ever, made no demonstration until four o'clock in the after noon. At that hour, Lee, having gotten well in hand the troops of Longstreet and Hill, made an impetuous assault upon Hancock's intrenched position, pressing up to within less than a hundred yards of his front line. Here the Confederates halted, and continued a long and uninterrupted fire of musketry, which, however, had little effect on the troops behind their substantial breastwork of logs, whence they delivered a sharp fusillade; and the repulse of the Confederate attack would have been easy, but for an accident here occurring. In front of the left of the line a fire had, during the afternoon, sprung up in the woods, and at the time of the attack this had communicated to the log breastworks on that part of the line. At this critical moment they became a mass of flame, which it was found impossible to subdue, and which extended for many hundred yards to the right and left. The intense heat and the smoke, which was driven by the wind directly in the faces of the men, prevented them, or portions of the yet uninjured line, from firing over the parapet. The enemy, taking advantage of this, swept forward; a considerable body of the troops in the first line gave way, and retreated in great disor

*

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*

haps one division of the Ninth Corps was deployed in line of battle on the left of the road in the hollow. A long consultation now ensued between Generals Burnside and Park, and Colonel Comstock. No one liked the idea of taking the hill by assault. The idea was entertained that General Crawford was to advance and join on the right of the Ninth Corps; but I explained that if Crawford advanced at all, he would close on the right of Griffin, and advance up the pike away from the Ninth Corps. More than an hour was lost doing nothing, while the firing over by Wadsworth grew very heavy. They finally concluded to abandon this route, and move further to the left, aiming at a point half-way between Tuning's and Tap's. The corps became engaged there about noon, with no decisive result, and fell back towards evening and intrenched."-Notes of a Staff Officer.

Regarding the anticipated effect of Burnside's movements, General Hancock uses the following language:

"I am not aware what movements were made by General Burnside near Parker's Store, on the morning of the 6th; but I experienced no relief from the attack I was informed he would make across my front-a movement long and anxiously waited for."

der towards Chancellorsville, and the enemy, pressing into the breastworks, crowned it with their standards. Yet the victory was short-lived; it was only the more adventurous that had penetrated the breastworks (inside of which, indeed, a few were killed), and these were quickly driven out by a forward rush of Carroll's brigade. Lee then abandoned the attack, in which he had suffered a considerable loss.

This closed the main action of the day; but just before dark, Ewell moved a considerable force around the right flank of the wing held by Ricketts' division of the Sixth Corps, and, in conjunction with a demonstration in front, succeeded in forcing this division back in considerable confusion, making prisoners of Brigadier-Generals Seymour and Shaler, and a considerable number of men. The attack produced a good deal of alarm; but the break was soon repaired, and darkness prevented the Confederates following up the success of this sally.

When the dawn of the third day (Saturday, May 7th) came to light up the dark hollows of the Wilderness, neither army showed any disposition to take the offensive. The terrible conflict of the past two days had left both combatants bleeding and exhausted, and the events of the 7th were confined to a severe but indecisive combat between the opposing cavalry at Todd's Tavern.

The heavy losses Lee had suffered in the battle, in which he had acted on the aggressive quite as much as his antagonist, admonished a more cautious conduct; and though he was willing to be assailed, he dared not venture further attack. When, therefore, the skirmish line was thrown forward on the morning of the 7th, the Confederates were found standing at bay behind their intrenchments.*

* General Grant appears to have drawn an inference from Lee's remaining behind his intrenchments on the morning of the 7th, which facts do not justify. "From this," says he, "it was evident to my mind that the two days' fighting had satisfied him of his inability to further maintain the contest in the open field, notwithstanding his advantage of position."-Report of Operations, p. 6

But the like reasons made Grant equally little minded to renew the assault. Yet the situation was such, that it was necessary either to go forward or to go backward.

Had General Grant chosen to adopt the latter course, he would not have been without precedents. But this step was not only unbefitting his position-it was altogether contrary to his bent of mind. There is much in that commander's temper that recalls that old marshal whom his soldiers named "Marshal Forwarts;" and as Blucher, in the great campaign in France, that ended in the capitulation of Napoleon, would hear of nothing but marching straight on Paris, so Grant, his eyes fixed immovably on Richmond as the goal of all his efforts, the prize he resolved to seize, through whatever seas of blood he might have to wade, pronounced the magisterial word, "Forward!" When darkness came, the columns began their march for Spottsylvania.

The battle of the Wilderness is scarcely to be judged as an ordinary battle. It will happen in the course as in the beginning of every war, that there occur actions in which ulterior purposes, and the combinations of a military programme play very little part; but which are simply trials of strength. The battle of the Wilderness was such a mortal combatcombat in which the adversaries aimed each, respectively, at a result that should be decisive: Lee to crush the campaign in its inception, by driving the Army of the Potomac across the Rapidan; Grant to destroy Lee.

Out of this fierce determination came a close and deadly grapple of the two armies-a battle terrible and indescribable

It is not entirely clear what the lieutenant-general means by "maintaining the contest in the open field." During the two days' battle, both armies pivoted on intrenchments covering their entire front. From these, one side or the other sallied forth to attack his adversary, who endeavored to receive the at tack from behind his breastworks. Lee attacked Grant's force behind intrenched lines, quite as much as Grant attacked Lee's force behind intrenched lines. The real conclusion at which both commanders had arrived was, that farther assault on these lines was hopeless.

in those gloomy woods. There is something horrible, yet fascinating, in the mystery shrouding this strangest of battles ever fought a battle which no man could see, and whose progress could only be followed by the ear, as the sharp and crackling volleys of musketry, and the alternate Union cheer and Confederate yell told how the fight surged and swelled. The battle continued two days; yet such was the mettle of each combatant that it decided nothing. It was in every respect a drawn battle; and its only result appeared in the tens of thousands of dead and wounded in blue and gray that lay in the thick woods. The Union loss exceeded fifteen thousand, and the Southern loss was about eight thousand.*

That this result was a grievous disappointment to General Grant will be readily understood, if account be taken of the expectation with which he set out upon the campaign. General Grant at this time shared an opinion commonly entertained in that part of the country where his own successes had been won the opinion that the Army of the Potomac had never been fought to the uttermost. This belief was, perhaps, natural under the circumstances; for there was much that, to one at a distance, where the peculiar nature of the task given the Army of the Potomac to do was little understood, might inspire this belief. Nevertheless it was fallacious. Sharing this view, General Grant hoped at one blow to finish the troublesome, and seemingly invulnerable, adversary. And to achieve this end, he made little account of those arts that accomplish results by the direction and combi

*This estimate of loss is inferential respecting both sides. The tabular statement of casualties in the Army of the Potomac, embodied in the report of General Meade, gives an aggregate of twenty-nine thousand four hundred and ten killed, wounded, and missing, for the whole period between the 5th and 12th of May. But as the losses in the actions subsequent to the Wilderness, and previous to the 12th of May (which was the date of the main battle at Spottsylvania Courthouse), were probably not much over ten thousand, the aggregate of casualties in the Wilderness might perhaps be safely carried up to nearer twenty thousand. In estimating Lee's losses at eight thousand, I proceed on the basis of the aggregate of Confederate casualties during the entire campaign.

nation of forces; for at this period he avowedly despised manoeuvring.* His reliance was exclusively on the application of brute masses, in rapid and remorseless blows, or, as he has himself phrased it, in "hammering continuously." It soon appeared, however, that the hammer would itself break on the anvil; and, taught a lesson by this, he was thereafter more disposed to accept whatever aid the resources of strategy afford. Great results, indeed, are seldom won save by the employment of both agencies. A well-considered offensive is never incompatible with so manoeuvring as to secure advantageous conditions to strike; and the commander who attempts to renounce these is seldom long in having a costly proof of his error.

Disappointed though he was in the result of the battle, General Grant was, nevertheless, not dismayed nor cast down; but, seizing the masses of his force, he launched them forward to new trials of fortune.

III.

THE LINES OF SPOTTSYLVANIA.

The determination of General Grant to move southward from the Wilderness was formed early on Saturday, the 7th. His purpose was, to plant himself between Lee's army and Richmond, by a movement upon Spottsylvania Courthouse,

I trust the reader will understand that I do not make this statement at random. It is founded on the testimony of the highest authority, and I may mention an incident that corroborates this statement. Shortly before the

opening of the Rapidan campaign, General Meade, in conversation with the lieutenant-general, was telling him that he proposed to manœuvre thus and so; whereupon General Grant stopped him at the word "manœuvre," and said, "Oh! I never manœuvre." This characteristic utterance, which the suavity of biographers might readily pass over in silence, cannot be omitted here; for it is the proof of a frame of mind that essentially influenced the complexion of the campaign. The battle of the Wilderness can hardly be un derstood, save as the act of a commander who "never manœuvred." It was remarked that he was not so unwilling to avail himself thereafter of this resource.