National Republican., 1883-03-15
IN THE WILDERNESS.
The Beginning Of Grants Great Campaign in
the Summer of ga.
Scenes in the First Days Fight De-
scribed by an Old Soldier
The Plan Of Operations Learnedly Discussed by the
Rank and File at the Mess Table.
The oniinous Sounds by which They
Knew the Great Battle Had Begun.
Specidl Letter.

ChiNAbOj nidis iNs--NOuiu We HbNO oub VII
the hills which look down on the pass Of
Thermopyl@ on that sunny day in the far
away time when Leonidas carved out large
slice of Immortality for himself have no
doubt his achievement would have seemed to
us much less heroic than II seems now, hal
lowed as it is by the haze of more than two
thousand years. In our own war for national
existence countless deeds of daring were done
under our own eyes which deserve, but have
not been awarded, q place in the niche of
fame which holds the glory of the old hero
of the sea-washed and rock-crowned pass.
II is nearly nineteen years since the gloomy
jungle of the Wilderness rang and echoed
with the harsh clamor of the mysterious
battle which ebbed and surged unseen under
its curtain of forest, but l still wake ut night
thrilled with u cry which had birth in the
agony of wounded soldier on that savage
field, and prefaced piece of heroism which
shines like u diamond in the red setting of
the battle.
:" Save me, boys! For the love of God, save
men
Shrill and clear it pierced the rattle and
crash Of the fight, the dcspairing cry of u
soldier Of my own company, shot through the
foot and crawling on hands and knees in the
wake of a broken regiment while the blood
spouted from the mangled member at every
movement.
1t is little hillside, interspersod with
clumps of that almost impervOus under
growth which gave its weird character to the
battle of tho Wilderness At the crest of the
slope the ground spreads away to the south
and west in q plateau thickly sown with
dwarf pines At the foot of tho hillside Il
narrow, sluggish streams finds its tortuous
way through a belt OF swamp and ON the right
and left is the forest
The ground was thickly sprinkled with
motionless dead and quivcring wounded-not
piled up with slaughter, rs the popular no
tion pictures battle field, with broken ar
tillory wheels and ruptured drums occupying
prominent positions in the foreground but
still numbered with iruitago of mutilation
rich enough, one would think, to discourage
ambitious pOtentates from ordering war. A
mass Of white smoke, which had rolled up
above the tree tops, through the still air
hung heavy and shapeless over the bloody
scene, as If il would hide from the pitying
cye OF heaven this exhibition of human pas
sion and human agony. The slope was COW
cred with soldiers, our broken line flying
vOiCclcsS TO the rear, the enemy splitting the
air with their clamOr as they rushed forward,
while around all and over all rose the crack
ling thunder of the battle.
AS the piercing cry of the wounded soldier
reached the ears of his comrades, two humble
heroes i'll blue, undcCOrlted even with cor
porals stripes stopped in their rush to the
rear, and with one glance into each others
eyes, turned back to their disabled friend
To continue their flight was possible safety !;
To linger but one moment seemed certain
death; and yet, without u tremor of hesita-
tion, with smile in which each saluted the
heroic soul of the other, they faced TO the
front. Right in the face of the yelling en-
envy, right in the teeth of the hurricane of
bullets, they coolly turned and bore their
wounded comrade from the field And it was
with hearts OF gold like these that battles were
won, and the United States was preserved as
unit from the st. Lawrence to the Gulf
Bull Run was the introduction to the war !;
Gettysburg was the climax the Wilderness
was the beginning of the end. From the mo-
nent our sSirlnish line encountered that of
the cCniUdCratGs in tho latter contest the two
armies were locked in mighty hug, which
was never relaxed until the little white flags
rose over tine gallant fragment of fighters,
wh0 nearly year aiterward, faced us at
AppOmattOX. i am but one of hundreds
OF thousands of union soldiers who looked on
the army of Northern Virginia in its prime
and while we believe they were wrong am
certain that almost to man they think with
me that that organization was as mettlesome
body Of men as ever hoofed it over any of
the highways of the planet; and as for my
self would rather to-day shake hands with
one Of Lees surviving graybacks than with
own story, saved the army on the rear line.
On the night of May 3 1864, the army of
the Potomac, then lying in the vicinity of
Brandy station, on the Orange and Alexandria
railway, broke camp and moved south, looking
for its regular spring tussle with Lees hard
hitters on the other side Of the Rapidnn. But
while the initial steps Of the movement were
almost identical with those of former years,
every intelligent soldier knew that this was
no trip south OF the river TO be followed by
the usual return and winter of rest north of
the yellow stream. That stereotyped ex-
periencc had everlastngly gone by, and from
what we knew of Grant we felt that the time
had come when the real metal and endurance
of the army of the Potomac and the army of
Northern Virginia were to bo subjected to a
crucial test.
On the evening of the third while my regi-
ment was on dress parade, facing the railway,
along which lay our camp, an engine and
freight train ran Off the track in front of us,
and deposited themselves In an inverted posi-
tion at the foot of the low embankment, with
their wheels whiring helplessly i'm the air.
AS the locomotive, with it's gaudy decorations
glitterng in the horizontal sun, made the
plunge, u prophetic soul in the ranks sang
out:
"There goes the southern confederacyw
The prophet was one of the first who pre-
emptcd II siX-foOt Virginia farm when we
went in " II few days afterward, but | re-
member that extracted Il good deal of COM
fort from the prophecy; and many n time
during the campaign which followed, wheh
crawling supperlcss into the mud, and using
IL for n bedquilt, | turned to the OraculaT
statement for consolation.
Being an ordinarily intelligent body of
men, with toerably accurate idea of the
field upon which the war was fought out we
were necessarily military critics. and, as we
modestly thought, Of n reasonably high order
Uuder these circumstances ii was but natural
that we should indulge in some startling theo-
ries as to the coming campaign and | have
no doubt If Gen. Grant could have attended
ono of our councils of war he would have
adopted resolution of thanks in our direc.
tion and given us very large leather medals
After breaking camp we moved TO point
between Brandy station and Culpeper, where
we bivouackcd in q new clearing, and after
the evening meal was disposed of, while the
soft southern breeze blew truant sparks out
of our corncob pipes, any number of able
strategists might have been seen with Their
backs prOpped up against the stumps laying
down inialliblemethods ofthrashing Lee and
his toughs
The particular advisory body OF critics tC
which belonged was composed of Capt. ID.
the commander of the company; his brother
Joe, then u sergeant, but afterward promoted
the first lieutenant of the company; and my
self. Ever since the formation of the mess
by which undignited title our parliament
was vulgarly knOwn-a much mOOted ques
tion had been whether the commander of al
army should feel his oats, as ii were, and re
his gnl1ipre N