Battle of the Wilderness

A detailed Summary of Battle of the Wilderness


"Imagine," wrote a North Carolina officer named W.A. Smith, "a

great, dismal forest containing . . . the worst kind of thicket of second-growth

trees . . . so thick with small pines and scrub oak, cedar, dogwood and other

growth common to the country . . . [that] one could see barely ten paces"

(qtd. in Kennedy 203). This description is of the area known as the

Wilderness, where over 135 years ago, one of the greatest Civil War battles

occurred. The Battle of the Wilderness was the beginning of the end for the

The region called the Wilderness is in Spotsylvania County, Virginia,

just ten miles west of Fredericksburg. It is a natural wooded area that is

twelve miles wide and six miles deep along the southern bank of the Rapidan

River. The Wilderness was described by Lieutenant Thomas F. Galwey of

the 8th Ohio as a "wild and formidable thicket, so dense that even at noon

day the sun's light scarcely penetrated it" (qtd. in Trudeau 44).

In the early 1700's, Alexander Spotswood, Virginia's governor during

the time, tried to inhabit the Wilderness. He brought over German colonists

to do so. They cut large amounts of timber from the forest to secure th


turnpike to guard the right flank. Grant sent orders to concentrate his three

wrote that "it was a blind and bloody hunt to the death, in bewildering

Corps and the Union army supply train crossed the river at Ely's Ford to

General Ulysses S. Grant and Major General George G. Meade led the

for his army over Lee's out-numbered Army of Northern Virginia (Trudeau



Some common words found in the essay are:
II Corps, Spotswood Virginia's, VI Corps, Northern Virginia's, WA Smith, Major Longstreet, Graham Skoch, Longstreet's Corps, Fredericksburg Virginia, Wilderness Confederates, army northern, civil war, army northern virginia, ii corps, orange turnpike, army potomac, northern virginia, battle wilderness, rapidan river, orange plank, corps commanded, graham skoch 68, corps commanded lieutenant, orange plank road, major george meade,

Approximate Word count = 1708
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History

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