American Civil WarStuff Happened · War
Battle · Eastern Theatre
Battle of the Wilderness
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May 4
The woods Lee picked on purpose
Grant pushes a vast army into the thicket to march through it; Lee strikes inside the woods, where cannon cannot aim and numbers do not count.
2May 5
First contact in the brush
Ewell (South) meets Warren (North) on the Turnpike, Hill (South) meets Getty (North) and Hancock (North) on the Plank Road: a confused, bloody draw that leaves Hill’s corps tangled.
3May 6
The day of the great attacks
Hancock (North) nearly breaks Hill (South) at dawn; Longstreet (South) saves the line and rolls up Hancock’s flank, then is shot by his own men, as Jackson was a year before.
4May 7
The night Grant turned south
Beaten by every old rule, Grant does not retreat. He marches the army south past Lee, and the men cheer in the dark.
5The meaning
The men marching back across their own bondage
Grant’s army carried formerly enslaved men from these very counties, the most literal answer to what the blood was for: slavery was the reason.