexorable demands of war, they hesitate,
appalled and imbecile. Moreover, there is nothing
reactive about this type, as in the case of Grant and
Lee, Sherman and Sheridan. And yet twice did Con-
gress vote its thanks to Burnside, and old "Burn,"
as he was affectionately called, died with hosts and
hosts of friends.
'Knowing that at five o'clock battle was to be re-
newed by vigorous attack all along the lines, the
little colony of orderiies, cooks, and teamsters about
Warren's headquarters were astir before daylight.
When I aroused, some of the stars were still glowing
and belated detachments from the train guards were
still coming on to the field on their way to their re-
spective commands, moving through the disappear-
ing mist that had stolen into the Wilderness, and,
as we would fain believe, to moisten the cheeks and
eyelashes of its living and dead as they slept, and
to wrap the latter in its cool gray shrouds. Up near
the woods, dimly visible, were a couple of brigades
— the Marylanders among them — which Warren
had had assembled there during the night as a re-
serve behind Griffin, to whom, as on the day before,
the initiative of the serious work was intrusted. The
places of these troops in line had been made good
by closing Crawford to the right and abreast of
228 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
GriflSn, on the assumption that Burnside would be
up and take the ground he had occupied, that is,
across the Parker's Store Road, near where it leaves
Wilderness Run for the rolling plateau of the Chewn-
ing farm.
Kitching's brigade of heavy artillery had just ar-
rived from Chancellorsville, and the men were resting
near the Lacy house, most of them between the run
and the road. It was a big, fresh brigade, over twenty-
two hundred strong; and while its regiments were
preparing for the night march, — their orders were
to move at 1 A. M., — the Colonel and a score or two
of his men held a service, and, all kneeling, he led
them in prayer. Around the kneeling group were the
shallow graves of those who had been killed the year
before; and the one who narrates the circumstance
says that solitude's dreariest choir, the whippoor-
wills, of which there were hundreds, and maybe thou-
sands, were repeating their night-long mournful chant.
Possibly the earnest student of the battle would pre-
fer to be told why they were serving as infantry, —
they were three battalion regiments, — their order
of march, and exactly the distance they had had to
make; but I wonder which is the more enduring and
significant fact, the young colonel with palm to palm
pouring out his heart to God under the starlight, or
whether Blank's battalion moved first right or left in
front.
, How all mere military detail of battle fades away
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 229
as we lift on the tides of great affairs! Student of war,
let me suggest that once in a while as you study bat-
tles that you take Imagination's offered hand; she
will lead you through simple height-gaining paths
till at last fife and drum die away and lo ! you are in
a blessed company charged to convert what is earthly
into what is spiritual.
But to return to the morning: day was coming on
fast; bodies of woods, solitary trees on the ridges, and
vacant sky-arched distances, were stealing into view
as we hastily breakfasted. Our horses were saddled
and ready, and those of us who had had a kind word
for the colored cooks and waiters found in our sad-
dle-bags a snack of one kind or other wrapped up in
bits of paper. Nowhere in this world does it pay
better to show consideration for the low in estate,
and above all for those of the colored race, than on a
campaign. They will look after you faithfully, and,
if you should be sick or wounded, will stand by you
to the last.
Although a great many years lie between now and
then, yet across them all I can see Warren mounting
his heavy dappled iron-gray, and wearing his yel-
low sash. His saddle-blanket was scarlet, and a few
days afterward at Spotsylvania, when this horse
was shot, I waited near him while saddle and blanket
were stripped from him^ by an orderly.
^ The shot that hit Warren's horse was aimed at Warren, and possi-
bly fired by the same sharpshooter who the next morning at almost the
identical spot killed Sedgwick. Warren was watching Robinson's men.
230 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
The first duty I had after breakfast was to go to
the intersection of the Pike and Germanna Ford
roads and wait there till Burnside should arrive, and
then show him the way up the Parker's Store Road
to his position. My assignment happened in this
way: Roebling had gone to Grant's headquarters at
11.30 the previous night to confer with Comstock as to
the position Burnside's corps should take; and in his
notes he says: "Two opinions presented themselves,
either to go and join Wads worth by daylight, or else
obtain possession of the heights at Chewning's and
fall upon the enemy's rear by that route. If success-
ful in carrying the heights, the latter plan promised
the greatest results; if not, it would fail altogether.
Then again it was thought that when Wadsworth
joined the Second Corps, the two together would be
sufficient to drive the enemy. General Grant then
decided that the Ninth Corps should go to Chewn-
ing's, and I prepared to accompany them at four
o'clock in the morning." Accordingly, at that hour,
he and Cope went to the Pike and waited for Burn-
side. I suspect that Warren, as the hour for attack
who were briskly engaged along and to the right of the Spotsylvania
Road, trying to carry the enemy's position at the old scattered orchard
of the Spindle farm. I was directly behind him. We had been there but
a short time before I heard the ping of a passing shot. From the same
direction, another went directly over our heads, and, in a little while, as
soon as the man could reload, another, and this time so much nearer
that I said, "General, that man is getting the range on you." The sharp-
shooter was in the woods beyond the rather wide and deep ravine that
makes northeastward from the Sedgwick monument. Warren said no-
thing but shortly started to move to the right, when down went the horse.
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 231
came on, and Burnside did not appear, feeling the
need of both Roebling and Cope, who really were
his right-hand men, sent me to take their places and
wait for Burnside. They both hurried off Cope to
join Wadsworth. i
On my way to the Pike I passed the engineer bat-
talion marching in column of fours to report to Griffin.
It was the first time in all their history when, as a
body, this aristocracy of the rank and file of the army
was called on to take a hand as infantry, as common
"dough-boys," in the actual fighting. I knew all the
officers well: they were the ones I had dined with
when I announced my readiness to take command
of the Army of the Potomac. Their duties hitherto
had been confined to the dangerous business of
laying the pontoon bridges, and at other times to
repairing roads or to selecting and laying out field-
works — the officers meanwhile familiarizing them-
selves with the lines and all the natural features of
the scene of operations. But we all recognized the
grind of fighting as infantry, and broad grins were
exchanged as I rode by them. Fortunately, they were
not called on to assault, but were put to throwing a
new line of entrenchments across the Pike in rear
of Griffin.
The head of Burnside's leading division. Potter's,
came on the field to the tune of Hancock's musketry
about half-past five. It should have been there at
least an hour and a half earlier to move to the attack
232 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
with Hancock and Wadsworth. Duane's oracular
observation of the night before, "He won't be up,
I know him well," had been verified. Meade and
the corps commanders had reckoned just about right
in allowing him till six to be on hand. As a matter
of fact, Burnside himself did n't get up to the Pike,
let alone to the ground Crawford had occupied, till
after six. When he came, accompanied by a large
staff, I rode up to him and told him my instructions.
He was mounted on a bobtailed horse and wore a
drooping army hat with a large gold cord around it.
Like the Sphinx, he made no reply, halted, and began
to look with a most leaden countenance in the direc-
tion he was to go.
It was the first time I had ever seen him, — he had
commanded our old Army of the Potomac, he was a
famous man, I was young, — and my eyes rested on
his face with natural interest. After a while he started
off calmly toward the Lacy house, not indicating that
my services were needed, — he probably was think-
ing of something that was of vastly more importance.
I concluded that I was n't wanted, and was about
to go my own way, when I caught sight of Babcock
of Grant's staff coming at great speed down the hill
just the other side of the run. He had been out with
Hancock, and as he approached, I called, "What's
the news, Babcock?" Without halting he replied,
his kindly, open face gleaming, "Hancock has driven
them a mile and we are going to have a great victory,"
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 233
or words to that effect. I do not believe my heart
was ever more suddenly relieved, for from my youth
forebodings of the very worst that can happen have
always thrown its shadow. And now to know we
were gaining a victory! I went back to the Lacy
house happy, very happy indeed.
Shortly after arriving there, Meade's instruction
through Warren for Wadsworth to report for orders
to Hancock while detached from the Fifth Corps, was
given me to deliver, and with an orderly I started
up the Parker's Store Road, encumbered with Burn-
side's troops moving sluggishly into position, the
ground being very difficult to form on speedily.
By this time it was about 8 o'clock. The general
had passed through them to the front, where Potter
was deploying, but he had no sooner arrived there
than his big staff caught the eye of a Confederate
battery somewhere on the right of Ewell's line, and
it opened on them, making it so uncomfortable that
they had to edge away. I left the road about where
the uppermost eastern branch comes in, and struck
off through the woods in the direction Wadsworth
had taken the night before. I had not gone a great
way when my orderly, a German, riding behind me,
said, "Lieutenant, you are bearing too much to the
right, you will run into the rebel lines." I sheered to
the left; here and there were stragglers and wounded,
and at a point alongside the run, propped against
a beech tree, his head resting on his right shoulder.
234 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
his cap on the ground beside him, was a dead fair-
faced boy, eighteen or nineteen years old, holding in
his bloodless hand a few violets which he had picked.
A shot had struck him in the arm, or the leg, I have
forgotten which, and he had slowly bled to death. I
fancy that, as he held the little familiar wild-flowers
in his hand, his unsullied eyes glazed as he looked
down into them, and his mind was way off at home.
After passing him, the orderly again cautioned me,
but this time I paid no attention to him and went
on, guided by the firing.
The woods were very thick, and unknowingly we
were approaching quite a little rise, when suddenly
came the command, "Get off that horse and come
in." I lowered my head to the left, and there stood
a heavy skirmish line with uplifted guns. It did
not take me one second to decide. I suspect that
as usual I did not think at all, but gave my horse
a sudden jerk to the right, then the spur, and as
he bounded they let drive at us. A shot, — I sup-
pose it was one from their 58-calibre Enfields, —
grazing my sabre-belt, struck the brass "D" buckle
on my left side and tore the belt apart. My Colt's
pistol in its holster began to fall and I grabbed it
with my left hand. Just then a limb knocked off
my hat and with my right hand I caught it as it was
passing my right boot-top. Meanwhile the horse
was tearing his way along the course we had come.
The orderly disappeared instantly, and that was the
THE BATTLE OF TEE WILDERNESS 235
last I saw of him till the next morning, just after I
had returned Grant's despatches that will be men-
tioned later. When I met him, with unfeigned sur-
prise he exclaimed, "W^hy, my God! lieutenant, I
thought sure you were killed up there yesterday."
I hardly know why he should have thought so unless
he concluded I was falling when I was reaching for
my hat. His judgment was better than mine, how-
ever, and had I followed it neither of us would have
had such a close call.
Well, as soon as I could get control of my horse
and both of us could breathe a bit easier, for the dear
old fellow was no more anxious to go to Richmond
that way than I, apparently, I struck off more to the
left, and in a little while ran into swarms of stragglers,
and pretty soon met a group falling back under some
discipline. Upon inquiring, I found that they be-
longed to Cutler's brigade of Wadsworth's division,
and they told me that the division had been driven
with heavy losses. I gave to the oflScer who said he was
going back to the open ground, that is, to the Parker's
Store Road or the Lacy fields, the despatch, which
will be found in the War Records, dated May 5th by
mistake; the hour given is 8.30. In this despatch
to Warren I reported the enemy's skirmish-line as
being about a mile from the field, that they had tried
Wadsworth's left, and that I would go on till I found
him. The person to whom this despatch was handed
either delivered it in person or sent it by some one to
236 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
Warren's headquarters, and it was forwarded from
there to Humphreys in a despatch dated 9.05. Soon
I fell in with Cutler himself, leading back fragments
of his broken command. There may have been seven
or eight hundred of them, and possibly twice that
number, for they were scattered all through the woods.
He was rather an oldish, thin, earnest-looking Round-
head sort of a man, his light stubby beard and hair
turning gray. He was bleeding from a wound across
his upper lip, and looked ghastly, and I have no
doubt felt worse; for he was a gallant man, and to
lead his men back, hearing every little while the
volleys of their comrades still facing the enemy,
must have been hard. On my asking him where
Wadsworth was, he said, "I think he is dead"; and
one or two of his oflficers said, "Yes, we saw him
fall."
Relying on what they told me, I started back for
Meade's headquarters. When I reached there and
reported the serious break in Wadsworth's lines, no
one could believe it; but just then Cutler's men
began to pour out of the woods in full view on the
ridge east of the Lacy house, and the seriousness of
the situation at once appeared to all. As to Wads-
worth's death. Cutler and his officers were mistaken;
he was not mortally wounded until about two hours
later, but just before they broke the general's horse
was killed and that led them to believe. I think,
that he was killed also.
THE BATTLE OP THE WILDERNESS ^ 237
My report, and Cutler's appearance verifying it,
brought alarm which found expression in the follow-
ing despatch sent at once to Warren: —
The Major General commanding directs that you
suspend your operations on the right, and send some
force to prevent the enemy from pushing past your
left, near your headquarters. They have driven in
Cutler in disorder and are following him.
A. A. Humphreys,
Major General & Chief of Staff.
But, as a matter of fact, the enemy had not broken
our lines seriously, and were not following Cutler.
The batteries in the fields around the Lacy house,
and along the Pike, where the little chapel now stands,
came at once into "action front," the cannoneers
stepping blithely to their places, and, boldly expec-
tant, men aiid guns stood facing toward where his
men came straggling out of the woods.
Before I left Meade's headquarters word was sent
in from Hancock that a column was reported com-
ing up the Brock Road deploying skirmishers. This
lowering news on the heels of Cutler's appearance
was translated by Grant in the light of its premoni-
tory look. He called for his horse and set out to join
Hancock where, if at all, the crisis would break.
So much then for the chronicles of the early morn-
ing, my attempt to reach Wadsworth, and the events
with which it had more or less connection.
IX
Lee's plans for the use he should make of his forces
on the renewal of the conflict, in that he aimed a
crushing blow at his adversary's most vital point,
were indicative, I am inclined to think, of a clearer
if not a higher range of soldierly genius than those
of Grant ordering a general assault all along his lines.
For Grant's plan to have matched Lee's, he should
have struck at Lee's most vital point, namely, the
Chewning farm; but in that case troops would have
been drawn for the assault from Sedgwick and War-
ren, to support Burnside's two divisions, and with him
in chief command ask the fields of Fredericksburg,
the bridge at Antietam and the mine at Petersburg,
what would probably have happened. Besides, he
would have come plump against Longstreet, Ander-
son, and Mahone on their way to Hill and Ramseur
to the right of Ewell's line.
But let all this be as it may, Lee ordered Ewell to
attack at 4.30, — the very hour Grant had first set
for resuming the offensive, — his object being to
divert attention from the Plank Road where he meant
to make his supreme effort, assuming that Long-
street, Anderson, and Mahone would certainly be up
by that time, or shortly after.
Ewell, accordingly, a httle before five o'clock, threw
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 239
his left brigade against Sedgwick's right; but Sedg-
wick flung him back with a vengeance, and then by
determined assault forced him to his very utmost to
hold his lines. The loss of life on both sides was heavy.
Griffin in his front drove the enemy's weighty
skirmish Une into their breastworks, which, during
the night, had been made exceedingly strong, and
was assembling batteries to shake them before he
assaulted.
At five o'clock the signal gun at Hancock's head-
quarters boomed, and his troops and those of Wads-
worth, who had been waiting for it, moved promptly,
the latter through the dense, trammeling woods,
with Baxter in his centre. Rice on his right, and Cut-
ler on his left, all facing south for the Plank Road.
To Birney, an erect, thoughtful-looking man, wear-
ing a moustache and chin-beard, — the steady light
of his eyes would have made him notable in any com-
pany, — Hancock assigned the command of his right.
It included Birney's own, Mott's and Getty's divi-
sions, together with Owen's and Carroll's brigades
of Gibbon's division. He moved with Hays's old
brigade on the right of the road, its front when de-
ployed, owing to its losses of the day before, barely
equal to that of an average regiment. On the left
was Ward's of his own division and part of Owen's
brigade. Mott's second brigade was on the left of
Ward and completed Birney's front line. In the sec-
ond line was Getty, formed with Wheaton across the
240 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
road, the valiant Vermonters on his left; and in rear
of their fellow brigades was Eustis. Carroll was in
two lines of battle behind all the foregoing that were
north of the road; and there, too, in line but not mov-
ing with him, was the Nineteenth Maine of Webb's
brigade, which had reported to Carroll when the battle
was raging, in the twilight of the previous evening.
It was under the command of Selden Connor, late
Governor of Maine, and rendered great service that
day, as it had on many a field. When Carroll moved,
he told Connor to wait for Webb.
Birney soon struck his foes of the night before, and,
after some quick, sharp fighting, drove them from
their hastily-thrown-together defenses, consisting
of logs, chunks, and brush which they had collected
during the night. Ward's and Hays's brigades cap-
turing colors and prisoners. Birney, followed by
Getty, now pushed on, covering ground very rap-
idly, allowing the enemy no rest, and gathering in
prisoners by the score. By this time Hays's brigade
had obliqued to the left, and was wholly on the south
side of the road, abreast with its companion brigade.
Soon Wadsworth, sweeping everything before him,
emerged from the north, and, wheeling to the right,
the colors of some of Baxter's brigade mingling with
those of Hays, Owen, and Ward on the south side
of the road, joined in the pursuit of the now almost
routed men of Heth's and Wilcox's divisions, who
had experienced such heavy losses the night before.
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 241
Birney, finding Wadsworth on the north, drew
Getty to the south side of the road. Meanwhile
Cutler was advancing in two or three lines of battle,
behind the right of Baxter's brigade and the left of
Rice's, the former's left was across the road, the
latter's right reaching and curving to the northeast-
ern slopes of the Tapp field. The momentum of the
advance had not yet been checked.
About this time Lyman reached Hancock at the
junction of the Plank and Brock roads, under orders
from Meade to report by orderlies the progress of
events during the day. On making his mission known,
Hancock cried, "Tell General Meade we are driving
them most beautifully. Birney has gone in and he is
just clearing them out beautifully." On Lyman re-
porting that only one of Burnside's divisions was
up when he left headquarters, which, as will be re-
called, were within a few hundred yards of the Pike,
"I knew it! Just what I expected!" exclaimed Han-
cock. "If he could attack now, we could smash A. P.
Hill all to pieces!"
Learning of Birney's success, Hancock ordered
Gibbon to move with Barlow's big, fresh division
and attack Hill's right. Unfortunately this order was
not carried out: Gibbon said he never got it — two
staff officers say they delivered it to him. We can-
not resist the vain regret that Barlow was not moved
as Hancock wanted him moved, for another story
would certainly have had to be written; and I have
242 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
no doubt that to Hancock's dying day this failure
kept repeating itself out of the fogging coast of the
Past like a mournful bell on a swinging buoy.
Ward, Owen, and Hays's old brigade, all that is
left of it, keeping step to that trumpet of Duty
which ever spoke to their dead leader, has crushed
or brushed away Lane, Scales, Walker, and Cooke,
and is now crowding Thomas back and on to Mc-
Gowan, who at last, under withering fire from Wads-
worth, is staggering into the field behind the guns.
In line behind Birney is Wheaton, and then the
iron-hearted Vermonters. Coming up on the north
side of the road is Carroll, his brigade in two lines,
the crash of the musketry, the battle-field's hottest
breath, only bringing new fire into his face. Yes,
he is coming up with that brigade, which, when the
Confederates in the twilight of the second day at
Gettysburg broke our lines and were spiking the
pieces, Hancock called on to regain them. As one
of those gallant regiments, the Fourth Ohio, had
boys in it from my old home, with some of whom I
played in my childhood, there comes back from the
past a feeling of pride, and tenderness too, for one
of them. Nelson Conine, was killed that day and
his body never found. Yes, with pride and tender-
ness I see them following the heroic Carroll.
At some distance behind Carroll, Webb, Alexander
S. Webb, my old West Point instructor, — Heaven
bless him! his hair, once so dark, now almost as white
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 243
as snow, — is leading up his starry brigade, starry
for its leader and starry for men like Abbott of the
Twentieth Massachusetts and Connor of the Nine-
teenth Maine that are behind him. Yes, he is leading
them up, and nowhere on that field is blood with
more native chivalry. Hancock, scenting danger, sug-
gested to Humphreys that he might need help, and
Stevenson's division of Burnside's corps which Grant
had intended to hold at the Pike as a reserve was sent
to him. It arrived at the junction at 8 a. m.
Meantime Wadsworth has crossed the last morass
on his side, which, on account of its tortuous course,
irregular and in places almost declivitous banks, and
densely matted thickets, made a line of strong de-
fense. And now his advance is within two or three
hundred yards of the Widow Tapp field, and Baxter
and Birney are within a like or less distance of the
easterly line of the field prolonged. Rice, on the right,
who asked to be turned toward the enemy when he was
dying at Spotsylvania a few days later, ^ has caught
sight through the trees of the old field's pearly
light, and is preparing to charge a battery planted
among its starting broom-grass. According to General
Pendleton, Lee's chief of artillery, Poague's battalion
of four batteries had all taken positions in the field.
* Rice's leg had just been amputated high up on the thigh, and he
was lying under a fly on some pine boughs. From his moving lips it was
seen that he wished to say something, and as the aide leaned over him
he sighed, "Turn me." "Which way? " asked the aide. " Towards the
enemy," was the faint reply. They turned him and in a little while he died.
244 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
Birney's sharpshooters south of the road preceding
his troops and Baxter's are already abreast of the
east hne of the field, and can get glimpses of the
meagre, huddled buildings, with their splayed peach
and knotted plum trees, — whose leaves and the
sashes in the windows tremble at every discharge of
the guns, — and are beginning to place their shots
among the cannoneers of Williams's North Carolina
battery, belching shell and shrapnel, firing over Mc-
Gowan and Thomas of Wilcox's division, who, the
former on the north, the latter on the south, side of
the road, are still contesting, but on the verge of
disrupting completely. The field and the day are
almost ours.
The Plank Road back to the junction is packed,
wounded men making their way alone, trying as best
they can to stanch their wounds, some more seriously
hurt resting their arms on the shoulders of their fel-
lows, many on stretchers, with appealing eyes, and
not a few of them breathing their last. In the throng
are scores on scores of lank, wildly staring prisoners,
trailing one another, quickening their step to get be-
yond the range of their own men's fire; and, breast-
ing them all, mounted staff officers coming and going
with all possible speed. Edging alongside the road
are patient little mules with boxes of ammunition
strapped to them; and off in the woods on both sides
of the road the dead are scattered, some not yet cold;
and off, too, among them is many a poor coward who
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 245
at heart despises himself but cannot face danger.
And yet I have not a bit of doubt that here and there
among them is one who, before yielding a moral con-
viction, would face the fires of the stake with calm
equanimity.
And, all the while, over the motley, fast-breathing,
torn shreds and tatters of war, a section of our ar-
tillery, with elevations too low and time-fuses cut
entirely too short, bursts its shells, shells that are
intended for the enemy's line, where our men are
beginning to feel a new pressure, and are fighting
with increasing desperation, but owing to the char-
acter of the woods and the ground they have covered,
they are, so far as organization is concerned, in bad
shape. At the front there is scarcely the semblance
of continuous and effective formation; regiments and
brigades that started in the rear are now in the front
and on different flanks; their commanders scattered
through the woods in little detached, anxious groups,
a staff officer or two, an orderly with the head-
quarters guidon. Every one is filled with a desire to
go ahead, but each one is helpless to remedy the dis-
organization that is growing greater and more dis-
tracting at every moment. Wadsworth and Getty —
a determined spare-faced man with a brown mous-
tache and hazel eye, and who never got all the
praise he deserved for what he did at critical times on
so many fields — are in or near the road, the former
ablaze and looking for a chance to lead a regiment at
246 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
the first sight of the enemy, — that was his prevaihng
weakness as a commander: he had already had a
horse killed under him, — the latter cool as usual, al-
though each moment tells him that a crisis is near.
For what is that screaming war-cry they hear through
the increasing roar of the musketry? We need not
tell them, they know it well: it is the wild fierce yell
of Gregg's Texans as they greet Lee, and come on
to meet almost their extermination.
When the narrative parted with Lee about eleven
o'clock the night before, he was in his tent on the
western border of the Widow Tapp's field. Whether
his night was one of care or sleep we know not, but
we do know that in the course of the evening he sent
his accomplished aide. Colonel Venable, with an order
to Longstreet, in bivouac at Richards's shops, to
leave the Catharpin Road and strike over to the
Plank and join Hill at an early hour. About eleven
o'clock a guide reported to Longstreet; at two a. m.
he started, following the guide through wood-paths.
The guide lost the way, but his divisions reached
the Plank Road at daylight, and then, doubling up,
quickened their pace, and came down the road
abreast. Before them the sun was rising very red,
bronzing the tree-tops; behind them was Richard H.
Anderson's division of Hill's corps, who had biv-
ouacked at Verdierville. In all, fourteen fresh bri-
gades were coming on to strike the hard-fought, torn,
and wearied divisions of Birney, Wadsworth, and
I
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 247
Getty, and to struggle with them and Webb, Carroll,
and Owen, for the mastery of the field. And all this
time Barlow, Brooke, and Miles, as well as Smyth
with his gallant Irishmen, are held by Gibbon, ex-
pecting a part if not all of Longstreet's ten brigades
to appear on the Brock Road from the direction of
Todd's Tavern! Does any one who knows Gregg's
record as a soldier think for a moment that he would
not have unmasked at a very early hour the first
steps of a movement of this kind from his position
at Todd's Tavern? It is true that word had been
sent in to Hancock during the night that Long-
street's corps was passing up the Catharpin Road
to attack his left; but, as a matter of fact, his tired
troops, as we have seen, having covered twenty-eight
miles or more, had gone into bivouac at dark some
eight or ten miles west of the tavern, and were in
deep, well-earned sleep.
The record seems to show that Meade, Hancock,
as well as Gibbon and presumably Humphreys in a
measure, all harbored a fear that Longstreet, on the
left, would suddenly appear a portentous spectre,
forever casting its image on their minds. There is no
evidence, however, that any such notion had stolen
into Grant's mind, for, neither at that time, nor ever
after, was there magic in the name of Longstreet,
Lee, or any other Confederate, for him. (Warren
always, when Lee's movements were uncertain and
a matter of discussion, referred to him as "Bobbie"
248 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
Lee, with an air and tone that said he is not a man
to be fooled with.) And so, let Longstreet be on the
road to strike him at whatsoever point, Grant wanted
Hill and Ewell to be beaten before help could reach
them; hence his sound conclusion of the night be-
fore, to attack at daylight.
Meanwhile, the sun is mounting and Longstreet's
men are coming on, — not long ago I traveled the
same road and the limbs of the trees almost mingled
over it, and the woods on each side were still and deep,
— can now hear the battle, and are meeting the faint-
hearted who always fringe the rear at the first signs
of disaster. They are passing the crowded field-hos-
pitals, and encountering ambulances, horsemen,
stragglers, and the ever-increasing stream of wounded;
and swerving ofiF through the woods on both sides
of the road are the limp fragments of Heth's division,
heedless of their officers, who were shouting to gain
their attention. And now comes one of Lee's aides,
making his way urgently to Parker's store to tell
the trains to get ready to withdraw, and another to
Longstreet to hurry up, for, unless he comes quickly,
the day is lost. At this appeal the men break into
the double-quick, and Kershaw, whose division is per-
haps a hundred yards ahead of that of Field, rides
forward with a staff officer of General Wilcox who
has been sent to show him his position. But before
they reach Wilcox's line, it breaks, and Kershaw,
seeing it coming, hurries back to meet his division.
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 249
Out in the old field Lee, Hill, and their staffs are
throwing themselves in front of the fleeing troops,
imploring them to rally. From all accounts, Lee's
face was a sky of storm and anxiety, and well it
might be, for Catastrophe was knocking at the door.
When McGowan passed him Lee exclaimed, "My
God! General McGowan! is this splendid brigade of
yours running like a flock of geese .f^"
It is now a question of minutes. The rolling mus-
ketry is at its height, one roar after another break-
ing, sheets of bullets are thridding the air, and a half-
dozen cannon are firing rapidly blasting-charges of
double canister, for our men are close up.
Kershaw throws all of Henagan's brigade, save
the Second South Carolina, well to the left of the
road; that he deploys on the right under the fire of
Birney's troops, who are penetrating the woods to
the left of the Confederate batteries. His next bri-
gade, Humphreys's, is rushing up, its left on the south
side of the road, Henagan having swung off, making
room for him in the immediate front of our most
advanced line. Field throws his first brigade, G. T.
Anderson's, to the right of the road; but before this
movement could be followed, Longstreet, who was
on hand, with his usual imperturbable coolness, so
says Venable, tells Field to form and charge with
any front he can make. Accordingly in an instant
he puts his second brigade, the Texans, in line of bat-
tle under Gregg. There were three General Greggs on
250 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
the field, this one the Confederate, and on our side
David and Irvin, brothers from Pennsylvania.
Just as they start, Lee catches sight of them and
gallops up and asks sharply, "What brigade is this ?"
* * The Texas brigade, ' ' is the resolute response . * * Gen-
eral Lee raised himself in his stirrups," — so said a
courier, in " The Land We Love," only a few years after
the war, — "uncovered his gray hairs, and with an
earnest yet anxious voice exclaimed above the din,
*My Texas boys, you must charge.' A yell rent the
air," and the men dashed forward through the wreck-
age of Hill's corps and under a stinging fire from our
sharpshooters. On they go, and now they have passed
through Williams's guns, their muzzles still smoking,
when suddenly they hear, "Charge, charge, men!"
from a new, full voice, and there behind them is Lee
himself, his warm brown eyes aflame. "Come back,
come back. General Lee!" cry out the cannoneers
earnestly; he does not heed and rides on; but a
sergeant now takes hold of Traveller's rein. — It is
a great pity that we have not a picture of that ser-
geant's face as he turns the big gray horse around and
exchanges a firm, kindly glance with his rider. — Lee
yields to his better judgment and joins Longs treet
who, on the knoll near by, is throwing his brigades
in as he did at Gettysburg, with the calmness of a
man who is wielding a sledge.
Field, the large, handsome "Charley" Field of our
West Point days, he who rode so proudly at the head
I
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 251
of the escort for the late King of England when he
came as a boy to visit the Point, — I wonder, if
Field in the reveries of his old age, while basking in
the memories of departed days, whether it was Ben-
ning's Georgians or the battalion of West Point cadets
he saw himself leading, — oh, what children of Des-
tiny we are ! — But on he comes with Benning, who
is following the track of the Texans, who are alone,
and after smashing through Wadsworth's lines find
themselves enfiladed by a terrible fire from the south
side of the road against which the Fourth Texas was
sent but could not stop it, and was only saved from
annihilation by Kershaw's advance. Perry, command-
ing Law's brigade of Field's division, is turning from
the Plank Road into the Widow Tapp field at double-
quick, and beginning to form spryly. His Fifteenth
Alabama passes within a few feet of Lee, behind
whom, on their horses, are a group of his staff. His
face is still flushed — he has just returned from try-
ing to lead the Texans — and his blazing eyes are
fixed intently on Kershaw's leading regiment that
is forming line of battle and through whose ranks the
retreating masses of Heth's and Wilcox's divisions
are breaking. Aroused by this jeopardous disorder,
he turns suddenly in his saddle toward his staff, and,
pointing his gloved hand across the road, says in
vigorous tones, "Send an active young staff officer
down there." Then, casting his eyes on the ragged men
filing by him, he asks kindly, "What men are these?"
252 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
A private answers proudly, "Law's Alabama bri-
gade." Lee bares his gray hairs once more and re-
plies, "God bless the Alabamians!" They, with
colors slanting forward, grasp their arms tightly and
swing on, the left obliquing till it brushes the young
pines along the northern side of the old opening.
Already from the smoke-turbaned woods ahead of
them come bleeding and mangled Texans and Geor-
gians, their blood striping across the garden, the door-
yard, and the path to the well of the Widow Tapp's
humble abode; but on with increasing speed toward
the dead-strewn front march the brave Alabamians.
And who is this oflScer on the litter? Benning;
Gregg has already been borne to the rear. And now
what organization is that we see coming into line,
there on the western edge of the field beyond Lee
and Longstreet, obstructed by Hill's retreating frag-
ments.^ That is "Charley" Field's largest brigade,
made up entirely of South Carolinians. And the
colors over them? The Palmetto Flag, the ensign and
pride of their contumacious, insubordinate state, the
first to nurse the spirit which has led the dear Old
Dominion and her sister states into their woe. As
usual, it is fluttering mutinously, hankering to en-
gage the Stars and Stripes, which has not forgotten
that this Palmetto ensign flaunted over the first guns
to fire on it, as it flew, the emblem of Union and Peace,
flew warm with the hopes of the obscure of all civ-
ilized lands, and dreaming of the day when every flag
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 253
of the world shall do it homage. And at its very sight
the nation's colors blaze up with righteous hostility;
and as where or whensoever seen, in the Wilderness
or at Gettysburg or Chickamauga, the old banner of
Washington's day with a voice like an eagle's shriek,
cries "Come on. Palmetto Flag!" And lo! to-day, to
the credit of our common natures, the two banners
are reconciled.
The onset of Gregg's Texans was savage, — it
could not have been less after asking Lee to go back.
They dashed at Wadsworth's riddled front, through
which the battery had been cutting swaths; and be-
sides that, two 12-pound guns and one 24-pound
howitzer had run forward into the Plank Road and
were pouring their canister into his huddled and crum-
bling flanks. Fatigue and want of coherence were
breaking down the fighting power of his men, yet
they met this shock with great fortitude. Cope, and
he was right there, said in a despatch to Warren,
"Wadsworth has been slowly pushed back, but
is contesting every inch of the ground"; and it was
not until Benning and Perry struck them that they
began to waver, then break, and finally disrupt in
great confusion. About half of them, under Rice
and Wadsworth, fled back across the morass to the
last line of logs and chunks from which they had
driven the enemy; the other half with Cutler took
the course they had come the previous evening. The
narrative has already told where they were met.
254 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
While these troops were breaking, Carroll, not yet
engaged, was ordered by Birney in person to send
some of his brigade back to the north side, he having
moved by flank across to the south of the road, hav-
ing heard heavy firing in that direction. He sent the
Eighth Ohio, Fourteenth Indiana, and Seventh West
Virginia. Thus, apparently, at that moment the
north side of the road was clear for Field; but he could
not push his advantage, for Birney, Ward, and
Coulter, who had taken Baxter's place after he
was wounded, held Kershaw stubbornly. Moreover,
Owen, followed by the Nineteenth Maine of Webb's
brigade, who had reported to Carroll the night be-
fore, had gained a position on the immediate south
side of the road, and was firing into Benning's and
Perry's right, causing them to suffer severely.
"The enemy held my three brigades so obstin-
ately," says Kershaw, "that, urged forward by Long-
street, I placed myself at the head of the troops and
led in person a charge of the whole command, which
drove the enemy to and beyond their original lines."
This position was just about opposite to where
Wadsworth was now collecting the fragments of his
command on the north side of the road, and was held
by Carroll and the Vermonters, and these men Ker-
shaw could not budge. Grimes and Woff ord, who had
advanced on Kershaw's right, had not made mate-
rial headway against McAlister on Mott's left, but
they had discovered what finally almost gave them
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 255
the day, that our lines did not extend to the unfin-
ished railroad, in fact they did not reach over a half-
mile, if that, from the Plank Road.
In the midst of Kershaw's onslaught Getty was
wounded, and Lyman in his notes says, "Getty rode
past me looking pale; to my inquiry he said, *I am
shot through the shoulder, I don't know how badly.'
A man [goes on Lyman] of indomitable courage and
coolness. One of his aides (the fair-haired one) shot
through the arm, the other, his horse shot. Immortal
fighting did that Second Division, Sixth Corps, on
those two bloody days."
While Carroll, the Vermont brigade, and the stout-
hearted of all the broken commands that had rallied
behind them, were standing off Kershaw, up the road
comes Webb at the head of his gallant brigade. Wads-
worth and Birney are there, trying to form troops
for an advance. "There were several commands and
no orderly arrangement as to lines, front, etc.," says
Governor Connor. On reporting to Birney, Webb is
directed to deploy on the right of the road and move
forward and join Getty, whom Birney had asked
to send some strength to the north side of the road.
Webb deploys, and on he comes; the Nineteenth Maine
have gladly reunited with their comrades and been put
on the extreme right. On the left is the Twentieth
Massachusetts under Abbott. "Waved my hand to
Abbott," says Lyman, "as he rode past at the head of
the Twentieth, smiling gayly." Smile on, dear heroic
256 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
young fellow! Your smile will play on many a page,
and the Wilderness holds it dear; for her heart is
with you, and in years to come, when the dogwood
and the wild roses are blooming, she will softly breathe
your name through the tree-tops as she recalls that
smile. Oh, how close we are to woods and streams,
the traveling winds, the banded evening clouds, and,
yes, even the distant stars!
On comes Webb, his line strung out through the
woods, no skirmishers ahead, for he is expecting mo-
mentarily to come up with Getty, when suddenly
there is a terrific crash, causing a fearful loss. But,
standing among the wounded and the dying, his
brigade holds fast and returns the fire; the enemy
are just across the morass, in places not more than
twenty or thirty yards away. He has come squarely
up against what is left of Gregg's, Benning's, and
about all of Perry's fresh brigade. Woolsey of Meade's
staff sends back word: "7.27 a. m. Webb, who went
in a short time since, is doing very well. The fire is
very heavy, but not gaining. Wounded returning
on Plank Road. 7.35. The fire is slackening and our
men cheer. 7.40. The firing is heaviest on the right
of the Plank Road [Webb's] ; our men are cheering
again." And there they battle back and forward
amid a continuous roar of musketry; not they alone,
for Kershaw, knowing that Lee's and Longstreet's
eyes are on him, is crowding his men desperately
against Carroll's and Birney's and Mott's iron-
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 257
hearted veterans, and those ever steadfast sons of
the Green Mountain State. The bark-scored and
bullet-pitted trees around them are wreathed in
smoke, and, like sheaves of wheat, bodies are lying
on the leaf-strewn ground, unconscious now of the
deafening crashes with which the gloomy Wilderness
jars far and wide, and roars to the over-arching, lis-
tening sky.
There can be no doubt that Webb's desperate
fighting saved the north side of the Plank Road at
this crisis by checking Field's three brigades —
Gregg's, Benning's, and Law's, the latter under Gen-
eral William F. Perry, to whom the credit may be
given of saving the north side of the Widow Tapp
field from Kitching's grasp who had come up from
the Lacy house to help Wads worth. This Perry ac-
complished by throwing against Kitching his left
regiment, the Fifteenth Alabama, Colonel Gates,
as he advanced on his way to support Benning and
Gregg. Gates having rejoined his fellow regiments
after repulsing Kitching, and Perrin's Alabama and
the Florida brigade of Anderson's division having
reported, and all taking a hand at Webb's line, he
found his right overlapped and changed front to rear
at double-quick on his left regiment, the Twentieth
Massachusetts resting on the road, and stood them
off.
Meanwhile Hancock, having been notified by
Meade that Burnside was about to attack Field's
258 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
flank, sent for Wadsworth and told him that he had
ordered three brigades, Webb's, Ward's, and Car-
ruth's, of Stevenson's division, to report to him,
and wished that he with these additional troops would
carry, if possible, the enemy's position on the right-
hand side of the road. In Carruth's brigade was my
friend Frank Bartlett's regiment, the Fifty-seventh
of Massachusetts and the Fifty-sixth under Colonel
Gr is wold. On their way to the front a member of
Griswold's regiment — commanded by S. M. W^eld of
Boston after Griswold's death that morning — gave
drink like a good Samaritan to a wounded Confeder-
ate, who, as soon as the line passed him, seized a
musket and began to fire on the very men who had
been kind to him. With righteous indignation they
turned and exterminated the varmint; and then on
with renewed determination to have it out with their
country's enemies.
; The intrepid Wadsworth, returning to the front,
and seeing the Twentieth Massachusetts athwart
the road where Webb had left it, his vehement spirit
set on fire by Hancock's ardent and communicative
aggressiveness, asked in pungent, challenging tones,
"Cannot you do something here?" Abbott hesitat-
ing, mindful of Webb's order to hold that point at
all hazards, the high-spirited Wadsworth, who by
nature was more an individual combatant than the
cool and trained commander, leaped the little bar-
rier of rotten planks torn from the decaying road-bed,
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 259
and of course Abbott and the Twentieth followed
him. Wadsworth's second horse was killed, and the
regiment was met immediately with a withering vol-
ley. After striving in vain to drive the enemy, Abbott
had to desist from further efforts. He then ordered
the men to lie down so as to escape a wicked, sputter-
ing fire; but he himself, young and handsome, coolly
and without bravado walked back and forth before
his line, his eyes and face lit by the finest candle that
glows in the hand of Duty. "My God, Schaff," said
to me the brave Captain Magnitsky of the Twentieth,
with moistened eyes, "I was proud of him as back
and forth he slowly walked before us." A shot soon
struck him and he fell. They tenderly picked up the
mortally wounded, gallant gentleman and carried him
to the rear. Bartlett reached Webb about the time
he had changed front forward onto the sorely stricken
Twentieth and formed in rear of his left centre. It
was now about 9.30. Wads worth, catching sight of
Bartlett 's colors flying defiantly in the face of Field's
oncoming veterans, called on him in person to charge
over some troops weakened by repulses, who were
hesitating — and he and his men responded well. I
can hear Bartlett's voice ringing, " Forward," and see
his spare, well-bred face lit up dauntlessly by those
intense blue eyes; eyes I have seen glint more than
once with pleasant humor, for he had, besides cour-
age, the spirit of comradeship, that pleasant, cloud-
reflecting stream, rippling and green banked, that
260 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
flows through our natures. But in a httle while a shot
struck him in the temple, and he followed his college
friend, Abbott, to the field hospital; — he had already
lost his left leg at Yorktown, and been seriously
wounded in two places leading an assault at Port
Hudson. The regiment lost 252 killed and wounded.
Wadsworth, after the charge, exclaimed, "Glori-
ous!" but, like all the gains, theirs was temporary.
For Field's fresh veterans coming up from where
Burnside should have held them, he attacked fiercely;
yet, try as he might, Webb finally fought him to a
standstill. And so was it on the other side of the road:
Carroll, Grant, and Birney's remnants, and McAlis-
ter of Mott's division, had thrown Kershaw and
Wofford back till they, too, were glad to stop for a
while.
At the mention of McAlister's name my sense of
humor asks, "Can't you stop the narrative long
enough to tell about General ?" This general
represented Gibbon's lone response to Hancock's
order to attack at seven o'clock up the bed of the
unfinished railroad with Barlow's division. He was
a whiskey-pickled, lately-arrived, blusterous German,
and when he reached McAlister on the left of the
line, he wanted to burst right through, saying his or-
ders were, "To find the enemy wherever he could find
him and whip him III" Having blown this trombone
Germanic blast, he spurred his nag and dashed at
the "rebels." Pretty soon he sent to McAlister to
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 261
come up and relieve him, which McAlister refused to
do, when back came part of the brigade running,
and Blank with them. " I want to get ammunition," he
exclaimed. "Where?" asked McAlister. "Away back
in the rear," he shouted as off he went. "That was
the last I saw of him or his command," says McAlis-
ter. Notwithstanding there is a considerable strain of
German blood in my veins, there is something about
the swelling assertive military airs of that nationality
which is very humorous and at the same time very
nauseating. But I suppose really that McAlister ought
to have given the poor fellow a little aid, if, for no
other reason, than that his land sent so many Hes-
sians here during the Revolution.
When the narrative was halted it was saying that
the Confederates and ourselves were glad to stop
for a while. It was now going on ten o'clock, and
there was a lull all along the lines. And while it lasts,
let us turn to Hancock, not forgetting that while Bir-
ney and Wadsworth and Webb were engaging so
fiercely, he was beset with distracting and untoward
happenings "in good measure, pressed down and
shaken together and running over." At nine o'clock,
while his attention is strained on the renewed offensive
up the Plank Road, this despatch from Humphreys is
handed to him: "Sheridan has been ordered to attack
Longstreet's flank and rear by the Brock Road."
"Longstreet's flank and rear by the Brock Road!" he
repeats to himself; "Humphreys must have located
him definitely; and yet we have prisoners from his
corps." Just then to help confirm Humphreys's news
the distant boom of Custer's guns comes through the
smothering timber; and the footsteps of the haunting
peril that has been dogging Hancock all the morning
are closer than ever.
To clear up the reference to Custer's guns it should
be told that under Sheridan's orders he had left Chan-
cellorsville at 2 a. m. for the intersection of the Fur-
nace and Brock roads, which, as the map will show.
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 263
is about a mile beyond where Hancock's return
line of breastworks crossed the latter. He reached
there just in time to head off Rosser and Fitz Lee
from laying hold of this important point.
Gregg, one of the best and most reliable of our cav-
alry commanders, was at Todd's Tavern looking out
for Stuart, Merritt, commanding the Regular Cavalry
brigade, within reach. Wilson who had been drawn
back to Chancellorsville during the night, after re-
newal of ammunition and supplies, had posted one
of his brigades at Piney Branch Church and the other
at Aldrich's.
I cannot mention the names of Wilson and Custer
and Merritt without seeing their faces again as cadets,
and feeling a wave of warm memories. God bless
the living; and Trumpets, peal once more for me, if
you will, over Custer's grave.
So much then for the guns which Hancock heard
as he read Humphreys's despatch that Sheridan was
about to attack Longstreet. Humphreys's aide had
just gone when here came Hancock's own trusted
aide, the one to whom he always turned for final
decision of any fact. Colonel Morgan, who reported
that the enemy were actually advancing on the Brock
Road. I think I can see Hancock, for I was near him
during one of the charges at Spottsylvania and know
that kind of news was received. He orders Birney
to send a brigade at once to Gibbon (bear in mind
that it is a little after nine, and that we have seen
264 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
that Birney has need of every man along his bullet-
sheeted front). Birney detaches Eustis's brigade of
the Sixth Corps, and starts it toward the junction.
A few minutes elapse, and Hancock tells Carroll to
send a regiment; and, probably hearing another of
Custer's guns, he sets the resolute Brooke in motion,
and with him Coulter, who has gathered the remains
of Baxter's brigade — the one which the light-haired
and light-moustached, medium-sized and trim Ker-
shaw first struck, and which had drifted back out
of action. Before Eustis reaches the junction, along
comes Leasure's delayed brigade of Stevenson's
division, and Hancock tells them to keep right on
down the road and help Gibbon; — Eustis, ap-
proaching the Brock, and seeing Leasure's column
hurrying by, knows he must not break through, and
halts. Hancock, having a moment to think, con-
cludes that Gibbon, aided by Tidball with practi-
cally all the artillery of the corps, and the troops
already on the way to him, can take care of Long-
street, directs Eustis to countermarch and go back
to his fellows under Wadsworth and Birney.
Hancock has a moment's respite, but here comes
ill-faced Trouble again. What is it. Creature?
" Humphreys orders you to take immediate steps to
repair the break the enemy has made through War-
ren's lef t " (referring to Cutler) . " Great God ! What 's
happened there .f^" I can hear him say, and off he
propels an aide to Birney to send two brigades to his
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS ^65
right to fill Cutler's gap. And that order is no sooner
sent than here comes a message from Meade, saying
that he hopes that nothing will delay or prevent his
attacking simultaneously with Burnside!
Fight Longstreet as he comes up the Brock Road !
attack simultaneously with Burnside! detach two
brigades from Birney to fill a gap ! Surely Hancock's
measure of trials was pressed down and running over;
and lo! Longstreet was not on the Brock Road at
all, there was no gap in Warren's lines, and Burnside
was nowhere near attacking, simultaneously or other-
wise. — Meade ought to have remembered how long
it took "Old Burn" to get ready at Antietam.
But cheer up, gallant Hancock! The hour-glass of
your tormenting perplexities is about run out. Gib-
bon has discovered at last (10.10 a. m.) that the enemy
he had seen looming up on the Brock Road are
several hundred hospital-bleached convalescents, who,
by some stupid provost-marshal at Chancellorsville,
have been allowed to follow the corps' march of the
day before around by way of Todd's Tavern.
Upon discovering that the dreaded infantry were
these limp convalescents, and not Longstreet's vet-
erans, I have no doubt that the wrinkled-browed,
closely-cropped, reddish-bearded Gibbon breathed a
long sigh of relief, and at once fie w with the news to
Hancock. Well, of course I do not know just what
happened, but I have no doubt that the oaks about
the junction remember Hancock's explosion well.
266 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS '
or that the recording angel suddenly found himself
busy, and, when his pen could n't keep up, looked
downward, — apparently there was no end to the
emphatic procession in sight, — and, feeling kindly
toward Hancock, knowing he was a brave, warm-
hearted fellow who would reach his hand compas-
sionately to a stricken enemy, and that he had been
badly pestered, closed the books and deliberately
turned on an electrical buzzer, and cut off all com-
munication with the Wilderness. And behold, when
the books were opened again, some great hand — on
the plea of the Centurion, I have no doubt — had
written "Excused" after every one of the entries.
I cannot recall an instance during the war when
any corps commander had such a badgering hour as
Hancock that second morning in the Wilderness.
He was naturally impulsive, and when he could not
see his enemy, or, in other words, when he was in the
woods, he was like an eagle with drenched wings and
very restless.
Meanwhile the lull that has heretofore been re-
ferred to is going on, in places the woods are afire,
and Wadsworth has dismounted and is alone with
Monteith of his staff, who says: "He [Wadsworth]
told me that he felt completely exhausted and worn
out, that he was unfit (physically) to command, and
felt that he ought in justice to himself and his men
to turn the command over to Cutler. He asked me
to get him a cracker, which I did."
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 267
And while this gray-haired patriot and gentleman
and the North's nearest aristocrat and nobleman is
resting for the few minutes that are left of his heroic
life, let us see what advantage Longstreet was taking
of this ominous lull.
General M. L. Smith, a New Yorker and a distin-
guished graduate of West Point, doing engineer duty
with Lee's army, had examined our left, and, finding
it inviting attack, so reported to Longstreet. Now
there is on Longstreet's staff a tall, trim, graceful
young Georgian, with keen dark eyes and engaging
face, whose courage and ability to command. Long-
street knows well, for he has been with him on many
a field. His name is Sorrel, and his gallant clay is ly-
ing in the cemetery at Savannah, the long, pendulant
Southern moss swaying softly over it. His "Recol-
lections of a Confederate Staff Officer" has for me,
like all the books I love, a low, natural, wild music;
and, as sure as I live, the spirits who dwell in that
self-sown grove called Literature were by his side
when he wrote the last page of his Recollections, his
pen keeping step with his beating heart. Longstreet,
on hearing Smith's report, called Sorrel to him, and
told him to collect some scattered brigades, form
them in a good line on our left, and then, with his
right pushed forward, to hit hard. "But don't start
till you have everything ready. I shall be waiting
for your gun-fire, and be on hand with fresh troops for
further advance," said Longstreet.
268 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
Sorrel picked up G. T. Anderson's, Wofford's, Da-
vis's of Heth's, and Mahone's brigades, and led them to
the old unfinished railroad bed; and, having stretched
them out on it, formed them, facing north, for ad-
vance. Of course, had Gibbon obeyed Hancock's or-
der, this movement of Sorrel's could not have been
made; as it was, the coast was clear. On Birney's
left, as everywhere along the front, our forces were in
several broken lines, and those of the first had changed
places with the second, to take advantage of the lit-
tle fires at which they had boiled their coffee to boil
some for themselves; for many of the troops had not
had a bite since half -past three in the morning, and
it was now past eleven. Save the skirmish line, the
men were lying down, and not expecting any danger,
when suddenly, from the heavy undergrowth. Sorrel's
three widely-winged brigades burst on their flank
with the customary yell, and before our people could
change front, or, in some cases, even form, they were
on them. Fighting McAlister tried his best to stay
the tempest, and so did others, many little groups
of their men selling their lives dearly; for the color-
bearers planted their banners on nearly every knoll,
and brave young fellows would rally around them;
but being overpowered, panic set in, and the lines
melted away.
As soon as Carroll, Lewis A. Grant, Birney, Webb,
and Wadsworth heard Sorrel's quick volleys, they
were all on their feet at once, for the character of the
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 269
firing and the cheers told them that Peril had snapped
its chain and was loose. In a few minutes fleeing in-
dividuals, then squads, and then broken regiments,
began to pour through the woods from the left.
Kershaw and Field, being notified by Longstreet
to resume the offensive as soon as they should hear
Sorrel, now pressed forward, seriously and exultingly
active. Wadsworth, to stay the threatening disaster
(for that lunatic. Panic, travels fast, and every oflScer
of experience dreads its first breath), flew to the
Thirty-seventh Massachusetts at the head of Eustis's
brigade, which was just getting back from the junc-
tion, and ordered Edwards, a resolute man, to throw
his regiment across the front of Field, who, with sev-
eral pieces of artillery raking the road, was advan-
cing. The Thirty-seventh moved quickly by flank
into the woods, and then, undismayed, heard the
command, "Forward." And with it went my friends.
Lieutenants Casey and Chalmers, and that pleasant
and true one of many a day. Captain "Tom" Colt
of Pittsfield, whose mother was a saint. "You have
made a splendid charge!" exclaimed Wadsworth,
and so they had — the ground behind them showed
it; they thrust Field back, gaining a little respite for
all hands before disaster; and very valuable it proved
to be, for some of the broken commands thereby
escaped utter destruction.
While Field and Kershaw assailed Carroll, Birney,
and Wadsworth fiercely, fire was racing through the
270 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
woods, adding its horrors to Sorrel's advance; and
with the wind driving the smoke before him, he came
on, sweeping everything. Seeing his Hnes falter.
Sorrel dashed up to the color-bearer of the Twelfth
Virginia, "Ben" May, and asked for the colors to
lead the charge. "We will follow you," said the
smiling youth spiritedly, refusing to give them up;
and so they did. In the midst of the raging havoc,
Webb, under instructions from Wadsworth, now in
an almost frantic state of mind, tried to align
some troops beyond the road so as to meet Sor-
rel, whose fire was scourging the flanks of Carroll
and the Green Mountain men, through whom and
around whom crowds of fugitives, deaf to all appeals
to rally, were forcing their way to the rear. But the
organizations, so severely battered in the morning,
were crumbling so fast, and the tumult was so high,
that Webb saw it was idle to expect they could hold
together in any attempted change of position; he there-
fore returned to his command, and quickly brought
the Fifty-sixth Massachusetts, Griswold's regiment,
alongside the road. Fortunately his Nineteenth Maine,
withdrawn during the lull to replenish its ammuni-
tion, had been wheeled up by the gaUant Connor at
the first ominous volley from the South. They had
barely braced themselves on the road before Carroll,
and then the old Vermont brigade, had to go; and
now Connor and Griswold open on Sorrel, checking
him up roundly.
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 271
Wadsworth undertook to wheel the remnants of
Rice's regiments who had stood by him, so as to fire
into the enemy on the other side of the road. In try-
ing to make this movement he ran squarely onto Per-
rin's Alabama brigade, of Anderson's division, which
had relieved a part of Field's, who rose and fired a
volley with fatal effect, breaking Wadsworth's forma-
tion, the men fleeing in wild confusion. In this Ala-
bama brigade was the Eighth Regiment, commanded
that morning by Hilary A. Herbert who lost his arm.
This gallant man, soldier, member of Congress, and
distinguished lawyer was Mr. Cleveland's Secretary
of the Navy.
The heroic Wadsworth did not or could not check
his horse till within twenty odd feet of the Confeder-
ate line. Then, turning, a shot struck him in the back
of the head, his brain spattering the coat of Earl M.
Rogers, his aide at his side. The rein of Wadsworth's
horse, after the general fell, caught in a snag, and,
Rogers's horse having been killed by the volley, he
vaulted into the saddle, and escaped through the
flying balls. Wadsworth lies unconscious within the
enemy's lines; his heart, that has always beaten so
warmly for his country, is still beating, but hears no
response now from the generous, manly, truth- view-
ing brain. I believe that morning, noon, and night
the bounteous valley of the Genesee, with its rolling
fields and tented shocks of bearded grain, holds
Wadsworth in dear remembrance.
,x^f fry
272 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
Everything on the right of the Nineteenth Maine,
Fifty-sixth and Thirty-seventh Massachusetts is
gone, and they, with fragments of other gallant regi-
ments, will soon have to go, too, for Sorrel comes on
again with a rush. Griswold, pistol in hand, advances
the colors to meet him, and is killed almost instantly;
Connor, on foot and in the road, is struck and, as he
falls, Webb calls out, "Connor, are you hit?" "Yes,
I've got it this time." And his men sling him in a
blanket and carry him to the rear. Webb, seeing the
day is lost, tells the bitterly-tried regiments to scat-
ter, and the wreckage begins to drift sullenly far and
wide, some in Cutler's tracks, and some toward where
Burnside is still pottering; but naturally the main
stream is back on both sides of the Plank to the
Brock Road, and there it straggles across it hope-
lessly toward Chancellorsville. Chaplain Washiell,
Fifty-seventh Massachusetts, says, "I well remem-
ber the route as the men streamed by in panic, some
of them breaking their guns to render them useless in
the hands of the rebels. Nothing could stop them
until they came to the cross-roads."
Where now is the morning's vision of victory which
Babcock raised.^ All of Hancock's right wing, to-
gether with Wadsworth's division of the Fifth Corps,
Getty's of the Sixth, and one brigade of the Ninth all
smashed to pieces! The Plank Road is Lee's, — and
the Brock, the strategic key, is almost within his grasp
too! For Longstreet, followed by fresh brigades at
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 273
double-quick, is coming down determined to clinch
the victory ! ! His spirits are high, and Field's hand
still tingles with his hearty grasp congratulating him
on the valor of his troops. Jenkins, a sensitive, enthu-
siastic South Carolinian, "abreast with the foremost
in battle and withal an humble Christian," says Long-
street, has just thrown his arms around Sorrel's shoul-
der, — for the graceful hero has ridden to meet his
chief, and tell him the road is clear, — and says, "Sor-
rel, it was splendid, we shall smash them now." And
then, after conferring with Kershaw, who had already
been directed to follow on and complete Hancock's
overthrow, Jenkins rides up to Longstreet's side and
with overflowing heart says, " I am happy. I have felt
despair of the cause for some months, but am relieved
and feel assured that we shall put the enemy back
across the Rapidan before night." Put the enemy
back across the Rapidan! That means the Army of
the Potomac defeated again, and Grant's prestige
gone! !
Yes ! It is a great moment for Jenkins and for them
all. The overcast sky that has been so dark has rifted
open, and the spire of the Confederacy's steeple daz-
zles once more in sunshine. And while it dazzles and
youth comes again into the wan cheek of the Confed-
eracy, gaunt Slavery, frenzied with delight over her
prospective reprieve, snatches a cap from a dead, fair-
browed Confederate soldier, and clapping it on her
coarse, rusty, gray-streaked mane, begins to dance in
274 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
hideous glee out on the broom-grass of the Widow
Tapp's old field.
Dance on, repugnant and doomed creature ! The in-
exorable eye of the Spirit of the Wilderness is on you !
Dance on! For in a moment Longstreet, like "Stone-
wall," will be struck down by the same mysterious
hand, by the fire of his own men, and the clock in the
steeple of the Confederacy will strike twelve. And, as
its last stroke peals, knelling sadly away, a tall spare
figure, — where are the tints in her cheeks now? — clad
in a costly shroud, and holding a dead rose in her hand,
will enter the door of History, and you, you. Slavery,
will be dying, gasping, your glazing eyes wide open,
staring into the immensity of your wrongs. And when
your last weary pulse has stopped, and your pallid
lips are apart and set for good and all, no friendly
hand will be there to close them, — oh, the face you
will wear! — the eye of the Spirit of the Wilderness
will turn from you with a strange, impenetrable
gleam. For White and Black, bond and free, rich and
poor; the waving trees, the leaning fields with their
nibbling flocks, the mist-cradling little valleys with
their grassy-banked runs, gleaming and murmuring in
the moonlight; the tasseling corn and the patient,
neglected, blooming weed by the dusty roadside, —
all, all are the children of the same great, plastic, lov-
ing hand which Language, Nature's first and deepest
interpreter, her widely listening ear catching waves of
sound from the immeasurable depths of the Firma-
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 275
ment, has reverently called God; all, all through him
are bound by common ties.
Hancock's first warning that something serious had
happened was the sight of Frank's brigade, and the
left of Mott's division, tearing through to the Brock
Road. But now the full stream of wreckage begins
to float by him at the junction, and he realizes that
disaster has come to his entire right front. "A large
part of the whole line came back," says Lyman.
"They have no craven terror, but for the moment
will not fight, nor even rally. Drew my sword and
tried to stop them, but with small success."
Colonel Lyman, a tall, lean man with a gracious,
naturally cordial manner, an energetic and careful
observer, and far and away the best educated officer
connected with any staff in the army, rode in and re-
ported the state of affairs to Meade, who at once,
realizing the appalling possibilities, directed Hunt to
place batteries on the ridge east of the run, the trains
at Chancellorsville to fall back to the river, and Sheri-
dan to draw in his cavalry to protect them. " Grant,
who was smoking stoically under a pine," says Ly-
man, "expressed himself annoyed and surprised that
Burnside did not attack — especially as Comstock
was with him as engineer and staff officer to show him
the way."
Meanwhile men were pouring from the woods like
frightened birds from a roost. The tide across the
Brock Road was at its height, and it was only when
276 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
Hancock appealed to Carroll, who had halted his
brigade on arriving at the road, to give him a point
for rallying, that he and his staff met with any en-
couragement. "Troops to the right and left of the
brigade," states the historian of the Fourth Ohio,
"were falling rapidly back beyond it." Carroll (like all
the Carrolls of Carrollton that I have known, he had
reddish hair and his classmates at West Point dubbed
him "Brick") rode among the dispirited, retreating
groups, shouting, "For God's sake, don't leave my
men to fight the whole rebel army. Stand your
ground!" for he expected Lee to strike at any mo-
ment. But how strange! Why do his fresh troops
not come on and burst through, while Hancock, Car-
roll, Lyman, and Rice, and scores of officers, are try-
ing to rally the men?
An hour goes by and Leasure, who, it will be re-
membered, had been sent to Gibbon on the false
alarm, was directed, no one having approached the
line of breastworks, to deploy his brigade, his right
one hundred yards from the road (the Brock), and
sweep up the front, which he did, encountering but a
single detached body of the enemy. What does the
continuing silence mean? Certainly something mys-
terious has happened. Why do they lose the one
great chance to complete the victory?
A few words will explain it all. The Sixty-first Vir-
ginia of Mahone's brigade — Mahone, a small, sal-
low, keen-eyed, and fleshless man — had approached
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 277
within forty or fifty yards of the road, and, through
the smoke and intervening underbrush, seeing ob-
jects emerging on it from the bushes on the opposite
side, mistook them for enemies and let drive a scat-
tering volley. What they saw was a part of their fel-
low regiment, the Twelfth Virginia, who with the
colors had crossed the road in pursuit of Wadsworth's
men and were returning. The volley intended for
them cut right through Longstreet, Kershaw, Jen-
kins, Sorrel, and quite a number of staff and order-
lies, who just then came riding by, killing instantly
General Jenkins, Captain Foley, several orderlies,
and two of the Twelfth's color-guard. But of all the
bullets in this Wilderness doomsday volley the most
fated was that which struck Longstreet, passing
through his right shoulder and throat, and almost
lifting him from his saddle. As the unfortunate man
was reeling, about to fall, his friends took him down
from his horse and propped him against a pine tree.
Field, who was close by, came to his side, and Long-
street, although faint, bleeding profusely and blow-
ing bloody foam from his mouth, told him to go
straight on; and then despatched Sorrel with this mes-
sage to Lee: "Urge him to continue the movement he
[Longstreet] was engaged on; the troops being all
ready, success would surely follow, and Grant, he
firmly believed, be driven back across the Rapidan."
They carried Longstreet — thought at the time by
all to be mortally wounded — to the rear, and just
278 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
as they were putting him into an ambulance, Major
Stiles, from whom I have already quoted, came up;
and, not being able to get definite information as to
the character of his wound, only that it was serious,
— some saying he was dead, — turned and rode with
one of the staff who in tears accompanied his chief.
**I rode up to the ambulance and looked in," says
the Major. "They had taken off Longstreet's hat and
coat and boots. I noticed how white and domelike his
great forehead looked, how spotless white his socks
and his fine gauze undervest save where the black-red
gore from his throat and shoulder had stained it.
While I gazed at his massive frame, lying so still ex-
cept when it rocked inertly with the lurch of the vehi-
cle, his eyelids frayed apart till I could see a delicate
line of blue between them, and then he very quietly
moved his unwounded arm and, with his thumb and
two fingers, carefully lifted the saturated undershirt
from his chest, holding it up a moment, and heaved a
deep sigh. *He is not dead,' I said to myself."
Longstreet was taken to the home of his friend,
Erasmus Taylor, not far from Orange Court House,
and, as soon as he could stand the journey, to a hos-
pital in Lynchburg. Although not fully recovered
from his wounds, he rejoined the army about the last
of October, after it had taken what proved to be its
final stand before Richmond.
Field, it appears from one of his letters, when Lee
and Longstreet, on their way to the front, reached
THE BATTLE OF THE WH-DERNESS 279
him, joined them and rode beside Lee. Coming to
an obstruction of logs that had been thrown across the
road by their troops in the early morning, or later by
ours, Lee stopped, while Field, at his suggestion, gave
the necessary orders for the removal of the logs so
that the two guns which were following them could
pass. Meanwhile Longstreet with his party rode on,
and within fifty yards met with the fate already
chronicled. Had the road been clear, Lee would have
been with them and received the fire of that fateful
volley. But fortunately, not there, not in the gloom
of the Wilderness, but at his home in Lexington and
after his example had done so much to guide the
Southern people into the paths of resignation and
peace, was his life to end.
A moment's reflection upon the situation into which
the wounding of Longstreet plunged Lee, will, I think,
leave the impress of its serious gravity. There amid
the tangle of the Wilderness, just at the hour when ad-
vantage is to be taken, if at all, of our defeat and utter
disorder, the directing head on whom he relies for
handling his exulting men to clinch the victory is
stricken down under shocking circumstances, almost
in his immediate presence, and the responsibility of
leadership is thrown on him in a twinkling. Put your-
self in his place and do not forget its distracting cir-
cumstances or the nature of his surroundings, — Hill
too sick to command his corps, Longstreet bleeding
terribly and propped up against a small pine tree
280 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
waiting for an ambulance, bloody foam pouring from
his mouth when he tries to speak; the road clogged
with prisoners, squads trying to regain their com-
mands, dead bodies, limping, wounded, stretcher-
bearers with their pale-faced and appealing-eyed bur-
dens, Poague's guns and Jenkins's big brigade trying
to make their way through them, Field's and Ker-
shaw's divisions advancing in two or more lines of
battle, at right angles to the road, Sorrel's flanking
brigades parallel to it, all in more or less disorder, mov-
ing by flank to the rear for the time being, prepara-
tory to the execution of Longstreet's order for a second
attack on Hancock's left, every step they take bring-
ing them and the advancing organizations nearer utter
confusion, and the woods enveloped in heavy, obscur-
ing smoke!
Such were the circumstances into which Lee was
suddenly thrown at that hour of momentous impor-
tance. It was a chafing trial, one that took him out
of his sphere of general command and imposed upon
him the burden of details which ordinarily falls on
subordinates who, as a rule, from their intimate re-
lations with officers and troops, can more readily deal
with them than the commander himself. No doubt
Longstreet's plans were told to Lee by Sorrel and
Field, but, whatsoever they were and whomsoever he
should designate to carry them out, obviously nothing
could be done till the lines were untangled; and so he
directed Field to reform them, with a view to carry-
THE BATTLE OF THE WH^DERNESS 281
ing the Brock Road, on which his heart was resolutely
set.
Field at once began his diflScult, troublesome task,
and, while he is getting his troops ready for the or-
deal, Lee giving him verbal orders from time to time,
let us turn to the operations of our cavalry, which,
for the first time in the history of the Federal army,
was on the immediate field with the infantry in a well-
organized and compact body and under an impetu-
ous leader.
Sheridan, in his relentlessness, boisterous jollity in
camp, and in a certain wild, natural intrepidity and
brilliancy in action, came nearer the old type of the
Middle Ages than any of the distinguished officers of
our day. I need not give details as to his appearance,
for his portrait is very familiar. The dominating fea-
tures of his square fleshy face with its subdued ruddi-
ness were prominent, full, black, flashing eyes, which at
once caught your attention and held it. His forehead
was well developed, a splendid front for his round,
cannon-ball head. Custer insisted on introducing me
to him at City Point after his Trevilian Raid — Sher-
idan was in his tent, bareheaded, and writing, when
we entered. He gave me his usual spontaneous, cor-
dial greeting and searching look, and soon thereafter
was off for the Valley, where he won great honors,
breaking the clouds that were hanging so heavily over
our cause, lifting the North from a state of despon-
dency and doubt into one of confidence in its final
g82 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
success, and giving Grant a relief from his burden
which he never forgot. But my impression is that,
great as Sheridan was, he never could have perma-
nently maintained pleasant official relations with his
fellow commanders on any field: he had to be in chief
control, tolerating no restraint from equals. Grant
alone he bowed to, and the reason Grant admired him
and allowed him free rein was that Sheridan did not
hesitate to take a bold initiative.
Sheridan early in the morning of the 6th put the
cavalry in motion, and Custer's successful fight with
Rosser of Fitz Lee's division in the forenoon on Han-
cock's left has already been mentioned. I wish my
readers could have known Custer, felt the grasp of his
hand, seen his warm smile, and heard his boyish laugh.
And then, too, if they could have seen him lead a
charge! his men following him rollickingly with their
long red neckties (they wore them because it was a
part of his fantastic dress) and as reckless of their lives
as he himself of his own. Really, it seemed at times as
if the horses caught his spirit and joined in the charge
with glee, the band playing and the bugles sounding.
There never was but one Custer in this world, and at
West Point how many hours I whiled idly away with
him which both of us ought to have given to our
studies. But what were the attractions of Mechanics,
Optics, or Tactics, Strategy or Ordnance, to those of
the subjects we talked about: our life in Ohio, its
coon-hunts, fox-chases, fishing-holes, muskrat and
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 283
partridge-traps, — in fact, about all that stream of
persons and little events at home which, when a boy
is far away from it for the first time, come flowing
back so dearly.
It was his like, I have often thought, which in-
spired that lovable man and soldier, "Dick" Steele,
to say in the " Spectator," when descanting in his own
sweet way on the conversation and characters of
military men, "But the fine gentleman in that band
of men is such a one as I have now in my eye, who is
foremost in all danger to which he is ordered. His of-
ficers are his friends and companions, as they are men
of honoiu" and gentlemen; the private men are his
brethren, as they are of his species. He is beloved of
all that behold him. Go on, brave man, immortal
glory is thy fortune, and immortal happiness thy
reward."
Reader, let me confide! there are two authors in the
next world whom I have a real longing to see: one is
Steele, — poor fellow, so often in his cups, — and the
other, he who wrote the Gospel of Saint John and saw
the Tree of Life.
Well, Custer, after throwing his old West Point
friends, Young and Rosser, back from the Brock Road
and Hancock's left, made connection with the ever-
trusted Gregg, then at Todd's Tavern confronting
Stuart, who studiously kept his force under cover,
protected everywhere by hastily constructed de-
fenses. That Stuart at this time had some plan*
284 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
in hand is revealed by a despatch to him from Lee's
chief of staff, dated 10 a. m., to the effect that Lee
directed him (Marshall) to say that he approved of
Stuart's designs and wished him success. Probably
what he had in mind was one of his usual startling
raids around our flanks; but whatever it was, Gregg
prevented him from undertaking it by holding him
fast to his lines, thereby retaining the cross-roads at
the Tavern and securing the left of the field.
At one o'clock Humphreys tells Sheridan that
Hancock's flank had been turned, and that Meade
thought he had better draw in his cavalry so as to se-
cure the protection of the trains. Accordingly Sheri-
dan drew in from Todd's Tavern and the Brock Road.
Wilson at Piney Branch Chiu'ch was brought back
to Chancellorsville, and the enemy by dark pushed
forward almost to the Furnaces, about halfway be-
tween Todd's Tavern and Sheridan's headquarters at
Chancellorsville. Thus by the time Field was ready,
the Brock Road beyond Hancock's left, covering
ground at once dangerous to the army if it stood still,
and absolutely essential if it tried to go ahead, was
abandoned. In regaining it the next day, which had
to be done to carry out Grant's onward, offensive
movement, Sheridan had to do some hard fighting,
and met with very severe losses, the responsibility
for which became the occasion of an acrimonious dis-
pute that broke out between his own friends and the
friends of Meade as soon as Sheridan's autobiography
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 285
appeared. Death had overtaken Meade some years
before the book was published. Perhaps he was
misled by Sheridan's despatch as to positions of the
cavalry, but I have never felt that Meade's friends
were quite fair to Sheridan in blaming him for falling
back, since the plain purport of the orders, as I inter-
pret them, was for him to take no responsibilities that
would endanger the safety of the trains by being too
far extended. To be sure, it so happened that the
trains were secure; Lee's great chance, that hovered
for a moment like a black thunder-cloud over the
Army of the Potomac, passed by; and if Sheridan had
left Gregg at Todd's Tavern, which, as we see now, he
might have'done, the door to Spotsylvania would in
all probability have been wide open for Warren the
following night. As it was, Warren found it shut.
The trains at Chancellorsville as soon as Hancock's
disaster reached them took time by the forelock and
started for Ely's Ford. And, in explanation of their
movement, allow me to say that no one scents danger
so quickly as quartermasters in charge of trains.
WTiile the commander is thinking how he can get
ahead through danger, they are busy thinking how
they can get back out of danger. For, as a rule, quar-
termasters hear very little of the good, but all of the
bad news from the slightly wounded and the skulkers
who, sooner or later, drift back to the trains, the lat-
ter invariably telling the same sad, unblushing story,
that their commands are literally cut to pieces.
286 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
A real adept skulker or coffee-boiler is a most inter-
esting specimen; and how well I remember the cool-
ness with which he and his companion (for they go in
pairs) would rise from their little fires on being dis-
covered and ask most innocently, "Lieutenant, can
you tell me where the regiment is?" And the
answer, I am sorry to say, was, too often, "Yes, right
up there at the front, you damned rascal, as you well
know!" Of course, they would make a show of mov-
ing, but they were back at their little fire as soon as
you were out of sight.
Not only the skulkers but many a good soldier
whose heart was gone, made his way to the trains at
Chancellorsville after Hancock's repulse; and the
quartermasters had good reason to take their usual
initiative toward safety, northward in this case, to
Ely's Ford, for there was presageful honesty in the
face and story of more than one who came back. As a
matter of fact, they came in shoals. Even the ammu-
nition-train of the Second Corps, affected by the con-
tagious panic, had joined the swarm of fugitives. At
about six o'clock Sheridan, impressed by the state
of affairs, told Humphreys that unless the trains
were ordered to cross the river, the road would be
blocked and it would be impossible for troops to get
to the ford. What would have happened that after-
noon among the trains had Longstreet not been
wounded and had his troops broken through?
Meanwhile Field, under the immediate eye of Lee,
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 287
was getting his men ready to renew the contest.
Knowing the situation and the country as we do, it is
not surprising that there was delay, or to learn from
the report of the First South Carolina, one of the regi-
ments which planted their colors on Hancock's first
line of works, that there was much wearisome march-
ing and counter-marching before they all got into
place for the attack. Kershaw, by Lee's direct orders,
was, with three of his brigades (Humphreys's, Bryan's,
and Henagan's), moved to the south, till his right
rested on the unfinished railway. His other brigade
(Wofford's) was detached to help Perry stop Burnside,
who had finally gotten under headway. The only good,
so far as I can see, that Burnside did that day was to
detach these two brigades from Lee at a critical time.
Field put what were left of the Texans, G. S. An-
derson's and Jenkins's brigade of South Carolinians
(commanded by Bratton since Jenkins's sudden
death), in several lines of battle on the south side of
the Plank Road, where the main assault was to be
given; and along with them was R. H. Anderson's
fresh division of foiu* brigades.
By this time three or four precious hours had flown
by; for it was almost four o'clock when the line was re-
ported ready to move. This delay — I have no doubt
that on its account Lee did not promote Field to the
command of his corps in Longstreet's place — but,
however that may be, the delay must have been
keenly disappointing and vexing to Lee. For he knew
288 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
well what advantage Hancock was making of the
respite, that every minute order was taking the place
of disorder, confidence of panic, and that breastworks
were growing higher and more formidable.
But now these seasoned veterans of Antietam,
Fredericksburg, Malvern Hill, and Chancellorsville,
they who broke through Sickles at Gettysburg and
Rosecrans at Chickamauga, are ready for another
trial — their last of the kind as it turned out, for,
with but one or two feeble exceptions Lee never
tried another such deliberate assault. Had he had
as many men as Grant, however, I have but little
doubt that his fighting spirit would have inflamed
him to repeat and re-repeat Malvern Hill and Pick-
ett's charge. But this time Pickett was not with
him — - his immortalized division was at Petersburg
looking after Butler; nor could Alexander bring up
his artillery, as on the famous day at Gettysburg,
to shake the lines along the Brock Road.
At last Field got them arrayed, and brightened
here and there by blooming dogwoods and closely
overhung by innumerable throngs of spring-green
leaves, leaves on slender branches that gently brush
faces and colors as the soft breezes sigh by, is the
long line of gray, speckled at short intervals by the
scarlet of torn banners. Little did those men dream
as they stood there that Fate only a few hours before
had for good and all sealed the doom of the Con-
federacy, that their cause was lost, and that the sac-
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 289
rifices they were about to be called on to make would
be a waste.
On my visit to the field last May, I sat a while on a
knoll not far from where their left lay, — the spot is
quite open and gloried with more of the stateliness of
an oak forest than any point in the Wilderness, — and
as my mind dwelt on those battle lines waiting for the
command, "Forward," that would blot out this world
for so many of them, I felt one after another the ten-
der throbs of those human ties which stretch back to
the cradle and the hearth. When, on the point of
yielding to their pathos, at the behest of Imagination,
if not of Truth itself, the background of my medita-
tions became a vast, murky-lighted expanse, and from
a break in its sombre depths a Figure — perchance it
was Destiny — beckoned me to come and look down
on the struggle-to-the-death. On gaining the edge
of the rift three spirits were standing there. The
Republic, with an anxious look, her eyes fixed on the
combatants; below at her left was one with a radiant,
glowing face; and standing apart, with swimming
averted eyes, was another of sweet gentleness. I
asked Imagination who these two were. She an-
swered: "The radiant one is the Future, the other
with the heavenly countenance is Good-will." And
while I gazed, the war ended and at once Good-will
knocked at the doors of conqueror and conquered,
and at last, under her kindly loving pleading, they
joined their hands, and lo! she won for civilization,
democracy and religion their greatest modem triumph.
XI
Beside throwing up near the junction two or three
additional lines, Hancock had slashed a border of the
woods in their immediate front. His troops were
posted from right to left as follows, their order show-
ing the haste with which they were assigned to posi-
tion. First came Etching's heavy artillery that the
Alabama brigade threw back from the slopes of the
Widow Tapp field as they came forward to help
Gregg and Benning, its right opposite the knoll here^
tofore mentioned; then Eustis's brigade of the Sixth
Corps; then, in three Hnes of battle, two brigades
of Robinson's division of the Fifth; then Owen's
brigade of the Second; then Wheaton and L. A. Grant
of the Sixth, their left resting on the Plank Road at
the junction which the day before they had saved.
Immediately in rear of them lay Carroll of the Sec-
ond with his fearless regiments; and behind Carroll,
in a third line, stood Rice of the Fifth; the remnants
of his brigade all waiting for the attack that they
knew was coming. In the road at the junction was a
section of Dow's Maine battery under Lieutenant
W. H. Rogers. Then came Birney in three lines of
battle, then Mott in two lines, and on his left Smyth
with his gallant Irish, flying with the Stars and
Stripes the golden Harp of Erin on a green field.
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 291
Webb was next to Smyth, then Barlow. The other
four guns of Dow's battery were in an opening behind
the left of Mott's second line, and next to him Edgell's
six guns of the First New Hampshire.
At 3.15, all being quiet, kind-hearted Lyman asked
permission of Hancock to go back to the hospital and
look after his boyhood friend, "Httle" Abbott. The
gallant fellow was then breathing his last, and died
about four.
A half -hour later Field's doomed line came on.
The point which he had chosen to drive it through
was Mott's and Birney's front, just to the left of the
junction. It was a lucky choice, for a part of the
former's division had behaved badly on both days,
its conduct in marked contrast with that when
Kearney and Hooker used to lead it.
Surmising from the skirmish-line reports that the
main assault would be south of the Plank Road, a
bugler was stationed on Mott's breastworks, with
orders to sound the recall for the skirmishers at the
enemy's first appearance. Soon his notes rang out,
and Dow's and Edgell's guns opened at once with
spherical case. But on they c^me, marching abreast
to within one hundred paces of the Brock Road.
There, confronted by the slashing, they halted, and
for a half -hour poured an uninterrupted fire of mus-
ketry across the works, our lines replying with deadly
effect. The incessant roar of these crashing volleys,
and the thunder of the guns as they played rapidly.
292 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
struck war's last full diapason on the Plank Road in
the Wilderness.
Meantime fire, that had crept through the woods
from the battle-ground of the forenoon, had reached
the bottom logs of the breastworks in some places
and was smoking faintly, waiting for a breath of
wind to mount and wrap them in flames. And now,
while the battle was raging to its culmination, on
came a fanning breeze, and up leaped the flames. The
breastworks along Mott's and Birney's front soon
became a blazing mass. The heat grew almost intol-
erable, and the wind rising — what desolated South-
ern home had it passed! — now lashed the flames
and hot blinding smoke down into the faces of the
men, driving them, here and there, from the para-
pets.
Soon one of Mott's brigades began to waver and
then broke, retiring in disorder toward Chancellors-
ville. At its abandonment of the works, South Caro-
linian and Texan color-bearers rushed from the
woods, followed by the men, and planted their flags
on the burning parapets, and through the flame over
went the desperate troops. At this perilous sight
Rogers at the junction began to pour double canister
into them, and Dow and Edgell crossed his fire with
case and like charges of canister. The former must
have had his eye on a particular battle-flag, for he
speaks in his report of shooting one down five times.
Meanwhile his own breastworks get on fire, and the
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 293
extra charges that the gunners have brought up from
the limbers explode, burning some of the cannoneers
severely. Still he keeps on, his guns belching canis-
ter.
As soon as the break was made through Mott and
his own left, Bimey in great haste rode to Robinson,
his next division commander on his right, telling him
what had happened, that Hancock was cut off, and
suggesting that proper disposition be made to receive
an attack on Robinson's left and rear. Lyman, who
when the assault began had gone to notify Meade,
was met on his return by one of Hancock's aides, who
told him that the enemy had broken through, an(!
that there was no communication with the left wing.
He rode on, however, and found Birney at the
junction, who confirmed the aide's story. It is said
that when Bimey's aide came to Grant and reported
that the enemy had broken the lines, he and Meade
were sitting together at the root of a tree, and Grant,
after hearing the story, did not stir, but looking up
said in his usual low, softly vibrating voice, "I don't
believe it."
Meanwhile Birney had called on Rice, and Han-
cock on Carroll; the batteries ceased firing, and to-
gether those two fearless commanders with their
iron-hearted brigades dashed with bayonets fixed at
the enemy and soon hurled them from the works,
leaving colors, prisoners, and over fifty dead and
many wounded within the burning entrenchments.
294 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
To the south in front of our lines for four or five hun-
dred yards from the junction, clear to where Webb
was posted, Confederate dead and helpless wounded
dotted the ground. They had charged with great
valor.
I have always thought that if Grant had been with
Hancock at the time of this repulse, he would have
ordered an immediate advance. For the Army of the
Potomac never had another commander who was so
tjuick as Grant to deliver a counter-blow.
Field's losses were heavy, he had signally failed to
carry the works, and soon drew his shattered lines
back almost to the Widow Tapp field, and at about
sundown reformed them perpendicular to the Plank
Road, their left resting on it, and bivouacked about
where Gregg first struck Wadsworth.
That night the Texans who had suffered so severely
collected the dead they could find, dug a trench near
the road, and buried them. And when the last shovel-
ful of reddish clay and dead leaves was thrown, they
tacked a board onto an oak whose branches overhung
the shallow trench, bearing the inscription, "Texas
dead. May 6th, 1864." Field said in a letter to his
friend, Gen. E. P. Alexander, that a single first lieu-
tenant was all that was left of one of the companies.
W. R. Ramsey, of Morton, Pa., who was in Wads-
worth's front when the Texans charged, and was
wounded so he could not move, says that some South
Carolina men brought blankets and covered him that
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 295
night besides making and bringing coffee to him, and
that one of their httle drummer boys staid with him
till his leg was amputated. Who can doubt that the
Good Samaritan reached a hand when the httle
drummer boy entered Heaven's gates !
As this is the end of the fighting of these Confed-
erate troops in the Wilderness, here is how General
Perry, who commanded one of the brigades, closes his
reminiscences of the battle: "Many a day of toil and
night of watching, many a weary march and tempest
of fire, still await these grim and ragged veterans; but
they have taught the world a lesson that will not soon
be forgotten, and have lighted up the gloom of that
dark forest with a radiance that will abide so long as
heroism awakens a glow of admiration in the hearts
of men." True, well and beautifully said.
And now for the narration of some personal expe-
riences, not because they were of any great conse-
quence in themselves, but one of them at least, as it
so happened, had a part in the history of the day.
During the forenoon — from official dates of various
orders I know it must have been not later than ten;
at any rate it was after my return from trying to find
Wadsworth — Warren, who was standing in the door-
yard of the Lacy house, saw a guard that had charge
of a small squad of Confederates just in from the
front halt them near the bank of the run. He told me
to go down and find out who they were. Noticing a
young officer among them, I asked him what regiment
296 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
he belonged to. He and his companions were tired
and not in good spirits over their hard luck, with its
long period of confinement before them, for Grant had
suspended the exchange of prisoners; and he answered
me with sullen defiance in look and tones, "Fifteenth
Alabama!" which, if I remember right, was in Law's
brigade of Longstreet's corps. Not being very skillful
at worming valuable intelligence out of prisoners, I
was getting very little from them, when a mounted
orderly came to me from my immediate commander,
the Chief of Ordnance, Captain Edie, to report at
Meade's headquarters. On reaching there, Edie told
me I was to start at once for Rappahannock Station
with despatches to Washington for an additional sup-
ply of infantry ammunition to be sent out with all
haste. The wagons going to meet the train for the
ammunition and other supplies were to be loaded
with wounded, who would be transferred to the cars,
and thence to the hospitals in Alexandria and Wash-
ington.
How the notion got abroad that the supply of am-
munition was exhausted I cannot explain, except by
the heavy firing. As a matter of fact, we had an abun-
dance; but, somehow or other, Humphreys or Meade
was made to think we were running short, and, as
early as seven o'clock, a circular was issued to all
corps commanders : —
The question of ammunition is an important one.
. ' THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 297
The Major-General commanding directs that every
effort be made to economize the ammunition, and the
ammunition of the killed and wounded be collected
and distributed to the men. Use the bayonet where
possible.
By command of Major-Gen'l Meade.
S. Williams,
Adjutant-GeneraL
Humphreys in a despatch to Warren said, "Spare
ammunition and use the bayonet."
At nine o'clock, corps commanders were told to
empty one-half of the ammunition-wagons and issue
their contents to the troops without delay, sending
the empty wagons to report to Ingalls at Meade's
headquarters.
I asked Edie what escort I was to have. He an-
swered, "A sergeant and four or five men." I ex-
claimed, "A sergeant and four or five men! What
would I amount to with that sort of escort against
Mosby.?"
For those who have been born since the war, let me
say that Mosby was a very daring officer operating
between the Rapidan and Potomac, his haunt the
eastern base of the Blue Ridge. I think every staff of-
ficer stood in dread of encountering him anywhere
outside the lines, — at least I know I did, — from
reports of atrocities, perhaps more or less exaggerated,
committed by his men. I must have worn a most
298 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
indignant expression, possibly due to just having es-
caped capture, for Edie roared with laughter. But I
declared that it was no laughing matter, that I had to
have more men than that, and I got them, for they
sent a squadron of the Fifth New York Cavalry, in
command of Lieutenant W. B. Gary, now the Rever-
end Mr. Gary of Windsor, Gonnecticut, and may this
day and every day on to the end be a pleasant one
for him! And besides, they supplied me with a fresh
horse, a spirited young black with a narrow white
stripe on his nose.
When I was ready to start, I heard General Grant
ask some one near him, "Where is the officer that is
going back with despatches?" Those that I had re-
ceived were from Meade's Adjutant-General. I was
taken up to him by some one of his staff, possibly
Porter or Babcock. Grant at once sat down with his
back against a small pine tree, and wrote a despatch
directed to Halleck.
While he was writing, E. B. Washburne, a promi-
nent member of Gongress, who, as a fellow townsman
of Grant's, having opened the door for his career, had
come down to see him start the great campaign (on
account of his long-tailed black coat and silk hat the
men said that he was an undertaker that Grant had
brought along to bury "Jeff" Davis), gave me a let-
ter with a Congressman's frank, to be mailed to his
family. A number of the staff gave me letters also. A
telegraph operator was directed to go with me, and
I THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 299
my final instructions were that, if I found communi-
cation broken at Rappahannock, I was to go to Ma-
nassas, or the nearest station where the operator
could find an open circuit.
I set out with my despatches, several correspon-
dents joining me, and I remember that I was not half
as polite to them as I should have been; but in those
days a regular army officer who courted a newspaper
man lost caste with his fellows. Soon after crossing
the Rapidan we met a battalion of a New Jersey
cavalry regiment that had been scouting up the river.
It was a newly organized regiment, one of Burnside's,
and on account of its gaudy uniforms was called by
all the old cavalrymen "Butterflies," and most un-
mercifully jibed by them. But the "Butterfly" soon
rose to the occasion, and paid the old veterans in coin
as good as their own. As we were riding by them, one
of our men inquired if they had seen anything of
Mosby, and, on being answered in the negative, ob-
served sarcastically in the hearing of the "Butterfly,"
"It's mighty lucky for Mosby," and rode on with the
grin of a Cheshire cat.
We followed the road to Sheppard's Grove and then
across country to Stone's or Paoli Mills on Mountain
Run. From there we made our way to Providence
Church on the Norman's Ford Road, passing over a
part of the field where the lamented Pelham was killed.
The old church, with some of its windows broken,
stood on a ridge; desolated fields lay around it. When
300 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
we reached it the sun had set, and I remember how
red was its outspread fan in the low western sky.
Rappahannock Station was in sight, and over the
works which occupied the knolls on the north side
of the river, which the Sixth Corps had carried one
night by assault after twilight had fallen, the preced-
ing autumn, to my surprise a flag was flying. I had
supposed that the post had been abandoned, but
for some reason or other Burnside had left a regiment
there. Our approach being observed, the pickets were
doubled, for they took us for some of the enemy's
cavalry.
I went at once, after seeing the officer in command,
to the little one-story rough-boarded house that had
served as the railroad station; and, while the operator
was attaching his instrument, which he carried
strapped to his saddle, I opened Grant's despatch and
read it. In view of its being his first from the Wilder-
ness, I will give it entire: —
Wilderness Tavern,
May 6, 1864 — 11.30 a. m.
Major-General Halleck,
Washington, D. C.
We have been engaged with the enemy in full force
since early yesterday. So far there is no decisive
result, but I think all things are progressing favor-
ably. Our loss to this time I do not think exceeds
8000, of whom a large proportion are slightly
wounded. Brigadier-General Hays was killed yes-
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 301
I
terday, and Generals Getty and Bartlett wounded.
We have taken about 1400 prisoners. Longstreet's,
A. P. Hill's, and EwelFs corps are all represented
among the prisoners taken.
U. S. Grant,
Lieutenant-General.
Meanwhile the operator's instrument had clicked
and cHcked, but could get no answer, and he decided
we should have to go on possibly as far as Fairfax
Station. Thereupon I talked with the commander of
the escort, who thought the march should not be
resumed till the horses had fed and had a good rest,
as it was at least thirty miles to Fairfax Station. We
agreed to start not later than half-past ten.
The colonel gave us some supper and wanted to
know all about the battle; but I was very tired, and in
those days with strangers very reserved, so I am
afraid I disappointed him, and soon went to sleep.
My reticence is reflected in the following despatch
from C. A. Dana, Assistant Secretary of War, whom
Lincoln had asked to go to Grant and tell how the
day was going; for that merciful man could not stand
the strain of uncertainty any longer. Dana arrived
at seven o'clock the following morning, and reported:
"An ojfficer from General Meade was here at 2
o'clock this morning seeking to telegraph to Wash-
ington, but was recalled by a second messenger. They
report heavy fighting, etc. . . . The battle is be-
302^ THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
lieved here to have been indecisive, but as the oflScer
said but little, I can gather nothing precise."
Well, why should I have particularized or boasted?
The fact is I had seen nothing like a victory. Nat-
urally prone to take a dark view, and equally anxious
to avoid conveying half-developed information, I
do not believe that the colonel could have pumped
with any chance of success in getting either favorable
news or full details.
Saddling had begun when I was waked up by the
officer of the guard, who said that a civilian had just
been brought in from the picket-line, claiming to be
a scout from Grant's headquarters with orders from
him to me. I did not recognize the man, though I may
have seen him about the provost-marshal's head-
quarters. He handed me a small envelope containing
the following order: —
Headquaetebs, Army op the Potomac,
May 6, 1864 — 2 p. m.
Lieut. Morris Schafp,
Ordnance Officer.
The commanding general directs that you return
with your party and despatches to these headquar-
ters, the orders directing the procuring of an addi-
tional supply of ammunition having been recalled.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. Williams,
Assistant Adjutant-General.
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 303
The original in the same little envelope is lying
before me now; it is beginning to wear an old look and
is turning yellow. You, envelope, and your associa-
tions are dear to me, and as my eye falls on you, old
days come back and I see the Army of the Potomac
again. In a little while we shall part; and I wonder if
in years to come you will dream of that night when
we first met on the Rappahannock, hear the low in-
termittent swish of the water among the willows on
the fringed banks as then, and go back under the dim
starlight to the Wilderness, with a light-haired boy
mounted on a young black horse that had a little
white snip on its nose.
As there was no occasion for hurry, and the scout
and his horse both called for rest, I waited till two
o'clock and then set off on our return, the scout
taking the lead. There was a haze in the sky, and in
the woods it was very dark. We had been on our way
some time, and I had paid no attention to the direc-
tion we were going, when, for some reason or other,
I asked the scout if he were sure of being on the right
road. He answered that he was, and we rode on. But
shortly after, I heard the roaring of water f alhng over
a dam away off to our right, and asked, "Where is
that dam?" He said on the Rappahannock. "If that's
the case," I replied, "we are heading the wrong way;
it should be on our left."
Well, he reckoned he knew the road to Germanna
Ford; but I was not satisfied, and, after going a bit
304 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
farther, told the lieutenant to countermarch. At this
the scout was very much provoked, declaring we
should soon be completely lost in the woods. He
went his course and I went mine, and within a mile
I struck a narrow lane which led to a house with a
little log bam or shed just opposite, and in a flash I
knew where we were.
It was really a great relief, as any one will appre-
ciate who has tried to find his way in a dark night
across an unfamiliar country.
The water we heard that still night was Mountain
Run flowing over the dam and lashing among the
boulders below it at Paoli Mills. On my visit to the
Wilderness last May I went to the dam, and then to
the old, weather-beaten, forsaken mill that stands
alone some two hundred yards off in a field. Its
discontinued race was empty and grass-grown, and
some of the members of a small, scattered flock of
sheep ready for shearing were feeding along its brushy
banks. By the roadside, below the boulders, is a
shadowed, gravelly-edged, shallow pool, and as I ap-
proached it a little sandpiper flitted away.
Daylight had just broken when we reached Mad-
den's, and, as we were passing a low, hewed log-house,
a powerful, lank, bony-faced woman appeared at the
door combing a hank of coarse gray hair.
I said, "Good-morning, madam, how far is it to
Germanna Ford.^^"
She replied surlily to my question, and then with a
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 805
hard smile added, "I reckon you 'uns got a right
smart good whipping last night."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Well, you'll find out when you get back." And
she gave me a spurning look as she turned in the
doorway that as much as said, "You caught h — 1
and deserved it."
The other day when I traveled the road I made
some inquiries about the old lady and found that
her name was Eliza Allen, and that she had long
since died ; a catbird was singing in the neglected
garden.
Reader, to fully comprehend what Eliza denomi-
nated as a "right smart good whipping" necessitates
my going to the right of the army during the late
afternoon and evening of the first day. And as the
narrative is drawing towards its close I 'd like to have
you go with me. For I want to take a walk with you
before we part, for we have been good friends, and I
want you to see moreover the Wilderness as it is. We
will follow up the Flat Run Road from where it joins
the Germanna, and thence to where Sedgwick's right
lay. Before we set out let me tell you that the dark-
ish, weather-worn roof and stubby red chimney com-
ing up through the middle of it, that you see a half-
mile or more away across the deserted fields, are
those of the old Spottswood manor-house. Its lower
story is concealed by that intervening heave in the
ground; its mistress, Lady Spottswood, is buried on
306 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
the plantation known as "Superba,^ near Stevens-
burg.
In a few steps this fenceless road, a mere two-
wheeled track winding among the trees, will quit the
fields and lead us into deep and lonely woods. I
passed over it twice last May, azaleas and dogwoods
were blooming then as now, and I think I can point
out the identical giant huckleberry — it is on the left
of the road — whose white pendulous flowers first
caught my eye with their suggestion of bells tolling
for the dead. And I venture to say that no finer or
larger violets are to be seen anywhere in the world,
or more pleasing little houstonias, than you see now.
Later on I can promise you the sight of cowslips gild-
ing patches of shallow, stagnant water; for as we draw
nearer to where Sedgwick's line was first established
(the maps show it) we shall come to the swampy
heads of Caton's Run and the upper waters of the
tributaries of Flat Run. The road is between them,
the former on our left, the latter on the right. Hark
a minute! that must be the same herd of cattle I met
with last year: I came on them at this sudden turn
and up went every head wildly. Yes, the same lonely
Ming, Hung, I recognize the bells. We shall not see
them ; they are feeding off toward the Pike and War-
ren's lines.
" I thought you said it was not very far, but we have
walked at least a mile. How much farther?" Only a
short way; a new road is always long. "What is this
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 307
low, continuous mound that we see on both sides of
the road?" halting suddenly, you ask. That is all
that is left of Sedgwick's entrenchments. Let us fol-
low it to the right, if for nothing else on account of its
soliciting lonesomeness. I am sure it will enjoy our
presence, for think of the days and nights it has lain
here dreaming. " Do you imagine the spirits of those
boys ever come back, who fell here ? " Oh, yes, over
and over again in line with flags flying and the roses
of youth in their cheeks. Think of the fires, though,
that swept through the woods that night! " I wonder
if spectral ones break out with the reappearance of
the dead.^ " No, and if they should, the trees would
shiver down the fallen dew and quench them; for
timber dreads to hear the snapping march of fire.
"Shall we go on?" Yes, a bit farther; the walk-
ing is not easy, I know, for the limbs are low and the
trees are thick. Moreover it is growing rougher and
swampier; more and more, too, the green vines impede
our way. Test their strength if you care to do so. But
here at last is the right of the line near the head of
a branch. If we were to follow it till it meets the run,
and then a bit farther northward, we should come
in sight of some old fields; but we will not penetrate
deeper; let us pause and rest a moment for we are
in one of the depths of the Wilderness. Notice the
rapt, brooding, sullen stillness of the woods, the moss
in tufts tagging those forlorn, blotched young pines,
those dark shallow pools with their dead-leaf bot-
308 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
toms, that leaning stub with only one limb left, those
motionless fallen trees, and those short vistas scruti-
nizing us with their melancholy gray eyes. Were you
ever in a quieter spot or one where you felt the living
presence of a vaster, more wizard loneliness? " Never,
never." Your voice even sounds strange; and, excuse
me, if I remark a glint of wildness in your eyes, —
that atavistic glint which comes only in places like
this.
Well, on the afternoon of the first day, about here
the right of Keif er's brigade formed — it ought to be
known in history as Keifer's, for Seymour had just
been assigned to it. It consisted of the Sixth Mary-
land, One Hundred and Tenth, One Hundred and
Twenty-second, One Hundred and Twenty-sixth
Ohio, Sixty-seventh and One Hundred and Thirty-
eighth Pennsylvania; and Ohio, Maryland, and Penn-
sylvania may well be proud of their record on this
ground. On their left were those sterling brigades of
Russell and Neill of the Sixth Corps, only a few of the
men visible, the bulk completely buried by the thick
undergrowth. Let us imagine that this is the day of
battle, that the sun is on the point of setting, and
that orders have come to go ahead.
If you care to go forward with them I'll go with
you. "Go! why, yes, yes, let us go by all means!"
For the sake of my old state, let us join the One
Hundred and Tenth Ohio under Colonel Binkley.
The first line under Keif er is made up of that regiment
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 309
and the Sixth Maryland, the latter on the left, con-
necting with the Fourth New Jersey. Behind us in
a second line are the One Hundred and Twenty-
second Ohio, then the One Hundred and Thirty-
eighth Pennsylvania, and then the One Hundred and
Twenty-sixth Ohio. Colonel John W. Horn, com-
manding the Sixth Maryland, is sending out skir-
mishers to cover his front; they are under Captain
Prentiss, a very gallant man. (In the final charges
on the forts of the Petersburg lines Prentiss led a
storming party, and, as he crossed the parapet, had
his breastbone carried away by a piece of shell, ex-
posing his heart's actions to view. The Confederate
commanding the battery which had just been over-
powered fell also, and the two officers lying there
side by side recognized each other as brothers. They
were from Baltimore.) Captain Luther Brown of the
One Hundred and Tenth Ohio is in charge of the
skirmishers in his regiment's front. Now the order
comes for the first line to move forward. The colors
advance; let us go with them. That firm, earnest-
eyed man commanding the regiment is Binkley; and
there is McElwain, one of the bravest of the brave.
The fire is terrific, men are falling, but colors and men
are going ahead. Did you see the look in that ser-
geant's face as he fell ? And now comes a horrid
thud as a shot strikes a corporal full in the breast.
(Pushing aside the low, stubborn limbs and scram-
bling over these wretched vines, on goes the line.
310 THE BATTLE OF THE WH^DERNESS
There is no silence in the dismal Wilderness now.
Smoke is billowing up through it, the volleys are
frequent and resounding; bullets in sheets are clip-
ping leaves and limbs, and scoring or burying them-
selves deep in the trunks of the trees. On go the sons
of Ohio and Maryland.) I wonder how much longer
they can stand it. Look, look how the men are going
down! But don't let us cast our eyes behind us; as
long as those brave fellows go ahead, let us go with
them.
The lines are slowing up under that frightful, with-
ering fire. Now they stand, they can go no farther,
for just ahead (behind logs hurriedly assembled) on
that rising ground are the enemy, and they mean to
hold it. j Moreover, it has grown so dark that their
position is made known only by the deep red, angrily
flashing light from the leveled muzzles of their guns.
Although Keifer has reported that unless reinforced
he doubts being able to carry the position, yet back
comes the command to attack at once. The line
obeys, but is checked by a terrible fire. Some brave
fellow cries out, "Once more"; they try it again, but
the fire is too heavy. ^ Here for nearly three hours they
^ Captain W. W. Old of General Edward Johnson's division (Southern
Historical papers) says that the fighting was so intense that night that
General Johnson sent him to get two regiments to take the place of as
many men in Pegram's brigade whose guns were so hot that they could
not handle them. He arranged to slide the fresh regiments along the
breastworks, but was told that there was no room for more men, that
all they wanted was loaded guns, and details were made to load and carry
them in.
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 311
stand that scourging fire, bullets at highest speed,
for it is very close range, converging across their
flank from right and left. Keifer, although seriously
wounded, is staying with them. Who is this riding
up in the darkness to Keifer, saying sharply, "Sup-
port must be sent, for the enemy are flanking us"?
It is the daring McEl wain; down goes his horse. (That
is the last of the gallant fellow; he and many others
are burned beyond recognition.)
At last the men are falling back; but let us take
this little fellow with us and help him along. We lift
him, he puts his arms around our necks, and, collid-
ing with trees, limbs raking our faces, we stagger
along over the uneven ground in the dark. Now we
stumble headlong over a body, and, as we fall, our
friend moans piteously, and so does the unfortunate
man our feet have struck, who says faintly, "I belong
to Stafford's brigade [Confederate]; will you get me
some water .f^ " I hear you say right heartily, for I
know you are gallant men, "Yes, indeed, we will.
You, Captain, take the little corporal along and bring
a canteen and I'll stay here till you come back." On
my retiu'n, "Where are you.^" I cry. "Here we are;
come quickly, for the fire in the woods is making this
way fast." And the soldier in gray is borne to the
rear.
Let us close our eyes to the scene and our ears to
the cries, and leave this volley-crashing and heart-
rending pandemonium. The Sixth Maryland has lost.
512 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
out of 442, 152 officers and men; and the One Hundred
and Tenth Ohio, 115 killed and wounded.
Grant, through misinformation, reported to Halleck
two days later that Keifer's brigade had not behaved
well, and for years and years they have had to stand
this bitter injustice. It is true that the next night this
brigade, as well as Shaler's, which was sent to its
right, was swept away by Gordon in the discomfiture
referred to by Mrs. Allen; but let us look into the
facts.
The impetuous attacks of Russell's, Neill's, and
Keifer's brigades on that first night were met by those
of Hays, Pegram, and Stafford, during which, as al-
ready told, Pegram was severely and Stafford mor-
tally wounded. The losses on both sides were heavy,
and toward the close of the action Gordon was sent
for by Ewell to go to the support of his stagger-
ing troops. Owing to the darkness and the nature of
the wood, it was well along in the night, and the
fighting was over, before his brigade reached a posi-
tion on the extreme left of Ewell's line, which at
this point swung back a little northwestwardly. Gor-
don directed his men to sleep on their arms, and at
once sent out scouts to feel their way and find the
right, if possible, of Keifer's position. At an early
hour these scouts reported that his lines overlapped
it and that it was wholly unprotected.
This news was of such importance that he sent the
scouts back to verify it. Satisfied on their return that
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 313
they had not been deceived, and keenly appreciat-
ing what his adversary's unprotected flank invited,
he waited impatiently for daybreak. As soon as it
broke, he mounted his horse and was guided by his
explorers of the night before to a spot from whence,
creeping forward cautiously some distance, he saw
with his own eyes our exposed flank. The men, un-
conscious of danger, were seated around little camp-
fires boiling their coffee. Colonel Ball of the One
Hundred and Twenty-second Ohio says that Gen-
eral Seymour, then in command of the brigade, was
repeatedly notified during the night that the enemy
were engaged cutting timber for their works and
moving to our right. For some reason or other Gen-
eral Seymour did not give heed to this significant
information and throw up a line for the safety of his
right. Gordon rode at once, burning with his discov-
ery, to his division commander, Jubal A. Early, a
sour, crabbed character, who, unlike Gordon and the
big-hearted and broad-minded Confederates, bore a
gloomy heart, a self-exile cursing his country to the
last. What is bleaker than an old age a slave to Hate!
Our higher natures have each its dwelling place —
and how often they invite us up, and how rarely we
accept! But I cannot believe that they extended
many invitations to Jubal A. Early — who, after the
war was all over and Peace healing the wounds, still
kept on with increasing bitterness — to join them
around their hearths. No, there as here, the Spirit
314 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
loves the man and soldier who takes his defeats and
disappointments with a gentleman's manliness.
Gordon laid the situation before Early, expecting
him to jump at the chance to strike a blow such as
that which made Stonewall famous. But, to Gor-
don's amazement. Early refused to entertain his sug-
gestion of a flank attack, alleging as a reason that
Burnside was on the Germanna Road directly behind
Sedgwick's right, and could be thrown at once on the
flank of any attacking force that should try to strike
it. If this interview took place between daylight and
seven o'clock. Early was right as to the presence of a
part, at least, of Burnside's troops on the Germanna
Road, for, as we have already seen, the head of his
rear division, the first, did not reach the Pike till
about seven o'clock.
Early declining to make the attack, Gordon went
to Ewell and urged it upon him; but he hesitated to
overrule Early's decision, and so Gordon had to go
back to his brigade, cast down and doubtless dis-
gusted through and through with the lack of enter-
prise on the part of his superiors and seniors. He was
only thirty-two or three, while Ewell and Early were
approaching fifty years of age. By the time Gordon
had returned from his fruitless mission, Shaler's bri-
gade had been sent to Seymour's right. Thus Ewell's
lines lay quiescent throughout the livelong day be-
hind their entrenchments, while Longstreet and Field
desperately battled to the southeast of them. To his
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 315
failure to grasp the golden opportunity Ewell owes
his fixed place in the rank of second-rate military
men; but he is not alone; it is a big class. The truth is
that next to hen's teeth real military genius is about
the rarest thing in the world.
Stung by disappointment over his failure to carry
the Brock Road, Lee set off for Ewell's headquarters,
the declining sun admonishing him that only a few
hours remained in which to reap his expectations of
the morning. The course he takes, if one cares to fol-
low him, is, for a mile or more, through a wandering
leaf-strewn, overarched wood-road to the Chewning
farm, his general direction almost due northwest.
At Chewning's he passes Pegram's and Mcintosh's
batteries; they salute, — the Confederates cheered
rarely, — he lifts his hat, carries his gauntleted left
hand a little to the right, presses his high-topped boot
against Traveller's right side, and the well-trained
gray, feeling rein and leg, changes to almost due
north, and with his strong, proudly-daring gallop
brings his master to the Pike.
When Lee reined up at Ewell's headquarters, he
asked sharply, — I think I can see the blaze in his
potent dark brown eye, — "Cannot something be
done on this flank to relieve the pressure upon our
right?" It so happened that both Early and Gordon
were with Ewell when this guardedly reproving ques-
tion was put. After listening as a young man and sub-
ordinate should to the conference of his superiors.
S16 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
Gordon felt it his duty to acquaint Lee with what the
reader already knows. Early, with his usual obsti-
nacy, vigorously opposed the movement, maintaining
that Burnside was still there; Lee, having just thrown
Burnside back from the Plank Road, heard him
through, and thereupon promptly ordered Gordon to
make the attack at once. By this time the sun was
nearly set.
XII
Gordon set off, moving by the left flank, with his
own and Robert D. Johnston's North Carolina bri-
gade (the one that claims it made the march of sixty
odd miles in twenty-three hours!), and, after making
a detour through the woods, brought his men up as
rapidly and noiselessly as possible on Shaler's flank.
Pausing till Johnston should gain the rear of Shaler's
brigade, and then, when all was ready, with a single
volley, and the usual wild, screaming yells, he rushed
right on to the surprised and bewildered lines, which
broke convulsively, only to meet Johnston. Sey-
mour's right was struck, panic set in, and the men
fled down the lines to the left, and hundreds, if not
thousands, back to the Flat Run and Germanna
roads. When those following the breastworks reached
Neill's steadfast brigade. Colonel Smith of the Sixty-
first Pennsylvania gave the command, "By the right
flank, file right, double-quick, march!" This brought
him right across the retreating masses, and he told
his men to stop the stampede as best they could; but
the disorganized men swept through them in the
gathering darkness, the Confederates on their heels.
But, meanwhile, Morris and Upton had come to
Smith's aid, and between them they stopped Gor-
don; not, however, without losing a number of men
318 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
and prisoners, among whom was F. L. Blair of Pitts-
burgh, a member of the Sixty-first Pennsylvania, to
whom I am indebted for a vivid account of what
happened. Shaler and Seymour, trying to rally their
men, were both taken prisoners.
; As soon as the break occurred, Sedgwick threw
himself among his veterans, crying, "Stand! stand,
men! Remember you belong to the Sixth Corps!"
On hearing his voice in the darkness, they rallied.
Meanwhile the panic was at its height, and several
of his staff flew to Meade's headquarters, — Meade
at that time was over at Grant's, — telling Hum-
phreys that the right was turned, the Sixth Corps had
been smashed to pieces, and that the enemy were
coming up the road. Humphreys, with that prompt-
ness and cool-headedness which never deserted him,
let the situation be as appalling as it might, at once
made dispositions to meet this unexpected onslaught,
calling on Hunt, the provost guard, and Warren, all
of whom responded briskly. Lyman says in his notes,
"About 7.30 p. M. ordered to take over a statement of
the case to General Grant in the hollow hard by. He
seemed more disturbed than Meade about it, and they
afterwards consulted together. In truth, they [the
enemy] had no idea of their success." Meade then
returned to his headquarters. Grant going with him.
On hearing some of the panicky reports from Sedg-
wick's aides, Meade turned to one of them and asked
fiercely, "Do you mean to tell me that the Sixth
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 319
Corps is to do no more fighting this campaign?" "I
am fearful not, sir," quoth . I think I can see and
hear Meade, and I cannot help smiling, for it reminds
me of a little interview I had with him myself a few
days later, the first morning at Spotsylvania. I hap-
pened to be in the yard of the Hart house, gazing
across the valley of the sleepy Po at a long Confeder-
ate wagon-train hastening southward amid a cloud of
dust, when he rode up. I ventured to say to him that
a battery would easily reach that train. He gave me a
deploring look and then said, "Yes! and what good
would you do? scare a few niggers and old mules!"
That was the only suggestion I made to him for the
management of his campaign.
* Well, Sedgwick, having thrown himself into the
breach, rallied his men, and the danger was soon over;
for Gordon's troops were in utter confusion, engulfed
by the Wilderness, as ours had been in every one of
their attacks; and he was mighty glad, and so were
his men, to get back to their lines.
Gordon's attack, brilliant as it was, and thoroughly
in keeping with his exploits on so many fields, fields
whose sod I am sure cherishes his memory fondly, has
never seemed to me to have had the importance that
he, in his frank, trumpet-breathing reminiscences,
attached to it. He contends that, if he had been al-
lowed to make the attack earlier in the day, it would
inevitably have brought complete victory. But how
easy for him, how natural for us all, to be deceived by
820 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
retrospection! For chance sows her seed of possibil-
ity in the upturned earth of every critical hour of our
lives; the mist of years quickens it, and in due time
the clambering, blossoming vines are over the face of
Failure, hiding its stony, inexorable stare. The past
of every one, of armies and empires, as history tells us
well, is dotted with patches of this blooming posy;
and I can readily see how Gordon's reverie-dreaming
eye, floating over the sad fate of the Confederacy
which he loved so well, should fall on that day in the
Wilderness; and how at once possibility reversed the
failure beneath the lace-work of this apparently so
real, so comforting and illusive bloom.
Yet, as a matter of fact, there was only one hour on
the sixth, as I view it, when his attack would have
been determining, — but, fortunately for the country,
that hoiu* never came; — namely, when Longstreet
should have overwhelmed Hancock, which, as I be-
lieve upon my soul, he would have done had not Fate
intervened. Hancock would probably have met the
end of Wadsworth, inasmuch as he never would have
left that key of the battle without pledging his life
over and over again, — I say, had Gordon struck at
that hour, nothing, I think, could have saved the
Army of the Potomac. But so long as we held the
Brock Road, I doubt very much if it would have been
attended with any results more serious than it was.
But let that be as it may, by half -past nine the tu-
mult died down and the Wilderness resumed her
f THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 321
large, deep silence. So great, however, was the con-
fusion, and so keen the consciousness that a disaster
had just been escaped, it was decided to establish a
new line for Sedgwick; and accordingly the engineers
proceeded in the darkness to lay one. Starting on the
right of the Fifth Corps, they swung the line back
along the ridge south of Caton's Run, resting its
right across the Germanna Road, thus giving up all
north of Caton's Run, including the Flat Run Road.
I The map shows the new line. It was near midnight
I when Sedgwick's men began to move into their retro-
I grade, and obviously defensive position.
j This acknowledged attitude of repulse, together
with the dismaying experiences of Warren and Han-
cock, threw the shadow of impending misfortune,
j which found expression far and wide that night in
I sullenly muttered predictions that the army would re-
j cross the Rapidan within the next twenty-four hours.
j And what should be more natural? For hitherto
two days of conflict with the Army of Northern Vir-
ginia south of the Rapidan and Rappahannock had
marked the limit of the Army of the Potomac's
bloody stay. The two days were up, between sixteen
and seventeen thousand killed and wounded, the
fighting in some respects more desperate than ever,
and as a climax, the right flank crushed, as in Hooker's
case! *
; . Was history to repeat itself? Already three long
years of war! When will this thing end? Must we go
322 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
back defeated, as in years gone by, and then try it
over again? No, sorely and oft-tested veterans, you
have crossed the Rapidan for the last time. At this
hour to-morrow night you will be on the march
toward Richmond; for, dark as it looks to you and to
us all, the Rapidan will never hear your tread again
till you are marching home from Appomattox. And
I am sure the river will ask you, as you are on your
way across it then, "Army of the Potomac, what has
become of Lee's bugles that we used to hear on still
nights.?* the singers of the hymns, and the voices of
those who prayed in such humility for peace, for their
firesides, and their Confederacy, — it is almost a year
since we have heard them. What has become of them
all?" And I think I can hear you reply tenderly,
"We overcame them at Appomattox, have given them
the best terms we could, have shared our rations and
parted with them, hoping that God would comfort
them and at last bless the Southland." And so He
has. O Hate, where was thy victory? O Defeat,
where was thy sting?
To revert to Gordon's attack: the rumor was
started that night — my friend, "Charley" McCon-
nell of the Fifth Artillery, heard it and reported it to
Sheridan — that Meade was ready to take the back
track. Later in the campaign, when the burdens were
lying heavy on his shoulders, and everybody should
have stood by him, for the awful slaughter of Cold
Harbor had just occurred, unscrupulous staff officers
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 323
and newspaper correspondents whom he had offended
declared the rumor to be a fact. Meade's temper!
How much it cost him, and how long it kept the story
going! Oh, if Fortune had hung a censer on his
sword-hilt, and he could have swung the odor of
sweet spices and fragrant gums under the nostrils
of his fellow men, including cabinet officers, then, oh,
then, his star would not be shining, as now, alone,
and so far below Sheridan's and Sherman's ! His chief
trouble was that he always made ill-breeding, shrewd-
ness, and presuming mediocrity, uncomfortable.
But as for his taking the back track, on the con-
trary he is reported to have exclaimed, "By God! the
army is across now, and it has got to stay across ! " If
the oath were uttered, heard and recorded, then, at
the last great day, when the book shall be opened and
his name in order be called, "George Gordon Meade!"
and he shall rise and, uncovering, answer in his richly
modulated voice "Here!" I believe, as the old fellow
stands there at the bar of judgment, bleak his heart
but unfaltering his eye, he will look so like an honest
gentleman in bearing, that the Judge, after gazing at
his furrowed face a while, will say with smothered
emotion, "Blot out the oath and pass him in." I
really hope at the bottom of my heart. Reader, that
he will include you and me, and the bulk of the old
Army of the Potomac; and, to tell the honest truth, I
shall be unhappy if we do not find the old Army of
Northern Virginia there, too.
324 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
* Sheridan, the great Sheridan, for, whatever may
have been his mould or the clay that was put in it, he
was the one flaming Ithuriel of the North, by dark had
drawn back from Todd's Tavern to Chancellorsville,
and was encircling the disquieted trains. Custer on
going into bivouac near Welford's Furnace had scat-
tered his buglers far and wide through the woods, with
instructions to sound taps, to make the enemy believe
that cavalry was there in thousands; and every little
while up till midnight these notes would peal through
the silent timber. Wilson was camped between Grant's
headquarters and Chancellorsville, and that night
Sheridan's chief of staff, Forsyth, shared his blanket
with him.
Well, with Gordon's attack over, the second day
of Lee's and Grant's mighty struggle for mastery in
the Wilderness ends, and great majestic night has
fallen again. The losses of each have been appalling;
and from Maine to the far-away Missouri (for Sher-
man was moving also), there is not a neighborhood
or a city where awe and anxiety are not deep, for all
realize that on this campaign hangs the nation's
life. The newspapers have proclaimed the armies
in motion, and the thousands of letters written just
as camps were breaking have reached home. The
father has been to the post oflSce, he has a letter
from Tom, the family assembles, and his voice trem-
bles as he reads his brave boy's final tender message
to him and the mother, who with uplifted apron is
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 325
quenching her tears, and saying, strugghng with emo-
tion, "Perhaps our Tom will be spared; perhaps he
will be." "Donotgive way, mother; do not cry! Old
Grant will win at last," exclaims the husband, as he
puts the letter back into the envelope and goes over
and strokes with loving hand his wife's bended brow.
But let him or the North be as hopeful and consol-
ing as might be, they could not drown the memory
of the long train of consuming and depressing vicissi-
tudes of the Army of the Potomac, which, with the
other armies in Virginia, up to this time had lost, in
killed, wounded, and missing, the awful aggregate of
143,925 men, the majority of them under twenty-two.
Yes, two days of awful suspense for the North have
gone by, and city is calling to city, village to village,
neighborhood to neighborhood, "What news from
Grant?" Hour after hour draws on, and not a word
from him. The village grocer has closed, and his
habitual evening visitors have dispersed, the lights
in the farm-houses have all gone out. Here and there
a lamp blinks on the deserted, elm-shaded street, and
in the dooryard of a little home on the back road off
among the fields — the boy who went from there is
a color-bearer lying in Hancock's front — a dog bays
lonelily. The halfway querulous, potential, rumbHng
hum of the city has died down, "midnight clangs
from the clocks in the steeples," and the night edi-
tors of the great dailies in New York, Philadelphia,
Boston, and Chicago are still holding back their is-
326 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
sues, hoping that the next click of the fast operating
telegraph will bring tidings, glad tidings of victory
from the old Army of the Potomac.
Mr. Lincoln cannot sleep, and at midnight, unable
to stand ;the uncertainty any longer, asks Dana, As-
sistant Secretary of War, to go down and see Grant
and find out how it is going. At that very hour
Grant's staff and all about headquarters, save a news-
paper mian, are asleep, and Grant, with the collar of
his coat upturned, is sitting alone, with clouded face,
looking into a little dying-down camp-fire, nervously
shifting his legs over each other. Of all the tides in
the remarkable career of this modest, quiet man, that
of this midnight hour in the Wilderness is easily the
highest in dramatic interest. WTiat were the natural
reflections, as he sat there alone at that still, solemn
hour?
Two days of deadly encounter; every man who
could bear a musket had been put in; Hancock and
Warren repulsed, Sedgwick routed, and now on the
defensive behind breastworks; the cavalry drawn
back; the trains seeking safety beyond the Rapidan;
thousands and thousands of killed and wounded, — he
can almost hear the latter's cries, so hushed is the
night, — and the air pervaded with a lurking feeling
of being face to face with disaster. What, what is the
matter with the Army of the Potomac .^^ Was an evil,
dooming spirit cradled with it, which no righteous zeal
or courage can appease? And he shifts his position.
THE BATTLE OF^THE WILDERNESS 327
Let there be no mistake: Grant had reached the
verge of the steepest crisis in his hfe; and I think
lihder the circumstances he would not have been hu-
man if the past had not come back. He sees himself
rising from obscurity, and the howl of the wolf that
has never been far from his door, drowned in the
cheers of his countrymen over victories he had won;
rising from a cloud of painful, uncharitable disrepute
up to the chief command of all the armies and his
country pinning its last hopes on his star. What a
retrospect! Was it all a dream, a dream to be shat-
tered by an unrelenting Fate? and did he deserve it?
Self-pity is moving. He had done his best, he was
conscious of no harm in thought or deed to any of
his fellow men in his upward flight. He had loved
his country as boy and man. And now was he to
follow in the steps of McDowell, McClellan, Pope,
Hooker, and Burnside, and land in his old home in
Galena, a military failure? Was the sky that hung
so black and lasted so long to cloud over again?
The tide of feeling was up : he leaves the slumber-
ing camp-fire for his tent, and I am told by one to
whom it was confided, one of his very close aides,
that he threw himself on the cot-bed, and some-
thing like stifled, subdued sobs were heard.
But before dawn broke, the cloud that had settled
on him had lifted, and, when his attached friend.
General Wilson, who was a member of his military
family while at Vicksburg, disturbed over rumors.
328 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
rode to his headquarters at an early hour, Grant, sit-
ting before the door of his tent, said calmly, as Wilson,
having dismounted some paces away, started towards
him, with anxious face, "It's all right, Wilson; the
Army of the Potomac will go forward to-night." And
at 6.30 A. M. he sent the following order to Meade: —
General: — Make all preparations during the day
for a night march, to take position at Spotsylvania
Court House with one army corps; at Todd's Tavern
with one; and another near the intersection of Piney
Branch and Spotsylvania Railroad with the road
from Alsop's to Old Court House. If this move
should be made, the trains should be thrown forward
early in the morning to the Ny River. I think it
would be advisable in making this change to leave
Hancock where he is until Warren passes him. He
could then follow and become the right of the new
line. Burnside will move to Piney Branch Church.
Sedgwick can move along the Pike to Chancellors-
ville, thence to Piney Branch Church, and on to his
destination. Burnside will move on the Plank Road,
then follow Sedgwick to his place of destination. All
vehicles should be got off quietly. It is more than
probable the enemy will concentrate for a heavy at-
tack on Hancock this afternoon. In case they do, we
must be prepared to resist them and follow up any
success we may gain with our whole force. Such a
result would necessarily modify these instructions.
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 329
All the hospitals should be moved to-day to Chan-
cellorsville.
U. S. Grant,
Lieutenant-General.
To take up the thread of my return with the
despatches. Impressed by Mrs. Allen's story and
ominous satisfaction, I left the escort with directions
to come on at its own marching gait, and hastened to
Germanna Ford, crossed the river on the pontoon
bridge, and, having gained the bluff, gave my horse
the bit. He bore me speedily along the densely wood-
bordered road, spotted by cast-away blankets and de-
serted now, save that here and there lay prone a sick
or completely exhausted Negro soldier of Ferrero's
over-marched colored division. They were not ordi-
nary stragglers, and I remember no more pleading
objects. Most of them had lately been slaves, and
across the years their hollow cheeks and plaintive
sympathy-imploring eyes are still the lonesome road-
side's bas-reliefs.
The dewy morning air was steeped with the odor of
burning woods, and the fire, although it had run its
mad course, was still smoking faintly from stumps
and fallen trees. This side of Flat Run it had come
out of the woods and laid a crisp black mantle on the
shoulders of an old field.
Beyond the run (no one can cross it now without
pausing, for, its large, umbrella-topped water-birches
S30 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
standing in clumps will capture the eye with their
sombre vistas), suddenly (and much to my surprise),
I came squarely against a freshly-spaded line of en-
trenchments with troops of the Sixth Corps behind
it; and in less time than it takes to tell, I was in the
presence of General Sedgwick and his staff. The
rather stubby, kindly-faced general was dismounted,
and with several of his aides was sitting on the pine-
needle-strewn bank of the road. His left cheek-bone
bore a long, black smudge which I suspect had been
rubbed on during the night by coming in contact with
a charred limb while he was rallying his men. From
Beaumont or Kent of his staff, or possibly from
" Charity " Andrews of Wilson's class (for I remember
distinctly having a short talk with him either then or
later on the way to Meade's headquarters), I got an
account of what had happened.
In a few minutes I was at the Pike, — the fog and
smoke were so deep one could barely see the Lacy
house, — and turned up to Grant's headquarters on
the knoll. Meade was standing beside Seth Williams,
the adjutant-general, when I handed the latter the
despatches, saying that I had received his orders to
return with them and that I had not been able
to make telegraphic connection with Washington.
Meade asked, "Where did you cross the Rapidan
this morning?" I replied, "At Germanna Ford, on
the pontoon bridge." "Is that bridge still down.^^"
he demanded sharply. "Yes, at least it was when I
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 331
crossed only a little while ago." Whereupon he turned
and in a gritty, authoritative tone of command called
out, "Duane!" Duane was chief engineer on his
staff and was eight or ten feet away, talking with
some one. I had noticed him particularly, for his
back was literally plastered with fresh mud, his horse
having reared and fallen backward with him. On his
approaching, Meade, looking fiercer than an eagle,
wanted to know why the bridge was still down, orders
having been given at half -past eleven the night before
for its immediate removal to Ely's Ford. I was
mighty glad that I was not in Duane's shoes, for
Meade did not spare him.
It seems that immediately after Gordon's attack,
Humphreys or Williams sent Charles Francis Adams,
of Boston, then in command of a squadron of the
First Massachusetts Cavalry, with orders to the
oflScer in charge of the bridge, directing him to take
it up and proceed with the pontoons to Ely's Ford.
For some reason or other, for which Duane was not
at all responsible, the orders were not obeyed.
Having returned the letters which my friends had
given me to their respective writers, I got a little
something to eat, then went to Edie's tent and was
soon fast asleep.
The chronicle of the third day, whose early hours I
had passed on my way from Rappahannock Station,
is about as follows. Some time during the night it was
reported to Hancock that the enemy could be heard
332 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
moving, and General Barlow, on whose picket line
the report probably originated, thought, as Gibbon
the day before had thought, that the enemy was
massing to attack him. Stonewall Jackson's exploit
still hung like a spectre around the left of Han-
cock's corps. On the strength of Barlow's alarming
chirp, so to speak, Birney ordered each of his di-
visions to put three-fourths of their commands in
the front line of entrenchments and the balance in
the second (at this point just south of the Plank
Road it will be remembered that there were three or
^four lines of breastworks, the outcome of Field's as-
sault). Hancock's despatch conveying Barlow's news
and impression reached Humphreys at 4.40, and by
that hour daybreak had passed on.
About the same time Burnside sent in a report that
his pickets too had heard wagons and troops of the
enemy moving busily toward the south through the
night, this in a way confirming Barlow's report. As a
matter of fact the enemy were not leaving Burnside's
front, nor were they massing to attack Barlow.
But to illustrate the nervous state of our corps
commanders, Warren, a little later, at 7.40 a. m., re-
ported to Humphreys that Roebling had heard cheer-
ing in the direction of Parker's store, — they probably
had just been told of Gordon's success the night before,
— that he had no doubt the enemy was passing a
heavy force along his front, and if they were to con-
centrate upon him, in the fog and smoke they might
,THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 333
break through. In view of this possibility he urged the
construction of a line on the ridge east of Wilderness
Run, and that Hancock should make a determined
attack — the suggestion obviously springing from
Burnside's report of the enemy leaving his front,
which must have been communicated to Warren.
Warren ended his despatch with, "You know how
much more important our right is to our army just
now than the left." Here we have another instance
of Warren's tendency to put his finger in the pie. The
only way I can account for this nervousness is by the
experiences of the two days' fighting and the presence
of the looming fog and smoke. We are all more or
less apprehensive if not cowardly when wrapped in a
heavy fog and unseen danger close at hand. Warren,
fearing they were forming to come down the Pike,
had GriflSn shell the woods. Even Meade seemed
to have been flustered, for just after hearing from
Warren he despatched Hancock: "It is of the utmost
importance that I should know as soon as possible
what force, if any, of the enemy is on your left. Please
ascertain by any means in your power. . . . There
are indications of the enemy massing in front of
Warren; either you or he is to be attacked and I think
he, from their abandoning the Plank Road." Here
we have the re-reflection of Burnside's report.
In accordance with Warren's suggestions Comstock
and artillery oflScers were sent to select a line on the
elevated ground east of the run; and Warren, to
334 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
make sure of getting back to it if compelled to do so,
set some of the engineer battalions and detachments
of the Fifteenth New York Engineer Regiment to
making bridges across the run. But from all we can
learn, his anxiety was wholly unfounded, for there is no
evidence that Lee at any time during the day enter-
tained a thought of attacking. The fact is, he had
shot his bolt, and so had Grant. Nor is it at all likely
that Lee seriously considered making a strategic
move; his disparity of numbers was too great for
risking wide manoeuvring. Moreover, he knew that
in the nature of things Grant would have to choose
within the next twenty-four hours between renewed
assault, retreat, or advance, and hoping he might
choose retreat, he left the door to the Rapidan wide
open behind him. But, as illustrative of how the
Army of the Potomac credited Lee's fighting spirit,
Wilson, before the sun was very high, was directed by
Sheridan to send a brigade toward Sedgwick's right
and find out if the enemy had made any movement
in that direction. Meade became restless on not get-
ting word promptly from the cavalry, and at 8.45 a. m.
said in a despatch to Sedgwick, "I cannot understand
the non-receipt of intelligence from your cavalry.
Single horsemen are constantly arriving from the ford
signifying the Plank Road is open." — I was doubt-
less one of the single horsemen referred to. — How
inconsistent is all this nervousness with the claim
that we won a victory in the Wilderness.
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 335
By ten o'clock, the fog and smoke having Hfted,
and Warren being able to see everything, he tells
Crawford that he thinks Lee is retreating! Lee
retreating! Did he not wait defiantly a day after
Antietam and a like time after Gettysburg, inviting
assault? No, he was not given to abandoning fields,
and the men knew it; so, the army, crouching, con-
fronted its dangerous adversary with vigilance unre-
laxed, prepared to meet a lunge as a tiger which had
felt another's teeth and claws.
Hancock, in receipt of Meade's anxious despatch,
sent Miles along the unfinished railway, and Birney
up the Plank Road. Miles executed his orders with
his usual vigor, and located Lee's right about five
hundred yards south of the railway. Birney found
Field behind strong entrenchments this side of the
Widow Tapp's field, practically on the spot where he
went into bivouac after his unsuccessful assault the
evening before. Both Miles and Birney, in pushing
their lines hard up against the enemy, met with con-
siderable losses.
Sheridan had, on his own initiative, pushed Custer
back along the Furnace Road to the Brock; and, at
noon, having gained the import of Grant's order to
Meade for his night move, sent Gregg and Merritt to
drive the enemy from Piney Branch Church and
Todd's Tavern, so as to clear the way for Warren and
the trains. This was not accomplished till after sun-
down, and only by the hardest and most resolute kind
336 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
of fighting. Sheridan won the hotly contested field,
Stuart leaving, among his dead, Collins, Colonel of
the Fifteenth Virginia Cavalry. But Stuart still held
the road to Spotsylvania, and never did his cavalry
or any other do better fighting than was done the
next morning resisting Merritt and Warren.
Out of a tender memory of Collins' s fate, — he had
been our tall, light-haired, modest, pink-cheeked
adjutant at West Point, — while my horses were
crunching their dinner of corn on the ear, I walked
over the ground last May where he fell. It had lately
been raggedly ploughed; and catching sight of a
couple of daisies in bloom, I went to them. And now
if those to whom sentiment in prose is unpleasing —
and there are many such in the world, and too, too
often have I offended them already — will excuse me,
I '11 say that as I stood over the daisies, a gentle wind
came along, they waved softly, and with a heart full
of auld lang syne, I said, "For the sake of my West
Point fellow-cadet, and for the sake of days to come,
and for the Southern sweetheart he married, wave
and bloom on. Daisies!"
Could Sheridan have made his attack with all of his
cavalry (Wilson had gone with a part of his division
to look after Sedgwick's right), it might have put
links of an entirely different character in the chain of
events.
Wilson went far enough with Mcintosh's brigade
to satisfy himself that the Germanna Ford Road was
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 337
clear, and then, to be doubly sure, sent Mcintosh to
the ford itself.
At a quarter to one Mcintosh in a despatch to
Sedgwick from Germanna Ford reported: "The road
is all open. One battalion of the Fifth New York
Cavalry crossed the ford this morning at 7 a. m. They
came from Rappahannock Station and left that sta-
tion at 2.30 this morning." This, of course, was my
escort.
And now, a strange thing happened. Just after
Mcintosh's despatch, announcing a clear road, was
received, one came to hand from Colonel S. T.
Crooks, of the Twenty-second New York, picketing
between Flat Run and the ford, saying that the
enemy's pickets were on the road, and that a short
distance down the Rapidan large columns of dust
could be seen, Mcintosh meanwhile having moved
to Ely's Ford. Thereupon Meade grew furious, and
sent this message to poor Crooks: "You will consider
yourself under arrest for having sent false informa-
tion in relation to the enemy. You will turn your
command over to the next in rank, directing that
officer to report to Colonel Hammond commanding
Fifth New York Cavalry for orders."
What were the facts? General A. L. Long, chief of
artillery of Ewell's corps and late biographer of Lee,
says: "I was directed by General Ewell to make a
reconnaissance in the direction of Germanna Ford.
Taking one brigade of infantry and two battalions of
338 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
artillery, I advanced to the Germanna Road, striking
it about a mile from the ford. Two or three regiments
of cavalry were occupying the road at this point.
They were soon driven away by a couple of well-
directed shots. It was discovered that the enemy had
almost entirely abandoned the ford and road. It was
evident that they were leaving our front." I do not
know what ever became of Colonel Crooks, but I
hope he was righted at last.
I do not recall seeing Grant during the day, but he
is reported by one who was near him to have been
deeply absorbed, and to have visited the line between
Burnside and Warren, his eyes resting on the Chewn-
ing farm on the Parker's Store Road. As to his an-
tagonist, Gordon says Lee invited him early in the
forenoon to ride with him over the ground of his
movement of the night before. While on the ride, Lee
expressed his conviction that if he could check Grant,
such a crisis in public affairs in the North would arise
as might lead to an armistice; and I am almost sure
he was right. Gordon says he referred to the rumors
that Grant was retreating, and that Lee gave them
no credit, predicting, on the contrary, that he would
move toward Spotsylvania.
Meanwhile the rear of both armies contrasted
sharply with their fronts. Scattered over the dulled,
impoverished fields, amid flooding sunshine, — for
after the smoke and fog had broken up and gone, it
was a beautiful, serenely smiling day, — lay the ar-
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 339
tillery and the multitudinous trains, their animals
harnessed and hitched, dozing where they stood.
Men and drivers lounged in groups near their guns
and teams, some sound asleep, some playing cards,
here and there one writing home, and here and there,
too, a bohemian dog that had been picked up and
adopted, curled down, nose on paws and eyes half-
closed, but out for what was going on. Yes, a battle-
field has a wide compass, very human and interesting.
About noon orders were issued for the wounded to
be loaded in trains, and, under an escort of thirteen
hundred cavalry, taken across the Rapidan at Ely's
Ford and on to Rappahannock Station, there to meet
cars that were to be sent out from Alexandria. The
wounded were divided into three classes, those who
could walk, those able to ride in the wagons, and,
third, the most severely wounded, including those
suffering from fractures, or from some recent ampu-
tation, and, most unfortunate of all, those whose
wounds had penetrated the breast or abdominal
cavities. The wagons, having assembled at the vari-
ous hospitals (there were 325 of them and 488 ambu-
lances), were thickly bedded with evergreen boughs
on which shelter tents and blankets were spread.
Dalton was put in charge of the train, Winne and
other corps inspectors aiding at the respective hos-
pitals in getting the necessary supplies together, and
selecting and loading the wounded. It was approach-
ing midnight before the tram, with its seven thousand
340 lTHE battle OF THE WILDERNESS
souls, either on foot or being carried, was ready to
move; nearly a thousand had to be left on account of
lack of transportation. No one can appreciate, unless
he has been witness of such scenes, the strain upon
the surgeons that night. I have often thought that
they never received a full measure of recognition for
their humane services.
I Let us not follow the train in the darkness, for
almost every wagon is a hive of moans, and we should
hear horrible cries of agony breaking from the men as
the wheels grind on boulders or jounce across roots,
the piercing shrieks mingling with the shouts of
drivers and clanking of trace-chains. Before Dalton
got to the ford, orders came to countermarch and
proceed to Fredericksburg with the poor fellows.
Whenever an unrighteous war shall be urged upon our
country by the unscrupulously ambitious or thought-
less, I wish that the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and
Cold Harbor would lay bare all that they remember.
In this connection here is what Keifer says: "On
my arrival at hospital about 2 p. M. I was carried
through an entrance to a large tent, on each side of
which lay human legs and arms, resembling piles of
stove wood, the blood only excepted. All around were
dead and wounded men, many of the latter dying.
The surgeons, with gleaming, sometimes bloody,
knives and instruments, were busy at their work. I
soon was laid on the rough-board operating- table and
chloroformed."
THE BATTLE OF THE WH^DERNESS 341
Notwithstanding this frightful record, I think I can
hear the Wilderness exclaim with holy exultation,
"Deep as the horrors were, the battles that were
fought in my gloom were made glorious by the prin-
ciples at stake : and I cherish every drop of the gallant
blood that was shed."
Lee, after his ride with Gordon, went back to his
headquarters and directed Stuart and Pendleton to
thoroughly acquaint themselves with the roads on
the right, which the army would have to follow
should Grant undertake to move, as he thought he
might, toward Spotsylvania; the latter, to cut a
path through the woods to facilitate the infantry's
march in reaching the Catharpin Road. The filing
of our ammunition and headquarters trains past the
Wilderness Tavern in the forenoon, preliminary to
clearing the way for Warren and the general move-
ment, and visible from Lee's lines, make the sources
of these precautions plain. Lee established his
headquarters for the night at Parker's store, and
between sundown and dark directed Anderson, whom
he had assigned to Longstreet's command, to go
to Spotsylvania either by Todd's Tavern or Shady
Grove Church, and Ewell to conform his movements
to those of the troops on his right; and if at daylight
he found no large force in his front, to follow Ander-
son toward Spotsylvania. It is obvious from these
orders that Lee was not fully informed of the situa-
tion, for at that very hour Sheridan was in full pos-
342 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
session of Todd's Tavern, and " Charley " McCon-
nell of Pittsburg was probably burying Collins, the
friend of his youth. It may interest some readers
to know that he cut off a lock of Collins's hair before
he laid him in his narrow bed, and that that lock at
last reached loving hands and is preserved.
General Pendleton went to see Anderson, de-
scribed the route he was to take, and left one of his
aides as a guide, Lee having directed Anderson (his
despatch is dated seven p. m.) to start as soon as he
could withdraw safely. Anderson, rather a slow but
valiant man, had fixed on starting at three, but was
under way by eleven, and those four hours gained
were mighty valuable to Lee.
Meade's orders for the movements of the night
were issued at three p. m., and, like all those written
by Humphreys, are models of explicitness. Sedgwick
was to move at 8.30, by way of the Pike and Chan-
cellorsville and thence to Piney Branch Church;
Warren was to set off for Spotsylvania by way of
the Brock Road. Their pickets were to be withdrawn
at one a. m. Burnside was to follow Sedgwick, and
Hancock was to stand fast. The sun was just above
the tree-tops when Warren with his staff left the
Lacy house. For some reason that I do not know,
instead of following the Germanna Road to the
Brock, he took the Pike, and just as we gained the
brow of the hill at the old Wilderness Tavern there
was borne from the enemy's lines on the still evening
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 343
air the sound of distant cheering. I halted and
turned my horse's head in the direction whence it
came, that is, up the run, whose trough-like valley,
with its timbered head, lay resting against the up-
heaved openings of the Widow Tapp and Chewning
farms. The sun was now lodged halfway in the tree-
tops, and looked like a great, red copper ball. I think
I can hear that Confederate line cheering yet. At the
time I supposed that, seeing us on the move, they
thought we had had enough of it, and were seeking
safety at Fredericksburg. It seems, however, to have
been unpremeditated and to have been started by
some North Carolina regiment in the right of their
line cheering Lee, who happened to go by them. As-
suming that it was a cry of defiance, the adjacent
brigade took it up, and, like a wave on the beach, it
broke continuously along their entire line. And after
dying away, from their right beyond the unfinished
railway to their extreme left resting on Flat Run, it
was followed by two more like surges.
Cheers never broke on a stiller evening. There is
not a breath of air, the flushing west is fading fast, the
world is on the verge of twilight, and trees, roads,
fields, and distances are dimming as they clothe
themselves in its pensive mystery. Where now are
the scenes and the sounds of only three evenings ago?
Where are all the men who were singing in their
bivouacs along Wilderness Run.? Where are Wads-
worth, Hays, Jenkins, Jones, Stafford, McElwain,
344 THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
Campbell Brown, Griswold, and "Little" Abbott?
And where are the hopes and plans of Grant and Lee
when the sun went down on the first night in the
Wilderness. Well! well! and all will be well!
The Pike to Chancellorsville is packed with mov-
ing trains. The resolute batteries that stood on the
slope, where the little chapel stands now, have pulled
out, crossed the run, and their heavy wheels are roll-
ing over and muttering their rumbling jars; they will
hear no bugle-calls for taps to-night, nor will three
thousand dead. The sunset flush has ebbed from the
west, the lone, still trees are growing black, and the
overhead dome vaulting the old fields of the Lacy
plantation is filling with a wan hushed light.
Wilderness Run now utters its first audible gurgle,
night is falling fast on the earth, and weary day is
closing her eyes. Grant's and Meade's headquarters
tents are struck, the orderlies are standing by the
saddled horses, the men are waiting behind the
breastworks in the already dark woods for the word
silently to withdraw. A few minutes more and the
Lacy farm will be hidden. Now it is gone; and here
comes the head of Warren's corps with banners afloat.
What calm serenity, what unquenchable spirit, are
in the battle-flags ! On they go. Good-by, old fields,
deep woods, and lonesome roads. And murmuring
runs. Wilderness, and Caton's, you too farewell.
The head of Warren's column has reached the
Brock Road, and is turning south. At once the men
THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 345
catch what it means. Oh, the Old Army of the Poto-
mac is not retreating ! and in the dusky light, as Grant
and Meade pass by, they give them high, ringing
cheers.
And now we are passing Hancock's lines, and never,
never shall I forget the scene. Dimly visible but
almost within reach from our horses, the gallant men
of the Second Corps are resting against the charred
parapets, from which they hurled Field. Here and
there is a weird little fire, groups of mounted oflScers
stand undistinguishable in the darkness, and up in
the towering tree-tops of the thick woods beyond
the entrenchments tongues of yellow flames are puls-
ing from dead limbs lapping the black face of night.
All, all is deathly still. We pass on, cross the un-
finished railway, then Poplar Run, and then up a
shouldered hill. Our horses are walking slowly. We
are in dismal pine woods, the habitation of thousands
of whippoorwills uttering their desolate notes un-
ceasingly. Now and then a sabre clanks, and close
behind us the men are toiling on.
It is midnight. Todd's Tavern is two or three
miles away. Deep, deep is the silence. Jehovah
reigns; Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor are waiting
for us; and here we end.
CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETT!
U . S . A
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