354

LAST EFFORT OF THE ENEMY.

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and a lull at this point came in the contest. But, at four o'clock, Longstreet coming up, having made a forced march of twenty-five miles, Lee resolved to make one more desperate effort to turn our left and double it up on the army.

The enemy came on in four lines, and fell with such desperation on Hancock that he succeeded in breaking his firm formation, and, for a moment, the battle seemed lost. When the startling news was borne to Grant, he replied, "I don't believe it." But Gibbon's division was promptly formed in rear of the break, and the headlong torrent that was pouring through was stopped. For three-quarters of an hour, the battle raged here with terrible ferocity. Longstreet was determined to complete what he had so auspiciously begun, and hurled his columns forward with a desperation and gallantry, that could not be surpassed. Hancock, however, knowing that the battle lost here was lost everywhere, disputed every inch of ground with a stubbornness that neither valor nor numbers could overcome.

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The use of so little artillery, made this one of the most remarkable battles on record-over two hundred thousand men fought in a vast jungle.

"There in the depths of those ravines, under the shadows of those trees, entangled in that brush-wood, is no pomp of war, no fluttering of banners in an unhindered breeze, no solid tramp of marching battalions, no splendid strategy of the fields Napoleon loved to fight on. There a Saturnalia, gloomy, hideous, desperate, rages confined. That metallic, hollow rack of musketry, is like the clanking of great chains about the damned; that sullen yell of the enemy, a fiendish protest and defiance. How the hours lag; how each minute is freighted with a burden that the days would have groaned to bear in other times! Still, the sad, shuddering procession, emerging out of the smoke and tumult and pass

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A VIVID DESCRIPTION

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ing on. Still the appealing eyes, and clenched hands, and quivering limbs of human creatures, worse than helpless, whose fighting is over. The paths are full of them, the roads are thick with them, the forest seems to take up the slow movement, and move with them like giants hovering over the funeral of Lilliputians. Piled in ambulances, they move on further yet, while the torturer of battle plies on below, making more victims. Here and there, beside some path, you shall see a heaped blanket, labeled by some thoughtful bearer with the name of the corpse beneath it bore in life; here and there, you shall come across a group of men bending over one wounded, past help, and dying an agonized death. And often-too often-the' shameful spectacle of one bearing a weapon, unhurt, pallid and fear-stricken, flits through an opening toward the rear, and is gone. You shall meet with soldiers, in groups of one, or two, or three, hidden in some thicket, or coolly making coffee by the road-side. And hearing the roar of the battle below, and seeing the bloody trail of the battle behind, it shall be a glad thing to see these men hunted by officers back, with curses, to the ranks, to share the dangers of their nobler

comrades.

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"About this battle there is a horrible fascination. It is like a maelstrom. You feel it sucking you in, and you go nearer to see men fall like those you have seen fallen. Down through the break, underneath the edges of the smoke, where the bullets are thick, and the trunks of trees, like the ranks of men, sway and fall with the smiting of shells, you have a little view of the courage and the carnage of this fight. There are the enemy, retreated to the breastworksa ragged pile of fallen trees and heaped up earth-hiding their heads, spitting lead and flame. Here is the Sixth Corps what you can see of it-plunging on, firing continually, tumbling over branches and limbs, sinking waist-deep

in swamps, fighting with its might, and bleeding at, every pore."

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The covering of the trees, and the absence of cannon, made it a very close contest the lines often almost meeting in the fierce encounter. For seven miles, the forest, was alive with the confused sounds of this awful struggle, out of which arose fierce jets of smoke, that settled in a vast and sulphurous cloud above the green tree-tops. The dead and wounded lay thick as autumn leaves along the low ridges and slopes, and in front of the hastily thrown up intrenchments, and when night put an end to the contest, the "Wilderness" was dreary and desolate indeed. After dark, the enemy made an attack on our left, in which Seymour and Shaler were taken prisoners, with a large number of troops.

The battle, on this day, was the decisive one, and at its close, it was evident that Lee had put forth his greatest effort, and just at the moment too when Grant was in a position to be beaten, if ever he could be. Still the latter was not certain that the attack would not be renewed in the morning, and he, therefore, during the evening, selected a new and stronger position, and contracted his lines. But Saturday brought no renewal of the attack, and the day was spent in reconnoissances and skirmishes along the whole line. The result of the day's operations, was a conviction, on the part of Grant, that the enemy was preparing to retreat, and he, therefore, determined, weary as his army was, to throw it forward by a rapid, night march towards Spottsylvania. If he reached this place first, Lee would be cut off from Richmond, and compelled to give him battle in the open field. Accordingly, at ten o'clock, our advance started off through the gloom.

The moon had been, down for an hour, and the army passed like a mighty shadow over the sterile country. "The fires burned brightly, and at a distance, upon the wooded

hillsides, looked like the lights of a city. Standing upon an eminence, at the junction of the Germania, Chancellorsville, and Orange Court-House roads, along which the tramp of soldiers, and the rumble of wagon trains, made à smothered din, one could almost imagine himself peering down through the darkness on the streets of a metropolis, in peace. Back in the forest, from the hospitals, from the trees. from the roadside, the wounded were being gathered in ambulances for the long, night journey. That part of the army, not on the move, was slumbering by its fires, waiting for the signal."

Lee, however, was soon made aware of the movement, and dispatched Longstreet, an hour later, to the same point. The two exhausted columns marched by parallel roads, but Longstreet had the shortest distance to go in the race, and reached Spottsylvania first.

BATTLE OF SUNDAY, MAY 8TH.

Warren's Corps was in the advance, in the march for this vital point, and Bartlett's brigade, of Griffin's division, was crdered to attack the place at once, on the supposition that only cavalry held it. But, to his astonishment, this Commander run into Longstreet's whole Corps, and was shivered to fragments one regiment, the First Michigan, losing threefourths of its number in fifteen minutes. Robinson's divis ion, on the left, finding itself confronted by an overwhelming force, also gave way in disorder.

At that critical moment, Warren, with his Staff, arrived on the field, and fired at the sight of the disordered ranks, spurred forward and seizing a division flag, rallied the troops by his gallant bearing, and held them firmly to the shock, until the other portions of his Corps could arrive. From eight till twelve-for four hours-he maintained the unequal

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DEATH OF SEDGWICK

struggle, and, at length, gained an open space which led up to the rebel line of battle, that stretched through a piece of woods.

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Two fresh divisions coming up-Crawford's and Getty'san attack was made on the enemy's position just at evening, and after an hour and a half of severe fighting, the first line of breastworks was carried, though with heavy loss to us. The next morning Grant saw his line advanced to within less than three miles of Spottsylvania Court-House, and well intrenched.

MONDAY.

This was a sad day, for it took from the army one of its ablest Commanders. Sedgwick having gone out in advance to superintend the placing of some batteries, noticed that one of the gunners dodged, as the sharp whistle of a bullet < sounded near. Amused at the man's nervousness, he said, pleasantly, "Pooh, man, you can't hit an elephant at that distance"-referring to the nearest enemy in sight when the bullet, of a sharp-shooter ensconced in one of the neighboring trees, entered his eye, and passed directly into his brain. The blood gushed from his nostrils, and with a serene smile on his face, he fell into the arms of his Assistant AdjutantGeneral. A poble man, a strong leader, a great General, and one of the firmest props of Grant, he fell where he always preferred to fall, on the field of battle, with his face to the foe.

Monday was a day of comparative quietude, though there was constant skirmishing. Hancock had crossed the Po and thrown up intrenchments, working all night by the light of lanterns, hung in the blossoming cherry trees. Heavy cannonading occured at intervals, along the line, and an attack of the enemy was expected, but was not made in any force or determination.