The enemy got close upon a portion of the 2d Corps before being seen, owing to the density of the woods, and they were so suddenly forced back as to compel the retirement of Mott's Division also to the intrenched position of the morning.
The Battle was kept up from 5 o'clock in the morning until night, and all the time within a width of space averaging not over three-quarters of a mile.
During the night all of Lee's army withdrew within their intrenchments.
Grant said "that more desperate fighting had not been witnessed on this Continent, than that of the 5th and 6th of May."
The 84th was in the very thick of the fight. 9 men killed, 2 officers and 39 men wounded.
The character of this fighting ground is a thing of history. Heavy timber, close, thick underbrush, impossibility of knowing where the enemy was until close at hand, the burning breast-works, all present factors in the fight, gave Grant to know that he had an Army on whom he could rely for the very best of service.
Grant had the faith before he had applied the test, for on the 5th all the bridges over the Rapidan had been taken up, except the one at Germania Ford, showing that he had no thought of necessity for recrossing the river.
Death of Col. Opp.
Among the wounded of the 84th was its Commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Opp, shot through the lung. He suffered, and how bravely, until the 9th, when he died. And it but honors every soldier of the Regiment, from the highest in rank to the lowest, when it is said, that with his going out there was made a vacancy in the Regimental household, which we have felt from then to the present, and will ever feel, until we greet him in our Reunion when we gather together in that other time which shall follow upon this.