Fifth. This connection, but for a prompt movement of the enemy, would have been effected at Shady Grove Church, giving possession of an important pike before nightfall.

Toward noon, a lively cannonading announced that the cavalry advance had encountered an opposing force. An attack of Rebel cavalry, of Wade Hampton's division, compelled Wilson to fall back gradually, after a sharp engagement, toward Warren's column, which advanced in support. The principal fighting occurred near Parker's Store, Ewell's corps having come up to oppose Warren. The purpose of Lee to crush the central column, and to interpose a heavy force between our right and left, was now clearly disclosed. The attack was made by Ewell with great impetuosity and persistence. He was supported by the corps of A. P. Hill, which afterward came up by the plank road. The plan was well conceived by the Rebel commander, and the danger of its success was imminent. Griffin's division first encountered the Rebel force, fighting with great bravery (the nature of the country permitting only the use of musketry), and at length, sustained by the other divisions of the same corps, forcing back the enemy, though with severe losses.

The next effort of the Rebel general was to prevent the execution of the movement which Hancock was making, as already described. From half-past two o'clock until after dark, a furious attack was kept up on the divisions of Birney and Gibbons, the entire Second Corps being more or less engaged. The assailants were finally repulsed, but no decisive advantage was gained, beyond the maintenance of the positions already occupied.

Thus closed Thursday, the 5th of May, after well-planned, persistent, and concentrated attacks on the moving and separated columns of our army, which was fortunately so well directed, as not to be altogether out of mutually supporting distance. Both sides seriously suffered. The opening was by no means disastrous, nor yet was it auspicious. The coming day could not but be looked forward to with anxiety, the enemy having manifestly the advantage in position and in knowledge of the country, which was to be the battle-field

From such a scene of action, so difficult for the movement of troops, so beset with the intricacies and entanglements of wild woods but imperfectly known, it may be that other commanders, at an earlier stage of the war, would have thought themselves fortunate in accomplishing a safe retreat. No such thought was now entertained.

Combined with the movement thus commenced by Grant, and an essential element of the situation, was the landing of a considerable army under Butler at Bermuda Hundred, directly threatening Richmond. The army of the Potomac was so advancing as to cover Washington. Lee might now have retired on Lynchburg as his base and assumed the aggressive—and such was not improbably his earlier purpose; but the formidable movement south of Richmond, which he was to defend at all hazards, left him no such alternative. It was on the 5th of May that the new army of the James, under Maj.-Gen B. F. Butler, occupied Bermuda Hundred. This command consisted of the 10th and 18th Army Corps, respectively under Maj-Gens. Q. A. Gilmore and W. F. Smith. The communications south of Richmond were immediately threatened, while a fleet of gunboats, under Rear Admiral S. P. Lee, was ready to advance up the river toward that city. This combined movement below the Rebel capital apparently determined the course of Lee in his present relations to the army which had boldly crossed the Rapidan, threatening the flank of his formidably entrenched forces.

Failing in his efforts to crush our advancing columns, which he had allowed to cross the Rapidan unopposed, Lee now found, on the morning of the 6th, that it was too late, even to retreat at once upon Richmond, his adversary being too close upon his flank. At the same time, he could not abandon that · city to its fate, threatened as he now knew it was, and fall back on Lynchburg. He accordingly determined to give battle, resuming the aggressive, availing himself of his advantages over the Union army, from the nature of the ground, for rapidly concentrating his men at whatever point he chose. On the morning of the 6th his troops were early in motion.

"The Wilderness" will ever be memorable as one of the

bloodiest fields of the war. much the same as that on which the battle of Chancellorsville was fought, the battle-field being in fact, a portion of the same forest. The ill success of the advance, which ended with that engagement, undoubtedly emboldened the Rebel army to hope a like result on the present occasion, and led to that bravery and persistence in assault, which, from the nature of the conflict, necessarily produced an almost unprecedented harvest of carnage and agony.

The character of the country is

In the forenoon of Friday, the 6th of May, Hancock's corps, reinforced by Wadsworth's division of the Fifth Corps, L. A. Grant's brigade from Getty's division of the Sixth Corps, and other forces, advanced on our left, steadily pushing back the enemy (at first apparently only A. P. Hill's Corps), for the distance of about two miles and occupying their front line of breastworks. Hancock held the position gained, until, soon after noon, he was impetuously attacked by heavily massed forces of the enemy, including the corps of Longstreet (who was severely wounded in this action), ard in turn forced back, with serious loss to his former position, of the morning. In like manner, Sedgwick, on the right drove the Rebel forces in his front, but was compelled to yield before the assaults of their reinforced column, giving up all the ground he had gained. Following up their temporary success, the Rebel troops pressed on until the right flank of our army was partly turned, and the danger of fatal disaster seemed imminent. The coolness of Sedgwick, and the well-tried valor of the Sixth Corps, saved the day. In addition to his other losses, however, was that of a considerable number of prisoners, including two commanders of brigades, Gens. Shaler and Seymour. A stampede among the teams in the rear of this corps had commenced just at night, and general confusion was menaced. But the incipient panic, which had not extended to the men in line, was fortunately stayed. During the night, all transportation wagons, and ambulances, were kept in orderly motion. toward Chancellorsville. Some even retired beyond that place, to Ely's Ford, but were promptly recalled in the morning-an advance being intended, and not a retreat. If there

had been a thought, in the minds of any one, of returning north of the Rapidan, the Lieutenant-General himself entertained no such design for a moment.

The Rebel assailants closed the day's work by a night attack, still later than that just spoken of, upon the center, breaking through Warren's lines, forcing him backward for a considerable distance, and compelling Sedgwick's corps to hasten its withdrawal rearward and to the left, to prevent being cut off from the remainder of the army. A stand was ere long made by the Fifth, however, and the final success of this overwhelming attack averted. The rout of the Union army, and its precipitate flight across the Rapidan, which Lee had seemed on the point of accomplishing, was completely foiled. His efforts to that end had cost more heavily than he could afford, without the anticipated success.

The persistent bravery and good conduct of our men, no less than the gallantry of our generals and other officers, were conspicuous in the actions of these two days. Few armies would have stood against such odds. It is a wonder-as the study of this battle will more and more disclose-that any army so situated and so assailed should have escaped annihilation. By his peculiar advantages of communication, Lee was enabled, by his command of roads in the rear of the Wilderness, as we have seen, to precipitate the mass of his army first on our left, repelling the temporarily successful advance of Hancock; then upon the right, forcing Sedgwick backward, after a destructive resistance, ultimately flanking him, partially doubling up his force, and making important captures; and finally piercing the center, being seemingly on the point of driving Warren's corps pellmell, until by reinforcements and skillful dispositions, the latter was enabled to meet the shock.

A portion of Burnside's Corps, which crossed the Rapidan on the 5th, participated in the engagement, and aided to save the day.

The total losses on each side have been variously estimated, but probably fell little short of 18,000 (killed, wounded and prisoners), during the two days. Among the killed was the much lamented Gen. James S. Wadsworth, commander of a

division in the Fifth Corps-a gentleman of large estate, and of large heart, who bravely sacrificed all for his country.

While the two days' fighting has many of the aspects of a drawn battle, and was by no means decisive in result, it may be observed that Grant maintained his purpose of drawing out Lee and establishing himself beyond the Rapidan; while Lee, on the contrary, vainly exhausted all his efforts, with a loss. believed to be relatively (though not actually) greater than Grant's, to force the latter to retrace his steps. The next movement, as will be seen, was, with Grant, a bold advance, and, with Lee, a prompt retreat. The latter had discovered, on the morning of the 7th, the march of our cavalry under Wilson and Gregg toward Spottsylvania Court House, with indications of a general movement in that direction. He immediately began to fall back. His whole line of works on Mine Run was abandoned, and his intrenchments in the Wilderness were only held by a rear guard, while the work of burying his own dead, caring for his wounded and securing the prisoners he had captured, received hurried attention. An attempt appears to have been made to embarrass Hancock on the left, and a claim was put forth by the Rebels that he had, for a time, been driven. There can have been little more than some harassing of his flank, soon obviated by the support which Burnside rendered.

While the Rebel army was moving southward, to take up its new position on the Po river, beyond Spottsylvania Court House, the National forces were executing a nearly unobstructed movement toward the left, by Chancellorsville and beyond Fredericksburg-a substantial pursuit, in the guise of a threatened turning of the enemy's right. Many of our dead and wounded in the Wilderness were unfortunately left on parts of the field that had been crossed and recrossed, remaining in hostile possession. In spite of extraordinary exertions, and a care quite unusual in the midst of movements so engrossing, there were many whose sufferings remained unalleviated for days, or who experienced the added torture of listening helplessly to approaching fires, which ran through the woods, and from which, if they were not actually intended to de