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THE UNION ARMY OUT OF THE WILDERNESS.

be apprised of the movement. He was foiled by delays. First, at Todd's Tavern (where Gregg had fought and defeated Fitz Hugh Lee that day),

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May 8, 1864.

SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT-HOUSE.1

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General Meade's cavalry escort blocked his way for nearly two hours. Two miles farther on, in the midst of a magnificent woods, and near a little tributary of the River Po, he was again impeded by the cavalry division of Merritt, which the day before had been fighting Stuart's cavalry, whom Lee had sent to hold the Brock road. There he was detained almost three hours, and when he was ready to advance it was daylight. The road was barricaded by heavy trees, which had been cut and felled across it, and it was about eight o'clock on Sunday

morning before the head of Warren's column, composed of two brigades under General Robinson, emerged from the woods in battle order at Alsop's farm, upon the high open plain two or three miles from Spottsylvania Court-House. There the road from Todd's Tavern forks, one branch leading toward the court-house, and the other to Laurel Hill. Beyond this plain was a slight depression, and where the road ascended to Spottsylvania Ridge the slope was covered with woods.

Up to this time Warren had met with no resistance, excepting from Stuart's dismounted cavalry, but now, as Robinson advanced over the plain toward the wood, he was met by a cannonade from the ridge and a murderous musket-fire from the forest. Robinson returned the cannonade promptly, but was soon severely wounded, when his troops, wearied by the night's hard march and toil, and depressed by their terrible experience in The Wilderness, were made to recoil. They would have fled in wild confusion back upon the main body, had not Warren appeared at their head at a timely moment. He rallied and re-formed them in the open wood on the edge of the plain, and so prevented a sad disaster. Later in the day Griffin's division, which advanced on the road to the right of Robinson's march, had a similar experience, and, after gallantly fighting, fell back of the second line, when the divisions of Crawford and Wadsworth (the latter now commanded by General Cutler) came up and drove the Confederates from the woods on the right. Warren's entire corps then formed a battle-line, and the troops, without waiting for orders to do so, fell to intrenching.

The foe thus encountered by Meade's advance was the head of Longstreet's corps (then commanded by General Anderson), and was there by seeming accident. The withdrawal of the trains of the Army of the Poto

1 This is a view of the county building of the shire of Spottsylvania, around which grew up a village that derived its name from the edifice. This county received its name from Alexander Spottswood, Governor of Virginia, who owned and worked iron mines in that region, and at what is now known as Germania Ford, he founded a town, the inhabitants of which being chiefly German miners, it was called Germania. The last syllable of Spottswood's name, wood, was Latinized, and hence the name of Spottsylvania.

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SKIRMISHES NEAR SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT-HOUSE.

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mac from the battle-field of The Wilderness apprised Lee of the fact that the army was about to move,' but whither he knew not. It might be to Spottsylvania, or it might be back to Fredericksburg. So he ordered Anderson to take his corps from the breast works and encamp that night in a position to move on Spottsylvania in the morning. Finding no suitable place for bivouacking, on account of the burning woods, Anderson marched that night, simultaneously with Warren, each ignorant of the other's movement. The former arrived in time to throw the head of his column across the latter's path, to confront him with cannon and intrenchments, and to foil his attempt to seize Spottsylvania Court-House. Such were the events which produced the situation we have just considered.

Warren did not feel strong enough to encounter the troops on his front, who were continually increasing in numbers and industriously intrenching on Spottsylvania Ridge, so he awaited the arrival of Sedgwick. He reached the front in the afternoon, and took command of the field in the absence of Meade, who, with all of Hancock's corps but Gibbon's division, had remained at Todd's Tavern, in anticipation of an attack by Lee on the rear of the Army of the Potomac. Sedgwick felt strong enough with the two corps to attempt to drive the Confederates from their advantageous position, but it was nearly sunset before his dispositions for attack were finished. Then a fruitless assault was made by a New Jersey brigade of Neill's division. General Crawford again advanced, when he was unexpectedly struck upon his flank by a part of Ewell's corps that was coming up, and was driven a full mile, with a loss of about one hundred men made prisoners. When night closed in, nearly the whole of Lee's army was in the vicinity of Spottsylvania Court-House, and holding the ridge in front of it, with strong intrenchments, growing more formidable every hour. During the day Wilson had penetrated to the village with his cavalry, but, being unsupported, was compelled to retire. On the same day the brigade of General Miles was thrown out by Hancock on the Catharpin road, with a brigade of Gregg's cavalry and a battery of artillery, to meet any hostile approach from that direction. Near Corbyn's Bridge they were attacked, when the assailants were repulsed and driven. On Sunday night, the 8th of May," Lee stood squarely and firmly across the path of the southward march of the Army of the Potomac, and he held that army in check there for twelve days. On the morning of the 9th, Meade's army was formed in battle order before the Confederate lines. Hancock came up from Todd's Tavern at an early hour, and two divisions of Burnside's corps, on the left, pushed to the Fredericksburg road, driving the Confederates across the little River Ny. In the arrangement of the line, Hancock occupied the right, Warren the center, and Sedgwick the left, with Burnside on his left. General Sheridan

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1 Speaking of this event, a late writer (Professor Henry Coppée) observes: "Spies and traitors were all around our head-quarters. Our signals were discovered and repeated; and with a rapidity which savored of magic and diabolic arts, no sooner had an order been issued by Grant than it was known at Lee's head-quarters. On the other hand, we had no such information. There were not in the rebel ranks, wicked as they were, men as vile as Northern traitors, who, while wearing the uniform of the Republic, living on its bounty, and sworn to protect its glorious banner, were in secret league with the enemy, and doing more to defeat Grant's plans than did the men who were arrayed in battle against him."-Grant and his Campaigns, by Henry Coppée, page 302. It is well understood that emissaries of the Peace Faction, professing loyalty, were at this time in Government employment in the Department at Washington and in the armies in the field, secretly giving aid, in every possible way, to the enemies of the Republic

VOL. III.-98

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was sent that morning, with a heavy cavalry force, to break up Lee's communications with Richmond, and the greater part of the day was spent chiefly in intrenching, and making other preparations for battle. There was skirmishing now and then, when troops moved to take new positions; and the Confederate sharp-shooters, having convenient places for concealment, were particularly active. One of these inflicted irreparable injury upon the Union army, by sending a bullet through the brain of the gallant Sedgwick,

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while he was giving directions for strengthening the intrenchments on his front. He fell dead; and then there was sincere mourning throughout the army, for the soldiers loved him; and the loyal people of the land felt bereaved, for a true patriot had fallen. He was succeeded in the command of the Sixth Corps, on the following day, by General H. G. Wright. On the same day Brigadier-General W. H. Morris, son of the lyric poet, the late George P. Morris, was severely wounded.

Every thing was in readiness for battle on the morning of the 10th. By a movement the previous evening, having for its chief object the "May, 1864. capture of a part of a Confederate wagon-train moving into Spottsylvania Court-House, Hancock had made a lodgment, with three of his divisions, on the south side of the Ny, and he was proceeding to develop the strength of the enemy on the National right, when General Meade suspended the movement. It had been determined to make an attack upon an eminence in front of the Fifth and Sixth Corps, known as Laurel Hill, whose crest was thickly wooded, and crowned with earth-works, which had been previously constructed as a remote defense of Richmond, and Hancock was ordered to recall two of his divisions from the south side of the Ny, to assist in the assault. The divisions of Gibbon and Birney at once retired, when that of the latter was sharply assailed in the rear. The remaining division (Barlow's) was left in a perilous condition, for his skirmishers had just been driven in. With great skill and valor their commander managed his troops, when a new peril appeared. The woods, between his column and the river,

1 This is from a sketch made by the author in June, 1866, taken from the breast works in front of the Union line. Toward the right is seen the logs of the battery, the construction of which Sedgwick was superintending, and near which he fell. The bullet came from the clump of trees on the knoll seen more to the right, on rising ground.

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had burst into flames, and the brigades of Brooke and Brown were compelled to fight Confederates and fire at the same time. They succeeded in repelling the assailants, and recrossed the stream, but with a heavy loss of men and one gun.

Arrangements were now made for assailing Laurel Hill across the Ny, the most formidable position of the Confederate line. It had been attacked, at eleven o'clock in the morning, by the brigades of Webb and Carroll, and,. at three o'clock, the divisions of Crawford and Cutler had assailed it, in: order to prepare the way for the grand assault, in aid of which Hancock's. troops had been recalled. In both attacks the Nationals were repulsed with. heavy loss.

Now came the more desperate struggle. At five o'clock in the evening, when the Second Corps had joined the Fifth, both moved to the attack. The conflict that ensued was fearful. The Nationals struggled up the slopes in the face of a terrible storm of deadly missiles, and penetrated the breastworks at one or two points. But they were soon repulsed, with dreadful loss. The assault was repeated an hour later, with a similar result. In the two encounters nearly six thousand Union troops had fallen, while not more than six hundred of the Confederates had been disabled. Among the Union killed were Generals J. C. Rice and T. G. Stevenson. The enterprise was abandoned, but fighting was not over. Still later, two brigades of the Sixth Corps, commanded respectively by General Russell and Colonel Upton, attacked and carried the first line of Confederate works on their front, and captured over nine hundred prisoners and several guns. They were too far in advance to receive immediate support, expected from General Mott, and were compelled to fall back, taking with them their prisoners, but leaving the guns behind. So ended, at dark, the first day of the Battle of Spottsylvania Court-House. It had been a day of awful strife and slaughter. Not. less than nine thousand Unionists and eight thousand Confederates were lost to the service by death, wounds, or captivity. Yet the respective command-ers, each comprehending the value of victory in the strife upon which they had entered, determined to renew it on the morrow, and made preparations. accordingly. Although a vast number of Unionists had fallen or had been captured within the space of five days, the Lieutenant-General was hopeful,. and, on the morning of the 11th, he sent a cheering dispatch to the Secretary of War, closing with words characteristic of the man,-"I propose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer."1

The 11th was mostly spent in preparations for another battle. There were reconnoiterings and skirmishes, but no serious engagements. The afternoon was rainy, and the night that followed was dark and dismal, for the moon was in its first quarter, the clouds were thick, and the rain still fell. Grant had determined to strike Lee's line at its right center, not far from Mr. Landrum's house, which seemed to be its most vulnerable point, and Hancock was chosen to give the blow. At midnight he left the front of

1 The dispatch was as follows, dated at eight o'clock on the morning of the 11th: "We have now ended the sixth day of very heavy fighting. The result, to this time, is much in our favor. Our losses have been heavy, as well as those of the enemy. I think the loss of the enemy must be greater. We have taken over 5,000 prisoners by battle, while he has taken from us but few, except stragglers. I propose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer."

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Hill's corps, and moving silently to the left, guided only by the compass, he took post between Wright and Burnside, near the house of Mr. Brown, to be in readiness for work in the morning. Then in two lines, the first composed of the divisions of Barlow and Birney, and the second of those of Gibbon and Mott, he moved, under cover of a dense fog, swiftly and noiselessly over the broken and thickly-wooded ground, toward the salient of an earth-work occupied by the division of Edward Johnson, of Ewell's corps. At a proper moment the silence was broken by loud cheers, as the brigades of Barlow and Birney dashed upon the works in a fierce charge, fought hand to hand with bayonets and clubbed muskets, and captured Johnson, with almost his entire division, who were breakfasting. With these, General George H. Stewart' and his two brigades were made prisoners, and nearly thirty guns and many colors were the trophies. Hancock sent over three thousand prisoners back to Grant, with a note, written in pencil, saying: “I have captured from thirty to forty guns. I have finished up Johnson, and am going into Early." It afterward appeared that he had almost captured Lee, and cut the Confederate army in two.

Hancock failed to "go into Early" in the way he anticipated. The enthusiasm of his troops after their success, was unbounded, and seemed equal to any demand. Indeed, they could not be restrained. They pushed forward after flying Confederates through the woods toward Spottsylvania Court-House, for a mile, when they were checked by a second and unfinished line of breast works, behind which the fugitives rallied and turned upon their pursuers. The entire Confederate line had been aroused by the surprise, to a sense of great peril, and the most desperate efforts were made to prevent further disaster, and to recover what had been lost. Ewell was immediately re-enforced by troops from the corps of Hill and Longstreet, and Hancock's victors were thrown back to the line they had captured, and upon them these heavy masses of the foe were thrown.

Grant had anticipated this, and provided for it. Wright was ordered up with the Sixth Corps to the assistance of Hancock. He arrived at six o'clock, and, at eight, Warren and Burnside gallantly attacked the whole Confederate line on their front. Charge followed charge in quick succession, and with great slaughter on both sides, but without avail to the assailants; and, at length, the attack was intermitted, and the divisions of Griffin and Cutler, of Warren's corps, were sent to the assistance of Hancock, who was firmly holding the prize he had won, against great odds. The position of the Confederates in front of Warren and Burnside was so strong, that they not only held it firmly, but sent aid to their friends in front of Hancock, where the battle was raging furiously, for Lee was determined to retake the works Johnson and Stewart had lost. Five times he hurled a tremendous weight of men and weapons upon Hancock, in order to dislodge him. The combatants fought hand to hand most desperately, and the flags of both

1 Stewart was a Maryland rebel, who was conspicuous in Baltimore at the time of the massacre of Massachusetts troops there in the spring of 1861. See page 415, volume I. His fine house and grounds in Baltimore, at this time, were used as an asylum for the sick and wounded, known as the Jarvis Hospital. He was an old army friend of Hancock, and it is related that the latter, on the occasion we are considering, cordially offered his hand to the prisoner, saying: "How are you, Stewart." The absurd rebel haughtily refused it, saying: "I am General Stewart, of the Confederate army, and under the circumstances I decline to take your hand." Hancock instantly replied: "And under any other circumstances, General, I should not have offered it."

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