The Wilderness Campaign
Harrisburg, PA: The Stackpole Company, 1960. First Edition [stated], presumed first printing. Hardcover. xi, [3], 522 pages. Maps. Appendix A Tables of Organization. Appendix B Bibliography. Index. The dust jacket is in a plastic sleeve. There are tape marks inside the covers and end papers. Previous owner's bookplate is on the fep verso. This is one of the Civil War Campaigns series. On May 5 and 6, 1864, in a rugged area of tangled woods and brush on the south side of the Rapidan River in Virginia, Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee met for the first time on a Civil War battlefield. The vicious, confused fighting lasted for two days. Though no clear victor emerged, neither conceded defeat, and the death-grapple thus commenced continued for nearly a year. This accurate history was the first full-scale study of the Battle of the Wilderness and remains a principal source on the conflict. Edward Steere was a noted journalist who then became a historian with the National Park Service. While he was chief historian at the Fredericksburg National Military Park he commenced the nearly 20 years of research that resulted his his monumental work--The Wilderness Campaign. The Battle of the Wilderness was fought on May 5–7, 1864, during the American Civil War. It was the first battle of Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Virginia Overland Campaign against General Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. The fighting occurred in a wooded area near Locust Grove, Virginia, about 20 miles west of Fredericksburg. Both armies suffered many casualties, nearly 29,000 in total, a harbinger of a war of attrition by Grant against Lee's army and eventually against the Confederate capital, Richmond, Virginia. The battle was tactically inconclusive, as Grant disengaged and then 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 Major General Gouverneur K. Warren attacked the Confederate Second Corps, commanded by Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell, on the Orange Turnpike. That afternoon the Third Corps, commanded by Lieutenant General A. P. Hill, encountered Brigadier General George W. Getty's division (VI Corps) and Major General Winfield S. Hancock's Union II Corps on the Orange Plank Road. Fighting, which ended for the evening because of darkness, 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 Lieutenant General 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, but the momentum was lost when Longstreet was wounded by his own men. An evening attack by Brigadier General John B. Gordon against the Union right flank caused consternation at the 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 Battle of Todd's Tavern and Battle of Spotsylvania Court House. With over 28,000 casualties, the Battle of the Wilderness ranks in the top five American Civil War battles in terms of casualties for both sides combined. The official report for the Union listed 2,246 officers and men killed, 12,037 wounded, and 3,383 captured or missing—a total of 17,666 casualties for the Union side of the battle. Historian Gordon C. Rhea notes that this number is probably larger, since a lieutenant witnessed Warren lowering the number of casualties reported. Other Union casualty estimates are typically between 17,500 and 18,000. Based on correspondence from Grant, at least six brigadier generals were among the Union casualties. Wadsworth and Alexander Hays were killed, Seymour and Shaler were taken prisoner, and Getty and Bartlett were wounded. Young's study reveals Confederate casualties of 1,477 killed, 7,866 wounded, and 1,690 missing, for a total of 11,033 casualties. Among the wounded are 233 wounded and captured—they are counted herein in the wounded total and not double-counted in the missing category. This study is close to some of the estimates made by other sources. Like the Union, Lee lost some generals. His report at the end of May 5 concluded with the "gallant Brig. Gen. J. M. Jones was killed, and Brig. Gen. L. A. Stafford, I fear, mortally wounded while leading his command with conspicuous valor." His evening report for May 6 mentions the wounding of Longstreet and Brigadier General John Pegram, and the death of Jenkins. Condition: Good / Good.
Keywords: Wilderness Campaign, Civil War, Army of the Potomac, Operation Rapidan, George Meade, Longstreet
[Book #91837]
Price: $75.00