text:
Battle of the Wilderness
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
For the French and Indian War battle also called "Battle of the Wilderness", see Battle of the Monongahela.
Battle of the Wilderness
Part of the American Civil War

Battle of the Wilderness by Kurz and Allison.
Date
May 5–7, 1864[1]
Location
Spotsylvania County and Orange County, Virginia
38°18′59″N 77°45′35″W / 38.3164°N 77.7597°W / 38.3164; -77.7597Coordinates: 38°18′59″N 77°45′35″W / 38.3164°N 77.7597°W / 38.3164; -77.7597
Result
Inconclusive
(Union offensive continued)[2]
Belligerents
United States Confederate States
Commanders and leaders
Ulysses S. Grant
George G. Meade Robert E. Lee
Units involved
Army of the Potomac[3]
IX Corps[4]
Army of Northern Virginia
Strength
124,232 ("present for duty")[5][6] 60–65,000[6]
Casualties and losses
17,666
(2,246 killed,
12,037 wounded,
3,383 captured/missing)[7][8] 11,033
(1,477 killed,
7,866 wounded,
1,690 captured/missing)[8]
[show]
v
t
e
Overland Campaign
Wilderness
Spotsylvania Court House
Yellow Tavern
Meadow Bridge
North Anna
Wilson's Wharf
Haw's Shop
Totopotomoy Creek
Old Church
Cold Harbor
Trevilian Station
Saint Mary's Church
The Battle of the Wilderness, fought May 5–7, 1864, was the first battle of Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Virginia Overland Campaign against Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War. Both armies suffered heavy casualties, a harbinger of a bloody war of attrition by Grant against Lee's army and, eventually, the Confederate capital, Richmond, Virginia. The battle was tactically inconclusive, as Grant disengaged and continued his offensive.
Grant attempted to move quickly through the dense underbrush of the Wilderness of Spotsylvania, but Lee launched two of his corps on parallel roads to intercept him. On the morning of May 5, the Union V Corps under Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren attacked the Confederate Second Corps, commanded by Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell, on the Orange Turnpike. That afternoon the Third Corps, commanded by Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill, encountered Brig. Gen. George W. Getty's division (VI Corps) and Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock's II Corps on the Orange Plank Road. Fighting until dark was fierce but inconclusive as both sides attempted to maneuver in the dense woods.
At dawn on May 6, Hancock attacked along the Plank Road, driving Hill's Corps back in confusion, but the First Corps of Lt. Gen. James Longstreet arrived in time to prevent the collapse of the Confederate right flank. Longstreet followed up with a surprise flanking attack from an unfinished railroad bed that drove Hancock's men back to the Brock Road, but the momentum was lost when Longstreet was wounded by his own men. An evening attack by Brig. Gen. John B. Gordon against the Union right flank caused consternation at Union headquarters, but the lines stabilized and fighting ceased. On May 7, Grant disengaged and moved to the southeast, intending to leave the Wilderness to interpose his army between Lee and Richmond, leading to the bloody Battle of Spotsylvania Court House.
Contents
[hide]
1 Background
1.1 Military situation
2 Opposing forces
2.1 Union
2.2 Confederate
3 Disposition of forces and movement to battle
4 Battle
4.1 May 5: Orange Turnpike
4.2 May 5: Orange Plank Road
4.3 Plans for May 6
4.4 May 6: Longstreet's attacks
4.5 May 6: Gordon's attacks
4.6 May 7
5 Aftermath
5.1 Casualties
6 Battlefield preservation
7 In popular culture
7.1 Film and television
7.2 Literature
7.3 Music
7.4 Commemorative postal stamps
8 See also
9 Notes
10 References
10.1 Memoirs and primary sources
11 Further reading
12 External links
Background[edit]
Military situation[edit]
Main article: Overland Campaign
Further information: Eastern Theater of the American Civil War and American Civil War
Map of Southeastern Virginia.
Union marches and operations in Central Virginia (1864–65).
In March 1864, Grant was summoned from the Western Theater, promoted to lieutenant general, and given command of all Union armies. He chose to make his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac, although Meade retained formal command of that army. Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman succeeded Grant in command of most of the western armies. Grant, President Abraham Lincoln, and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton devised a coordinated strategy that would strike at the heart of the Confederacy from multiple directions, including attacks against Lee near Richmond, Virginia, and in the Shenandoah Valley, West Virginia, Georgia, and Mobile, Alabama. This was the first time the Union armies would have a coordinated offensive strategy across a number of theaters.[9]
Grant's campaign objective was not the Confederate capital of Richmond, but the destruction of Lee's army. Lincoln had long advocated this strategy for his generals, recognizing that the city would certainly fall after the loss of its principal defensive army. Grant ordered Meade, "Wherever Lee goes, there you will go also."[10] Although he hoped for a quick, decisive battle, Grant was prepared to fight a war of attrition. Both Union and Confederate casualties could be high, but the Union had greater resources to replace lost soldiers and equipment.[11]
Opposing forces[edit]
Union[edit]
Further information: Union order of battle
Principal Union commanders
Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, Army of the Potomac
Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock, II Corps
Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren, V Corps
Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick, VI Corps
Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside, IX Corps
Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan, Cavalry Corps
At the beginning of the campaign, Grant's Union forces totaled 118,700 men and 316 guns.[12] They consisted of the Army of the Potomac, under Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, and the IX Corps (until May 24 formally part of the Army of the Ohio, reporting directly to Grant, not Meade). The five corps were:[13]
II Corps, under Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock, including the divisions of Maj. Gen. David B. Birney and Brig. Gens. Francis C. Barlow, John Gibbon, and Gershom Mott.
V Corps, under Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren, including the divisions of Brig. Gens. Charles Griffin, John C. Robinson, Samuel W. Crawford, and James S. Wadsworth.
VI Corps, under Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick, including the divisions of Brig. Gens. Horatio G. Wright, George W. Getty, and James B. Ricketts.
IX Corps, under Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside, including the divisions of Brig. Gens. Thomas G. Stevenson, Robert B. Potter, Orlando B. Willcox, and Edward Ferrero.
Cavalry Corps, under Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, including the divisions of Brig. Gens. Alfred T.A. Torbert, David McM. Gregg, and James H. Wilson.
Confederate[edit]
Further information: Confederate order of battle
Confederate corps commanders
Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, First Corps
Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell, Second Corps
Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill, Third Corps
Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, Cavalry Corps
Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia comprised about 64,000 men and 274 guns and was organized into four corps:[14]
First Corps, under Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, including the divisions of Maj. Gen. Charles W. Field and Brig. Gen. Joseph B. Kershaw.
Second Corps, under Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell, including the divisions of Maj. Gens. Jubal A. Early, Edward "Allegheny" Johnson, and Robert E. Rodes.
Third Corps, under Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill, including the divisions of Maj. Gens. Richard H. Anderson, Henry Heth, and Cadmus M. Wilcox.
Cavalry Corps, under Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, including the divisions of Maj. Gens. Wade Hampton, Fitzhugh Lee, and W.H.F. "Rooney" Lee.
Disposition of forces and movement to battle[edit]
Start of the Overland Campaign, May 4, 1864: Movement into the Wilderness.
Confederate
Union
Initial positions in the Wilderness, 7 a.m., May 5, 1864.
[In the Wilderness] numbers meant little—in fact, they were frequently an encumbrance on the narrow trails. Visibility was limited, making it extremely difficult for officers to exercise effective control. Attackers could only thrash noisily and blindly forward through the underbrush, perfect targets for the concealed defenders. In attack or retreat, formations could rarely be maintained. In this near-jungle, the Confederates had the advantages of being, on the whole, better woodsmen than their opponents and of being far more familiar with the terrain. Federal commanders were forced to rely upon maps, which soon proved thoroughly unreliable.
Col. Vincent J. Esposito, West Point Atlas[15]
Union troops cross the Rapidan
On May 4, 1864, the Army of the Potomac crossed the Rapidan River at three separate points and converged on the Wilderness Tavern, near the edge of the Wilderness of Spotsylvania, an area of more than 70 sq mi (181 km2) of Spotsylvania County and Orange County in central Virginia. Early settlers in the area had cut down the native forests to fuel blast furnaces that processed the iron ore found there, leaving only a secondary growth of dense shrubs. This rough terrain, which was virtually unsettled, was nearly impenetrable to 19th-century infantry and artillery maneuvers. A number of battles were fought in the vicinity between 1862 and 1864, including the bloody Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863.[16] The Wilderness had been the concentration point for the Confederates one year earlier when Stonewall Jackson launched his devastating attack on the Union right flank at Chancellorsville. But Grant chose to set up his camps to the west of the old battle site before moving southward; unlike the Union army of a year before, Grant had no desire to fight in the Wilderness, preferring to move to the open ground to the south and east of the Wilderness before fighting Lee, thereby taking advantage of his superior numbers and artillery.[17]
Grant's plan was for the V Corps (Warren) and VI Corps (Sedgwick) to cross the Rapidan at Germanna Ford, followed by the IX Corps (Burnside) after the supply trains had crossed at various fords, and to camp near Wilderness Tavern. The II Corps (Hancock) would cross to the east on Ely's Ford and advance to Spotsylvania Court House by way of Chancellorsville and Todd's Tavern. Speed was of the essence to the plan because the army was vulnerably stretched thin as it moved. Although Grant insisted that the army travel light with minimal artillery and supplies, its logistical "tail" was almost 70 miles. Sylvanus Cadwallader, a journalist with the Army of the Potomac, estimated that Meade's supply trains alone—which included 4,300 wagons, 835 ambulances, and a herd of cattle for slaughter—if using a single road would reach from the Rapidan to below Richmond. Grant gambled that Meade could move his army quickly enough to avoid being ensnared in the Wilderness, but Meade recommended that they camp overnight to allow the wagon train to catch up. Grant also miscalculated when he assumed that Lee was incapable of intercepting the Union army at its most vulnerable point, and Meade had not provided adequate cavalry coverage to warn of a Confederate movement from the west.[18]
On May 2, Lee met with his generals on Clark Mountain, obtaining a panoramic view of the enemy camps. He realized that Grant was getting ready to attack, but did not know the precise route of advance. He correctly predicted that Grant would cross to the east of the Confederate fortifications on the Rapidan, using the Germanna and Ely Fords, but he could not be certain. To retain flexibility of response, Lee had dispersed his Army over a wide area. Longstreet's First Corps was around Gordonsville, from where they had the flexibility to respond by railroad to potential threats to the Shenandoah Valley or to Richmond. Lee's headquarters and Hill's Third Corps were outside Orange Court House. Ewell's Second Corps was the closest to the Wilderness, at Morton's Ford.[19]
As Grant's plan became clear to Lee on May 4, Lee knew that it was imperative to fight in the Wilderness for the same reason as the year before: his army was massively outnumbered, with approximately 65,000 men to Grant's 120,000, and his artillery's guns were fewer than and inferior to those of Grant's. Fighting in the tangled woods would eliminate Grant's advantage in artillery, and the close quarters and ensuing confusion there could give Lee's outnumbered force better odds. He therefore ordered his army to intercept the advancing Federals in the Wilderness. Ewell marched east on the Orange Court House Turnpike, reaching Robertson's Tavern, where they camped about 3–5 miles from the unsuspecting soldiers in Warren's corps. Hill used the Orange Plank Road and stopped at the hamlet of New Verdiersville. These two corps could pin the Union troops in place (they had been ordered to avoid a general engagement until the entire army could be united), fighting outnumbered for at least a day while Longstreet approached from the southwest for a blow against the enemy's flank, similar to Jackson's at Chancellorsville.[20]
The thick underbrush prevented the Union Army from recognizing the proximity of the Confederates. Adding to the confusion, Meade received an erroneous report that the Confederate cavalry under J.E.B. Stuart was operating in his Army's rear, in the direction of Fredericksburg. He ordered the bulk of his cavalry to move east to deal with that perceived threat, leaving his army blind. But he assumed that the corps of Sedgwick, Warren, and Hancock could hold back any potential Confederate advance until the supply trains came up, at which time Grant could move forward to engage in a major battle with Lee, presumably at Mine Run.[21]
Battle[edit]
May 5: Orange Turnpike[edit]
View of the front of Ellwood Manor, originally built around 1790 by William Jones. During the battle this structure, then owned by J. Horace Lacy, was used as the V Corps headquarters of Gouverneur K. Warren. Ellwood is the last remaining structure from the Battle of the Wilderness still standing today.
Actions in the Wilderness, May 5, 1864.
I saw many wounded soldiers in the Wilderness who hung on to their rifles, and whose intention was clearly stamped on their pallid faces. I saw one man, both of whose legs were broken, lying on the ground with his cocked rifle by his side and his ramrod in his hand, and his eyes set on the front. I knew he meant to kill himself in case of fire—knew it as surely as though I could read his thoughts.
Private Frank Wilkeson[22]
Early on May 5, Warren's V Corps was advancing over farm lanes toward the Plank Road when Ewell's Corps appeared in the west. Grant was notified of the encounter and instructed "If any opportunity presents itself of pitching into a part of Lee's army, do so without giving time for disposition." Meade halted his army and directed Warren to attack, assuming that the Confederates were a small, isolated group and not an entire infantry corps. Ewell's men erected earthworks on the western end of the clearing known as Saunders Field. Warren approached on the eastern end with the division of Brig. Gen. Charles Griffin on the right and the division of Brig. Gen. James S. Wadsworth on the left, but he hesitated to attack because the Confederate position extended beyond Griffin's right, which would mean that they would be subjected to enfilade fire. He requested a delay from Meade so that Sedgwick's VI Corps could be brought in on his right and extend his line. By 1 p.m., Meade was frustrated by the delay and ordered Warren to attack before Sedgwick could arrive.[23]
Warren was correct to be concerned about his right flank. As the Union men advanced, Brig. Gen. Romeyn B. Ayres's brigade had to take cover in a gully to avoid the enfilading fire. The brigade of Brig. Gen. Joseph J. Bartlett made better progress to Ayres's left and overran the position of Brig. Gen. John M. Jones, who was killed. However, since Ayres's men were unable to advance, Bartlett's right flank was now exposed to attack and his brigade was forced to flee back across the clearing. Bartlett's horse was shot out from under him and he barely escaped capture.[24]
To the left of Bartlett, the Iron Brigade, commanded by Brig. Gen. Lysander Cutler, advanced through woods south of the field and struck a brigade of Alabamians commanded by Brig. Gen. Cullen A. Battle. Although initially pushed back, the Confederates counterattacked with the brigade of Brig. Gen. John B. Gordon, tearing through the line and forcing the Iron Brigade (now filled with green recruits from its devastating losses at Gettysburg) to break for the first time in its history. As the majority of the new recruits fled from the terrors of combat, the old veterans of the brigade attempted to hold their ground and eventually were forced to retreat against overwhelming odds.[25]
Further to the left, near the Higgerson farm, the brigades of Col. Roy Stone and Brig. Gen. James C. Rice attacked the brigades of Brig. Gen. George P. Doles's Georgians and Brig. Gen. Junius Daniel's North Carolinians. Both attacks failed under heavy fire and Crawford ordered his men to pull back. Warren ordered an artillery section into Saunders Field to support his attack, but it was captured by Confederate soldiers, who were pinned down and prevented by rifle fire from moving the guns until darkness. In the midst of hand-to-hand combat at the guns, the field caught fire and men from both sides were shocked as their wounded comrades burned to death.[26]
The lead elements of Sedgwick's VI Corps reached Saunders Field at 3 p.m., by which time Warren's men had ceased fighting. Sedgwick attacked Ewell's line in the woods north of the Turnpike and both sides traded attacks and counterattacks that lasted about an hour before each disengaged to erect earthworks. During the fray, Confederate Brig. Gen. Leroy A. Stafford was shot through the shoulder blade, the bullet severing his spine. Despite being paralyzed from the waist down and in agonizing pain, he managed to still urge his troops forward.[27]
May 5: Orange Plank Road[edit]
Actions in the Wilderness, May 5, 1864. (Additional map)
Unable to duplicate the surprise that was achieved by Ewell on the Turnpike, A.P. Hill's approach was detected by Brig. Gen. Samuel W. Crawford's men from their position at the Chewning farm, and Meade ordered the VI Corps division of Brig. Gen. George W. Getty to defend the important intersection of the Orange Plank Road and the Brock Road. Union cavalry under Brig. Gen. James H. Wilson, employing repeating carbines, succeeded in briefly delaying Hill's approach. Getty's men arrived just before Hill's and the two forces skirmished briefly, ending with Hill's men withdrawing a few hundred yards west of the intersection. Much of the fighting near Orange Plank Road was in close quarters and the thicket along the road, accompanied with the smoke from rifles, caused much confusion amongst officers of both sides. A mile to the rear, Lee established his headquarters at the Widow Tapp's farm. Lee, Jeb Stuart, and Hill were meeting there when they were surprised by a party of Union soldiers entering the clearing. The three generals ran for safety and the Union men, who were equally surprised by the encounter, returned to the woods, unaware of how close they had come to changing the course of history. Meade sent orders to Hancock directing him to move his II Corps north to come to Getty's assistance.[28]
By 4 p.m., initial elements of Hancock's corps were arriving and Meade ordered Getty to assault the Confederate line. As the Union men approached the position of Maj. Gen. Henry Heth, they were pinned down by fire from a shallow ridge to their front. As each II Corps division arrived, Hancock sent it forward to assist, bringing enough combat power to bear that Lee was forced to commit his reserves, the division commanded by Maj. Gen. Cadmus M. Wilcox. Fierce fighting continued until nightfall with neither side gaining an advantage.[29]
Plans for May 6[edit]
Grant's plan for the following day assumed that Hill's Corps was essentially spent and was a prime target. He ordered an early morning assault down the Orange Plank Road by the II Corps and Getty's division. At the same time, the V and VI Corps were to resume assaults against Ewell's position on the Turnpike, preventing him from coming to Hill's aid, and Burnside's IX Corps was to move through the area between the Turnpike and the Plank Road and get into Hill's rear. If successful, Hill's Corps would be destroyed and then the full weight of the army could follow up and deal with Ewell's.[30]
Although he was aware of the precarious situation on the Plank Road, rather than reorganizing his line, Lee chose to allow Hill's men to rest, assuming that Longstreet's Corps, now only 10 miles from the battlefield, would arrive in time to reinforce Hill before dawn. When that occurred, he planned to shift Hill to the left to cover some of the open ground between his divided forces. Longstreet calculated that he had sufficient time to allow his men, tired from marching all day, to rest and the First Corps did not resume marching until after midnight. Moving cross-country in the dark, they made slow progress and lost their way at times, and by sunrise had not reached their designated position.[31]
May 6: Longstreet's attacks[edit]
Like a fine lady at a party, Longstreet was often late in his arrival at the ball. But he always made a sensation and that of delight, when he got in, with the grand old First Corps sweeping behind him as his train.
Private William Dame, Richmond Howitzers[32]
Actions in the Wilderness, May 6, 1864.
As planned, Hancock's II Corps attacked Hill at 5 a.m., overwhelming the Third Corps with the divisions of Wadsworth, Birney, and Mott; Getty and Gibbon were in support. Ewell's men on the Turnpike had actually attacked first, at 4:45 a.m., but continued to be pinned down by attacks from Sedgwick's and Warren's corps and could not be relied upon for assistance. Lt. Col. William T. Poague's 16 guns at the Widow Tapp farm fired canister tirelessly, but could not stem the tide and Confederate soldiers streamed toward the rear. Before a total collapse, however, reinforcements arrived at 6 a.m., Brig. Gen. John Gregg's 800-man Texas Brigade, the vanguard of Longstreet's column. General Lee, relieved and excited, waved his hat over his head and shouted, "Texans always move them!" Caught up in the excitement, Lee began to move forward with the advancing brigade. As the Texans realized this, they halted and grabbed the reins of Lee's horse, Traveller, telling the general that they were concerned for his safety and would only go forward if he moved to a less exposed location. Longstreet was able to convince Lee that he had matters well in hand and the commanding general relented.[33]
Confederate troops capture part of the Union breastworks near the Brock Road
Longstreet counterattacked with the divisions of Maj. Gen. Charles W. Field on the left and Brig. Gen. Joseph B. Kershaw on the right. The Union troops, somewhat disorganized from their assault earlier that morning, could not resist and fell back a few hundred yards from the Widow Tapp farm. The Texans leading the charge north of the road fought gallantly at a heavy price—only 250 of the 800 men emerged unscathed. At 10 a.m., Longstreet's chief engineer reported that he had explored an unfinished railroad bed south of the Plank Road and that it offered easy access to the Union left flank. Longstreet assigned his aide, Lt. Col. Moxley Sorrel, to the task of leading four fresh brigades along the railroad bed for a surprise attack. Sorrel and the senior brigade commander, Brig. Gen. William Mahone, struck at 11 a.m. Hancock wrote later that the flanking attack rolled up his line "like a wet blanket." At the same time, Longstreet resumed his main attack, driving Hancock's men back to the Brock Road, and mortally wounding Brig. Gen. James S. Wadsworth.[34]
Longstreet rode forward on the Plank Road with several of his officers and encountered some of Mahone's men returning from their successful attack. The Virginians believed the mounted party were Federals and opened fire, wounding Longstreet severely in his neck and killing a brigade commander, Brig. Gen. Micah Jenkins. Longstreet was able to turn over his command directly to Charles Field and told him to "Press the enemy." However, the Confederate line fell into confusion and before a vigorous new assault could be organized, Hancock's line had stabilized behind earthworks at the Brock Road. The following day, Lee appointed Maj. Gen. Richard H. Anderson to temporary command of the First Corps. Longstreet did not return to the Army of Northern Virginia until October 13. (By coincidence, he was accidentally shot by his own men only about 4 miles (6.4 km) away from the place where Stonewall Jackson suffered the same fate a year earlier.)[35]
Actions in the Wilderness, May 6
5 a.m., May 6. Hancock attacks Hill on the Plank Road
6–10 a.m., May 6. Longstreet counterattacks
11 a.m., May 6. Longstreet attacks Hancock's flank from the railroad bed
May 6: Gordon's attacks[edit]
Actions in the Wilderness, 2 p.m. until dark, May 6.
At the Turnpike, inconclusive fighting proceeded for most of the day. Early in the morning, Brig. Gen. John B. Gordon scouted the Union line and recommended to his division commander, Jubal Early, that he conduct a flanking attack, but Early dismissed the venture as too risky. According to Gordon's account after the war, General Lee visited Ewell and ordered him to approve Gordon's plan, but other sources discount Lee's personal intervention. In any event, Ewell authorized him to go ahead shortly before dark. Gordon's attack made good progress against inexperienced New York troops who had spent the war up until this time manning the artillery defenses of Washington, D.C., but eventually the darkness and the dense foliage took their toll as the Union flank received reinforcements and recovered. Sedgwick's line was extended overnight to the Germanna Plank Road. For years after the war, Gordon complained about the delay in approving his attack, claiming "the greatest opportunity ever presented to Lee's army was permitted to pass."[36]
Reports of the collapse of this part of the Union line caused great consternation at Grant's headquarters, leading to an interchange that is widely quoted in Grant biographies. An officer accosted Grant, proclaiming, "General Grant, this is a crisis that cannot be looked upon too seriously. I know Lee's methods well by past experience; he will throw his whole army between us and the Rapidan, and cut us off completely from our communications." Grant seemed to be waiting for such an opportunity and snapped, "Oh, I am heartily tired of hearing about what Lee is going to do. Some of you always seem to think he is suddenly going to turn a double somersault, and land in our rear and on both of our flanks at the same time. Go back to your command, and try to think what we are going to do ourselves, instead of what Lee is going to do."[37]
May 7[edit]
On the morning of May 7, Grant was faced with the prospect of attacking strong Confederate earthworks. Instead, he chose maneuver. By moving south on the Brock Road, he hoped to reach the crossroads at Spotsylvania Court House, which would interpose his army between Lee and Richmond, forcing Lee to fight on ground more advantageous to the Union army. He ordered preparations for a night march on May 7 that would reach Spotsylvania, 10 mi (16 km) to the southeast, by the morning of May 8. Unfortunately for Grant, inadequate cavalry screening and bad luck allowed Lee's army to reach the crossroads before sufficient Union troops arrived to contest it. Once again faced with formidable earthworks, Grant fought the bloody Battle of Spotsylvania Court House (May 8–21) before maneuvering yet again as the campaign continued toward Richmond.[38]
Aftermath[edit]
Skulls remaining on the field and trees destroyed at the Battle of the Wilderness, 1864.
Although the Wilderness is usually described as a draw, it could be called a tactical Confederate victory, but a strategic victory for the Union army. Lee inflicted heavy numerical casualties (see estimates below) on Grant, but as a percentage of Grant's forces they were smaller than the percentage of casualties suffered by Lee's smaller army. And, unlike Grant, Lee had very little opportunity to replenish his losses. Understanding this disparity, part of Grant's strategy was to grind down the Confederate army by waging a war of attrition. The only way that Lee could escape from the trap that Grant had set was to destroy the Army of the Potomac while he still had sufficient force to do so, but Grant was too skilled to allow that to happen. Thus, the Overland Campaign, initiated by the crossing of the Rappahannock, and opening with this battle, set in motion the eventual destruction of the Army of Northern Virginia.[39]
Therefore, even though Grant withdrew from the field at the end of the battle[40] (which is usually the action of the defeated side), unlike his predecessors since 1861, Grant continued his campaign instead of retreating to the safety of Washington, D.C. The significance of Grant's advance was noted by James M. McPherson:
Both flanks had been badly bruised, and [Grant's] 17,500 casualties in two days exceeded the Confederate total by at least 7,000. Under such circumstances previous Union commanders in Virginia had withdrawn behind the nearest river. Men in the ranks expected the same thing to happen again. But Grant had told Lincoln "whatever happens, there will be no turning back."
While the armies skirmished warily on May 7, Grant prepared to march around Lee's right during the night to seize the crossroads village of Spotsylvania a dozen miles to the south. If successful, this move would place the Union army closer to Richmond than the enemy and force Lee to fight or retreat. All day Union supply wagons and the reserve artillery moved to the rear, confirming the soldiers' weary expectation of retreat. After dark the blue divisions pulled out one by one.
But instead of heading north, they turned south. A mental sunburst brightened their minds. It was not another "Chancellorsville ... another skedaddle" after all. "Our spirits rose," recalled one veteran who remembered this moment as a turning point in the war. Despite the terrors of the past three days and those to come, "we marched free. The men began to sing." For the first time in a Virginia campaign the Army of the Potomac stayed on the offensive after its initial battle.[41]
—  James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom
Casualties[edit]
Estimates of the casualties in the Wilderness vary. The following table summarizes estimates from a number of sources:
Casualty estimates for the Battle of the Wilderness
Source
Union
Confederate
Killed
Wounded
Captured/
Missing
Total
Killed
Wounded
Captured/
Missing
Total
National Park Service 18,400 11,400
Bonekemper, Victor, Not a Butcher 2,246 12,037 3,383 17,666 1,495 7,928 1,702 11,125
Catton, Grant Takes Command 2,265 10,220 2,902 15,387
Eicher, Longest Night 2,246 12,037 3,383 17,666 7,750–11,400
Esposito, West Point Atlas 15,000–18,000 c. 7,500
Foote, Civil War 17,666 7,800
Fox, Regimental Losses 2,246 12,037 3,383 17,666
McPherson, Battle Cry 17,500 under 10,500
Rhea, Battle of the Wilderness over 17,666 about 11,000
Smith, Grant 2,261 8,785 2,902 13,948
Young, Lee's Army 1,477 7,866 1,690 11,033
Gordon C. Rhea acknowledges the officially reported Union casualties of 17,666, but suspects that some of the returns—particularly in Warren's corps—were falsified on the low side, to minimize the negative impact of the battle on the public. He estimates Grant's loss at 17%. He accepts Union estimates of 11,000 Confederate casualties.[42]
Battlefield preservation[edit]
Former proposed location of the Wal-Mart Supercenter
Portions of the Wilderness battlefield are preserved as part of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, established in 1927 to memorialize the battlefields of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania Court House, and the Wilderness. In addition to this land that has been protected by the National Park Service, several volunteer organizations have been active in preservation activities.[43] The Friends of the Wilderness Battlefield have been active in helping to preserve and enhance the Ellwood Mansion, which was the headquarters for both Gouverneur K. Warren and Ambrose Burnside during the battle and the family cemetery there holds the plot where Stonewall Jackson's arm was buried. While the NPS acquired 180 acres (73 ha) of Ellwood in the 1970s, the FOWB (Friends of Wilderness Battlefield) is responsible for the preservation of the 1790s-era house and its interpretation.[44]
The Civil War Trust in 2008 began a campaign to prevent the development of a 138,000-square-foot (3-acre; 12,821 m2) Wal-Mart Supercenter on a 55-acre (22 ha) tract north of the intersection of Routes 3 (the Germanna Highway) and 20 (the Orange Turnpike), immediately across Route 3 from the National Military Park, near the site of the Wilderness Tavern.[45] Other organizations supporting the campaign were the Vermont state legislature and the "Wilderness Battlefield Coalition", which includes the Piedmont Environmental Council, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Parks Conservation Association, Friends of the Wilderness Battlefield, and Friends of the Fredericksburg Area Battlefields.[46] The campaign was a success: on January 26, 2011, Wal-Mart announced that it had canceled plans for the Supercenter in the disputed location.[47]
In popular culture[edit]
Film and television[edit]
A principal character dies at the battle in the 1982 miniseries The Blue and the Gray.[48]
Part of the battle is portrayed in the 1986 TV series North and South Book II .
The 2003 movie Wicked Spring is set during the battle, telling a fictional story within the historical events of May 1864.
Mention of this battle occurs in the historical fiction series, "House of Cards, where the protagonist refers to Confederate General Longstreet being shot by his own side for "sitting too high on his horse".
The three main characters, Detective Kevin Corcoran, Maj. Robert Morehouse and Dr. Matthew Freeman, of the BBC America historical fiction series, Copper, originally forged their friendship during events of the battle, detailed in the final episode of the series.
Literature[edit]
In the alternate history novel The Guns of the South (1992), the Battle of the Wilderness was an overwhelming Confederate victory, which led to the Confederate capture of Washington city and full recognition of the Confederate States of America as an independent nation.
In The Professor and the Madman (1998), author Simon Winchester describes the battle and the role that U.S. Army Surgeon William Chester Minor's having to brand the face of an Irish deserter from the Union Army may have played in nudging Dr. Minor toward madness in later life.[49]
In Charley Skedaddle (1987), the title character deserts from the Union Army during the Battle of the Wilderness.
The American novel "Wilderness" by Lance Weller (2012, Bloomsbury, London-New Delhi- New York-Sydney, ISBN 978 1 4088 3172 4) portrays the cruel and relentless fighting during one of the bloodiest clashes of the American Civil War.
In the novel, "Nostalgia," by Dennis McFarland (2013), Private Summerfield Hayes participates in the battle on Plank Road.
Music[edit]
A song about the battle, "Wilderness", was featured on Peter Case's 1995 album Torn Again.
U.S. postage stamp, 1964 5-cent issue, Battle of the Wilderness centennial commemorative stamp.
Commemorative postal stamps[edit]
During the Civil War Centennial, the United States Post Office issued five postage stamps commemorating the 100th anniversaries of famous battles, as they occurred over a four-year period, beginning with the Battle of Fort Sumter Centennial issue of 1961. The Battle of Shiloh commemorative stamp was issued in 1962, the Battle of Gettysburg in 1963, the Battle of the Wilderness in 1964, and the Appomattox Centennial commemorative stamp in 1965.[50]
See also[edit]
American Civil War portal
Bibliography of Ulysses S. Grant
Bibliography of the American Civil War
Bibliography of Abraham Lincoln
List of American Civil War battles
Troop engagements of the American Civil War, 1864
List of costliest American Civil War land battles
Armies in the American Civil War
Notes[edit]
Jump up ^ NPS. There was no significant fighting on May 7 and some authors, such as Welcher, p. 941, use the dates May 5–6.
Jump up ^ NPS
Jump up ^ Further information:
Organization of the forces operating against Richmond, on the morning of May 5, 1864: Official Records, Series I, Volume XXXVI, Part 1, pages 106-116.
Jump up ^ This Army Corps was under direct orders of Lieut. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant until May 24, 1864, when it was assigned to the Army of the Potomac. See: Official Records, Series I, Volume XXXVI, Part 1, page 113 (note at the bottom of the page).
Jump up ^ "Present for duty" (April 30, 1864): Army of the Potomac: 102,869; IX Army Corps: 21,363. See Abstract from tri-monthly return of the Army of the Potomac, Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, U.S. Army commanding, April 30, 1864 (Official Records, Series I, Volume XXXVI, Part 1, page 198) and Abstract from return of the Ninth Army Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside, U.S. Army, for April 30, 1864 (Official Records, Series I, Volume XXXVI, Part 1, page 915).
^ Jump up to: a b 101,895 Union, 61,025 Confederate according NPS; Rhea, p. 34, estimates 120,000 Union, 65,000 Confederate.
Jump up ^ Return of Casualties in the Union forces, Battle of Wilderness, May 5–7, 1864 (Recapitulation): Official Records, Series I, Volume XXXVI, Part 1, page 133.
^ Jump up to: a b Young, p. 235. Although estimates of Union casualties are relatively consistent across sources, historians have presented significantly different figures for Confederate casualties. See the Aftermath section on casualties.
Jump up ^ Salmon, p. 251; Grimsley, p. 3.
Jump up ^ Hattaway & Jones, p. 525; Trudeau, pp. 29–30.
Jump up ^ Rhea, pp. 46–47; Eicher, pp. 661–62.
Jump up ^ Eicher, p. 660; Rhea, p. 34, presents information from the morning reports on April 30, 1864. The Army of the Potomac reported 99,438 soldiers "present for duty equipped" and the IX Corps 19,331.
Jump up ^ Welcher, pp. 956–59.
Jump up ^ Eicher, p. 660; Alexander, p. 497. William N. Pendleton's report after the campaign in the Official Records, Series I, Volume 36, Part 1, pp. 1036–40, accounts for only 213 guns.
Jump up ^ Esposito, text to map 122.
Jump up ^ It is often said that the Wilderness and Chancellorsville were fought in the same location, but the 1864 battle was actually fought a few miles to the west, and only overlapped the previous battlefield along the Brock Road on the Union army's left flank.
Jump up ^ Rhea, pp. 51–52; Salmon, p. 265.
Jump up ^ Rhea, p. 34; Grimsley, pp. 27, 33–34; Esposito, text to map 121; Salmon, pp. 251–52; Eicher, p. 663.
Jump up ^ Salmon, pp. 251–52; Trudeau, pp. 25–26.
Jump up ^ Salmon, pp. 252, 267; Rhea, pp. 81–83.
Jump up ^ Rhea, pp. 91–92; Salmon, p. 267.
Jump up ^ Grimsley, p. 383.
Jump up ^ Rhea, pp. 101–103, 130; Grimsley, pp. 35–36; Eicher, p. 664.
Jump up ^ Rhea, pp. 140–56; Welcher, pp. 942–44; Eicher, p. 665.
Jump up ^ Rhea, pp. 138–39, 157–62; Welcher, pp. 943–44.
Jump up ^ Rhea, pp. 162–69; Eicher, pp. 665–66.
Jump up ^ Rhea, pp. 176–81; Welcher, p. 944; Eicher, p. 666.
Jump up ^ Eicher, pp. 664–67; Esposito, text to map 122; Grimsley, pp. 35, 39–41; Welcher, pp. 942, 945–47; Rhea, pp. 127–29, 133–36, 187–89.
Jump up ^ Rhea, pp. 191–229; Welcher, pp. 945–47; Eicher, pp. 666–67.
Jump up ^ Esposito, text for map 123; Grimsley, pp. 46; Rhea, pp. 230–31, 263–67; Welcher, p. 947.
Jump up ^ Rhea, pp. 241–42, 272–82.
Jump up ^ Rhea, Wilderness, p. 295.
Jump up ^ Grimsley, pp. 47–49; Salmon, p. 268; Rhea, pp. 283–302; Welcher, pp. 947–52.
Jump up ^ Salmon, pp. 268–69; Esposito, text for map 124; Rhea, pp. 302–13, 351–66; Welcher, pp. 952–54; Eicher, pp. 669–70.
Jump up ^ Wert, pp. 386–89, 393; Rhea, pp. 369–74; Salmon, p. 269; Eicher, p. 670.
Jump up ^ Rhea, pp. 404–20; Eicher, pp. 670–71; Salmon, p. 270.
Jump up ^ Simpson, p. 298; Grimsley, p. 58; Rhea, pp. 421–22.
Jump up ^ Kennedy, p. 283; Eicher, pp. 671–79; Simpson, pp. 300–301; Rhea, pp. 436–38.
Jump up ^ Hattaway and Jones, p. 545.
Jump up ^ Burns, ep. 6, 32:00.
Jump up ^ McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, pp. 726–28.
Jump up ^ Rhea, Wilderness, pp. 435–36, 440.
Jump up ^ CWPT Leads Effort To Stop Wal-Mart At The Wilderness Archived October 28, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
Jump up ^ The Restoration of Ellwood – fowb.org Archived July 11, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
Jump up ^ CWPT's Campaign to Stop the Wilderness Walmart
Jump up ^ Fitts, Deborah (August 2009). "CWPT Leads Effort To Stop Wal-Mart At The Wilderness". Civil War News. Historical Publications Inc. Archived from the original on October 28, 2010. Retrieved June 14, 2010.
Jump up ^ Civil War Trust news release, January 26, 2011.
Jump up ^ The Blue and the Gray, Part 3, Columbia Pictures Television DVD set, 2001, Disk 3.
Jump up ^ Winchester, Simon (1998). The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary (hardback ed.). US: Harper Collins. ISBN 0-06-017596-6.
Jump up ^ Mystic Stamp Co.
References[edit]
Alexander, Edward P. Military Memoirs of a Confederate: A Critical Narrative. New York: Da Capo Press, 1993. ISBN 0-306-80509-X. First published 1907 by Charles Scribner's Sons.
Bonekemper, Edward H., III. A Victor, Not a Butcher: Ulysses S. Grant's Overlooked Military Genius. Washington, DC: Regnery, 2004. ISBN 0-89526-062-X.
Burns, Kenneth L. (1990). The Civil War [TV Series]. Episode 6. PBS.
Eicher, David J. The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. ISBN 0-684-84944-5.
Esposito, Vincent J. West Point Atlas of American Wars. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1959. OCLC 5890637. The collection of maps (without explanatory text) is available online at the West Point website.
Foote, Shelby. The Civil War: A Narrative. Vol. 3, Red River to Appomattox. New York: Random House, 1974. ISBN 0-394-74913-8.
Fox, William F. Regimental Losses in the American Civil War. Dayton, OH: Morningside Press, 1993. ISBN 0-685-72194-9. First published 1898 in Washington, DC.
Grimsley, Mark. And Keep Moving On: The Virginia Campaign, May–June 1864. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002. ISBN 0-8032-2162-2.
Hattaway, Herman, and Archer Jones. How the North Won: A Military History of the Civil War. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983. ISBN 0-252-00918-5.
Jaynes, Gregory, and the Editors of Time-Life Books. The Killing Ground: Wilderness to Cold Harbor. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1986. ISBN 0-8094-4768-1.
Kennedy, Frances H., ed. The Civil War Battlefield Guide[permanent dead link]. 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1998. ISBN 0-395-74012-6.
McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. Oxford History of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-19-503863-0.
Rhea, Gordon C. The Battle of the Wilderness May 5–6, 1864. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1994. ISBN 0-8071-1873-7.
Rhea, Gordon C. The Battles of Wilderness & Spotsylvania. National Park Service Civil War series. Fort Washington, PA: U.S. National Park Service and Eastern National, 1995. ISBN 0-915992-88-4.
Rhea, Gordon C. In the Footsteps of Grant and Lee: The Wilderness Through Cold Harbor. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-8071-3269-2.
Salmon, John S. The Official Virginia Civil War Battlefield Guide. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2001. ISBN 0-8117-2868-4.
Simpson, Brooks D. Ulysses S. Grant: Triumph over Adversity, 1822–1865. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. ISBN 0-395-65994-9.
Smith, Jean Edward. Grant. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. ISBN 0-684-84927-5.
Trudeau, Noah Andre. Bloody Roads South: The Wilderness to Cold Harbor, May–June 1864. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1989. ISBN 978-0-316-85326-2.
Welcher, Frank J. The Union Army, 1861–1865 Organization and Operations. Vol. 1, The Eastern Theater. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989. ISBN 0-253-36453-1.
Wert, Jeffry D. General James Longstreet: The Confederacy's Most Controversial Soldier: A Biography. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993. ISBN 0-671-70921-6.
Young, Alfred C., III. Lee's Army during the Overland Campaign: A Numerical Study. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2013. ISBN 978-0-8071-5172-3.
National Park Service battle description
Memoirs and primary sources[edit]
Atkinson, Charles Francis. Grant's Campaigns of 1864 and 1865: The Wilderness and Cold Harbor (May 3 – June 3, 1864). The Pall Mall military series. London: H. Rees, 1908. OCLC 2698769.
Badeau, Adam. Military History of Ulysses S. Grant (Vol. III). New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1881.
Grant, Ulysses S. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant. 2 vols. Charles L. Webster & Company, 1885–86. ISBN 0-914427-67-9.
Longstreet, James. From Manassas to Appomattox: Memoirs of the Civil War in America. New York: Da Capo Press, 1992. ISBN 0-306-80464-6. First published in 1896 by J. B. Lippincott and Co.
Porter, Horace. Campaigning with Grant. New York: Century Co., 1897. OCLC 913186.
U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1880–1901.
Further reading[edit]
Alexander, Edward P. Fighting for the Confederacy: The Personal Recollections of General Edward Porter Alexander. Edited by Gary W. Gallagher. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989. ISBN 0-8078-4722-4.
Bearss, Edwin C. Fields of Honor: Pivotal Battles of the Civil War. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 2006. ISBN 0-7922-7568-3.
Carmichael, Peter S., ed. Audacity Personified: The Generalship of Robert E. Lee. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8071-2929-1.
Frassanito, William A. Grant and Lee: The Virginia Campaigns 1864–1865. New York: Scribner, 1983. ISBN 0-684-17873-7.
Gallagher, Gary W., ed. The Wilderness Campaign. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997. ISBN 0-8078-2334-1.
Hogan, David W. Jr. The Overland Campaign. Washington, DC: United States Army Center of Military History, 2014. ISBN 9780160925177.
King, Curtis S., William G. Robertson, and Steven E. Clay. Staff Ride Handbook for the Overland Campaign, Virginia, 4 May to 15 June 1864: A Study on Operational-Level Command. (PDF document). Fort Leavenworth, Kan.: Combat Studies Institute Press, 2006. OCLC 62535944.
Lyman, Theodore. With Grant and Meade: From the Wilderness to Appomattox. Edited by George R. Agassiz. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994. ISBN 0-8032-7935-3.
Power, J. Tracy. Lee's Miserables: Life in the Army of Northern Virginia from the Wilderness to Appomattox. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. ISBN 0-8078-2392-9.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Battle of the Wilderness.
Battle of the Wilderness:Battle Maps, histories, photos, and preservation news (Civil War Trust)
Animated map of the Overland Campaign (Civil War Trust)
National Park Service battlefield site
Battle of the Wilderness in Encyclopedia Virginia
Animated history of the Overland Campaign
The Wilderness – What a Private Saw and Felt in that Horrible Place, Francis Cordrey, Company E, 126th Ohio Volunteer Infantry
[show]
v
t
e
Eastern Theater of the American Civil War
1861
Campaigns
Chesapeake blockade (May–Jun)
Western Virginia (Jun–Dec)
Manassas (Jul)
Carolina coast blockade (Aug)
McClellan's Operations (Oct–Dec)
Potomac blockade (Oct–Jan 1862)
Major battles
Fort Sumter
1st Bull Run
1862
Campaigns
Burnside's NC Expedition (Feb–Jun)
Jackson's Valley (Mar–Jun)
Peninsula (Mar–Jul)
Northern Virginia (Jul-Sep)
Maryland (Sep)
Fredericksburg (Nov–Dec)
Goldsboro Expedition (Dec)
Major battles
Hampton Roads
Williamsburg
Seven Pines
Seven Days Battles
Oak Grove
Beaver Dam Creek
Gaines's Mill
Garnett's & Golding's Farm
Savage's Station
White Oak Swamp
Glendale
Malvern Hill
2nd Bull Run
Antietam
Fredericksburg
1863
Campaigns
Tidewater Operations (Mar–Apr)
Chancellorsville (Apr–May)
Gettysburg (Jun–Jul)
Bristoe (Oct–Nov)
Mine Run (Nov–Dec)
Major battles
Chancellorsville
Gettysburg
1864
Campaigns
Valley Campaigns (May–Oct): Lynchburg, Early's B&O Raid, Sheridan's Campaign
Operations Against Plymouth (Apr–May)
Bermuda Hundred (May)
Overland (May–Jun)
Petersburg (Jun–Mar 1865)
Major battles
Wilderness
Spotsylvania Court House
North Anna
Cold Harbor
Trevilian Station
2nd Petersburg
Crater
2nd Deep Bottom
Globe Tavern
3rd Winchester
Chaffin's Farm
Cedar Creek
Boydton Plank Road
1865
Campaigns
Wilmington (Dec–Feb)
Appomattox (Mar–Apr)
Major battles
2nd Fort Fisher
Bentonville
Fort Stedman
Five Forks
3rd Petersburg
Sailor's Creek
Appomattox Court House
Armies
James
Potomac
Virginia
Shenandoah
Northern Virginia
Geography
Departments
Monongahela
Susquehanna
Landforms
Cumberland Valley
Gettysburg-Newark Lowlands
Shenandoah Valley
[hide]
v
t
e
American Civil War
[show]
Origins
Origins
Issues
Timeline leading to the War
Antebellum era
Bleeding Kansas
Border states
Compromise of 1850
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Lincoln-Douglas debates
Missouri Compromise
Popular sovereignty
Secession
States' rights
President Lincoln's 75,000 volunteers
Slavery
African Americans
Cornerstone Speech
Emancipation Proclamation
Fugitive slave laws
Plantations in the American South
Slave Power
Slavery in the United States
Treatment of slaves in the United States
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Abolitionism
Susan B. Anthony
John Brown
Frederick Douglass
William Lloyd Garrison
Elijah Parish Lovejoy
J. Sella Martin
Lysander Spooner
George Luther Stearns
Thaddeus Stevens
Charles Sumner
Harriet Tubman
Underground Railroad
[show]
Combatants
Theaters
Campaigns
Battles
States
Combatants
Union (USA)
Army
Navy
Marine Corps
Revenue Cutter Service
Confederacy (CSA)
Army
Navy
Marine Corps
Theaters
Eastern
Western
Lower Seaboard
Trans-Mississippi
Pacific Coast
Union naval blockade
Major Campaigns
Anaconda Plan
Blockade runners
New Mexico
Jackson's Valley
Peninsula
Northern Virginia
Maryland
Stones River
Vicksburg
Tullahoma
Gettysburg
Morgan's Raid
Bristoe
Knoxville
Red River
Overland
Atlanta
Valley 1864
Bermuda Hundred
Richmond-Petersburg
Franklin–Nashville
Price's Raid
Sherman's March
Carolinas
Appomattox
Major battles
Fort Sumter
1st Bull Run
Wilson's Creek
Fort Donelson
Pea Ridge
Hampton Roads
Shiloh
New Orleans
Corinth
Seven Pines
Seven Days
2nd Bull Run
Antietam
Perryville
Fredericksburg
Stones River
Chancellorsville
Gettysburg
Vicksburg
Chickamauga
Chattanooga
Wilderness
Spotsylvania
Cold Harbor
Atlanta
Mobile Bay
Franklin
Nashville
Five Forks
Involvement (by
state or territory)
AL
AK
AR
AZ
CA
CO
CT
DC
DE
FL
GA
HI
ID
IL
IN
IA
KS
KY
LA
ME
MD
MA
MI
MN
MS
MO
MT
NE
NV
NH
NJ
NM
NY
NC
ND
OH
OK
OR
PA
RI
SC
SD
TN
TX
UT
VT
VA
WA
WV
WI
WY
[show]
Leaders
Confederate
Military
R. H. Anderson
Beauregard
Bragg
Buchanan
Cooper
Early
Ewell
Forrest
Gorgas
Hill
Hood
Jackson
A. S. Johnston
J. E. Johnston
Lee
Longstreet
Morgan
Mosby
Price
Semmes
E. K. Smith
Stuart
Taylor
Wheeler
Civilian
Benjamin
Bocock
Breckinridge
Davis
Hunter
Mallory
Memminger
Seddon
Stephens
Union
Military
Anderson
Buell
Burnside
Butler
Du Pont
Farragut
Foote
Frémont
Grant
Halleck
Hooker
Hunt
McClellan
McDowell
Meade
Meigs
Ord
Pope
D. D. Porter
Rosecrans
Scott
Sheridan
Sherman
Thomas
Civilian
Adams
Chase
Ericsson
Hamlin
Lincoln
Pinkerton
Seward
Stanton
Stevens
Wade
Welles
[show]
Aftermath
U.S. Constitution
Reconstruction amendments
13th Amendment
14th Amendment
15th Amendment
Reconstruction
Alabama Claims
Brooks–Baxter War
Carpetbaggers
Colfax Riot of 1873
Eufaula Riot of 1874
Freedmen's Bureau
Freedman's Savings Bank
Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
Kirk-Holden War
Knights of the White Camelia
Ku Klux Klan
Memphis Riot of 1866
Meridian Riot of 1871
New Orleans Riot of 1866
Pulaski (Tennessee) Riot of 1867
Reconstruction acts
Habeas Corpus Act 1867
Enforcement Act of 1870
Enforcement Act of February 1871
Enforcement Act of April 1871
Reconstruction treaties
Indian Council at Fort Smith
Red Shirts
Redeemers
Confederate refugees
Confederados
Scalawags
South Carolina riots of 1876
Southern Claims Commission
Homestead acts
Southern Homestead Act of 1866
Timber Culture Act of 1873
White League
post-Reconstruction
Commemoration
Centennial
Civil War Discovery Trail
Civil War Roundtables
Civil War Trails Program
Civil War Trust
Confederate History Month
Confederate monuments and memorials
Removal of public symbols of the Confederacy
Historical reenactment
Robert E. Lee Day
Disenfranchisement
Black Codes
Jim Crow
Lost Cause mythology
Modern display of the Confederate flag
Sons of Confederate Veterans
Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War
Southern Historical Society
United Daughters of the Confederacy
Monuments and memorials
Union
List of Union Civil War monuments and memorials
List of memorials to the Grand Army of the Republic
Memorials to Abraham Lincoln
Confederate
List of monuments and memorials of the Confederate States of America
Removal of Confederate monuments and memorials
List of memorials to Robert E. Lee
List of memorials to Jefferson Davis
Annapolis
Roger B. Taney Monument
Baltimore
Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument
Confederate Women's Monument
Roger B. Taney Monument
Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson Monument
Durham, North Carolina
Robert E. Lee Monument
New Orleans
Battle of Liberty Place Monument
Jefferson Davis Monument
General Beauregard Equestrian Statue
Robert E. Lee Monument
Cemeteries
Confederate Memorial Day
Ladies' memorial associations
U.S. Memorial Day
U.S. national cemeteries
Veterans
1913 Gettysburg Reunion
Confederate Veteran
Grand Army of the Republic
Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the U.S.
Old soldiers' homes
Southern Cross of Honor
United Confederate Veterans
[show]
Related topics
Related topics
Military
Arms
Campaign Medal
Cavalry
Confederate Home Guard
Confederate railroads
Confederate Revolving Cannon
Field artillery
Medal of Honor recipients
Medicine
Leadership
Naval battles
Official Records
Partisan rangers
POW camps
Rations
Signal Corps
Turning point
Union corps badges
U.S. Balloon Corps
U.S. Home Guard
U.S. Military Railroad
Political
Committee on the Conduct of the War
Confederate States Presidential Election of 1861
Confiscation Act of 1861
Confiscation Act of 1862
Copperheads
Emancipation Proclamation
Habeas Corpus Act of 1863
Hampton Roads Conference
National Union Party
Radical Republicans
Trent Affair
Union leagues
U.S. Presidential Election of 1864
War Democrats
Other topics
Bibliography
Confederate war finance
Confederate States dollar
Espionage
Confederate Secret Service
Great Revival of 1863
Music
Naming the war
Native Americans
Cherokee
Choctaw
New York City Gold Hoax of 1864
New York City Riot of 1863
Photographers
Richmond Riot of 1863
Sexuality
Supreme Court cases
Tokens
U.S. Sanitary Commission
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_the_Wilderness&oldid=799583759"
Categories:
Overland Campaign
Battles of the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War
Inconclusive battles of the American Civil War
1864 in Virginia
Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park
Battles of the American Civil War in Virginia
May 1864 events
Hidden categories:
Webarchive template wayback links
Use mdy dates from November 2013
Pages using deprecated image syntax
Coordinates on Wikidata
All articles with dead external links
Articles with dead external links from July 2017
Articles with permanently dead external links
Navigation menu
Personal tools
Not logged in
Talk
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Namespaces
Article
Talk
Variants
Views
Read
Edit
View history
More
Search
Navigation
Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store
Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page
Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page
Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version
In other projects
Wikimedia Commons
Languages
Català
Dansk
Deutsch
Español
Français
Հայերեն
Italiano
Magyar
Nederlands
日本語
Polski
Русский
Simple English
Suomi
Svenska
Türkçe
Tiếng Việt
中文
Edit links
This page was last edited on 8 September 2017, at 16:16.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Cookie statement
Mobile view

key: html

type: local

value: div

attrs: id class

values: mw-page-base noprint

values: mw-head-base noprint

attrs: id class style

value: a

attrs: id class lang

values: firstHeading firstHeading en

values: siteSub noprint

values: jump-to-nav mw-jump

attrs: href title

attrs: role class

values:
note
hatnote navigation-not-searchable

value: th

attrs: class colspan style

value: tr

value: td

attrs: colspan style

value: img

attrs: alt src width height srcset data-file-width data-file-height

attrs: href class

value: i

values:
/wiki/Spotsylvania_County
mw-redirect
Spotsylvania County

values: Maps, aerial photos, and other data for this location

attrs: alt src width height class srcset data-file-width data-file-height

values:
/wiki/George_G._Meade
mw-redirect
George G. Meade

values: Template talk:Campaignbox Overland Campaign

values: nowraplinks collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner

values:
/wiki/General_(CSA)
mw-redirect
General (CSA)

values:
/wiki/Winfield_S._Hancock
mw-redirect
Winfield S. Hancock

values:
/wiki/John_B._Gordon
mw-redirect
John B. Gordon

values: Eastern Theater of the American Civil War

values: Western Theater of the American Civil War

values:
/wiki/Ambrose_E._Burnside
mw-redirect
Ambrose E. Burnside

values:
/wiki/Horatio_G._Wright
mw-redirect
Horatio G. Wright

values:
/wiki/Robert_B._Potter
mw-redirect
Robert B. Potter

values:
/wiki/Philip_H._Sheridan
mw-redirect
Philip H. Sheridan

values:
/wiki/Alfred_Thomas_Torbert
mw-redirect
Alfred Thomas Torbert

values:
/wiki/David_McM._Gregg
mw-redirect
David McM. Gregg

values:
/wiki/J.E.B._Stuart
mw-redirect
J.E.B. Stuart

values: Cavalry Corps, Army of Northern Virginia

values:
/wiki/Jubal_A._Early
mw-redirect
Jubal A. Early

values: Edit section: Disposition of forces and movement to battle

values: display:inline-block; width:1.5em; height:1.5em; margin:1px 0; border:1px solid black; background-color: #ff0000; color:black; font-size:100%; text-align:center;

values: -webkit-column-break-inside: avoid;page-break-inside: avoid;break-inside: avoid-column

values: display:inline-block; width:1.5em; height:1.5em; margin:1px 0; border:1px solid black; background-color: #0000ff; color:black; font-size:100%; text-align:center;

values: float: right; clear: right; margin: 0.5em 0 0.8em 1.4em; width:30%; padding: 10px; border: 1px solid #aaa; font-size: 88%; background-color: #F9F9F9;

values:
/wiki/James_C._Rice
mw-redirect
James C. Rice

values:
/wiki/Leroy_A._Stafford
mw-redirect
Leroy A. Stafford

values: Edit section: May 6: Longstreet's attacks

values: float: right; clear: right; margin: 0.5em 0 0.8em 1.4em; width:25%; padding: 10px; border: 1px solid #aaa; font-size: 88%; background-color: #F9F9F9;

values: Actions in the Wilderness, May 6 (page does not exist)

values: National Trust for Historic Preservation

values:
/wiki/Washington_city
mw-redirect
Washington city

values:
/wiki/The_Professor_and_the_Madman
mw-redirect
The Professor and the Madman

values: Edit section: Commemorative postal stamps

values: display:table-cell;padding:0.2em 0.2em 0.2em 0.3em;vertical-align:middle

values: margin:0.5em 0 0.5em 1em;border:solid #aaa 1px

values: Troop engagements of the American Civil War, 1864

values: List of costliest American Civil War land battles

values:
nofollow
external text
http://www.fowb.org/jEllwood.html

values:
nofollow
external text
http://www.civilwar.org/walmart08

values:
/wiki/Public_Broadcasting_Service
mw-redirect
Public Broadcasting Service

values:
nofollow
external text
https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/5890637

values: Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era

values: Edit section: Memoirs and primary sources

values:
nofollow
external text
https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/2698769

values:
nofollow
external text
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/4367

values:
nofollow
external text
https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/913186

values: Official Records of the American Civil War

values:
nofollow
external text
https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/62535944

values: commons:Category:Battle of the Wilderness

values:
nofollow
external text
http://www.nps.gov/frsp/wilder.htm

values: Template:American Civil War campaigns in the Eastern Theater

values: Template talk:American Civil War campaigns in the Eastern Theater

values: Category:Battles for McClellan's Operations in Northern Virginia of the American Civil War

values: Category:Burnside's North Carolina Expedition

values: Category:Battles of Longstreet's Tidewater Campaign of the American Civil War

values: Category:Battles of the Operations against Plymouth of the American Civil War

values: Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War

values: History of the United States (1789–1849)

values:
/wiki/Lincoln-Douglas_debates
mw-redirect
Lincoln-Douglas debates

values: Popular sovereignty in the United States

values: Military history of African Americans in the American Civil War

values: Treatment of slaves in the United States

values: nowraplinks collapsible collapsed navbox-subgroup

values: Lower Seaboard Theater of the American Civil War

values: Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War

values: Pacific Coast Theater of the American Civil War

values: Blockade runners of the American Civil War

values: Territory of Arizona (Confederate States)

values: Washington, D.C., in the American Civil War

values: New Mexico Territory in the American Civil War

values: North Carolina in the American Civil War

values: Indian Territory in the American Civil War

values: South Carolina in the American Civil War

values:
/wiki/Benjamin_Butler_(politician)
mw-redirect
Benjamin Butler (politician)

values: Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

values: Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

values: Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

values: South Carolina civil disturbances of 1876

values: Removal of Confederate monuments and memorials

values: Disenfranchisement after the Reconstruction Era

values: List of Union Civil War monuments and memorials

values: List of memorials to the Grand Army of the Republic

values: Roger B. Taney Monument (Annapolis, Maryland)

values: Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument

values: Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee Monument

values: Robert E. Lee Monument (Durham, North Carolina)

values: Robert E. Lee Monument (New Orleans, Louisiana)

values: Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States

values:
Related_topics
font-size:114%;margin:0 4em
hlist hlist-separated

values: List of weapons in the American Civil War

values: Confederate railroads in the American Civil War

values: Field artillery in the American Civil War

values: List of American Civil War Medal of Honor recipients

values: Military leadership in the American Civil War

values: United States Congress Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War

values: Confederate States presidential election, 1861

values: United States presidential election, 1864

values:
/wiki/War_Democrats
mw-redirect
War Democrats

values: Native Americans in the American Civil War

values: Supreme Court cases of the American Civil War

values: nowraplinks hlist collapsible expanded navbox-inner

values: Category:Battles of the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War

values: Category:Inconclusive battles of the American Civil War

values: Category:Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park

values: Category:Battles of the American Civil War in Virginia

values: Category:Webarchive template wayback links

values: Category:Use mdy dates from November 2013

values: Category:Pages using deprecated image syntax

values: Category:All articles with dead external links

values: Category:Articles with dead external links from July 2017

values: Category:Articles with permanently dead external links

values: Discussion about edits from this IP address [ctrl-alt-n]

values: A list of edits made from this IP address [ctrl-alt-y]

values:
/wiki/Battle_of_the_Wilderness
View the content page [ctrl-alt-c]
c

values: Discussion about the content page [ctrl-alt-t]

values: p-namespaces navigation vectorTabs p-namespaces-label

values:
p-variants
navigation
vectorMenu emptyPortlet
p-variants-label

values: Past revisions of this page [ctrl-alt-h]

values: p-views navigation vectorTabs p-views-label

values:
p-cactions
navigation
vectorMenu emptyPortlet
p-cactions-label

values:
mw-wiki-logo
/wiki/Main_Page
Visit the main page

values:
/wiki/Main_Page
Visit the main page [ctrl-alt-z]
z

values: Featured content – the best of Wikipedia

values: Find background information on current events

values:
/wiki/Special:Random
Load a random article [ctrl-alt-x]
x

values: portal navigation p-wikibase-otherprojects p-wikibase-otherprojects-label

values:
uls-settings-trigger
Language settings
0
button
true

values: Թավուտների ճակատամարտ – Armenian

values: Битва в Глуши – Russian

values: Battle of the Wilderness – Simple English

values: /static/images/wikimedia-button-1.5x.png 1.5x, /static/images/wikimedia-button-2x.png 2x

values: /static/images/poweredby_mediawiki_132x47.png 1.5x, /static/images/poweredby_mediawiki_176x62.png 2x

values:
suggestions
display: none; font-size: 13px;

values: mediawiki ltr sitedir-ltr mw-hide-empty-elt ns-0 ns-subject page-Battle_of_the_Wilderness rootpage-Battle_of_the_Wilderness vector-nav-directionality skin-vector action-view