SPOTTSYLVANIA.

A losing cause never showed a braver front than the Confederacy put on

in the Wilderness. It was a front of iron. A man weaker than Grant

would have quailed before it. It was virtually the same old rim of

fire and death that had confronted McClellan, that had consumed Pope,

that almost destroyed both Hooker and Burnside. Either the Union army

must go through this barrier of flame and destruction and scatter it

like brands of fire to right and left, or else the Union could never

be rebuilded on the foundation of victory.

There was much discussion--and some doubt--in the spring of 1864

whether the Silent Man of Galena, now made Commander-in-chief of the

Union armies, could pursue his military destiny to a great fame with

Robert E. Lee for his antagonist. This talk was bruited abroad; Grant

himself heard it, and had to consider what not a few people were

saying, namely, that he had had before him in the West as leaders of

the enemy only such men as Buckner and Beauregard and Pemberton; now

he must stand up face to face with "Old Bobby Lee" and take the blows

of the great Virginian against whom neither strategy nor force had

hitherto prevailed.

The Man of Galena did not quail. Neither did he doubt. His pictures of

this epoch show him with mouth more close shut than ever; but

otherwise there was no sign. Lee for his part knew that another foeman

was now come, and if we mistake not he divined that the end of the

Confederacy, involving the end of his own military career, was not far

ahead. It is to the credit of his genius that he did not weaken under

such a situation and despair ere the ordeal came upon him; but on the

contrary, he planted himself in the Wilderness and awaited the coming

of the storm.

Let the world know that Grant in entering upon his great campaign, in

the first days of May, 1864, had to do so against the greatest

disadvantages. The country south of the Rappahannock was against him.

The fact of Lee's acting ever on the defensive was against him. The

woods and the rivers were against him. All Virginia, from the Rapidan

to Richmond, was a rifle-pit and an earthwork. The Confederates knew

every hill and ravine as though they were the orchard and the fishing

creek of their own homes. The battlefield was theirs, to begin with;

it must be taken from them or remain theirs forever. To take a

battlefield of their own from Virginians has never been a pleasing

task to those who did it--or more frequently tried to do it and did

not!

It remained for Grant and his tremendous Union army to undertake this

herculean task. He moved into the Wilderness and fought a two-days'

battle of the greatest severity. The contest of the fifth and sixth of

May were murderous in character. The National losses in these two days

in killed, wounded and missing were not less than 14,000; those of the

Confederates were almost as great. In this struggle General Alexander

Hays was killed; Generals Getty, Baxter and McAlister were wounded,

and scores of under-officers, with thousands of brave men, lost their

lives or limbs. Now it was that Lee is reported to have said to his

officers, with a serious look on his iron face: "Gentlemen, at last

the Army of the Potomac has a head."

On the seventh of May there was not much fighting. It is said that in

the lull Grant's leading commanders thought he would recede, as his

predecessors had done, and that not a few of them gave it as their

opinion that he should do so. It is said that when coming to the

Chancellorsville House, he gave the command, "Forward, by the left

flank," thus demonstrating his purpose, as he said four days afterward

in his despatch to the government, "to fight it out on that line if

it took all summer," the soldiers gave a sigh of relief, and many

began to sing at the prospect of no more retreating. General Sherman

has recorded his belief that at this juncture Grant best displayed his

greatness.

With the movement which we have just mentioned, the next stage in the

campaign would bring both the Union and the Confederate armies to

Spottsylvania Courthouse. The distance that each had to march to that

point was about the same. It was at this juncture that the woods in

which the two armies were moving, Grant to the left and Lee to the

right, took fire and were burned. When the Union advance came in sight

of Spottsylvania, Warren, who commanded, found that the place had been

already occupied by the vigilant enemy. Hancock did not arrive in time

to make an immediate attack, and Longstreet's corps was able to get

into position before the pressure of the Union advance could be felt.

At this juncture Sheridan, in command of the Federal cavalry, was cut

loose from the Union army and sent whirling with irresistible speed

and momentum entirely around the rear of the Confederate army,

destroying railroads, cutting communication, burning trains and

liberating prisoners, as far as the very suburbs of Richmond.

The main divisions of the Union army came into position before

Spottsylvania. Hancock had the right wing, and upon his left rested

Warren. Sedgwick's corps was next in order, while Burnside held the

left. Just as the commanders were forming their lines and some men at

a Union battery seemed to shrink from the Confederate sharpshooters,

Sedgwick went forward to encourage them, saying, "Men, they couldn't

hit an elephant at that distance." But the next instant he himself

fell dead! His command of the Sixth Corps was transferred to General

Wright.

It now remained for Hancock on the extreme right to attack the

Confederate left. This was done by Barlow's division, but without

success. This attack and repulse was the real beginning of the battle

of Spottsylvania. The Confederates in front were strongly intrenched,

but near the northernmost point of their works what was thought to be

a weak point in the line was discovered. This point was what is known

as a _salient_. The position, however, was in the thick woods, or was

at any rate concealed by the woods and ravines in front.

As soon as the position was discovered and its nature known, a large

part of Wright's corps was sent against it. The attack was successful.

The line was carried, and about a thousand men captured in the

assault. But the reinforcements were not up promptly, and the

assailants were driven back. A second assault ended in the same way.

This fighting was on the evening of the tenth of May. The battle

continued into the night, and the event hung dubious.

On the eleventh there was a heavy rain, but during that day General

Grant, who placed great confidence in General Hancock and his corps,

moved that brilliant officer to the point of attack before the

_salient_. With the early light on the morning of the twelfth, Hancock

sprang forward to the assault. So sudden and powerful was the charge

that one-half of the distance had been traversed before the enemy knew

what was coming. Then the storm burst wildly. The yell arose from one

side, and the cheer from the other. Hancock's men in great force and

with invincible courage sprang upon the breast-works, clubbed their

guns, or went over bayonet foremost. They were met on the other side

in like manner. The melee that ensued was perhaps the most dreadful

hand-to-hand conflict of the war. The impetus of the Union attack was

irresistible. Great numbers were killed on both sides, and the

Confederates were overpowered.

General Edward Johnson and his division of about four thousand men

were captured in the angle. General Stuart was also taken. He and

Hancock had been friends in their student days at West Point. The

story goes that Hancock, recognizing his prisoner, said, "How are

you, Stuart?" and offered his hand. The hot Confederate answered, "I

am _General_ Stuart of the Confederate army, and under the

circumstances I decline to take your hand." Hancock answered, "Under

any other circumstances I should not have offered it!"

But there was no time for bantering. The very earth round about was in

the chaos of roaring battle. Hancock had taken twenty guns with their

horses, and about thirty battle flags. It was a tremendous capture, if

he could hold his ground. No officer of the Union army ever showed to

better advantage. The world may well forgive the touch of vanity and

bluster in the undaunted Hancock, as he sent this despatch to Grant:

"I have used up Johnson and am going into Hill." He found, however,

that he should have terrible work even to keep the gain that he had

made.

Lee no sooner perceived what was done than he threw heavy masses upon

the position to retake it from the captors. Hancock was now on the

wrong side of the angle! The Confederates came on during the day in

five successive charges, the like of which for valor was hardly ever

witnessed. The contested ground was literally piled with dead. There

was hand-to-hand fighting. Men bayoneted each other through the

crevices of the logs that had been piled up for defences. The storm

of battle swept back and forth until the salient gained that name of

"Death Angle" by which it will ever be known. The place became then

and there the bloodiest spot that ever was washed with human life in

America. The bushes and trees round about were literally shot away. At

one point an oak tree, more than eighteen inches in diameter, was

completely eaten off at the man-level by the bullet storm that beat

against it. That tree in its fall crushed several men of a South

Carolina regiment who still stood and fought in the death harvest that

was going on.

The counter assaults of the Confederates, however, were in vain. They

inflicted terrible losses, and were themselves mowed down by

thousands; but they could not and did not retake the angle. Hancock

and his heroes could not be dislodged. The battle of Spottsylvania

died away with the night into sullen and awful silence, which was

broken only by the groans of thousands of wounded men who could not be

recovered from the bloody earth on which they had fallen. The

antagonists lay crouching like lions, only a lion's spring apart, and

neither would suffer the other, even for the sake of their common

American humanity, to recover his dead.

In the retrospect it seems marvelous that within the memories of men

now living and not yet old, so awful a struggle as that of the Death

Angle in the Wilderness could have taken place between men of the same

race and language, born under the flag of the same Republic, and

cherishing the same sentiments and traditions and hopes.