The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1882-01-26
only sounds which broke the solemn stiffness
of that great wilderness

only sounds which broke the solemn stiffness
of that great wilderness
AT DAYBREAK
Lee had ordered an attack at 5 clock in
the morning. Grant had ordered an attack at
| precisely the same hour. Thus it was that
when Sedgewick marshalled his lines on the
right at daybreak and swept forward, he had
not advanced 400 feet when he met the Con
federates under Ewell on the march to find
him. And so, too, when Hancock swept
through the thickets on the left, he found Hills
battle-lines of gray waiting his coming, A
battle usually opens with sklrmshes and ma
n9uvres and more or less artillery firing, and
the men have time to brace themselves for
desperate work. But this battle opened
WITH SUDDEN CRASH
OF musketry which made the forest tremble.
II began on the right and ran to the extreme
left, a distance ofseyen miles. In six minutes
aft er the first gun was fired 100000 men were
en- gagged in the bloody strife Here and there
a cannon had secured position and its hoarsc
below was heard above the awful din of mus
the only two weapons depended on by either
commander. Cavalry could not man9uvre, ar
tlery was in the way, and ambulances mad
their covers torn off by the Jagged limbs, or
were mired in the swamps.
ON THE RIGHT
Lee had massed the weight of his army on
Grants right and where Sedgewck was first
( rbpplxod 1yac 1yhara no nd oil
day. Brigades and divisions surged forward
4 over ground thick with corpses and slippery
with blood to be driven back again by fire
so hot that the green leaves on oak and pine
weH at1ame over the heads Of the men who
fought Bayonet charges were made and re-
pulsed, and hundreds of men dubbed each
other with their muskets and stabbed each
other with knives. AT no time during all that
long day, from the opening of the battle to
the shutting down at night was there a pause
in this struggle on the right. When regiments
had been decmated they fell back to let fresh
regiments receive their baptism of blood and
wounds and death. Men who were wounded
before 6 in the morning were lying in the
! thickets when the sun went down some struck |
| four or five times.
OVER TIE GUNS.
There was at one point on the right clear
ed spot of about two acres in extent, and
Federal battery which had been dragged !
through the forest was placed in position there
about O'Clock in the morning. In ten min |
utes three of the guns were silenced by the
musketry fire, and charge was made by the |
Confederates to capture the whole. Here two |
regiments grappled and fought until 800 men |
encountered the ground. Again the battery |
opened, and again it was charged, and when
the Confederates retired the dead had to be
corded up to get them out OF the way. Again |
and again fresh artilerists were brought up
and fresh fire opened, and again and again |
the Confederates charged and added scores |
| and hundreds to tina awful pyramid of dead |
Grant had not advanced on his right-Lee had
not advanced on his left Where the dead fell +
in the gray of morning there was the battle |
line when night shuddered at the sights and |
sounds
ON THE LEFT.
| There were hundreds of raw recruits in |
Hancocll's corps-men who had never seen a |
skirmish They had made a terrific march |
and fought brisk battle the day previous,
butSwhen. the bugles sounded the advance in
the morning that corps did not have 100 stray |
gers. The Confederates under Hill were
stretched across Hancock s path, but in fifteen |
minutes from the crack OF the first musket he |
had walked over them. They fell back to a |
new line, but it was only to be driven back |
| again. Hill could not be routed, but he was
| pressed back through thicket and forest until |
! it seemed if Lees right wing would be |
crushed back on his center. Wadsworth was |
checked, but Hancock swept forward like |
great wave, capturing colors and prisoners, |
nor was he checked until his line of battle was
within musket-shot of the Confederate wagon !
trains. In three hours he had driven Hill
mile and half. Time still furnishes proofs |
of what a hell on earth that great wilderness
was Where one can find a tree the size of
| his body he can find score of scars. On the
| spot where Wadsworth was killed one may |
to-day in ten minutes search pick up fifty |
bullets. At several points on the Brock Road |
which Hancock was holding and covering, / |
saw stumps from which relic-hunters had cut
out from thirty to sixty bullets.
LoNGsTREET COMES UP.
At 10 O'Clock Longstreet reached the field |
| from Gordonsville. Hancocks men had been
fighting for five hours, and now lull occurred |
as the men refilled their empty cartridge
boxes This lull was taken advantage of by
Hill to reform, and by Longstreet to throw 10
600 of his troops to the 'front.' and when the
battle recommended It's tieIceness appalled, the |
veterans of a dozen battle-telds. Hancock |
was pushed back foot by foot, strewing every
rod of ground with his dead, and an hour be-
fore noon his battle-line rested where day
light had found it. Three different times did
the Confederates overlap his lines and turn his
left flank, but on each occasion the men
changed front under terrific fire and saved |
| the flank.
PAINTING LIKE DOGS.
At noon there was another ull Hancock |
could not be driven further, and men of flesh
and blood could no longer stand the strain.
The moment the fighting ceased hundreds OF
men dropped down and lay painting like dogs
after a long chase. For nearly an hour a Fed
eral and Confederate regiment lay within
200 feet of each other without firing shot,
anu IL FtutIdl corporal, VINO Hdu SulEpeu oh
his coat and jacket and had lost his cap called
out to Confederate sergeant whom he could
have hit with peach-stone
Hello Johnny-what command is that"
"Longstreets" was the reply.
Bully for Longstreet ~
who's your general?" called the Confeder
ate.
Hancock"
Then bully for him, but you'uns have got
to git out of here"
From noon until o'clock Sedgewck and
Ewell hammered away and piled up the dead
without driving each other a hundred feet, but
Hancock and Longstreet were preparing for
the bloodiest grappe which war ever saw be-
tween the wings of an army.
FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE.
Grant could not drive Lee. Could Lee drive
Grant? If Longstreet could push Hancock
back over the Brock road, Grant was shut up
: in the Wilderness. If Hancock could hold the