The Battle of the Wilderness was fought on May 5 and 6, 1864, in a densely wooded area of the Virginia countryside. This first clash between the armies of Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee in the Overland campaign was a harbinger of the nonstop fighting and shockingly high casualty rates that stunned the American people in the last year of the war. The Battle of the Wilderness was a bloody stalemate, but Grant’s decision afterward to fight it out until the end turned the tide toward Union victory.
The Battle of the Wilderness was waged at the same place that the Battle of Chancellorsville had been fought one year earlier. The conflict was Grant’s first attack on Lee after having been named commander of all Union armies two months previously. As the Army of the Potomac approached the Rapidan River, Grant had four corps. There were three large infantry corps and also Philip H. Sheridan’s cavalry corps for a total of 118,000 men. Lee had less than half the number of combat-ready soldiers as Grant, but he had the advantage of being familiar with the roads and rugged terrain.
On May 4, most of the Army of the Potomac crossed the Rapidan River without any resistance. Lee had settled on an attack of Grant’s right flank, believing that the Union army was not prepared for an assault. The vicious fighting began along the Orange Plank Road on May 5 and proceeded in a “fog” as the dense forests made artillery useless and caused many soldiers to become disoriented.
By nightfall on May 5, the lines of battle stretched for 5 miles. Lee ordered Gen. James Longstreet to make a night march to support Gen. Ambrose P Hill’s men, who were confronted by a large Union force under the command of Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock. Longstreet’s men arrived the next morning, just in time to avert Hancock’s men from destroying both Confederate flanks. Longstreet prevented defeat and halted the Union onslaught, but at the cost of a large number of casualties. Longstreet was himself wounded by friendly fire as the Union forces retreated. This slowed the Confederate pursuit and allowed the Union army to reorganize. They quickly confronted Confederate army under the command of Gen. Richard H. Anderson. The firefight that broke out was so intense that logs on Union breastworks actually caught fire, literally separating the two armies.
Attacks and counterattacks continued through the day on May 6 and made for a bloody field of battle. Near sundown, Confederate commander Richard S. Ewell attempted to restart the offensive by turning the Union right. Though his initial assault was partially successful, it was not completed due to nightfall. The battle had ended.
Grant had lost his first confrontation with Lee, suffering more than 17,000 casualties compared with the 8,000 inflicted on the Confederates, but he did not retreat. “At present we can claim no victory over the enemy,” Grant wrote of the battle, but “neither have they gained a single advantage.” Grant brought up reinforcements and continued to move the Army of the Potomac, much to their surprise and delight, in the direction of the Confederate capital. He told President Lincoln that, “whatever happens there will be no turning back.” Grant had begun his plan of “total war.” The next stop would be at the Battle of Spotsylvania.
See also Richmond, Virginia.
Further reading: Robert Scott Garth, Into the Wilderness with the Army of the Potomac (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992); Grady McWhiney, Battle in the Wilderness: Grant Meets Lee (Abilene, Tex.: McWhiney Foundation Press, 1998); Gordon C. Rhea, The Battle of the Wilderness: May 5-6, 1864 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1994).
—Scott L. Stabler
World History
