Wilderness campaign

Wilderness campaign in the American Civil War, a series of engagements (May-June, 1864) fought in the Wilderness region of Virginia. Early in May, 1864, the Northern commander in chief, Grant , led the Army of the Potomac (118,000 strong) across the Rapidan River into the Wilderness, a wild and tangled woodland c.10 mi (16 km) W of Fredericksburg. Grant planned to clear the Wilderness before trying to destroy the smaller Confederate Army of Northern Virginia (60,000 troops) under Robert E. Lee . But Lee advanced on the Union troops while they were still in that area, causing Grant to face about and order an attack. The nature of the terrain made the battle of the Wilderness (May 5-6) a disjointed but bloody fight. After the repulse of a Union attack on May 6 through the opportune arrival of the 1st Corps under James Longstreet, Lee counterattacked, and the battle became stabilized. Grant then pushed ahead by Lee's right, heading toward Spotsylvania Courthouse, c.12 mi (19 km) to the southeast. Lee, anticipating the move, was soon entrenched there. In the battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse (May 8-19), Grant unsuccessfully hammered away at the Confederate lines. The bloodiest fighting of this battle occurred on May 12 when the Union assault on the salient forming the Confederate center (the Bloody Angle) was repulsed after initial success. Lee confronted Grant's next move from a position S of the North Anna River, so impregnable that even Grant did not attack. By the beginning of June both armies were near Richmond. Fearing that Lee might withdraw within the defenses of the capital, Grant made another unsuccessful frontal assault on his strongly entrenched enemy in the battle of Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864. The Union lost 7,000 men in a few hours—the most horrible slaughter of the war. After several days of desultory trench fighting Grant then withdrew, crossed the James River, and moved against Petersburg . He had lost about 60,000 men in the campaign, and although Lee's army sustained the proportionately larger loss of 20,000, it was by no means destroyed.

Bibliography: See C. Dowdy, Lee's Last Campaign (1960); E. Steere, The Wilderness Campaign (1960, repr. 1987).

Wilderness Campaign (May 1864) Engagement in the American Civil War fought in woodland, c. 80km (50mi) nw of Richmond, Virginia. It was the opening engagement of a four-week campaign of attrition by General Ulysses S. Grant against the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia led by Robert E. Lee.

Wilderness to Petersburg Campaign the name given to the series of battles from the Battle of the Wilderness to the siege of Petersburg (1864), during the Civil War. Initiated by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant with the Union's Army of the Potomac to defeat Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Confederate's Army of Northern Virginia, the campaign began on May 4 when Grant crossed the Rapidian River west of Lee and stopped for the night in the Wilderness near Spotsylvania, Virginia. On May 5, Lee surprised Grant in the two-day indecisive Battle of the Wilderness, which cost 18,000 Federal and 11,000 Confederate casualties. Trying to draw the Confederates out of the Wilderness, Grant headed southeast toward Spotsylvania Court House, but a portion of the Confederate army arrived there first. On May 8, the Battle of Spotsylvania began, which included combat at the bend in the Confederate earthworks called the “Bloody Angle,” and after a repulse by Confederate artillery on May 18, Grant gave up and swung east and south. Lee divided Grant's army at North Anna Creek by deploying his own army into an inverted “V,” and on May 26, as Grant advanced toward Richmond, Lee drew a strong line along Totopotomoy Creek. On May 30, Lee attacked part of Grant's army near Bethesda Church, and on June 1, the armies clashed in the Battle of Cold Harbor. On June 3, Grant launched a frontal attack to break Lee's line but was repulsed with 12,000 Union soldiers killed or wounded. On June 12–14, Grant marched to and crossed the James River, heading for Petersburg, the railroad center serving Richmond. The Federals repeatedly attempted to seize Petersburg on June 15–18, but the Confederates withstood the attacks. Grant subsequently initiated siege operations, which continued until April 2, 1865. The campaign, ending in June and strategically a Union success, cost 60,000 Union casualties and perhaps 35,000 Confederate losses.