Chapter XV.
IN THE WILDERNESS.
In that valley down there, where the wild ivies creep,
The night birds stand sentry o’er comrades asleep,
Their graves are now sunken, the headboards decayed,
And the trenches are crumbled, where fought our brigade.
Through rifts in the forest, if your vision is keen,
The breastworks we builded, can dimly be seen.
M. B. Duffie.
General Grant now took command of the army, and on April 30th 1864, we broke camp at Liberty, and began the hardest, most bloody campaign of the war. Our division gathered near Rappahannock Station; crossed the river for the fifteenth time, and marched to Brandy Station, marching almost constantly. We crossed the Rapidan at Germania Ford, marched all the next day, camping at night in the Wilderness, very near the enemy. May 5th we threw up earthworks, but at noon advanced, leaving our works to other troops. We were soon heavily engaged, and so began Bloody May.