WILDERNESS, BATTLES or THE. The name given to a series of engagements which gook place in Virginia, between the federal and the confederate forces, in 1864. The " Wilderness" is an extensive tract of table-land stretching southward from the s. bank of the Rapidan, seamed with ravines, and, exctipting a few small clearings, covered with a dense growth of dwarf timber and underbrush. At the period of the opening of the campaign of 1864, of the army of the Potomac, the confederate army, under gen. Lee, occupied the bluff ridges which skirt the s. bank of the Rapidan. This was a position made strong by uature; and which had been so strengthened by works, that a direct attack upon it would have proved fruitless; and he could only be drawn from it by a _turning movement. It would have been more easy to have flanked Lee's left; but that movement would have separated Grant too far from his base of supplies, and Grant concluded to cross the Rapidan by its lower ford, and turn Lee's right. The plan of gen. Grant was, in fact, to gain the rear of the confederate army, and he, had given the instructions necessary to the fulfillment of this purpose to his corps commanders. But instead of retreating out of the region which bears that name, Lee fought the battles of the Wilderness.—The army of the Potomac, under the immediate command of gen. Meade, broke camp on May 3d, 1804, and crossed the Rapidan by the various fords, the second corps under gen. Hancock having the left. and bivouacking at Chancellors ville. One hundred thousand men, with the enormous train of 4,000 wagons, were per mitted by Lee to cross the river unmolested; doubtless with the design that this vast mass of men and impediments should become entangled in the wilderndss, and he de stroyed or captured. On the morning of the 5th the confederates attacked the right of the union advance, and later in the day the left became heavily engaged behind breast works hastily thrown up, and such natural defenses as the character of the country offered. This day's fight was marked by the loss of brig.gen. Alexander Hays, a chival rous and intrepid union soldier and leader. The light on the 5th was mainly with A. P. Hill's corps, and on the 6th Longstreet came into action with a heavy force, against which -were brought the 2nd and a part of the 9th corps, supported by Sheridan's cavalry, which sharply attacked the enemy. While the right of the union line was being severely pressed by the confederates, attacked the left in force, and drove it back with heavy loss, being finally supported by re-enforceinents commanded by Lee in person, when the union breastworks were captured, though they were afterward re taken. After the fight at Chapeellorsville; which resulted in its defeat with very heavy loss, the federal army retreated along what was known as the Brock road. In this, the last battle of the wilderness, ten thousand men were killed and wounded, on both sides; the union loss being the greater, particularly in officers. It had been gen. Grant's design, in crossing the Rapidan, to turn Lee's flank, and get between him and Richmond. This intention was temporarily defeated by the stern resistance offered in the wilderness; but with the dogged tenacity which characterized him, Grant returned to it immediately after the fight, ordering his columns forward toward Spottsylvania court-house, in which movement Lee immediately. followed him, marching his army by roads nearly parallel
with that followed by the union forces. There was no fighting on the 7th, and the union army pushed forward on that date with the .5th corps in the advance, with orders to siege Spottsylvania court-house. In this, however, the confederates anticipated them, and when the 5th corps (gem Warren) reached the open plain near the court-house, it was met by a murderous fire on the part of Longstreet's corps,which had already reached this point. This was on the 8th, late in the afternoon, and the union army formed under Are, the 5th corps being supported by the 2d (Hancock's), with a brigade of heavy artillery massed in rear of the line of battle, but which was afterward withdrawn by orders from headquarters.. On the 9th there was constant firing by confederate sharp shooters, and 13 OW fell gen. Sedgwick, the brave commander of the 6th corps, who was shot in the face, while rallying his men. There was no heavy fighting on the 9th, but on the 10th there was a general attack all along the line, and the union army suffered greatly and was forced to retire. On the 12th the series of disasters was in a ineagure retrieved; the celebrated " Stonewall " confederate brigade being captured almost in its entirety, including 4,000 prisoners, 20 pieces of artillery, with horses, caissons, and ma terial complete, several thousand stand of small arms, and more than 30 battle-flags: among the prisoners were maj.gen. Edward . Johnson and brig.gen. George Stuart. It was in this day's fight that maj.gen. Lee, seeing the battle going against him, attempted to lead a charge of Early's men in person, and was only restrained from periling his own safety through the earnest remonstrances of his officers, and loud cries from the men of " gen. Lee to the rear I" The battle was not renewed until the 18th, and on the 19th a movement was made to the North Anna,and thence to Cold Harbor and the Chick ahominy. A running fight was kept up until June 12th, when Grant made his change of base to the James river, making a march of 55 m. across to a point just below Harrison's landing; Lee's army not interfering with the withdrawal of the union forces from their ill-starred campaign in the wilderness. The two armies during this campaign of 43 days, numbering each about 100,000 men, lost about equally. The design of gen. Grant, however, was foiled by the shrewd maneuvering of Lee, and the fierce fighting of the confederate solders. Gen. Hancock, after the wilderness, when asked where the second corps was, answered that "it lay buried between the Rapidan and the James." This was hardly an exaggeration, as that corps alone lost 9,762 men between May 4 and 27. This corps suffered more in proportion than the others, but the entire campaign was a period of frightful slaughter on both sides: and this, though the union advance reached a point within 15 m. of Richmond, without any strategic or other military success to balance it.