Video: 'Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle of the Wilderness' (May 5, 1864, at 3:06)
(Thursday, May 5, 1864, 1:00 p.m. local time; during the Overland Campaign, part of the American Civil War) — The Battle of the Wilderness, the first battle of Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s 1864 Virginia Overland Campaign against Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, began this morning in a wooded area near Locust Grove, Virginia, about 20 miles west of Fredericksburg.
Fighting broke out when the Union V Corps under Major General Gouverneur K. Warren attacked the Confederate Second Corps, commanded by Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell, on the Orange Turnpike.
That afternoon the Third Corps, commanded by Lieutenant General A. P. Hill, encountered Brigadier General George W. Getty’s division (VI Corps) and Major General Winfield S. Hancock’s II Corps on the Orange Plank Road.
Fighting, which ended for the evening because of darkness, was fierce but inconclusive as both sides attempted to maneuver in the dense woods.
Video: 'Ken.Burns.The.Civil.War.6of9.Valley.Of.The.Shadow.Of.Death' (Battle of the Wilderness at 26:59)
At dawn on May 6, Hancock attacked along the Plank Road, driving Hill’s Corps back in confusion, but the First Corps of Lieutenant General James Longstreet arrived in time to prevent the collapse of the Confederate right flank.
Longstreet followed up with a surprise flanking attack from an unfinished railroad bed that drove Hancock’s men back, but the momentum was lost when Longstreet was wounded by his own men.
An evening attack by Brigadier General John B. Gordon against the Union right flank caused consternation at the Union headquarters, but the lines stabilized and fighting ceased.
Both armies suffered heavy casualties, nearly 29,000 in total, a harbinger of a war of attrition by Grant against Lee’s army and, eventually, the Confederate capital, Richmond, Virginia.
The battle was tactically inconclusive, as Grant disengaged on May 7 and moved to the southeast, intending to leave the Wilderness to interpose his army between Lee and Richmond, leading to the Battle of Todd’s Tavern and Battle of Spotsylvania Court House.
