The forces of Hill and Longstreet-the latter having arrived at this time--were massed in a grand attack, intended to envelop Hancock on both flanks. Of the details of the fighting that ensued I know but little. The brigade of Colonel Frank, on the extreme left, was broken, and fell back precipitately. The pressure was so great along the whole line of the command thus assaulted that it was also broken in several places. Portions of the front line retreated in disorder. Officers who commanded there, commanded in some instances troops not their own, and of whose fighting qualities they knew nothing-those officers did their best, but could not stem panic. General Wadsworth, galloping, appealing, commanding, fell from his horse in the front of the battle, deserted by more than half his troops. As gallant a brigadier-general as commands in the Army of the Potomac, finding himself at last alone, with the remains of one true regiment still standing to its work, looked around disgusted, grief-stricken, and in anger, and told that regiment to "run like sheep." The enemy came on and on. Two divisions of Burnside's corps under Park and Wilcox, were marched up and put in on the left of Warren, and General Stevenson's division subsequently marched in, connecting with Birney on Hancock's right. By this means the effort of the enemy to pierce our centre was stayed, our line of battle was made secure behind the intrenchments from which we had advanced in the morning, and the enemy were forced to fall back in turn. There was a lull in the battle; a regathering of armies. The persistent enemy did not give up their purpose; they were marshalling menacing battalions in front of the Second corps and Burnside. They meant to attack again. It came, at half-past four o'clock; and our left wing, which had advanced, regaining some of its ground after the disaster of the forenoon, was again pushed back nearly to the Brock road. The shock of the assault stove in the brigades of General Stevenson, and forced the divisions on his left temporarily out of the breastworks, which were set on fire. A portion of General Gibbon's troops swung to the right and formed in rear; the line was at last restored along the whole length, and the enemy again flung back with immense slaughter. The left and centre of the army thus having attacked and been attacked throughout the day, stood firm at last the field and forest floor before it and around it strewn with its and the enemy's dead, and throbbing with its wounded. It had taken in the course of the day many prisoners; it held a larger part of the field than that occupied in the morning; its losses were se vere. A sullen silence now for a little while, if silence that may be called which is stabbed at slow intervals by the sound of cannon that will never be still. Sink, sun; fall, shadows; come night, and shroud these horrors that the day has wrought! These dead that cannot be buried need some mantle to cover them. These shattered lives, crying for help from every glen and field, and roadside-hide them from those to whom it is enough to hear their despairing struggles! The camp-fires are lighted, the darkness gathers apace; the battle, we hope, is over. No! whatever we may hope, the enemy does not will it. If one could watch where none can watch, in the gloom of the Wilderness, he would see now a dark column, stealing out on the right from the breastworks of the foe, diverging through the forest around our right flank toward the river, silently turning that flank, creeping slowly into its rear, and actually putting up a slight breastwork between it and our unsuspecting front line, that part immediately exposed being the troops of Seymour and Shaler, where they were at the commencement of the day's battle. He would see this flanking line of the enemy lying in wait, while another and stronger column, emerging from the same breastwork it had vacated, formed, preparatory to an attack. All this between six and seven o'clock P. M., in the darkness, and while our men were engaged upon their own breastwork by the light of blinding fires. Down this last column comes, breaking the stillness with yells, and sending a volley calculated to make each individual hair upon the heads of the devoted troops of Shaler and Seymour, erect itself to a perpendicular. The charge is resistless; Seymour's line is doubled up, rolled over, and carried away in an instant; that of Shaler fares not much better. These are troops not of the old Sixth corps; some of them Milroy's men, but who have nevertheless borne themselves gallantly in the two days' fighting. Taken prisoners, flying, finding the rebel line in their rear, turning back to seek some other way, amid the storm of bullets, a few finding their way out at last and reaching the Germania plank-road a mile in rear, they are a parlous sight. And now is seen General John Sedgwick and the gallant young officers upon his staff plunging about in the midst of this melee, and building up order out of the ruin. That presence of the grand old commander-his hat off, his bridle dropped, a pistol in one hand and a sword in the other-is like an incarnate rebuke to these fugitives--an assurance of safety preventing further panic. The enemy come on, raging over the ruins of this route, but to no further conquest. For there is a line of steel which cannot be broken-Neill's magnificent brigade. Against it, as a billow against a rock, the exultant massess of the enemy fall and break, and are thrown back, and retire, while the column in flank, under some strange spell which has kept it quiescent through all, sneaks into the forest toward the river, and is seen alike no more. But the panic appeased in front is not over in the rear. Down to the plank-road through the woods, dismay in their faces and unutterable speed in their legs, the fugutives of the fray are still pursued by threatening echoes. The road becomes populous with them; their tales of horror infuse a contagious uncertainty among officers and orderlies, galloping to front and rear. The ponderous rumor of countless hordes of rebels pouring around our right flank and already coming up the road is swung from mouth to mouth, until it smites the ears of the teamsters of the Sixth corps wagon train, parked near Wilderness Tavern. And now! Was ever a panic like this that lays hold on the souls of these teamsters, and causes an abandonment of suppers and hot coffee, cooking over a hundred fires, and sets the lungs of stalwart men to cursing, and their hands to cruelly plying whips, and the heels of a host of mules, and the wheels of a hundred lumbering wagons rattling and clattering, heaven knows where! There are some men who see through all this easily enough, and have the truth out of it in a few moments' time. Away down the plankroad, right in the faces of the fugitives coming out of the woods, a bonfire has been lighted. A band behind it is playing "Yankee Doodle," and the stampeders are then called upon to rally. In less than half an hour quite a company is got together by this means, and got back to the ranks of the Sixth corps, again firm, advanced, and unmolested, in the Wilderness. This break might have been a severe thing had the enemy been fully aware of his advantages, but he evidently was not, as he did not push them; as it was, Generals Shaler and Seymour, with the greater part of their commands, were taken prisoners. In the afternoon, previous to the evening on which this misfortune occurred, a number of colored regiments, of General Ferrero's command, belonging to Burnside's corps, were sent into the woods in rear of, and between the right of the Sixth corps and the river. What those troops were doing, or where they were, when the flank movement of the enemy above described was in progress, I cannot tell. SATURDAY AND THE NIGHT MARCH. What had been gained in the two days of battle and bloodshed just closed? Something, on the first day, certainly, after granting that the fight was forced upon us from the first. We had concentrated our army; we had repulsed the attempt of the foe to pierce our centre; we had held our own ground, and something more. We held our ground on the second day, and a little more. Yet the field was the same, in fact; the vast extent of the Wilderness was still behind our enemy. The headquarters of the army, established Thursday morning in a grove of pines near Old Wilderness Tavern, on the Germania plank-road, had not been moved. We had captured some prisoners certainly two or three thousand, I believe; the enemy had suffered very greatly from our fire. Our own losses were estimated at about twelve thousand-fif teen hundred killed, eight thousand wounded, and the remainder prisoners and missing. It is doubtful-I say this cautiously, for I do not know-whether the losses of the enemy were quite equal to our own. They fought more than we did behind intrenchments, and used a little, though that was more, artillery than we could bring to bear. The fact seems that there was not much gained, nor much to be gained on either side by fighting on such ground. It was irreverently said by an officer that " both armies appeared to be bumping; bumping, to see which could bump the hardest!" General Lee appears to have made up his mind much after this fashion; and, having failed to accomplish the object sought on our flank, he concluded to remain quiescent. General Grant did not choose to take the offensive. Our right and right-centre had been ordered round, in anticipation of another flank attack during the previous night, and the right now crossed the Germania plank-road about half way between Old Wilderness Tavern and what is called the Spottswood House, facing obliquely toward the river. It was strongly supported by the whole of the artillery of the Sixth corps, posted on heights in the centre, and on rising ground in the rear. Heavy artillery duelling began in the early morning, and was continued at intervals, with occasional musketry skirmishing, during the day. About noon a rather vigorous demonstra tion was made against our centre, and repelled by a portion of the Fifth corps, and a battery which obtained position in the woods. Reconnoissances in the afternoon discovered that the main body of the enemy had fallen back some distance. The news of Torbert's successful engagement with Fitz Hugh Lee's cavalry at Todd's tavern, and the general success of our cavalry in clearing all roads to the front and left, was refreshingly told during the day. General Grant mounted one of his splendid horses at headquarters and made a partial tour along the lines. General Sedgwick and his staff, weary with incessant marching and fighting, lounged under some bushes by the Germania plank-road side. General Grant rode up. General Sedgwick went out to meet him. "Don't get up, General; I just came down for a little visit-that is all !" The Lieutenant-General had a taking way with him when he chose a straightforward way, appropriate to the men he met. The two commanders sat down by the road and talked a quiet talk. The day grew hotter; the bristling lines of battle stretching through the woods, and across the road, and up the slope behind them, seethed and shimmered in the sultry, dusty air. No serious work would be done that day, if all the signs were true. General Grant remounted, rode to headquar ters in the pine grove up the road, threw himself down against a tree, and began to drowse. DOCUMENTS. A drowsy and a curious scene: The Lieuten- Not long! For war is in all the land, and the The first shell of the cannonade strikes with a damage, but finally one plunges into a mess of This is only an episode. The day wears on, At dusk of this day, Saturday, the seventh in- Soon after dark, Saturday evening, a subdued A cheer in front of the junction of the Fifth and Sixth corps, followed by a crackle of musketry, broke in upon this slumber. The enemy felt of our position, got badly hurt in the process, and retired. The march went on. All through the night, hurrying, hurrying; for there was danger that the enemy be marching too. The privilege of rank on that march was to Down from the backs of horses into sleep a little by the roadside, while rank and file moved on. dusky thickets a general and his staff occasionally descended, to slumber sweetly for an hour, and then move forward. The root of a tree, the rut of a road, was a comforting pillow; blessed was the slightest billow of sleep, after the work The morning came, misty and dull; but it was past, and before the work of the morrow. not long before the sun burnt the fog out of the air and set the earth a simmering. And then: I do not speak of the sufferings of men and horses, unhurt and able to tramp, even though each step was heavy with a weight like lead. I only think, but forbear to tell minutely, of the pangs of the hundreds of wounded, rocked and REBELLION RECORD, 1862-65. racked along those parched roads-some of necessity abandoned for the present along the roadsides! Nothing better could be done than was done for these men. I am sure that there was no willing neglect. They could not be left in quiet hospitals while the army moved on; they must move on with it, or be abandoned. Yet every man who rode past that long and suffering procession, felt the hope of victory in his heart rivalled by a deep wish that these sufferers might first reach a quiet haven. Doc. 59. BATTLES OF SPOTTSYLVANIA, VA. BATTLE OF SUNDAY, MAY 8, 1864. the remaining divisions on the left of the Fifth corps. ral attack was given. The enemy (Ewell having At half-past six o'clock the order for a geneby this time come up) was strongly posted in the forest, along the second crest beyond. Our advance was steadily made to the foot of the second hill, when the enemy's fire was first encountered. A splendid charge was made with varying success; the artillery assisting-the artillery of the enemy replying. General Getty's division of the Sixth corps (now commanded by General Neill) rushed into the fire and up to the works in their front, carrying the position. Some of the troops of the Fifth corps wavered. Crawford's division in front had advanced nearly to the enemy's line, when the terrific fire shook rallied, advanced again, again fell back, were their ranks to pieces. They fell back, were rallied again and again, but at the close of the engagement had failed to take the work. Firing ceased about half-past eight o'clock; the first ridge in front of the enemy was gained, and our entire line was there formed and intrenched. Meanwhile General Burnside's forces had marched to the left, Hancock had come up on the right, and lay in support along the Piney Branch road. an Our cavalry penetrated to Spottsylvania Court-house early in the forenoon, finding the enemy's dismounted cavalry there, and engaging them. Word was sent back to General Warren that none of the enemy's infantry were in frout; that the path was clear. General Warren was then on the road below Piney Branch Church. He pushed on vigorously. It is said that he neglected to throw out skirmishers a sufficient distance. When Griffin's division, in the advance, emerged from a dense forest, and entered a field beyond, it came sud-vanced, intrenched, facing the enemy northSunday night, therefore, found the army addenly upon a column of Longstreet's command, west of Spottsylvania Court-house, in which had been pushed in two or three miles irregular, but more semi-circular than otherthis side of Spottsylvania Court-house, and be-wise, line. came hotly engaged, almost without warning. Bartlett's brigade suffered fearfully. The whole division, including that of Robinson, which went in immediately on the left, received, in addition to the musketry fire in front, a storm of grape and shell from front and flank. Longstreet, who was marching with his whole force in parallel lines with us, had stationed a battery on the right, commanding the junction of roads where Griffin first met the enemy. although fighting bravely, were terribly deThe troops, cimated, and gave way. General Robinson fell, wounded in the leg. General Warren, in person, rallied the division. Crawford's Pennsylvania Reserves came advanced into the breach, firing telling volleys. up and steadily Their advance was continued beyond the woods, through a field, and down into a swampy wood beyond, the enemy falling back and leaving a number of prisoners in our hands, chiefly of Hood's Twenty-first Mississippi and Colonel Manning's Third Arkansas regiments. latter officer was captured. By this time the The troops in the rear had been partially reformed, and Crawford's reserves fell back to join the general line. At half-past two o'clock the second advance began. The enemy was found in the edge of the woods, but no attack was ordered. Skirmishing continued about three hours, when the troops were recalled and new lines were formed, to which was added that of the Sixth corps; General Wright's division, if I remember correctly, forming on the right, and occasional patches of open field, but able to that night, and new wounded to fill them. many to sleep no more. Walking among the white tents, where surgeons and nurses were murmuring among the wounded, one asked a foolish question: When is this to end? the first time in all the engagements, held an unbroken line. The day was hot; the enemy's sharpshooters were busy. Perched in forest trees, above the In one corner of a hospital tent, as in many heads and out of sight of our skirmishers, they others that night, lay a dying mana lieutenant played a serious havoc along our lines. No in one of the Massachusetts regiments, engaged officer who showed himself was safe from the during the afternoon. Type of a thousand bullets of these assassins. General W. H. Morofficers, who, like him, have been thus stricken ris, of the Sixth corps, another general officer, and have thus died, his last moments demanded and numerous officers of the staff and line, were the hush and pause rendered by all feet and wounded or killed early in the day. Not even voices in that tent. His face, turned away from some great battles had done us more damage in the battle-field, looked toward the North. A commanders; yet only a slothful boom of handsome, noble face it was, shadowed by dark guns, and a hollow, irregular clatter along the hair, and saddened by the droop of a dark mus- infantry line, were heard until the close of day, tache. His breast was bare; a bandage was when a sharp little engagement occurred, resultdrawn across it, covering a wound, the pain of ing in the further advance of our right and rightwhich disturbed him no more. He lay quietly centre. breathing, as if asleep. He was not asleep, however, for presently, as two or three standing by began to say among themselves that it would soon be over, he put a pale hand, that trembled like an aspen, down beneath his shirt upon the other side, and drew forth what might have been expected, a dull, soiled velvet ambrotype case, which he held a few moments, without attempting to open. One who stood there felt instinctively that the dying man wished but could not ask him to stoop over where he lay. That one bent to hear a faint, broken whisper, beseeching him to take the velvet case and find the one who wore the face within it, and give it back with the blessing of a lover. It would have been well, perhaps, had the one who thus accepted this trust unclasped the case before the hand from which he took it had grown quite cold and motionless. Else, having looked, he might have whispered into the dull ear of the dying lieutenant promise of a surer and speedier meeting with the girl he loved than he could have had but for this day's dark fate. For it happened that he, the living, knew that she, too, had died, and awaited somewhere the coming of what had just departed. OPERATIONS OF MONDAY, MAY 9. In the early part of the previous night Hancock's corps advanced, connecting on the left with Wright's division of the Sixth corps, which connected in turn with Warren, pushing his right across Po creek and seizing the Block House road, running from Parker's store to Spottsylvania Court-house. Hill's corps were discovered marching south, so that on Monday morning the entire army of Lee was again in our front. The artillery began at early dawn, and kept up a lazy firing, occasionally heightened to a combat, throughout the day. The position of our line was advanced and strengthened, from time to time, without a general battle. General Wright's division of the Sixth corps, posted Sunday on Warren's right, was now moved round to join the Sixth, which thus, for almost About the middle of the day General John Sedgwick, who, since the march from Brandy Station, had never left his command, walked out with Lieutenant-Colonel McMahon, his Chief of Staff, to the advanced line of breastworks occupied by his men. A little hum of leaden bees about this place caused the soldiers in the works to dodge and duck their heads. The General smiled at them good-naturedly; he had a winning smile. Finally one bee hummed so near a poor Irishman's auricle that he dropped down upon his face. General Sedgwick touched him with his foot, in humorous disdain: "Pooh, pooh, man! who ever heard of a soidier dodging a bullet! Why, they couldn't hit an elephant at that distance !" There was a laugh at this, even though the straggling bees yet hummed unpleasantly around. The General was still smiling over the banter, when Colonel McMahon heard the buzz of a bullet culminate in what seemed an explosion close beside him. "That must have been an explosive bullet, General." No answer. But as the face of General Sedgwick slightly turned toward the beloved officer at his side, a curious, sad, not despairing, but almost contented smile was upon it. Another moment, and the form of the General fell helplessly backward. It was caught by Colonel McMahon as it fell. A ball had entered the face, just below the left eye, pierced the brain, and passed out at the back of the head. He never spoke afterward, though he breathed softly for a while. He will never speak again, to command or to caress; to punish with disdain and censure; to elevate with reward and praise. O, noble Sixth corps; tried and true Sixth corps; though you have been saddened by the death of many comrades, did you ever weep for a comrade like this? Are your deeds so high, your banners so glorious, now that he who directed them is fallen? Are your lost ones so low, now that he slumbers among them? Oh, well may you speak soft, lips that have shouted defiance; well may you toll slowly, guns that have rung "conquest" at his will! He sleeps; let the battle sleep for a time. He |