[Illustration: COPYRIGHT, 1911, REVIEW OF REVIEWS CO.]
Another view of Ewell's advanced entrenchments--the bark still fresh where
the Confederates had worked with the logs. In the Wilderness, Lee, ever
bold and aggressive, executed one of the most brilliant maneuvers of his
career. His advance was a sudden surprise for Grant, and the manner in
which he gave battle was another. Grant harbored the notion that his
adversary would act on the defensive, and that there would be opportunity
to attack the Army of Northern Virginia only behind strong entrenchments.
But in the Wilderness, Lee's veterans, the backbone of the South's
fighting strength, showed again their unquenchable spirit of
aggressiveness. They came forth to meet Grant's men on equal terms in the
thorny thickets. About noon, May 5th, the stillness was broken by the
rattle of musketry and the roar of artillery, which told that Warren had
met with resistance on the turnpike and that the battle had begun. Nearly
a mile were Ewell's men driven back, and then they came magnificently on
again, fighting furiously in the smoke-filled thickets with Warren's now
retreating troops. Sedgwick, coming to the support of Warren, renewed the
conflict. To the southward on the plank road, Getty's division, of the
Sixth Corps, hard pressed by the forces of A. P. Hill, was succored by
Hancock with the Second Corps, and together these commanders achieved what
seemed success. It was brief; Longstreet was close at hand to save the day
for the Confederates.