Civil War Battlefields by Jeff Shaara

Author:Jeff Shaara [Shaara, Jeff]
Format: epub
Publisher: Jeff Shaara
Published: 2010-05-03T07:21:53.560000+00:00

Within minutes, Longstreet’s men had blunted the Federal wave and turned them back. Hancock’s troops had given all they had in the dense underbrush, and with fresh troops suddenly pushing into their ranks, the fight became too hot to absorb. Hancock’s men were pushed back, Longstreet now taking the momentum. As the morning passed,

The Wilderness, Virginia, after the battle, 1864

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

the fight drove the Federals back to their defensive lines. But Longstreet wasn’t through. By late morning, one of Lee’s engineers had discovered an unfinished railroad cut that led toward the Federal left flank. Quickly, Longstreet sent a strong force down the cut, completely undetected by Federal lookouts. When Longstreet’s men were astride Hancock’s flank, he ordered them forward. A great mass of Confederates suddenly rose up out of the hidden railroad cut in a burst that completely surprised Hancock’s troops. The attack was an overwhelming success. Hancock’s line crumbled, and panicked Federals poured past their own lines, the flank rolling up, in Hancock’s words, “like a wet blanket.”

Both Lee and Longstreet knew that the Confederate assault would soon bog down in the Wilderness, just as every other attack had done. With such an astonishing success at hand, Longstreet had to make sure his troops continued their push. At midday, Longstreet himself rode forward, accompanied by several of his staff and subordinate commanders, including twenty-nine-year-old Micah Jenkins, who commanded one of

Longstreet’s brigades. As the men rode toward the sounds of the fight, they surprised a group of weary Confederates moving through the jumble of brush. The Confederate troops had been surprised too often, and their jumpiness caused them to open fire on the group of horsemen. Micah Jenkins was killed, and Longstreet was severely wounded, shot in the throat.

Without the push from their commander, the Confederate assault began to lose steam, and with Hancock’s men regaining their composure and their defensive lines, the effects of the masterful flank attack began to fade. Before Lee could put Longstreet’s troops back into motion, any chance of continuing their success was gone. Worse for Lee, the Army of Northern Virginia had once again lost its best field commander.

At the Orange Turnpike, on Lee’s left flank, the day had passed mostly without major incident; but late in the day, Ewell authorized Brigadier General John B. Gordon to attack the Union right flank, which Gordon believed was vulnerable. The attack worked as Gordon had planned, driving the startled Federal troops back into the woods. Had there been sufficient daylight, Gordon’s attack might have posed a serious threat to that part of Grant’s army. But darkness prevailed, and Gordon’s attack succeeded only in scattering two Federal brigades.

As the fires spread once more through the thickets, the two armies lay like two wounded beasts, each angrily eyeing the other. But throughout the day of May 7, there was little fighting, neither side having much interest in venturing out beyond its own strong defensive works. Though his army was resting, Grant was already forming a new strategy.

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