186 The American Civil WarThe first clash between the war's two most famous
leaders, Robert E. Lee and U. S. Grant, unfolded in the
dense thickets of 'the Wilderness' on 5-6 May 1864.
Grant's plan to slip across Lee's front and get
between him and the Confederate capital at
Richmond crumbled when the Confederates came in
from the west and struck him a violent blow. For two
days the fighting raged in woods and the few
clearings, notably Saunders Field and the Widow Tapp
Farm, and along the corridors of the Orange Turnpike
and the Orange Plank Road. The Federals came close
to success in each of the sectors, which were fought
in virtual isolation from each other because of the
underbrush; but on 6 May Confederate attacks
turned and shattered both Federal flanks. On 7 May,
Grant moved southeast away from the Wilderness,
toward Spotsylvania Court House.
thunderbolt. The Brock Road offered Grant
and Meade the only practicable route
southward through the Wilderness. Two
east-west roads served Lee as corridors of
advance and attack. The old Orange
Turnpike ran 2.5 miles (4km) north of the
parallel Orange Plank Road. Densely scrubby
country separated them. The intersections of
the two Orange roads with the Brock Road
network became the focus of the strivings of
both armies for two days, 5-6 May 1864.
The Battle of the Wilderness erupted on
the Orange Turnpike on the morning of the
5th when Federal detachments in that
quarter saw Confederates of General Richard
S. Ewell's corps threatening from the west.
Grant directed Meade to attack. Meade sent
General Gouverneur K. Warren's V Corps.
The Confederates had begun to buildThe Battle of the Wilderness, 5-6 May 1864