The American Civil War - This Mighty Scourge of War

The fighting 187

earthworks along the crest of a ridge at the
western edge of a 40-acre (16-ha) open space
known locally as Saunders Field. When
Warren's men marched in determined ranks
into the field and started up the other side,
they were inaugurating a pattern that
defined much of the subsequent two days of
fighting on the Turnpike. Confederate
firepower pouring down the slope into
Saunders Field, from behind defensive works,
proved more than flesh and blood could
stand - both at the first attack and through
many others that followed. An early
Unionist surge did attain the western crest,
killing Southern General John M. Jones and
breaking the line. However, Confederates
pounding rapidly eastward on the Turnpike
soon ejected the interlopers and restored the
position.
Much of General John Sedgwick's Federal
V Corps went to Warren's aid. Throughout
5 May men on both sides, particularly the
blue-clad attackers, died in the struggle
for Saunders Field. A section of guns

stranded between the lines served as a

magnet for repeated hand-to-hand strife.

At day's end, the initial situation around

the field remained unchanged despite

a daunting expenditure of blood: Federals

held the eastern edge, Confederates

the western.

The thickets of the Wilderness, broken

by only a few rude paths and desolate

farmsteads, made maneuvering and fighting

on a large scale impracticable between the

Turnpike and the Plank Road. Both armies

recognized the potential advantage of using

the unoccupied middle ground as a means of

threatening an exposed enemy rear; both

made gestures toward exploiting the

opportunity; neither ever managed to effect

a serious lodgment.

Meanwhile, a separate battle raged on the

Orange Plank Road, nearly in isolation from

The Texans turn Lee back on the Widow Tapp Farm,

Wilderness Battlefield. (Painting by Don Troiani,

http://www.historicalartprints.com)