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been repulsed, the enemy commenced a more decided demonstration in front of Hill. Heth's division bore at first the whole brunt of the attack, but about four o'clock Wilcox's division was moved up from Ewell's right. For more than three hours the dreadful conflict continued, the enemy attempting to force his way rather by constant pressure than by dashing enterprise. Never was a more gallant spectacle than these two divisions of Confederates holding at bay the Yankee onslaught from three o'clock until half-past seven, firm and unbroken in all that long and dreadful monotony of conflict. Night closed upon the Confederate line in the position it had originally taken. That the day was an unsuccessful one for the Yankees even their own accounts did not hesitate to admit. "No cheer of victory," says a Northern correspondent, "swelled through the Wilderness that night."

During the day Hancock, Second Corps, had come up, and the Federal forces were concentrated. On the morning of the 6th their lines were consolidated and freshly posted; the three corps sustaining their respective positions-Warren in the centre, Sedgwick on the right, and Hancock on the left.

The attack was made by the Confederates, Hill and Longstreet's corps attacking both of Hancock's flanks with such fury that the whole line of command thus assaulted was broken in several places. The effort, however, of the Confederates to pierce the enemy's centre was stayed, the Yankees having secured their line of battle behind their intrenchments.

But with the expiration of the day was to occur a thrilling, and critical conjuncture. Just at dusk (the Confederates' favorite hour of battle) a column of Lee's army attacked the enemy's left, captured Seymour and a large portion of his brigade, and excited a panic which put Grant's whole army on the verge of irretrievable rout. Unfortunately, the Confededrates had no idea of the extent of their success, and could not imagine how fraught with vital issue were those few moments of encounter. The Yankee supply-trains were thought to be immediately threatened, and artillery was posted to bear upon the Confederate advance in that direction. But the Confederates did not press their advantage. As it was, Generals Shaler and Seymour, with the greater part of their commands, were taken prisoners.

Such had been the two days' battle of the Wilderness-a marked success for the Confederates, disputed by the Northern newspapers, of course, but manifest in the face of the facts. The enemy confessed to a loss of twelve thousand.* The immediate consequence of these engagements was, that Grant, being clearly out-generalled in his first design of reaching Lee's rear and compelling him to fight a battle with his communications cut off, which would be decisive of the campaign, was forced to change his plans, and with it his position; falling back to his. intrenched line, between the Wilderness and Trigg's Mill, nearly coincident with the Brock road, leading from the Wilderness to Spottsylvania Courthouse.

On the 7th, with some desultory fighting, Grant continued his movement towards Fredericksburg, with the evident view of attempting the Fredericksburg road to Richmond. It was in consequence of this change of front that General Lee took up a new line on the Po. It will amuse the candid reader to find how this movement was interpreted by the mendacious press of the North; for in the newspapers of New York and Boston it was entitled, in flaming capitals, "A Waterloo Defeat of the Confederates," "The Retreat of Lee to Richmond," &c. For a few days the North was vocal with exultation, and for the hundredth time it had the rebellion "in a corner," to be conveniently strangled. But this imagination of easy conquest was to be dissipated as the many that had preceded it.'

* A correspondent of the London Herald, who witnessed the two days' battle, writes: "The results to the enemy in some parts of the field cannot be described by any word less forcible than massacre. Eleven hundred and twenty-five Federal dead were buried in front of Ewell's line, lying to the left of the turnpike. Five hundred more were buried on the right of that road; and, in addition to about one hundred dead officers, whose bodies must have been removed, the number of corpses lying on the field, within range of the enemy's sharpshooters, is estimated at fully three hundred. The Federal killed in the struggle on the right may, therefore, be declared positively to number as many as two thousand. I have no data on which to estimate the breadth of the slaughter in the fierce conflicts of the right; but from the stubbornness and volume of these, feel quite confident that they must have added to the slain as awful an account as that rendered in front of Ewell. With three thousand prisoners and four thousand dead, the usual proportion of six or seven to one for the wounded, would show that the losses of Grant in the battle of the Wil derness cannot have been less than thirty thousand men."

THE BATTLES OF SPOTTSYAVANIA COURTHOUSE.

On the 8th of May two engagements were fought at Spottsylvania Courthouse, between Longstreet's corps, under Anderson (General Longstreet having been wounded in the battle of the 6th) and the Fifth Corps, under Warren, supported by cavalry. The enemy was repulsed, with heavy loss, in both instances.

On the 9th, which was marked by some skirmishing, General John Sedgwick, one of the most valuable corps commanders in the Yankee army, was killed, probably by a stray bullet. He had just been bantering his men about dodging and ducking their heads at the whistle of Confederate bullets in the distance. "Why," said he, "they couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." The next moment a ball entered his face, just below the left eye, and pierced his brain, causing instant death.

On Thursday, the 17th of May, occurred what may be entitled as the great battle of Spottsylvania Courthouse. The enemy had planned an attack on what was supposed to be a vital section of the Confederates, a salient angle of earthworks held by Johnson's division of Ewell's corps. The storming column advanced silently, and without firing a shot, up to the angle of the breastworks, over which they rushed, taking the forces within in flank, surrounding them, capturing nearly the entire division of Johnson's, with its commander, and also a brigade or two of other troops, Brigadier-General George H. Stuart in command.

But the surprise was only momentary. One of the most thrilling scenes of the war was to occur. In a moment when all was excitement, and when it could be easily seen that unless the Confederates could check the enemy's advance, the consequence would be disastrous in the extreme, General Lee rode forward in front of the Confederate line, his position being opposite at the time to the colors of the Forty-ninth regiment of Pegram's brigade. Not a word did he say. He simply took off his hat. "As he sat on his charger," says a near eyewitness of him, "I never saw a man look so noble or witnessed a spectacle so impressive."

At this interesting moment General Gordon, spurring his

foaming charger to the front, seized the reins of General Lee's horse, and turning him around, said, "General, these are Virginians! These men have never failed! They never will! Will you, boys?" Loud cries of "No, no!" "General Lee to the rear!" "Go back!" "Go back!" "General Lee to the rear!" burst from along the lines; and as one led the general's horse to the rear, General Gordon gave the command, "Forward, charge!" And with a shout and yell the brigades dashed on, through bog and swamp, and briers and undergrowth, to the breast works. For long hours a battle raged over the intrenchments, the intense fury, heroism, and horror of which it is impossible to describe. From dawn to dusk the roar of guns was ceaseless; a tempest of shell shrieked through the forest and ploughed the field. Ewell's corps held the critical angle with a courage that nothing could subdue. General Hill moved down from the right, joined Ewell, and threw his divisions into the struggle. Longstreet came on from the extreme left of the Confederate line. Column after column of the enemy was stricken down, or repulsed and sent back like a broken wave. The ground in front of the Confederate lines was piled with his slain.

The works which the Yankees had captured in the morning contained an angle in the form of an A, with the point towards the enemy. At the close of the day the enemy maintained possession of about three hundred yards of our works in that quarter. The loss in Johnson's division was probably between 3,000 and 3,500, including over 2,000 prisoners. Our whole loss, during the day, amounted to between six and seven thousand. The enemy stated their loss at from 18,000 to 25,000. They captured twenty pieces of artillery. This was their great victory."

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The sixth day of heavy fighting had been ended. would," says an intelligent critic of this period, "not be impossible to match the results of any one day's battle with stories from the wars of the old world; but never, we should think, in the history of man were five such battles as these compressed into six days." Grant had been foiled; but his obstinacy was apparently untouched, and the fierce and brutal consumption of human life, another element of his generalship, and which had already obtained for him with his soldiers the

soubriquet of "the butcher," was still to continue. He telegraphed to Washington: "I propose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer."

But we must turn for a few moments from this dominant field of action and interest to notice other movements, which were parts of Grant's combination, and of the great military drama in Virginia.

While Grant was engaged on the Rapidan, a cavalry expedition of the enemy, commanded by General Sheridan, moved around Lee's right flank to the North Anna River; cominitted some damage at Beaver Dam; moved thence to the South Anna and Ashland Station, where the railroad was destroyed; and finally found its way to the James at Turkey Island, where it joined the forces of Butler. The damage inflicted by this raid was not very considerable; but it was the occasion of a severe fight, on the 10th of May, at Yellow Tavern, on the road to Richmond, where Sheridan encountered a Confederate cavalry force, in which engagement was lost the valuable life of General J. E. B. Stuart, the brilliant cavalry commander, who had so long made Virginia the threatre of his daring and chivalric exploits.

The column of Butler, the important correspondent to Grant's movement, intended to operate against Richmond on the south side, had raised the hopes of the North merely to dash them by a failure decisive in its character, and ridiculous in all its circumstances. On the 5th of May, Butler proceeded with his fleet of gunboats and transports, and the Tenth and Eighteenth army corps, up the James River, landing at Wilson's Wharf a regiment of Wild's negro troops, and two brigades of the same color at Fort Powhatan; thence up to City Point, where Hinks's division was landed; and at Bermuda Hundred, just below the mouth of the Appomattox, the entire army was disembarked.

On the 7th, five brigades, under General Brooks, struck for the Petersburg and Richmond Railroad, and succeeded in destroying a bridge seven miles north of Petersburg. In the mean time, Butler, after intrenching himself, closed about the defences of Drury's Bluff. The Yankee general seemed confident that he could by a little fighting, in conjunction with the powerful flotilla upon the James, easily overcome the main

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