190 The American Civil WarHundreds of helpless wounded men of both sides
burned to death when muzzle flashes light the thickets of
the Wilderness on fire. (Public domain)railroad - graded and filled, but not yet
tracked - that ran south of and parallel to the
Plank Road. A mixed force of four brigades
pulled from various divisions got astride the
rail corridor, moved east until opposite the
dangling Federal left flank, then turned north
and completely routed Hancock's troops. In
Hancock's words, the Confederates rolled up
his line 'like a wet blanket.' Most of the
attackers pushed as far north as the Plank
Road. Some of them actually went into the
woods north of the road.
In the ensuing chaos, a mistaken 'friendly'
volley tore into a cavalcade of Confederate
officers reconnoitering on the road. It killed
General Micah Jenkins and inflicted a
dreadful wound on Longstreet. Lee's most
capable surviving subordinate eventually
recovered, but he would be out of service
until long after the war had settled into a
siege at Petersburg. The fatal volley,
reminiscent of the mistaken fire that had
mortally wounded Stonewall Jackson nearby
exactly one year earlier, extracted all the
energy from the Confederate success. An
attack later in the day pressed all the way to
the heart of the enemy line on the Brock
Road, but in the end it produced nothing
but more losses.
While Lee inspired the Texans and then
regained the initiative on the Plank Road,
General Ewell's Confederates continued to
hold firm control of their crucial wood line
up on the Turnpike. General John
B. Gordon - a non-professional soldier who
would bloom late in the conflict into a
remarkable warrior - spent much of 6 May
attempting to secure permission for an
attack in the woods on the far left, where
Grant had failed to protect his right flank.
Timidity ruled Ewell's behavior by this time
in the war (he had lost a leg and gained an
extremely strong-willed wife, with
deleterious impact upon his elan and
amour-propre). By the time Gordon extracted
authority to attack, daylight was dwindling.
Even so, the surprise assault captured two
Yankee generals and hundreds of men, and
thoroughly shattered Grant's flank. In a
ghastly aftermath to the Wilderness
fighting, leaves and brush caught fire from
muzzle flashes and hundreds of helpless