The Battle of the Wilderness

Before the Wilderness, battlefield stalemate meant retreat by one side or the other - a return to the starting point to try again another day. But not here. Union General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant rendered stalemate in the Wilderness irrelevant. On the night of May 7, 1864 as the woods around you still smoldered, Grant ordered the Union army not backward, but forward - south toward Spotsylvania Court House and eventually Richmond.

As Union soldiers quietly left the earthworks in front of you, they realized a turning point had arrived. And when later that night Grant rode among them, they cheered. They cheered not because Grant had won, but because he refused to lose. For the Union army, eleven months of non-stop campaigning - and ultimately victory - lay ahead.

Wild cheers echoed through the forest, and glad shouts of triumph rent the air. Men swung their hats, tossed up their arms, and pressed forward to within touch of their chief, clapping their hands, and speaking to him with the familiarity of comrades ....The night march had become a triumphal procession for the new commander.
-Lieutenant Colonel Horace Porter, Union staff officer

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Show me all markers in:  Spotsylvania, VA  |  Spotsylvania County  |  22553  |  Virginia  |  United States of America

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