The men lost at Gettysburg were never replaced, for the South had sent forth all her fighting men and had no more to give.
The rest of the year passed without any great battle. Lee’s chief concern was to get food and clothes for his men and to watch Meade, who would not give battle.
About this time the city of Richmond presented to Lee a house. This he kindly but firmly refused to take, and begged that what means the city had to spare might be given to the families of his poor soldiers.
Late in November, General Meade moved towards Lee, who had built strong forts at Mine Run. But Meade found the forts too strong for attack and withdrew during the night.
The next year a new man was sent against Lee—Ulysses S. Grant. Lee had now only sixty-two thousand men to meet Grant, who had one hundred and twenty-five thousand men, and a wagon train that reached sixty-five miles.
With this large army, Grant crossed the Rapidan river, and marched on to give Lee battle. Lee did not wait for Grant, but went forward and met his hosts in a place called the Wilderness, which was a vast forest full of underbrush, and with only narrow roads here and there. It was a bad place in which to fight a battle, for no man could see but a few yards around him. Cannon and horsemen were of no use, because they could not move through the tangled bushes.
Grant did not know that Lee’s men were so near. But when they rushed into these wilds and boldly began the fight he had to give battle. For two days, May 5th and 6th, 1864, two hundred thousand men in blue and gray fought breast to breast in the thickets. Men fell and died unseen, their bodies lost in the bushes and their death-groans drowned in the roar of battle.
In the midst of these horrors, the woods caught on fire and many of the wounded were burnt alive. Lee, however, pressed forward, and when night closed had taken a portion of the Federal breast-works.
During the fight of the 6th, General Lee placed himself at the head of some men from Texas to lead the charge. “Hurrah for Texas!” he cried, and ordered the charge. But the soldiers, anxious for their dear general, shouted, “Lee to rear!” A gray-haired soldier seized his bridle, saying, “General Lee, if you do not go back, we will not go forward!” So General Lee reined back his horse and the brave Texans swept on to victory and death.
On the morning of the 7th, Grant made no motion to attack Lee, but that night marched towards Spotsylvania Court-House. Lee at once found out his plans and began a race to reach there first. When the front of Grant’s army reached the Court-House the next morning, they found Lee’s men behind breast-works and ready for the fight. Lee had gotten between Grant and Richmond! That evening the two great armies were again facing each other on the banks of the Po river. Here they threw up breast-works, which may yet be seen.