THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS.
May 5–7, 1864.
When the battle began the rebels were disposed in the following manner: General Longstreet’s corps was opposed to General Hancock’s; General A. P. Hill’s to Warren’s; and Ewell’s to Sedgwick’s. General Griffin’s division was the first to engage the enemy. His troops advanced about a mile across the turnpike, and encountered the rebels under General Ewell, and for the space of one hour the fighting continued with great spirit, and severe loss. General Griffin’s division was at length driven back; but the Fourth and Second divisions, under Generals Wadsworth and Robinson, advancing to his aid, held the enemy in check and drove him back. In this brief engagement the Federal loss was one thousand men. The enemy’s next movement was to endeavor to gain a position between the corps of Generals Warren and Hancock on the left centre. The fighting at this point began about three o’clock. The carnage here was indescribably frightful; the battle raged with terrible fury; and the well-tried and brave soldiers on the extreme left—Hancock’s corps—were probably never so hard pressed. A correspondent thus describes the battle at this point: “Getty’s division, Sixth corps, was at the right of the Orange Plank-road, fronting toward Mine Run, where Carr’s division, Second corps, joined him on his left. The other divisions of Hancock’s corps were pushing up; in the twinkling of an eye the rebels were upon him in great force, with the evident purpose of turning our left. The ground was closely overgrown with shrub trees, thick as sprouting shoots from the same root. In a few minutes urgent requests came back for reinforcements. The enemy was repeating his tactics of Chancellorsville by falling with tremendous force and impetuosity upon one wing. This time he was not repulsed, but foiled. The battle raged for three hours precisely where it began, along a line of not more than half a mile. Fast as our men came up they were sent in—still no ground gained, none lost. It was all musketry, roll surging upon roll—not the least cessation. We were fighting twenty thousand men, and such was the nature of the country that but two guns could be planted bearing upon the enemy. Hayes’s brigade of Birney’s division became warmly engaged soon after the battle commenced. A little while and he asked for reinforcements. Hancock sent back word: ‘I will send a brigade within twenty minutes. Tell General Alex. Hayes to hold his ground. He can do it. I know him to be a powerful man.’ Within that time General Hayes was killed, and his body brought to the rear. The work was at close range. No room in that jungle for manœuvering; no possibility of a bayonet charge; no help from artillery; no help from cavalry; nothing but close, square, severe, face-to-face volleys of fatal musketry. The wounded stagger out, and fresh troops pour in. Stretchers pass out with ghastly burdens, and go back reeking with blood for more. Word is brought that the ammunition is failing. Sixty rounds fired in one steady stand-up fight, and that fight not fought out. Boxes of cartridges are placed on the returning stretchers, and the struggle shall not cease for want of ball and powder. Do the volleys grow nearer, or do one’s fears make them seem so? It must be so, for a second line is rapidly formed just where we stand, and the bullets slip singing by as they have not done before, while now and then a limb drops from the tree-tops. The bullets are flying high. General Hancock rides along the new line, is recognized by the men, and cheered with a will and a tiger. But we stay them. The Second corps is all up, and it must be that troops will come up from Warren or Sedgwick, or else they will divert the enemy’s attention by an attack upon another quarter. Yes, we hold them, and the fresh men going in will drive them. I ride back to general headquarters, and learn that an advance has been ordered an hour ago along the whole line. General Meade is in front with Warren, and Grant is even now listening for Wadsworth’s division of Warren’s corps to open on Hill’s flank, for it is Hill’s corps that is battling with Hancock. The latter reports that he shall be able to maintain his ground. The severe fighting for the day is over, and it is sunset.”
During this time the right had also been hotly engaged. The fighting began with an attack by General Sedgwick upon the line opposing him; and the result was a furious battle. Two divisions, only, of Sedgwick’s corps were engaged—the third had not taken position. A desperate effort was made by the enemy to turn Sedgwick’s right, and the enemy bore so hard upon him that he was obliged to send to General Burnside, whose corps from Fredericksburg had now joined the army, for assistance. A brief lull occurred at this moment, just long enough to give an opportunity for the reinforcements to come up. Rickett’s division came into line and supported Sedgwick’s now almost exhausted troops. Again the enemy advanced, and the fight recommenced with increased fury; volley after volley succeeded each other in regular succession and with deafening roar. At this time, and throughout the whole battle of the Wilderness, the musketry firing far exceeded that of any other battle during the war. Hour succeeded hour, and the heat of the conflict never seemed to abate, but ever and anon to rage more furiously than before; till at length, two hours after it had become so dark that the combatants could no longer distinguish each other, the battle terminated for the night. The enemy was driven back with very heavy loss, nor was that of the Federals much less severe. Many gallant officers fell upon the ground they fought for. Though the battle resulted in heavy loss of men, it was a great gain, and terminated in a decided victory to the Union troops, the enemy having been completely repulsed at every point which he had attempted throughout the day.
SECOND DAY’S FIGHT OF THE WILDERNESS.
At five o’clock upon the following morning, while the sun was slowly breaking though the light mist that hung above the earth, the battle was resumed. At first slow and far between, the shots rapidly increased, until at six o’clock the fight had become furious all along the line, and so continued during the entire day. Both armies were intrenched behind their hastily formed works—those of the rebels being much the stronger; and in the space between, the battle was contested with all the desperation of men putting forth their whole strength in a last effort—with all the determined valor of soldiers who fought upon the side of right, and already felt themselves the victors. In some places the ground was fought over and over again, four, five, even six times during the day.
General Hancock’s position was furiously assailed by an overwhelming force of the enemy, who, after overcoming a gallant and desperate resistance, drove back his troops, and repossessed the ground which the Unionists had gained upon the previous day. General Seymour’s division was thrown into dire confusion by an attack from General Longstreet’s troops, and driven back for some distance. General Warren was furiously pressed along his whole line, but his brave men resisted every attack with incomparable gallantry, and held their position without losing ground an inch, until darkness put an end to the battle.
Toward evening General Hancock attacked the rebels in the position they had won from him, and fought them with such unconquerable bravery and determination, that he succeeded in driving them from their ground, and pursued them for nearly a mile. When night had come, General Hancock again occupied his breastworks, to the admiration of all who had beheld his brave conduct during the heat and fury of the battle. The ground between the two armies was covered with the dying and the dead. The rebel loss, especially, was appalling, but they had also gained something; for in the confusion that followed the retreat of the division holding the extreme right, the enemy had succeeded in effectually turning the Union right flank.
The Union loss during the two days’ fighting was estimated at fifteen thousand men. On both sides there was a serious loss of brave general officers. Of General Grant’s army, General Hayes and General Wadsworth were killed. Of Lee’s army, Generals Jones, Jenkins, and Pickett were killed; and Generals Pegram, Hunter, and Longstreet severely wounded. The latter was struck in the throat, and, at the time, was believed mortally injured. He was unable to take the field for many months.
The death of General Wadsworth was to the Union cause an almost irreparable loss. No man made greater sacrifices for his country; and none will be held in more honorable recollection.
General Wadsworth was born at Geneseo, in the State of New York, on the 30th day of October, 1807; and was, at the time of his death, in the fifty-seventh year of his age. He was educated at Harvard and at Yale colleges, from both of which institutions he graduated with honors. He entered the office of a lawyer in Albany, began the study of the legal profession, and completed his legal studies under the tuition of Daniel Webster; and was, at the age of twenty-six, admitted to the bar. A few years later, Wadsworth began to devote himself to local politics, and was known as a free-soil democrat; but in 1856 he took strong sides with the republican party in the State of New York. During 1859–60 he was named as republican nominee for Governor of the State, but was on that occasion unsuccessful. In the early part of the war Wadsworth offered his services to the government, and in 1861 was appointed by Governor Morgan as one of the major-generals of the State troops in the field. This appointment was, however, revoked, as the appointment of generals in the field was vested solely in the United States Government. At the period of Wadsworth’s recall the communications with Washington were broken by destruction of the railroad bridges in Maryland. In this emergency Mr. Wadsworth chartered a vessel, furnished it with supplies, and set sail for Annapolis. Mr. Wadsworth was appointed a volunteer aid with the rank of major on the staff of General McDowell when that officer’s army took the field preparatory to the battle of Bull Run, and thus participated in that campaign. Major Wadsworth was next appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, the rank dating from August 9, 1861, and he was afterward placed in command of a brigade of the Army of the Potomac, then being organized in Virginia, in front of Washington. In March, 1862, when the army advanced upon Manassas Gap, Wadsworth was placed in command of the District of Columbia, including the National capital, as military governor. On the removal of the main army to the peninsula he was appointed commander of the military district in Washington, which included the District of Columbia, the City of Alexandria, the defensive works south of the Potomac from the Occoquan to Difficult creek, and the forts at Washington. General Wadsworth held this command till near the end of the year. In September he was nominated as candidate against Horatio Seymour, as governor of the State of New York, but was defeated at the election. From this time General Wadsworth devoted himself exclusively to the military service. He took the field and was engaged in the battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862. He was then placed in command of the first division of General King’s army corps. He was engaged in the battle of Chancellorsville in May, 1863, and commanded the extreme left division; he conducted the expedition which crossed the Rappahannock four miles below Fredericksburg. When the Army of the Potomac was reorganized for its grand campaign under Grant, General Wadsworth was assigned to the command of the fourth division of the Fifth corps, under General Warren, at the head of which, he bravely met his death.
THE THIRD DAY’S BATTLE.
On Saturday brisk skirmishing between the two armies was kept up all along the line for the greater part of the day. A brigade of the enemy, commanded by General Gordon, cut off communication between General Sedgwick and Germania Ford, and obliged Sedgwick to withdraw toward Wilderness Tavern. In the course of the afternoon, it became evident that General Lee was withdrawing his main force toward Spottsylvania Court House, and General Burnside moved his corps out on the road leading to the same point. In the course of the night orders were issued to the surgeons in charge of the hospitals to remove their sick and wounded to Ely’s Ford, and the supply trains were ordered to move in the direction of Todd’s tavern. Subsequent to these changes, Fredericksburg became a depot for the sick and wounded, and was also made a basis for supplies.
In the course of the afternoon of Saturday, a sharp engagement took place between the Union and rebel cavalry—the loss on both sides being about equal, and not exceeding two hundred and fifty on either side. In the shadow of the darkness, Generals Burnside and Sedgwick moved along the old Chancellorsville road, and arrived at a field near Spottsylvania about noon of the following day. In the mean time General Warren, having marched the whole of Saturday night, also reached a place within three miles of Spottsylvania Court House, at an early hour in the morning. Here he encountered the troops of General Ewell, together with a portion of Longstreet’s command, who had also reached the same place, about the same time. In fact, the two armies had raced from the Wilderness battle-ground, in order to gain the choice of position at Spottsylvania; but the rebels had arrived first, and had thus gained the advantage. On Sunday morning the National troops were formed in line of battle two and a half miles north of Spottsylvania Court House. The rebels opposed them, defiant and formidable. Then began the terrible