But the fame of the Wilderness fight abides;
And down into history grandly rides,
Calm and unmoved as in battle he sat,
The gray-bearded man in the black slouched hat.
John Randolph Thompson.
For two weeks a frightful struggle raged. The Union losses were fearful, but on May 11, 1864, Grant wired to the Secretary of War, "I propose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer."
CAN'T
How history repeats itself
You'll say when you remember Grant,
Who, in his boyhood days, once sought
Throughout the lexicon for "can't."
He could not find the word that day,
The earnest boy whose name was Grant;
He never found it through long years,
With all their power to disenchant.
No hostile host could give him pause;
Rivers and mountains could not daunt;
He never found that hindering word—
The steadfast man whose name was Grant.
Harriet Prescott Spofford.
Grant used his cavalry most effectively, and he had a dashing leader in "Phil" Sheridan. Early in May, 1864, Sheridan and a strong force was sent on a raid around the Confederate lines, and on the 12th encountered General J. E. B. Stuart in force at Yellow Tavern. A sharp engagement followed, in which Stuart was killed.
OBSEQUIES OF STUART