Wilderness Battlefield — Attraction in Virginia

The Battle of the Wilderness, fought May 5–7, 1864, was the first battle of Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Virginia Overland Campaign against Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War. Both armies suffered heavy casualties, a harbinger of a bloody war of attrition by Grant against Lee's army and, eventually, the Confederate capital, Richmond, Virginia. The battle was tactically inconclusive, as Grant disengaged and continued his offensive.

Grant attempted to move quickly through the dense underbrush of the Wilderness of Spotsylvania, but Lee launched two of his corps on parallel roads to intercept him. On the morning of May 5, the Union V Corps under Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warrenattacked the Confederate Second Corps, commanded by Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell, on the Orange Turnpike. That afternoon the Third Corps, commanded by Lt. Gen. A. P. Hill, encountered Brig. Gen. George W. Getty's division (VI Corps) and Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock's II Corps on the Orange Plank Road. Fighting until dark was fierce but inconclusive as both sides attempted to maneuver in the dense woods.

At dawn on May 6, Hancock attacked along the Plank Road, driving Hill's Corps back in confusion, but the First Corps of Lt. Gen. James Longstreet arrived in time to prevent the collapse of the Confederate right flank. Longstreet followed up with a surprise flanking attack from an unfinished railroad bed that drove Hancock's men back to the Brock Road, but the momentum was lost when Longstreet was wounded by his own men. An evening attack by Brig. Gen. John B. Gordon against the Union right flank caused consternation at Union headquarters, but the lines stabilized and fighting ceased. On May 7, Grant disengaged and moved to the southeast, intending to leave the Wilderness to interpose his army between Lee and Richmond, leading to the bloody Battle of Spotsylvania...

See my pictures ....I do travel for work and when I’m around a historical site I try to visit it and put it in perspective of our history to date. The Wilderness Campaign was the start of a vicious battle of attrition which led to the ultimate defeat of the Confederacy in 1865. This battle was fought in May 1864 when US Grant assumed command of the Army of the Potomac. His aim was simple - hammer away at the Confederacy until it capitulated. This battle was fought in close quarters in a wooded, dense environment. The pictures show what the woods look like today ; I could only imagine how they were 155 years when the battle was fought. The 2 mile hike through the marked trail is well worth the time; key events in the battle are marked whether they actually occurred , or close to where they occurred. It has an eerie feeling to be walking through the same landscape where 17,000 men died ...probably many where my footsteps were trodden ....

A must visit for any American ...even more so for Civil War buffs...

What I enjoyed about this site was visiting the trenches lost in the forest portion of the battle. There are so many unresolved questions after this visit regarding: why isn't this area better protect on some level? Virginia has so many sites that need protection yet priorities are being lost in adaptive reuse. The battlefield and trenches are being consumed by forest growth, dog walkers, joggers. Why? has there been any preliminary investigation? has there been an attempt to ask the public or local preservationists to do surface & scanning sub-surface of this wooded battle field. can walking/ jogging trails be thought out better?

So many hidden historic treasures tucked away. Community needs to express their opinions. But in it's current conditions, I could still visualize this portion of the forested battle ground. I need to return...