The Civil War Through the Camera - Henry W. Elson

THE TANGLED BATTLEFIELD

The Edge of the Wilderness, May 5, 1864. Stretching away to the westward between Grant’s army and Lee’s lay no-man’s-land—the Wilderness. Covered with a second-growth of thicket, thorny underbrush, and twisted vines, it was an almost impassable labyrinth, with here and there small clearings in which stood deserted barns and houses, reached only by unused and overgrown farm roads. The Federal advance into this region was not a surprise to Lee, as Grant supposed. The Confederate commander had caused the region to be carefully surveyed, hoping for the precise opportunity that Grant was about to give him. At the very outset of the campaign he could strike the Federals in a position where superior numbers counted little. If he could drive Grant beyond the Rappahannock—as he had forced Pope, Burnside and Hooker before him—says George Cary Eggleston (in the “History of the Confederate War”), “loud and almost irresistible would have been the cry for an armistice, supported (as it would have been) by Wall Street and all Europe.”

WHERE EWELL’S CHARGE SURPRISED GRANT

A photograph of Confederate breastworks raised by Ewell’s men a few months before, while they fought in the Wilderness, May 5, 1864. In the picture we see some of the customary breastworks which both contending armies threw up to strengthen their positions. These were in a field near the turnpike in front of Ewell’s main line. The impracticable nature of the ground tore the lines on both sides into fragments; as they swept back and forth, squads and companies strove fiercely with one another, hand-to-hand. Grant had confidently expressed the belief to one of his staff officers that there was no more advance left in Lee’s army. He was surprised to learn on the 5th that Ewell’s Corps was marching rapidly down the Orange turnpike to strike at Sedgwick and Warren, while A. P. Hill, with Longstreet close behind, was pushing forward on the Orange plank-road against Hancock.