General Longstreet’s corps was opposed to General Hancock’s; General A.
P. Hill’s to Warren’s; and Ewell’s to Sedgwick’s. General Griffin’s
division was the first to engage the enemy. His troops advanced about a
mile across the turnpike, and encountered the rebels under General
Ewell, and for the space of one hour the fighting continued with great
spirit, and severe loss. General Griffin’s division was at length driven
back; but the Fourth and Second divisions, under Generals Wadsworth and
Robinson, advancing to his aid, held the enemy in check and drove him
back. In this brief engagement the Federal loss was one thousand men.
The enemy’s next movement was to endeavor to gain a position between the
corps of Generals Warren and Hancock on the left centre. The fighting at
this point began about three o’clock. The carnage here was indescribably
frightful; the battle raged with terrible fury; and the well-tried and
brave soldiers on the extreme left—Hancock’s corps—were probably never
so hard pressed. A correspondent thus describes the battle at this
point: “Getty’s division, Sixth corps, was at the right of the Orange
Plank-road, fronting toward Mine Run, where Carr’s division, Second
corps, joined him on his left. The other divisions of Hancock’s corps
were pushing up; in the twinkling of an eye the rebels were upon him in
great force, with the evident purpose of turning our left. The ground
was closely overgrown with shrub trees, thick as sprouting shoots from
the same root. In a few minutes urgent requests came back for
reinforcements. The enemy was repeating his tactics of Chancellorsville
by falling with tremendous force and impetuosity upon one wing. This
time he was not repulsed, but foiled. The battle raged for three hours
precisely where it began, along a line of not more than half a mile.
Fast as our men came up they were sent in—still no ground gained, none
lost. It was all musketry, roll surging upon roll—not the least
cessation. We were fighting twenty thousand men, and such was the nature
of the country that but two guns could be planted bearing upon the
enemy. Hayes’s brigade of Birney’s division became warmly engaged soon
after the battle commenced. A little while and he asked for
reinforcements. Hancock sent back word: ‘I will send a brigade within
twenty minutes. Tell General Alex. Hayes to hold his ground. He can do
it. I know him to be a powerful man.’ Within that time General Hayes was
killed, and his body brought to the rear. The work was at close range.
No room in that jungle for manœuvering; no possibility of a bayonet
charge; no help from artillery; no help from cavalry; nothing but close,
square, severe, face-to-face volleys of fatal musketry. The wounded
stagger out, and fresh troops pour in. Stretchers pass out with ghastly
burdens, and go back reeking with blood for more. Word is brought that
the ammunition is failing. Sixty rounds fired in one steady stand-up
fight, and that fight not fought out. Boxes of cartridges are placed on
the returning stretchers, and the struggle shall not cease for want of
ball and powder. Do the volleys grow nearer, or do one’s fears make them
seem so? It must be so, for a second line is rapidly formed just where
we stand, and the bullets slip singing by as they have not done before,
while now and then a limb drops from the tree-tops. The bullets are
flying high. General Hancock rides along the new line, is recognized by
the men, and cheered with a will and a tiger. But we stay them. The
Second corps is all up, and it must be that troops will come up from
Warren or Sedgwick, or else they will divert the enemy’s attention by an
attack upon another quarter. Yes, we hold them, and the fresh men going
in will drive them. I ride back to general headquarters, and learn that
an advance has been ordered an hour ago along the whole line. General
Meade is in front with Warren, and Grant is even now listening for
Wadsworth’s division of Warren’s corps to open on Hill’s flank, for it
is Hill’s corps that is battling with Hancock. The latter reports that
he shall be able to maintain his ground. The severe fighting for the day
is over, and it is sunset.”
During this time the right had also been hotly engaged. The fighting
began with an attack by General Sedgwick upon the line opposing him; and
the result was a furious battle. Two divisions, only, of Sedgwick’s
corps were engaged—the third had not taken position. A desperate effort
was made by the enemy to turn Sedgwick’s right, and the enemy bore so
hard upon him that he was obliged to send to General Burnside, whose
corps from Fredericksburg had now joined the army, for assistance. A
brief lull occurred at this moment, just long enough to give an
opportunity for the reinforcements to come up. Rickett’s division came
into line and supported Sedgwick’s now almost exhausted troops. Again
the enemy advanced, and the fight recommenced with increased fury;
volley after volley succeeded each other in regular succession and with
deafening roar. At this time, and throughout the whole battle of the
Wilderness, the musketry firing far exceeded that of any other battle
during the war. Hour succeeded hour, and the heat of the conflict never
seemed to abate, but ever and anon to rage more furiously than before;
till at length, two hours after it had become so dark that the
combatants could no longer distinguish each other, the battle terminated
for the night. The enemy was driven back with very heavy loss, nor was
that of the Federals much less severe. Many gallant officers fell upon
the ground they fought for. Though the battle resulted in heavy loss of
men, it was a great gain, and terminated in a decided victory to the
Union troops, the enemy having been completely repulsed at every point
which he had attempted throughout the day.
SECOND DAY’S FIGHT OF THE WILDERNESS.
At five o’clock upon the following morning, while the sun was slowly
breaking though the light mist that hung above the earth, the battle was
resumed. At first slow and far between, the shots rapidly increased,
until at six o’clock the fight had become furious all along the line,
and so continued during the entire day. Both armies were intrenched
behind their hastily formed works—those of the rebels being much the
stronger; and in the space between, the battle was contested with all
the desperation of men putting forth their whole strength in a last
effort—with all the determined valor of soldiers who fought upon the
side of right, and already felt themselves the victors. In some places
the ground was fought over and over again, four, five, even six times
during the day.
General Hancock’s position was furiously assailed by an overwhelming
force of the enemy, who, after overcoming a gallant and desperate
resistance, drove back his troops, and repossessed the ground which the
Unionists had gained upon the previous day. General Seymour’s division
was thrown into dire confusion by an attack from General Longstreet’s
troops, and driven back for some distance. General Warren was furiously
pressed along his whole line, but his brave men resisted every attack
with incomparable gallantry, and held their position without losing
ground an inch, until darkness put an end to the battle.
Toward evening General Hancock attacked the rebels in the position they
had won from him, and fought them with such unconquerable bravery and
determination, that he succeeded in driving them from their ground, and
pursued them for nearly a mile. When night had come, General Hancock
again occupied his breastworks, to the admiration of all who had beheld
his brave conduct during the heat and fury of the battle. The ground
between the two armies was covered with the dying and the dead. The
rebel loss, especially, was appalling, but they had also gained
something; for in the confusion that followed the retreat of the
division holding the extreme right, the enemy had succeeded in
effectually turning the Union right flank.
The Union loss during the two days’ fighting was estimated at fifteen
thousand men. On both sides there was a serious loss of brave general
officers. Of General Grant’s army, General Hayes and General Wadsworth
were killed. Of Lee’s army, Generals Jones, Jenkins, and Pickett were
killed; and Generals Pegram, Hunter, and Longstreet severely wounded.
The latter was struck in the throat, and, at the time, was believed
mortally injured. He was unable to take the field for many months.
The death of General Wadsworth was to the Union cause an almost
irreparable loss. No man made greater sacrifices for his country; and
none will be held in more honorable recollection.
* * * * *
General Wadsworth was born at Geneseo, in the State of New York, on the
30th day of October, 1807; and was, at the time of his death, in the
fifty-seventh year of his age. He was educated at Harvard and at Yale
colleges, from both of which institutions he graduated with honors. He
entered the office of a lawyer in Albany, began the study of the legal
profession, and completed his legal studies under the tuition of Daniel
Webster; and was, at the age of twenty-six, admitted to the bar. A few
years later, Wadsworth began to devote himself to local politics, and
was known as a free-soil democrat; but in 1856 he took strong sides with
the republican party in the State of New York. During 1859–60 he was
named as republican nominee for Governor of the State, but was on that
occasion unsuccessful. In the early part of the war Wadsworth offered
his services to the government, and in 1861 was appointed by Governor
Morgan as one of the major-generals of the State troops in the field.
This appointment was, however, revoked, as the appointment of generals
in the field was vested solely in the United States Government. At the
period of Wadsworth’s recall the communications with Washington were
broken by destruction of the railroad bridges in Maryland. In this
emergency Mr. Wadsworth chartered a vessel, furnished it with supplies,
and set sail for Annapolis. Mr. Wadsworth was appointed a volunteer aid
with the rank of major on the staff of General McDowell when that
officer’s army took the field preparatory to the battle of Bull Run, and
thus participated in that campaign. Major Wadsworth was next appointed
brigadier-general of volunteers, the rank dating from August 9, 1861,
and he was afterward placed in command of a brigade of the Army of the
Potomac, then being organized in Virginia, in front of Washington. In
March, 1862, when the army advanced upon Manassas Gap, Wadsworth was
placed in command of the District of Columbia, including the National
capital, as military governor. On the removal of the main army to the
peninsula he was appointed commander of the military district in
Washington, which included the District of Columbia, the City of
Alexandria, the defensive works south of the Potomac from the Occoquan
to Difficult creek, and the forts at Washington. General Wadsworth held
this command till near the end of the year. In September he was
nominated as candidate against Horatio Seymour, as governor of the State
of New York, but was defeated at the election. From this time General
Wadsworth devoted himself exclusively to the military service. He took
the field and was engaged in the battle of Fredericksburg, December 13,
1862. He was then placed in command of the first division of General
King’s army corps. He was engaged in the battle of Chancellorsville in
May, 1863, and commanded the extreme left division; he conducted the
expedition which crossed the Rappahannock four miles below
Fredericksburg. When the Army of the Potomac was reorganized for its
grand campaign under Grant, General Wadsworth was assigned to the
command of the fourth division of the Fifth corps, under General Warren,
at the head of which, he bravely met his death.
THE THIRD DAY’S BATTLE.
On Saturday brisk skirmishing between the two armies was kept up all
along the line for the greater part of the day. A brigade of the enemy,
commanded by General Gordon, cut off communication between General
Sedgwick and Germania Ford, and obliged Sedgwick to withdraw toward
Wilderness Tavern. In the course of the afternoon, it became evident
that General Lee was withdrawing his main force toward Spottsylvania
Court House, and General Burnside moved his corps out on the road
leading to the same point. In the course of the night orders were issued
to the surgeons in charge of the hospitals to remove their sick and
wounded to Ely’s Ford, and the supply trains were ordered to move in the
direction of Todd’s tavern. Subsequent to these changes, Fredericksburg
became a depot for the sick and wounded, and was also made a basis for
supplies.
In the course of the afternoon of Saturday, a sharp engagement took
place between the Union and rebel cavalry—the loss on both sides being
about equal, and not exceeding two hundred and fifty on either side. In
the shadow of the darkness, Generals Burnside and Sedgwick moved along
the old Chancellorsville road, and arrived at a field near Spottsylvania
about noon of the following day. In the mean time General Warren, having
marched the whole of Saturday night, also reached a place within three
miles of Spottsylvania Court House, at an early hour in the morning.
Here he encountered the troops of General Ewell, together with a portion
of Longstreet’s command, who had also reached the same place, about the
same time. In fact, the two armies had raced from the Wilderness
battle-ground, in order to gain the choice of position at Spottsylvania;
but the rebels had arrived first, and had thus gained the advantage. On
Sunday morning the National troops were formed in line of battle two and
a half miles north of Spottsylvania Court House. The rebels opposed
them, defiant and formidable. Then began the terrible
BATTLE OF SPOTTSYLVANIA.
MAY 8–12, 1864.
While the advance troops of Warren’s corps pressed down the road, shells
were thrown into their ranks with great rapidity, but the enemy fell
back before them, making but feeble resistance. A short distance further
on—at a place called Alsop’s farm—the artillery of the enemy was found
to be stationed. The Union batteries were speedily placed in position to
command those of the enemy. The Union battle line was hastily formed,
and comprised General Griffin’s division on the right, and General
Robinson’s on the left.
Firing began immediately on both sides. The Unionists advanced in a
strong line upon the enemy, driving him back into a clearing in the
woods at his rear, and then began the serious work of the day. The
National troops rushed forward upon the enemy with all the impetuosity
of dauntless bravery, and the fight became general in all directions.
The remaining two divisions of Warren’s corps, commanded by Generals
Crawford and Cutter—the latter in command of the lamented General
Wadsworth’s troops—were hurried forward with all possible haste. The
slaughter was horrible—men fell not by twos, or threes, or dozens, but
by scores and hundreds, till the very earth seemed to sicken with the
deluge of blood poured out upon its bosom. For four hours a battle
raged, which, for the bravery displayed by the participants, the fury
with which it was carried on, and the carnage it created, was not
exceeded by any fight during the war. It will be understood, of course,
that all this fighting took place before the arrival of the remaining
corps of the army. The troops of General Warren, opposed as they were to
three times their own number, felt how much depended on their holding
their ground, and they fought with almost unexampled desperation. At the
close of four hours one brigade of the Sixth corps came to the
assistance of General Warren’s troops, which thus reinforced, not only
held the enemy at bay, but drove him back. This closing struggle lasted
for a considerable time, and was by far the fiercest of the day. The
enemy threw his entire strength upon the Union line, but was nobly
repulsed at every point, and compelled to fall back. With the exception
of the single brigade alluded to above, the Fifth corps did the whole of
the fighting of this hard-fought, well-won, and bravely contested day’s
battle.
Many officers were wounded, among whom were General Robinson, Colonel
Dennison, and Captain Martin. Major Stark and Colonel Ryan were killed.
The regiments suffered terribly, especially the First Michigan, which
went into the fight two hundred strong, and came out with a remnant of
twenty-three. The Union loss in killed, wounded, and missing was
estimated at thirteen hundred.
No great battle took place on Monday, the 8th. The time was occupied for
the most part in skirmishing, followed at intervals by heavy
cannonading. Toward evening General Grant ordered an advance on the
enemy, which was made by the divisions of Generals Birney and Gibbon,
followed by General Carroll’s brigade. This force crossed over to the
south bank of a branch of the Po river, where a severe battle with
infantry and artillery took place, both sides charging alternately. The
Unionists were finally obliged to retire, and the enemy held
Spottsylvania Court House.
Upon this day the National cause suffered one of its greatest losses in
the death of an officer whose place could not easily be filled. One of
the most gloomy and saddening calamities of the disastrous battles of
Spottsylvania Court House, was the death of General John Sedgwick,
commanding the sixth corps. General Sedgwick was an almost recklessly
brave man, and constantly exposed to the enemy’s bullets a life too
precious to have been held lightly. He was killed on Monday morning, by
a sharpshooter, while superintending the placing of a section of
artillery. The ball entered his head one inch below the left eye, and
passed out at the back of the right ear, causing instant death. No
general of the United States service was more highly respected or more
sincerely beloved.
General Sedgwick was a native of Cornwall, Litchfield County,
Connecticut, to which place his ancestors removed from West Hartford one
hundred and twenty years ago, and he resided on the old homestead, which
has been in possession of the family during all these years. His
grandfather, General John Sedgwick, was an officer in the Revolutionary
War, and transmitted an honored name to the distinguished Sedgwick
families of Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York. General Sedgwick
was born in 1811, and graduated at West Point in 1837.
He was always warmly attached to the Litchfield home, and in all his
active military life looked forward to the time he might retire to it in
his declining years. Just before the rebellion broke out he had
seriously contemplated such retirement, and on the first demonstration
of treason he told a relative that his hope had been to leave public
life, but added that it could not be now, for his country needed his
services. In private life General Sedgwick was an unassuming, retiring
man, possessing strong feelings and attachments. He was never married,
but kept up his ancestral estate under the care of an unmarried sister,
who was devotedly attached to him.
The remains of General Sedgwick were brought to New York city, where
they lay in state at the City Hall, and were subsequently taken to his
native home, where he was buried with military honors.
* * * * *
Terrible as had been the fighting of the previous days, it did but serve
as a prelude to that of Tuesday, the 10th. The belligerents still
occupied substantially the same positions which they had held upon the
previous day. The Union army faced the rebels in a crescent-shaped line,
extending, from end to end, about six miles. The enemy was protected by
a line of forest and underbrush along his whole centre; and at other
points by strong breastworks. At an early hour preparations were made
for the grand assault, but the attack did not take place until a late
hour in the afternoon. From time to time severe skirmishing occurred
between the combatants, becoming with every hour more severe, till at
last it merged into a general and most desperate engagement. General
Grant had given orders for the decisive attack upon the enemy to be made
precisely at five o’clock. As the hour drew near the anxiety and
excitement became intense. At that time the enemy were discovered in
force upon the right flank, and immediate preparations to meet this
onslaught became necessary, which delayed the preconcerted attack.
General Grant, however, was equal to that emergency, and the enemy was
met and held in check. The assault upon the rebel lines was then fixed
for half past six o’clock; and the enormous columns of the whole army
rapidly gathered together for the coming struggle. At the precise time a
discharge burst at the same instant from the mouths of twelve signal
guns, and put the whole mass of men in motion. Cheer after cheer burst
from the patriot ranks as they swept resistlessly onward, which was
answered back by savage yells from the defiant foe.
The enemy were driven into their intrenchments in gallant style, and
Upton’s brigade of Wright’s division, Sixth corps, got into the rebel
rifle-pits, capturing twelve guns and about one thousand prisoners.
Not being supported by other portions of the line, who were unable to
gain the tier of works in their front, this brigade was forced to
evacuate its advanced position, leaving the captured guns after spiking
them, but bringing off all the prisoners.
The enemy suffered heavy losses during the fight, from shells falling
into their works, and the destructive infantry fire, which was delivered
with remarkable precision.
In writing of this battle a correspondent of the daily press speaks in
the following language:
“The woods between the contending armies were all on fire from shells,
and the wind blowing strong to the northward, gave the enemy a decided
advantage over our troops, who were stifled and blinded by the heat and
smoke. Numbers of the wounded of both sides must have been burned to
death by the devouring element.
“At dusk the scene was one of awful sublimity. A battery of
thirty-two-pounders posted on the right of the Spottsylvania road, kept
up an incessant fire until half-past eight, when quiet was restored.”
The National loss in this most terrible battle was estimated at ten
thousand men; the rebel loss was not less severe. The loss in Federal
officers was very heavy. Among the killed were Brigadier-Generals
Stevenson and Rice.
The enemy’s position was, unquestionably, very strong; but the favorable
results of the fighting were all on the Union side. It was at this time
that General Grant sent to Major-General Dix his celebrated dispatch,
couched in the following words:
“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 five thousand prisoners in 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._”
On Wednesday, the 11th, the fighting of the day consisted of sharp
skirmishing, which at no time emerged into a battle. During the
afternoon a refreshing rainstorm visited the thirsty earth—the first
rain which had fallen during the campaign. It was indeed welcome,
cooling the atmosphere and laying the dust which had, together with the
excessive heat, almost stifled the soldiers.
Upon the following day, the 12th, the battle was again resumed with
great violence. A dense fog succeeded the rain of the previous day,
veiling the earth in mist, through which the armies could with
difficulty distinguish each other. The first movement was made by the
Second corps, which moved up to the enemy’s lines at the dawn of day.
The first line was formed by the divisions of General Birney and General
Barlow; and the second line by the divisions of Generals Gibbon and
Mott. General Barlow’s division, moving in battalions, advanced boldly
across the rugged and woody space separating the two armies; and soon
with a loud cheer rushed forward upon the enemy’s intrenchments. With
louder and more exultant cries the brave fellows leaped over the
intrenchments, and dashed upon the astonished enemy, compelling their
surrender in a body. An entire division of the rebels was completely
surrounded, and officers and men obliged to surrender. Three thousand
prisoners—including two general officers—General Edward Johnson, and J.
H. Stewart—were captured. Immediately after this very brilliant feat
General Hancock dispatched the following report: “I have captured from
thirty to forty guns. I have finished up Johnson, and am now going into
Early.”
The next assault was made upon the second line of rebel rifle-pits,
which were taken possession of after a long and desperate resistance.
Immediately following this the whole line became engaged. Like all great
battles, the scene was one of appalling grandeur. Hour after hour passes
by, but no one takes any note of time—the roar of battle—with all the
varied cries, shrill and hoarse, shrieks and groans—is all that is
heard; and the clouds of smoke, the flash of fire, and the reeling and
falling of the dead and wounded is all that is seen. At times, while the
shrill and appalling battle cry which leads on each assault of the
columns is silent, the stifled groans of the wounded are heard, and
trains of litter bearers and ambulances follow each other, bearing away
the wounded.