40 Fun Facts About Battle of the Wilderness

Which Confederate general's amputated arm lies buried at Ellwood Manor on the Wilderness battlefield?

Stonewall Jackson was shot by mistake by his own men a year before the battle, and his chaplain buried the arm in a family cemetery. A stone marker put up in 1903 still stands in the cemetery.

Which Confederate corps commander was shot by his own troops at the Battle of the Wilderness?

James Longstreet was hit in the throat and shoulder by Virginians who mistook his mounted party for the enemy. He survived, but did not return to duty until that October.

What was the name of Robert E. Lee's horse, whose reins soldiers seized at the Battle of the Wilderness?

Traveller was caught by the bridle when Lee began to follow a charge himself. The men would not go forward until their general moved somewhere safer.

What killed many wounded soldiers lying helpless between the lines at the Battle of the Wilderness?

Forest fires set by the gunfire spread through the dry undergrowth, and men on both sides were shocked to watch wounded comrades burn to death where they had fallen.

Which retail chain dropped plans for a store beside the Wilderness battlefield after a preservation fight?

Walmart had county approval for a supercenter less than a quarter mile from the national park boundary. It withdrew in 2011, just as a lawsuit over the site was about to go to trial.

At the Wilderness, a brigade from which state halted its charge until Robert E. Lee rode back to safety?

Texas troops had just been cheered on by Lee, who waved his hat and then tried to ride in behind them. Of the 800 men who charged, only 250 came out unhurt.

Unable to see far in the smoke-filled Wilderness thickets, soldiers often aimed their shots at what?

Sounds were often all a soldier had to aim at. That put attackers at a disadvantage, since they moved noisily through the brush toward defenders who stayed hidden.

Which Union cavalry general fought his West Point friend, Confederate Thomas Rosser, at the Wilderness?

George A. Custer was attacked by Rosser on the Brock Road on the second morning. A six-gun battery arriving with another brigade turned the fight his way.

Which former Army of the Potomac commander led the separate IX Corps at the Battle of the Wilderness?

Ambrose Burnside outranked the army's commander, so his corps answered directly to Grant. His side-whiskers gave English the word sideburns.

Grant's march away from the Wilderness aimed to put his army between Lee and which city?

Richmond was the prize Grant kept threatening. He hoped the move would force Lee to fight on open ground, where Union numbers and artillery could count.

Who kept formal command of the Army of the Potomac at the Wilderness while Grant travelled with it?

George Meade, the victor of Gettysburg, kept the title while Grant rode alongside and set strategy. The arrangement left him chafing at the close supervision.

The Battle of the Wilderness was the opening fight of which 1864 Union drive through Virginia under Grant?

The Overland Campaign pushed Lee back into a siege at Petersburg by late June. After each battle Grant sidestepped to the southeast and came on again.

The Wilderness was fought in the same Virginia thickets as which Confederate victory of a year earlier?

Chancellorsville saw Lee beat an army more than twice the size of his own. That win is why he was glad to catch Grant on the same tangled ground.

Which Virginia river, the winter dividing line between the armies, did Grant cross to enter the Wilderness?

Rapidan fords took the troops over on May 4, and behind them rolled a supply train of some 4,300 wagons that stretched for 60 to 70 miles.

Which battle began the day after the Wilderness, when Lee beat Grant to a crossroads ten miles southeast?

Spotsylvania became a two-week struggle because Lee guessed where Grant was heading. His men got there first and dug formidable earthworks.

Which Confederate cavalry chief at the Wilderness was mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern only days later?

Jeb Stuart was shot on May 11 as retreating Michigan horsemen streamed past him, and he died the next day. His troopers had been scattered across the region when the campaign opened.

Which general did Grant bring east from an infantry command to lead the Union cavalry at the Wilderness?

Philip Sheridan was new to the job, and the dense woods left his horsemen little room to fight. Most of the cavalry clashes took place on the roads south of the infantry.

How do historians and the National Park Service usually sum up the result of the Battle of the Wilderness?

Inconclusive is the usual verdict because neither army was driven from the field. Lee fought Grant to a standoff, yet Grant marched on south instead of retreating.

Before the Wilderness, Grant was promoted to which rank, first held in the U.S. Army by George Washington?

Lieutenant general was revived by Congress in February 1864 so that Lincoln could place Grant over every Union army. The promotion came with command of them all.

The Wilderness battlefield lies about 20 miles west of which Virginia city, scene of a Union defeat in 1862?

Fredericksburg lends its name to the national military park that now protects parts of four battlefields, the Wilderness the westernmost of them.

Which VI Corps commander, nearly captured at the Wilderness, was killed by a sharpshooter three days later?

John Sedgwick escaped a dusk flank attack in which two of his brigadiers were taken prisoner. On May 9 he was shot moments after joking that the enemy could not hit an elephant at that range.

What hidden route let Confederate brigades slip around Winfield Hancock's flank at the Wilderness?

An unfinished railroad bed ran through the woods south of the Plank Road. Lee's chief engineer explored it that morning and found it led straight to the unguarded Union left.

Winfield Hancock said a flank attack at the Wilderness rolled up his line like which everyday object?

A wet blanket was Hancock's image for how his left wing folded when the attack hit at 11 a.m. He rallied the men in trenches along the Brock Road and held there for the rest of the day.

Grant mocked officers at the Wilderness for fearing Lee would suddenly pull off which acrobatic move?

A double somersault, Grant snapped, would have to land Lee in the Union rear and on both flanks at once. He told the worried officer to think about what they were going to do instead.

Which Union general called Grant's choice to press on after the Wilderness the grandest act of his life?

William T. Sherman, who was about to strike into Georgia on Grant's orders, added that he now felt the rebellion would be crushed.

Which V Corps commander, the hero of Little Round Top, opened the Battle of the Wilderness on the Orange Turnpike?

Gouverneur Warren asked to wait for support on his right, but his impatient superiors ordered him in at once. The attack was thrown back across the clearing it had crossed.

Which Confederate general, who had lost a leg in 1862, led the Second Corps at the Wilderness?

Richard Ewell reached the western edge of a clearing first and had his men dig in. Lee had told him not to advance too fast, because the rest of the army was still out of reach.

Which wealthy New York landowner, a Union division commander, was mortally wounded at the Wilderness?

James Wadsworth was 56, the oldest division commander in the army by about nine years. Shot in the head on the second day, he died in a Confederate field hospital.

Which future Georgia governor led the Confederate dusk attack on the Union right at the Wilderness?

John B. Gordon had scouted the exposed flank that morning, but his division commander thought the attack too risky. It was not approved until about 5:30 p.m., with little daylight left.

The Wilderness thickets grew up after the region's old trees were cut to make charcoal for what?

Iron furnaces in the region ate up the timber in the early 1800s. What grew back was a tangle of briars, pine, cedar and low-branched hardwoods that an army could barely see through.

How did Grant keep his hands busy while directing the Battle of the Wilderness from a tree stump?

Whittling sticks kept Grant's penknife busy for most of the day, an aide recalled. He shaved one twig after another to a point, with a lit cigar in his mouth almost constantly.

Lee tried to lead a charge at the Battle of the Wilderness in a field on which woman's farm?

Widow Tapp's farm held twelve Confederate guns that kept shooting down the road even as their own infantry fell back past them. Reinforcements reached the spot just in time.

Which clearing on the Orange Turnpike saw the first infantry clash of the Battle of the Wilderness?

Saunders Field was swept by what one account called a blizzard of lead. Union cannon pushed into it were captured, but rifle shots kept the captors from hauling them away.

Which South Carolina general died in the mistaken volley that wounded his corps commander at the Wilderness?

Micah Jenkins had graduated first in his class at the school now called The Citadel. He was 28, and an aide and an orderly riding in the same party were killed with him.

Which Union general killed at the Wilderness was an old West Point friend of Grant, who later wept at his grave?

Alexander Hays was killed while speaking to a Pennsylvania regiment on the first afternoon. Grant said he was not surprised that his friend had died in battle, because it was just like him.

Which seven-shot weapon let 500 New York cavalrymen delay a Confederate corps at the Wilderness?

Spencer carbines let the 5th New York Cavalry shoot so fast that Confederate prisoners said they thought they had been fighting an entire brigade.

A brigade from which New England state lost over 1,200 men holding a key crossroads at the Wilderness?

Vermont had its worst day of the war at that junction, where a monument to the brigade now stands. Had the junction fallen, the Union army would have been split in half.

Which Confederate brigadier, later the hero of the Crater, helped lead the flank attack at the Wilderness?

William Mahone was the senior brigadier in the column that struck the Union left at 11 a.m. Soon afterwards it was men of his own brigade who shot their corps commander by mistake.

From which Virginia height did Lee and his generals study the Union camps three days before the Wilderness?

Clark Mountain gave Lee a panoramic view across the river. From it he correctly predicted that Grant would cross at the fords to the east of the Confederate works.

What nickname did the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves, sent out as skirmishers at the Wilderness, go by?

Bucktails carried breech-loading Sharps rifles, normally issued only to sharpshooters. They were sent toward the Orange Plank Road, but the cavalry line there was collapsing before they arrived.