The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-12-07
BY JAMES J. GARRETT.

loh, he had been saved from ruin by the shot which struck down Albert Sydney Johnston, and Buells coming; elsewhere, he had been successful never without the help of oyerpowering numbers, and brighter minds than his own, an incom- potency or treason in command on the ether side. Committing the west chiefly to Sherman, he fixed his headquarters with Meade's Army of the Potomac, and practically took command of it, using Meade, however, to extend his orders. His avowed plan was that all his million of men, wherever they might be, should, at the same time, move forward against the opposing forces before them, every where enormously outnumbered, and crush them at once by their weight and blows. His own objective" he an- nounced to be, not Richmond, but Lee s army; and he proclaimed his purpose to be to seek find and destroy it, by con- tinuous hammering and attrition." This. at the time, was by some called the ana conda method of war. It Is rather singu- lar that after his boastful talk about it., Grants first move to find his objective was a sly attempt to dodge around its flank to Richmond.
 The wilderness of Spottsylvania, to one who has seen 1t, needs no description. To one who has not seen 1t, words can hardly give any adequate conception of this plateau and it's features. It occupies an are just south of the Rapidan, some fifteen miles across from east to west, and about ten miles in width from north to south. Its surface is not uniform, but in some places level, in others diversi- fled with ridges, hills and hollows. There are but few large trees, and the soil, ex- celtin some spots, seem to thin for their growth. The original forest. of whatever kind, Is said to have been cut away, to furnish fuel for neighboring furnaces. In 1864, 1t was covered nearly everywhere with a stunted, low-spreading growth of all kinds comon to the climate such as pines. oaks, cedars, varieties of thorns, briars and the like, the altogether view of which was disagreeable to the eye, and impenetrable by it to any ditance. Occa- sionally there was a sluggish run of wa ter spreading into brambly and mfry marshss fS~S
 At midnight, on May 8, 1864. the huge federal host started southward. Grant expected resistance at the Rapidan, but found nune, as Lees plan was to lure, and let him cross, and become involved in the tangles of the wilderness, before striking him. Grant was elated to find lis "objective'' not at the little river.
 Hardly had Grants march begun, when Lee knew 1t, and ordered the concentra- ton of his forces near Mine Run, few miles west of the route on which the ene- my was moving. Changing front, he brought Ewell from near Raccoon Ford, ten miles northwest, on the turnpike; Hill from Orange Court House, about twenty miles on the Plank road, and Longstreet from Gordonsville, still further to the southeast, on what was known as the Catharpin road, south and nearly parallel to the Plank road. Ewell and Hill ac- cording to his plan, were to strike Grant
 0 flank while laboring through the thick cts in which 1t was entangled' wnile Longstreet was to throw himself at the same time on it's advance. double It back, and, if possible, reach and assail It's left flank and rear. The conception was mas terly and daring: but not so delicate and dangerous as the movement on Hooker right flank at Charlottesville. That 1t was feasible. even without a Jackson to execute. is shown by the fact that much less promising alternative, forced on Lee by circumstances, was in the full tide of successful execution, when it was pnffled by the dlreful bullet that disabled Long, street about noon on May 6.
 On May 5. Ewell. moving along the | turnpike, encountered the federals. who, at first, regarded his presence as a veil i to conceal Lees imagined retreat. Some later. Hill, with Heths and Wilcox's di- visions struck them on the Plank road a | few miles southward. Heavy fighting fol. lowed until night. in which the advantage | wes with Ewe1l and Hill, who brought the enemy's southward march to full