188 The American Civil Warevents a few miles to the north. General
A. P. Hill's Confederate Third Corps moved
eastward on the Plank Road. The sturdy
Federal II Corps, commanded by the
indomitable General Winfield Scott Hancock,
interposed an obstacle between Hill and the
crucial intersection. General George W.
Getty's division, extracted from VI Corps up
on the Turnpike, hurried south to help
Hancock hold the Brock-Plank crossroads.
Bitter fighting seethed through the confusing
thickets. Men died by the hundreds and fell
maimed by the thousands.
Federal strength threatened to overwhelm
Hill, but at the end of 5 May he had held.
One-third of Lee's infantry, the First Corps
under General James Longstreet, did not
reach the battlefield at all on 5 May.
Hill's troops, weary and decimated and
ill-organized, lay in the brush of the
Wilderness that night with the desolate
awareness that they could not withstand a
serious attack in the morning.
The arrival of Longstreet's first troops early
on 6 May salvaged a desperate situation for
Lee and resulted in a moment of high
personal drama for the Southern leader.
Hancock had carefully arranged for a broad
attack on both sides of the Plank Road. Soon
after dawn, he launched his assault with
characteristic vigor. It rolled steadily forward,
scattering Hill's regiments and threatening to
rupture Lee's entire front. Artillery had been
of little use in the thickets, but a battalion of
a dozen Confederate guns lined the woods at
the western edge of the Tapp field, a
30-acre clearing around the rude cabin and
modest farm of a widow named Tapp - the
only sizable open space anywhere in the
battle zone along the Plank Road. The
cannon flung canister across the Tapp Farm
space in double-shotted doses, making the
ground untenable for Union infantry.
Northern troops filtered around the edge of
the clearing to get in behind the guns and
complete the victory. Then, without any timeThe final Confederate attack on 6 May swept
all the way to the Brock Road, but could not
hold the position. (Public domain)
whatsoever to spare, the van of Longstreet's
column reached the point of crisis.
Among the first units up was the famed
Texas Brigade, perhaps Lee's best shock
troops. The battles that had won the Texans
their well-deserved renown had cost them
enormous casualties: fewer than 800 of them
remained to carry muskets into the
Wilderness that morning. As the brigade
moved resolutely through the hard-pressed
artillery, Lee rode quietly beside them. The
General recognized his army's peril, and had
determined to take a personal role in
repairing the rupture. When the Texans
noticed him, and recognized his intention,