Battle of the Wilderness

Battle of the Wilderness by Kurz and Allison.

Date	May 5–7, 1864
Location	Spotsylvania County and Orange County, Virginia 38°18′59″N 77°45′35″W / 38.3164°N 77.7597°W / 38.3164; -77.7597Coordinates: 38°18′59″N 77°45′35″W / 38.3164°N 77.7597°W / 38.3164; -77.7597
Result	Inconclusive (Union offensive continued)

Belligerents

United States

Confederate States

Commanders and leaders

Ulysses S. Grant
George G. Meade

Robert E. Lee

Units involved

Army of Northern Virginia

Strength

124,232 ("present for duty")

60–65,000

Casualties and losses

17,666
(2,246 killed,
12,037 wounded,
3,383 captured/missing)

11,033
(1,477 killed,
7,866 wounded,
1,690 captured/missing)

Inconclusive

The Battle of the Wilderness, fought May 5–7, 1864, was the first battle of Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Virginia Overland Campaign against Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War. Both armies suffered heavy casualties, a harbinger of a bloody war of attrition by Grant against Lee's army and, eventually, the Confederate capital, Richmond, Virginia. The battle was tactically inconclusive, as Grant disengaged and 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 Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren attacked the Confederate Second Corps, commanded by Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell, on the Orange Turnpike. That afternoon the Third Corps, commanded by Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill, encountered Brig. Gen. George W. Getty's division (VI Corps) and Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock's II Corps on the Orange Plank Road. Fighting until dark was fierce but inconclusive as both sides attempted to maneuver in the dense woods.

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