Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

CHAPTER XXXIX.

THE CAMPAIGN OF THE WILDERNESS.

(May 3, 1865, to June 20th.)

PLANS OF GENERAL GRANT.-BATTLES OF THE WILDERNESS.-DESPERATION OF THE ANTAGONISTS. EATH OF GENERAL WADSWORTH.-FIRST MICHIGAN REGIMENT.—THE CARNAGE OF WAR.GENERAL MEADE'S CONGRATULATORY ORDER.-FURIOUS ATTACK ON OUR BAGGAGE-TRAIN.— GRANDEUR OF THE ARMY.-FLANK MOVEMENT OF GENERAL GRANT.-ATTACK ON PETERSBURG.

IMMEDIATELY after General Grant had been raised to the post of Lieutenant-General, and had thus been constituted Commander-in-Chief of all the Armies of the United States, he held an interview with the President in Washington. In response to the inquiry, "What is next to be done?" it is said that he replied, "Destroy Lee's army, and take Richmond." General Lee was then strongly intrenched with a veteran army, one hundred thousand strong, upon the southern banks of the Upper Rapidan. He was here very formidably posted in a series of earthworks, which his whole army, under the guidance of the most able engineers, had been many months constructing. The plan adopted by General Grant was widereaching, and one which called for the most prompt and energetic action. General Sigel, with a small but effective army of observation, was placed in the Valley of the Shenandoah, that the rebels might not be able to make a rush upon Washington through that oft-frequented route. General Butler, with nearly thirty thousand troops, including ten thousand colored soldiers, was to make a show of advancing upon Richmond, by aid of transports, up the York River, and across to the Chickahominy. Having by this feint diverted the attention of the rebels, he was suddenly to descend the York, and ascend the James to City Point, and thus menace Richmond with an attack from the south.

Should the rebels in Richmond send a large force to the aid of General Lee, General Butler was to march impetuously upon the capital. Should they, on the other hand, endeavor to concentrate a large force south of the James to crush Butler, he was then to intrench himself, and await the approach of General Meade's army, which was then on the north side of the Rapidan. General Grant was to establish his head-quarters with Meades' army facing Lee. General Sherman, in Georgia, was to push the campaign, he was so heroically conducting, with all vigor, that the rebels there might not be able to send any reënforcements to the aid of their beleaguered confederates in Richmond. Meade's army, which was over a hundred thousand strong, was to march upon Richmond, either driving Lee before

them in direct vigorous assault, or dragging him after them, as by flank movements they menaced his rear. General Burnside was, in the mean time, accumulating a coöperating force at Annapolis, to advance by Acquia Creek, and unite with General Meade. Profound secrecy envel oped the plan, until it was developed in energetic action.

On Tuesday, May 3, 1864, at midnight, General Grant secretly crossed the Rapidan by fords and pontoon bridges, a few miles below the intrenchments of the rebels. His passage was not opposed. Energetically the patriot army pressed forward in its flank movement, to gain the rear of the foe. The rebels, under their able leader, General Lee, rushed from their ramparts, and endeavored to break through and crush General Grant on his line of march. It was a day of terrific battle. On the two sides, six thousand were struck down by death or wounds. The rebels were beaten back.

During the night both parties prepared to renew the conflict. Scarcely had the sun of the next day risen, ere the roar of battle again ran along the lines. The billows of war rolled to and fro, through the ravines, and the jungles, and the massive forest, and the dead and dying were strewed around like autumnal leaves. Night closed the scene, and the rebels were again baffled.

At night the army was posted along a line six or eight miles in length. The Second Corps camped at the old battle-ground at Chancellorsville. The Fifth, under General Warren, was at the Wilderness Tavern, and the Sixth, under General Sedgwick, at Germania Ford, where LieutenantGeneral Grant and General Meade established their head-quarters.

On Thursday morning, before the dawn of day, the reveillé summoned the troops to resume their march. They moved in three columns, by roads tending to the south. General Warren was on the right, General Hancock occupied the centre, and General Sheridan, with his cavalry, covered the extreme left. The army had not proceeded far before there were indications that the enemy was advancing directly from the west, in great force, to fall upon the centre of our line and break through it. General Grant selected some rolling ridges, posted his troops, threw up some hasty breastworks, and awaited the onset. The line of battle thus formed extended nearly five miles, running northwest and southeast. General Sedgwick held the right, General Warren the centre, and General Hancock the left. They were in the midst of the Wilderness, and the ground was covered with a dense growth of pines and dwarf oaks, with such an impenetrable entanglement of undergrowth, as to render operations with cavalry or artillery almost impossible. About noon the battle commenced, by an attack upon a portion of our line which had been sent forward a mile in advance to find the foe. The patriot troops, attacked by superior numbers, were compelled to fall back with the loss of two pieces of artillery. The retreating troops were soon met by reënforcements, and, after a sharp battle, the enemy were induced to move off to attack us at some other point.

It was manifestly the object of General Lee to fall, with all possible desperation, upon our army while on the march, and, breaking through the

i

The contest was stubborn and But there was a hail of musketry The rebels fought with desper

line thus exposed, to destroy the army before it could concentrate its strength upon any field of battle. About three o'clock in the afternoon, the enemy again, in great force, emerged from the forest, and made a desperate attack upon our left centre. bloody. Artillery could not be used. almost unsurpassed in the annals of war. ation. The patriots, taken at disadvantage, and conscious that the loss of the battle might prove the ruin of the campaign, maintained their ground, regardless of wounds and death. Hancock, Birney, Barlow, Gibbons, Hays, Wadsworth, Robinson, the noble commanders of men worthy of their command, rolled back the surges of the rebel flood hour after hour, until far into the night. It was a sublime spectacle in that forest, when the gloom of night enveloped it, to witness the flash of scores of thousands of guns, as invisible combatants hurled the leaden storm against each other. The volleys were so regular and incessant, that they echoed through the Wilderness like pealing thunder. The line along which the battle raged was not more than half a mile in length. The rebels, in a column twenty thousand strong, had hurled themselves with almost superhuman ferocity upon our thin line of march.

General Alexander Hays, who, with General Birney, was bearing the brunt of this tremendous onset, sent back an imploring cry for reënforcements. Hancock replied, "I will send him a brigade in twenty minutes. Tell him to hold his ground. He can do it. I know him to be a powerful man." As fresh troops were poured in, hundreds of wounded, bleeding men were staggering back, to get beyond the reach of the deadly fire. Stretchers were passing in all directions with their ghastly burdens. The stretchers went back for fresh victims, laden with boxes of cartridges to supply the failing ammunition. The result of the battle was a splendid repulse of the rebels. They felt sure of being able to break through our line, which that night extended about six miles. But they were completely and bloodily foiled. The loss on both sides was heavy. That of the rebels is not known, for their bulletins were seldom entitled to any credit. According to their reports, almost every battle was a rebel victory, in which the "cowardly Yankees" were repulsed with fearful slaughter. The unintelligent, semi-barbarian people of the South were easily deluded by such fables. Our own loss, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, was between two and three thousand. The respective losses were probably equal. During the day, General Burnside, with his force of about thirty thousand, advancing from Alexandria, joined General Meade's army.

Friday morning, May 6th, dawned brightly. Cloudless skies sublimely curtained the luxuriant forest. Flowers bloomed everywhere in wild profusion. Bird-songs filled the air. And beneath those sunny skies, and surrounded by the bloom and the melody of May, one hundred thousand rebels again emerged from their lairs in another deadly onset. During all of Thursday night both parties had been preparing for the renewal of the struggle.

Before five o'clock, the rebels, in great force, commenced their attack upon General Sedgwick. Rapidly the roar and the carnage of battle

spread. Assault after assault was made by the rebels, now upon this point, now upon that. Though the fortunes of battle were variable, the Stars and the Stripes gradually gained ground upon the infuriated foe. General Hancock drove a portion of the rebels more than two miles before. him, taking many prisoners. The lines swayed to and fro in the terrific fight, and the entangling thickets were filled with the wounded and dead. In one of the fierce assaults, Brigadier-General Wadsworth, of New York, was struck by a bullet in the head and fell senseless, mortally wounded. America has many noble names to inscribe upon her roll of honor. But there is no one deserving a higher position than that of James S. Wadsworth. His princely fortune, his rich mental culture, his courage which knew not fear, his high-toned character as a gentleman, and all the endearments of the sweetest domestic relations, he cheerfully laid upon the altar of his country's service. It is hardly too much to say that a wail of grief burst from our whole land, when the tidings went forth that he was dead; and more intense execrations glowed in the bosoms of all patriots in view of that accursed rebellion which was thus robbing our country of her noblest sons. At night, General Hancock, against whose division the most impetuous assaults of the enemy had been made, held the position he had occupied in the morning. The rebels had again been foiled, and they had received terrific blows in exchange for the terrific blows which they had given.

Throughout the day, the battle had been a series of impetuous assaults by the rebels and by the patriots. At times our peril was imminent. The rebels were perfectly familiar with the country. The dense forest was peculiarly favorable for the massing of their forces in perfect concealment. It was not possible to bring artillery into action to check their onset. The Sixth Corps at one time came near being overwhelmed. Generals Sedgwick and Wright made truly sublime displays of energy and of valor. The carnage on both sides was dreadful. The patriot loss, in the two days' battle, in killed, wounded, and missing, was estimated at fifteen thousand. The rebel loss could not have been less. The battle closed on a disputed field. Both parties claimed the victory; for each could state with truth that he "had repelled the fierce attack of the enemy."

But neither army had gained any special advantage. Both had fought with desperation never surpassed on any field of blood. The rebels had been thwarted in all their plans to break our lines. We had been bloodily driven back from every endeavor to put their solid masses to rout. As night came, calm, peaceful, silent, with its twinkling stars, from whence perhaps angel bands looked sadly upon the demoniac scene, the exhausted hosts threw themselves down, side by side, each sullenly and determinedly holding the ground upon which he had fought during the day. The narrow intervening space was crowded with the dead and the dying of both combatants. The rebels, apparently, this day expended all their strength upon but a portion of our army, and at night, in discouragement and exhaustion, withdrew from the conflict, conscious that they had gained no decisive results.

Having exerted themselves to the utmost on Friday, and having been

thwarted in all their plans, it was difficult to decide, at night, whether they would renew the attack on the next day or retire. The patriot army awoke on Saturday morning, May 7th, exultant over the discomfiture of the foe, and eager to resume the conflict. During the night our lines had been strengthened, and batteries had been planted to protect important points. After a series of brisk skirmishes in jungles where whole armies could hide, it was discovered, about noon, that General Lee was retreating, with his main force, towards Spottsylvania Court-House. The pursuit was immediately commenced and vigorously prosecuted. As the two armies were moving in nearly parallel lines, the march became in reality a race, each eager to gain first the commanding strategic position at Spottsylvania. The rebels, having the advance, gained the point. Again and again during the march there were brief and sanguinary struggles, resulting invariably in the continued retreat of the foe. The battle, the flight, the pursuit, were prosecuted late into the hours of Saturday night.

י.

We were now out of the woods. The three days' battle of the Wilderness, appropriately so called, was closed as the blood-red sun of Saturday night sank behind the dense forests of the Rapidan. Probably never before was there a battle of such magnitude fought amidst the thickets of wild and tangled woods. An eye-witness writes:

“There is something horrible, yet fascinating, in the mystery shrouding this strangest of battles ever fought a battle which no man could see, and whose progress could only be followed by the ear. It is, beyond a doubt, the first time in the history of war that two great armies have met, each with at least two hundred and fifty pieces of artillery, and yet placed in such circumstances as to make this vast enginery totally useless. The combat lasted three days; but it might have been prolonged a fortnight longer, and still left the issue undecided.”

We can hardly claim a victory in this conflict. Still, the rebels were foiled in their purpose, were compelled to retreat, and were vigorously pursued. None can therefore deny that the result was a substantial advantage to our arms. The rebels expended their utmost strength in this battle, and fought with desperation. They, with their accustomed tactics, brought forth every disposable man, and their line of battle at times extended along our whole front, overlapping both of our wings.

By the dawn of the Sabbath morning, our troops, having marched fifteen miles, were drawn up in battle-array two and a half miles north of Spottsylvania Court-House. The rebels again stood at bay, presenting a defiant and formidable front. General Grant immediately resumed his onset, with his accustomed vehemence, upon the foe. Through all the hours of the sacred day there was scarcely any cessation of the roar of battle. On both sides the fighting was desperate. The First Michigan Regiment, which numbered but one hundred men, having been frightfully cut up in the three days' battle of the Wilderness, were caught in a trap, where they lost three-fourths of their number in fifteen minutes. Twenty-five only escaped. General Robinson, who had exhibited great ability and valor, was severely wounded. Gradually the patriot troops crowded the rebels along, taking the first line of breastworks and capturing a large

« AnteriorContinuar »