Capital, would adopt this latter course, and supposed him now to be pushing past our front and toward Richmond, I think is clearly indicated by the early bivouacking of the army in the very heart of the Wilderness, and by its quiet resting from early noon of Wednesday, May 4, when a three hours' further march by the Fifth Corps, and a five hours' further march by the Second and Sixth Corps, would have easily placed the army almost beyond the Wilderness, and on ground that was comparatively open, -on ground where a battle might have been begun that would not have been an accident, and where preponderance in numbers and in weight of artillery could have been utilized, and where such preponderance would have counterbalanced Lee's defensive advantages of position.

Again, the "Orders of March" for Thursday, May 5, indicate the same disbelief in Lee's hastening to meet us in the Wilderness. The sending of the cavalry away from our front and immediate flank, and off some fifteen miles to the southeast and southwest; the moving of the Second Corps upon a route every step of which led further away from supporting distance; and, finally, the actual movements on Thursday, May 5, after the presence of a Rebel force in front of the Fifth Corps was known, coupled with these prior indications, make conclusive, I think, the evidence that a battle in the Wilderness was not expected and not prepared for (Badeau to the contrary, notwithstanding); that when the "Battle of the Wilderness," was forced on us, on the afternoon of May 5, it was a surprise, and one which the gallantry of our troops alone prevented from being a ruinous surprise.

It had been doubtless expected that the "Orders of March" for Thursday, May 5, would carry the army beyond the dense Wilderness, before Lee (who in the preceding November, in the so-called "Mine Run Campaign," had moved with exceeding deliberation and caution, and had taken twenty-four and thirty hours to reach points on the Orange Court-House Pike and Plank

VOL. II.—7

Roads which now his advance reached in less than twelve hours), if he was actually advancing to meet us in the Wilderness, could approach our front; and on the other hand, if Lee were heading toward Richmond, as was thought to be more probable, it would enable us to intercept him, and to force him to an early battle, in which our vantage of numbers and superiority in artillery and cavalry would enable us to crush him.

As a matter of fact, Lee was near at hand. He had followed the rule of doing that which his adversary did not expect or wish; and with a boldness, a wisdom, and skill notably his own, he had, between noon and night of Wednesday, May 4, pushed his advance toward us - on the Orange Court-House Turnpike under Ewell, and on the Orange Court-House Plank Road under Hill - with such energy that Ewell's advance halted for the night at Locust Grove (Robertson's Tavern), only five miles west of Old Wilderness Tavern ; while Hill's advance rested at Verdiersville, seven miles from Parker's Store.

On Thursday morning, May 5, Ewell made an early start; and about six o'clock his advance (Johnson's division, less one brigade sent off to Spottswood on the Germanna Road), went into the woods on the north of the Turnpike Road, about two miles from the "Old Wilderness Tavern." His orders being to await Hill's coming. up on the Plank Road (and to avoid, if possible, any general engagement until Longstreet, with the remainder of Lee's army, could be in support), Ewell simply rested in the woods upon the side of the road. About two hours later (eight o'clock), Hill's advance appeared at Parker's Store; and by ten o'clock he had one division. in position across the Plank Road near Parker's Store.

Ewell's Second Division joined him about eleven o'clock, as did also the brigade that had been sent toward Spottswood on the Germanna Road, and took position behind his first; and his Third Division came up about two o'clock, during the lull that followed our first

attack.

Hill's Second Division joined him on the Plank Road also about two o'clock.

The position of the enemy, then, on Thursday, May 5, was as follows: At six o'clock in the morning there was one division in front of Warren on the Orange CourtHouse Turnpike Road; at nine o'clock there was also one division on the Plank Road, near Parker's Store; at about eleven o'clock a second division, and about two o'clock, a third division joined Ewell on the Turnpike Road; and about the same hour (two o'clock), a second division joined the one previously in position on the Plank Road under Hill, thus placing, at two o'clock, all of Ewell's corps and most of Hill's corps in Warren's front. More than two-thirds of Lee's entire force had assembled in our front and without our knowledge.

And now, as regards the movements of our troops preceding and at the opening of the Battle of the Wilderness, I must admit myself to be embarrassed by a varied wealth of descriptions, no one of which tallies with, or has helped to refresh, my recollections of May 5, 1864. So far as I can unravel a tangled skein, they combine and describe as parts of a united and well-planned whole, occurrences that were separated from each other by hours of time, and had no connection in plan or in execution.

There is in Washington no Official Report (but only a brief "Journal," that is little more than an "itinerary "), by General Warren, commanding the Fifth Corps, or by either General Griffin or General Ayres, of the Battle of the Wilderness; and by Ayres' brigade of Griffin's division of Warren's corps, it was, as my recollection tells me, that the Battle of the Wilderness was opened; and by those officers the full facts were known, and by them should be of record.

It is a startling commentary upon the meaning and truthfulness of history, that a battle involving one hundred and sixty thousand fighting men, continuing (under several names, but all located in the Wilderness), with

scarcely lapse or rest for eight successive battling days, and involving aggregate losses of over fifty thousand men, should have no official, full, and authentic telling.

To the officers and men of the Fifth and Sixth Army Corps, of whose part in the Wilderness Campaign no official report is of record in Washington, - who bore their part gallantly and well through a succession of daily battlings, from the Wilderness to Cold Harbor, from May 5 to June 3, through difficulties and labors and losses such as no advancing army was ever before called upon to meet and suffer, and through it all kept soldierly heart and ready courage, to those officers and men a wrong has been done that cannot be expressed. For them, in coming years, no descendants can point to a page in history telling of that campaign, that does them justice, and is their due; for the so-called "history" that has been written, of the battles in the Wilderness, is fanciful, is written with an after-thought, and credits those commanding at the cost of those commanded.

A certain measure of excuse exists for the absence of full and accurate reports of the battles in the Wilderness, and of those immediately following, in that during the first days and weeks of the campaign, and, indeed, until two months had passed and the army had settled in front of Petersburg, no official report could be made; the fighting was so constant and severe, the changes of position so well filled up the intervals in fighting for each brigade and corps, and the succession of regimental commanders was so continuous, and of brigade and division commanders so great, that when time offered, making possible the collecting of data for official reports, there were few present who knew ought of the battles in the early days of the campaign.

To speak of that I know, I may say that in my own brigade, in the Fifth Corps, not one of its regimental commanders who entered the Wilderness as such (and I think none of those second in command) reached Petersburg

with the army; and in my regiment but one of sixteen officers who were with it on May 5, in the Wilderness, was left when Petersburg was reached. And what was true in my own brigade and regiment, I have no reason to believe was very different in other brigades and regiments of the Fifth Corps.

But during later months, these data for official reports

were obtainable, as shown by the fact that the full, detailed, and official reports of the Second Corps, of the Ninth Corps, of the Eighteenth Corps, and of the cavalry, the artillery, of the engineers, and of the hospital service, of the Army of the Potomac, during that Wilderness campaign, are of record in Washington, and consequently the absence of the official reports of those officers who knew most of the moments and movements upon which the whole campaign was pivoted is worthy of note.

I have said that the descriptions published did not tally with or help to refresh my recollections of the movements of our troops preceding and opening the Battle of the Wilderness. Let us look at these descriptions for a moment, and see if their very lack of agreement with each other and their discrepancies do not indicate their imaginative character and little worth as "history."

General Grant, in his Report of the Operations of the several Armies of the United States, dated Washington, July 22, 1865, says of the Wilderness :

"Early on the 5th, the advance corps (the Fifth, MajorGeneral G. K. Warren commanding) met and engaged the enemy outside his intrenchments near Mine Run.1 The battle raged furiously all day, the whole army being brought into the fight as fast as the corps could be got upon the field."

In his "Memoirs," Grant varies his statement, and says:

1 Mine Run intrenchments, by the way, were some twenty miles distant from the Wilderness battlefield.