Higgerson Farm with the 149th Pennsylvania Infantry

The Battle of the Wilderness: May 5-6, 1864; by Gordon C. Rhea; Louisiana State University Press; 1994 p.p. 162-163

"To Cutler's and Denison's left, Roy Stone's Pennsylvania brigade had wound up in a nightmare of unusually hellish proportions, even for this day. Pushing forward, the Pennsylvanians had crossed a clearing about a quarter mile below Saunders' Field. Known as Spring Hill, the clearing was the site of the Higgerson home. On its far side, it dropped down to a little creek, one of Wilderness Run's tributaries.

The brigade lined up facing the woods. The 143rd and 149th Pennsylvania Regiments were in the lead, the 150th was assigned as skirmishers, and the remaining three regiments were massed behind.

Peering into the dense foilage just beyond the field, a Pennsylvanian called to his companions, "That's a hell of a looking hole to send white men into." Another shouted, "Boys, label yourselves, if we must go down in there, as you will never come out again". No one's confidence was helped by the fact that the brigade's officers could be seen "swilling whiskey as they would water".

Chopping through tangled bushes, Stone's troops stumbled into a swamp. Soon they were floundering in mud and water to their waists. Alignments disintegrated. The 149th became separated from the 143rd, slipping to the rear and a little behind its sister regiment. Suddenly sheets of flame burst in the faces of Stone's men. Bullets spattered all around. Bewildered soldiers frantically struggled in slow motion to extricate themselves from the mire. Shooting toward the sound of rebel muskets, the 149th Pennsylvania poured destructive fire into the back of the 143rd Pennsylvania. "The men scattered in every direction," recalled a survivor, "most of them going down the swamp toward the right." Stone did what he could do to rally his panicked brigade. "Hat off, and his coat thrown back on his shoulders," remembered one of Stone's troops, "he rode down behind {the 149th Pennsylvania,} which a line of Western troops {the Iron Brigade} had stopped, cursing them as though that were a part of his education. Swinging his sword, he drove them back to the line again." The rally, however, was short lived. Crawling out of what one Pennsylvanian later described as a "that champion mud hole of mud holes," Stone's soldiers sloshed off in all directions, uncertain of where to turn. Another soldier recalled how they "went to the rear, pell mell, like a flock of scared sheep." Large numbers were captured. Survivors filtered back to the Lacy fields, by then teeming with Federals stunned by the unexpected reverse. Blustering with rage, Stone blamed the route on the 143rd Pennsylvania. A member of that unit seethed as he listened to Stone's contemptuous language. "I would have liked to have seen a rebel shell come and took the druken head clean from his shoulders after he got through with his abuse," the soldier later reminisced. "Could I photograph this hell hole that we were put in, I would then ask, what in the name of justice and cause and effect, had we to do with the outflanking and envelopment of the famous old Iron Brigade." The real culprit, concluded the soldier, was the gap between Stone's and Cutler's forces. "Tell to the world if you can why then two fighting brigades (Iron Brigade and Stone's) were thus advanced to this position in this hell hole, without correction on either flank, and officers drunk.

Widow Tapp Farm with the 17th Maine Infantry. In addition to Gordon Rhea's description of the action at the Widow Tapp Farm we have also included passages from Private John Haley of the 17th Maine Infantry and Major Charles P. Mattocks of the 17th Maine. During the Battle of the Wilderness Major Mattocks was attached to the 1st United States Sharpshooters. Private Haley was obvoiusly not a big fan of Major Mattocks judging by his thoughts he penned after hearing that this officer was captured by the Confederates. We have also included an account by Private Samuel Cummings of the 151st New York Infantry. The 151st New York was a regiment assigned to the 3rd Division, Sixth Corps during the Battle of the Wilderness.

The Battle of the Wilderness: May 5-6, 1864; by Gordon C. Rhea; Louisiana State University Press; 1994 p.p. 293-294

"Leading the Union drive was Hays's brigade, now commanded by Elijah Walker, of the 4th Maine. His regiment and the 17th Maine punched ahead of the main Federal body. Well behind them were Wadsworth's forces, slowed by confusion in their ranks. Suddenly the Maine soldiers emerged from the forest into daylight. They had reached Widow Tapp's field.

Blue uniforms began to appear on the eastern edge of the clearing. More lapped around to the south. Here was the last line of Confederate resistance. Across the clearing's center, ranged north to south, stood Poague's cannon. Sitting on a slight rise, rebel artillerymen had a clear field of fire covering Orange Plank Road and the woods from where the enemy was approaching. A hasty barricade of rails and logs provided the gunners some protection from the bullets that had begun whispering around the clearing.

Grasping at a last opportunity to buy time, Hill ordered Poague to shoot obliquely across the road. Palmer protested. The retreating Confederates had not yet finished crossing in front of the guns. Hill was insistent. There must be no delay. The guns must open, and they must begin immediately.

Assuming that a full battle line followed closely behind the enemy skirmishers, Poague initiated a slow fire with short-range shells. Flames spit from the Rebel guns. Smoke filled the air, and projectiles whined into the approaching Federals, doing "great execution." One piece maintained steady fire down the Orange Plank Road, effectively keeping the way cleared of Yankees.

Encountering unexpected resistance, the Union advance slowed. But twelve guns, however bravely manned, could not stop an army. Federals began edging around the field, threatening to envelop the gunners. Still Poague's pieces roared, swinging more to the north and south and to still the restless blue tide. Pandemonium reigned. "The cannon thundered, musketry rolled, stragglers were fleeing, couriers riding here and there in post-haste," wrote a Confederate who witnessed the scene. "Minie balls began to sing, the dying and wounded were jolted by the flying ambulances, and filling the road-side, adding to the excitement, the terror of death."

The Rebel Yell & the Yankee Hurrah: The Civil War Journal of a Maine Volunteer, Edited by Ruth L. Silliker

Private John W. Haley, 17th Maine Infantry Regiment, 3rd Division, Second Army Corps.

May 5th

About daylight we were called in from picket and found our division ready to move. We drew a ration of beef, but barely had time to warm it before the column was in motion. We passed out through the Cedars and by the Furnaces, places made historical by our experiences of last May, and then moved slowly in a southwestern direction. Our orders were to head for Shady Grove Church on the Catharpin Road, six miles south of Parker's store on the Orange Plank Road, where another corps was directed...When we reached the junction of the roads, we saw the most awful confusion reigning. Numerical superiority was seen here at its worst. There were more troops than could be utilized, almost a huddle. The roads were narrow and the woods and underbrush very dense. It was a dreadfully mixed-up mess. The enemy was rapidly pushing in this direction and, if they gained the junction, we didn't know what our Ulysses would do.

When we reached the place of action, it was difficult to tell who was who. The brigade commander was tearing and swearing. His English was exceedingly vigorous and confusingly copious. In marching and countermarching, our division and the 2nd became sandwiched in a most remarkable manner. General Hayes, who always has a select litany of imprecations to dispense, was cursing one and damning the other.

"Get out of the way, you d___d white patches," he exclaimed with vehemence to the 2nd Division. And to a cavalryman who happened to hit him in the leg as he passed, he yelled, "G___d d____m your old heels!"

It seemed doubtful that we could get into line soon enough to save this locality, for the troops on our right were hotly engaged. Berdan's sharpshooters were out as skirmishers in our front, and they kept the enemy at bay, so that we soon had a line formed. We advanced at once and very soon became involved.

Nothing could be seen except trees and brush. All we could see of the enemy was the flash of their guns. This was guide enough, and we blazed away at them. We soon had them started, or they fell back by design to draw us from the road. I don't know which; I only know they did fall back and we followed until darkness closed in on this region of the "shadow of the death." From 4 o'clock we were into it all along the line, hot and heavy, teeth and nails, nip and tuck. It was a continuous roar of musketry, rising and swelling like the sound of surf pounding on the shore. Neither side could use artillery, with the exception of one section on the Plank Road.

About dark the roar died away and we began to look around. We have gained a little ground, but lost heavily in men. There is every reason to believe that the Confederates have suffered as greatly. The last thing they attempted, without success, was to wedge themselves in between our right and the troops of the 5th and 6th corps.

Matters are exceedingly confused, and some of our men sleep in the Rebel lines, but not as prisoners. Major Mattox, of our regiment, who was temporarily in command of the sharpshooters, was taken prisoner. I can't think of any officer I'd sooner part with for he was very pompous and had yards and yards of superfluous red tape about him.

Our own company loss in this engagement was one killed (Daniel Brown), two mortally wounded, and seven wounded to a lesser degree. Shortly before leaving camp it was remarked to Daniel Brown that he would not get out of fighting in this regiment as he had done in two others. His reply was, "If I go into any fight, I hope to Jesus Christ that I shall not be shot before five minutes." This malediction on his own head came upon him with painful fidelity, and he fell before he had fired twice. Such speeches are better left unsaid. Those who heard him make it recalled it when they saw him fall and witnesses his agony. His yells could be heard distinctly above the din of battle.

Frank Sweester and Fred Loring were the two men mortally wounded. The former was shot in the lower abdomen; the latter had his hip crushed. I must bear testimony to the patience and heroic sprirt displayed by these two young men. Frank was a warm personal friend, and my feelings may be imagined when I saw him writhe in pain. Never was there a young man of sweeter disposition, generous and warm-hearted. I couldn't have thought more of him had he been my own brother. Fred was my tentmate and a fine fellow. He didn't possess Frank's generous and cheerful nature, but was much esteemed by me.

Four of us made stretchers of blankets and poles and carried them to the Brock Road, where the field hospital was. It was not less than a mile from our line of battle, and yet it seemed like ten as we struggled through the tangled underbrush of the Wilderness. Sweetser begged constantly for water, which we threw up as soon as it was down. Fred's patient and uncomplaining manner, in spite of what must have been the most excruciating pain, was astonsihing, for he was only a lad in his teens. HIs conduct was the more conspicuous in contrast to the other wounded men all around us who were groaning, praying begging, cursing, and yelling with pain and rage. He made not a sound save now and then a sigh or low-spoken request. Sweetser died soon after midnight when they were taking him and Fred off in an ambulance to Fredericksburg, where every house is a hospital.

At this field hospital, where hundreds of men lay wounded with no one to tend them, I passed most of the night. Not far from the boys whom I was caring for was a wounded Irishman who kept up a perfect fusillade of yells and groans to attract attention. At frequent intervals he would raise himself on his elbows screaming, "Murther! Muther! MURTHER!"

The events and fatigues of the last three days have so unstrung my nervous system that a blow from a twig would, I believe, prove fatal. During the engagement in the Wilderness this afternoon I became so weak that I could not stand up, and I bled at the nose like a stuck pig. How I did my share of lugging Loring and Sweetser to the rear is something I cannot explain. It was nothing short of superhuman exertion.

May 6th

I awoke to find the troops had gone forward in obedience to an order from Grant to attack all along the line at daylight. Jack Brine and I began to search for our division. We moved out to the front, but they were gone. They had the rebels on the run and kept pushing them for two miles. We found no traces of them for a long time but finally ran afoul of a fellow who said our division had moved in a left oblique direction across the Plank Road. We followed for a couple of hours, then gave it up and decided to do no more running until we find something more definite.

Our troops had moved with wonderful celerity and had turned the Rebs right out of their blankets, pusuing them for two miles. No one knows where our division would have driven them if Hancock hadn't felt it imperative to halt and make some kind of alignment. His left used the Brock Road as a pivotal point, while his right swung around toward and across the Plank Road, so that his corps was nearly parallel with the Plank Road.. When Hancock halted, it gave Lee the opportunity to form his line, and as soon as the fresh troops had arrived, the two rebel divisions advanced simultaneosly on Hancock and commenced pushing him back. So impetuously was the assault made that the Union troops melted before it and soon came rolling back to the Brock Road, followed by the exultant Confederates.

Here we joined them. It was just as well we hadn't made any further efforts to find them, as they hadn't been anywhere near where we had supposed them to be. At first our side had it all our way, but when the Rebels turned, it was the Union troops that suffered. Company I lost twenty men. When it reached Brock Road, only seven could be found, and one of these had had a mighty close call - a bullet cut a furrow over his head from front to back, as clean as ever a razor shaved hair. There was no organization, no alignment, or much of anything but a mob.

Others companies suffered as much, or worse. Major West, our regimental commander, was wounded in the thigh and sent to the rear. Other officers were put off their pins. General Alexander Hayes, our brigade commander, was instantly killed while leading his troops. He was really a brave old felloe, or perhaps reckless might be a better term. He once commanded a division but in the recent reorganization he was reduced to a brigade command, where it is said no brains are needed.

We were not under Hayes long enough to know hime well. He was continually soaked or steeped in whiskey, and it was to this article that he was indebted for his death. There is no saying that he might have been killed anyway, but I can say that that particular bullet would not have killed him except that the strap on his canteen became entangled, and as he tried to adjust his mouth to the mouth of the canteen, the bullet went through his head.

Our Major West is the greatest loss, for we are desperately short of regimental commanders. For a leader at such a time a clear head is needed, and most of the officers are besotted with whiskey.

Our line is now the Brock Road, and this must be held off at all hazards. Otherwise, we have no exit from the Wilderness except to go back to Chancellorsville, perhaps Fredericksburg. If that happens, Lee will be between us and Richmond.

Before we formed in line, the Rebels were onto us in a furious charge. Lee had massed all his available forces in one supreme effort to overwhelm Hancock and get possession of the junction of the Brock and Plank roads. It was a desparate encounter. Longstreet's command was on us, yelling like devils. Our breastworks were set on fire. We fell back a few rods, but seeing the Johnnies pour over the works, we retook them instantly.

In this affair, General Longstreet was severely wounded in the neck and carried from the field, and all further attack was abandoned. Panic and confusion reigned and came near in resulting in a rout of the Union forces. This was partly due to an excitable aide of General Birney's who ordered some troops to swing around and face the enemy. Instead, his order brought them back-to. The mistake was discovered in time to avoid disaster and deliver a volley in the faces of the enemy, no thanks to that excitable aide, who didn't know his right hand from his left.

The Rebels soon started in the direction of Orange Court House. Their demoralization may be imagined when it is known that a lieutenant in our regiment captured eighteen of them with only his revolver, while they were still all armed.

Soon after, the excitement died away and we were ordered to the rear. We started toward Chancellorsville, but had not proceeded far when we were ordered to return to the front. We about faced and came back to nearly our original position.

This is the second night in the Wilderness. We laid down for the night near where the last fighting was.

Unspoiled Heart": The Journal of Charles Mattocks of the 17th Maine, Edited by Philip N. Racine, The University of Tennessee Press.

Thursday, May 5th.

We started once more this morning, and of course the Sharp Shooters were detailed as flankers. We marched until about 12 o'clock when, hearing fire in the direction of {Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K.} Warren's column (on our right), we immediately marched back, left in front, our Brigade now leading the Division. We had not far to march, but at 2 or 3 o'clock joined the line of battle, being on the left of the 2d Corps. My Sharpshooters were now double-quicked to the front and ordered to deploy as skirmishers to cover the Brigade. General Hays rode up to me and gave me my choice of a support. I chose the 3d or 5th Michigan. Col. {Byron R.} Pierce soon came up and with the 3d, at which I was much pleased. I had already deployed Companies F, H, I, G, K and B, holding the other three in reserve. This line exactly covered the Brigade. I connected with Brig. Gen. Mott's skirmishers on the right and and Ward's {2d U.S.S.S.} on the left. We were in a very good growth of wood, but were soon ordered to march in retreat and then by the flank, so as to close up Mott's interval, who had gone on a reconnaissance to the right and front. After making the connection on the right we were ordered to advance once more. This last movement brought us across a brook which ought to have been kept between us and the enemy. The covering for the men was not so good here. Presently the firing commenced, and instead of the (our) line of battle following up our advance, the 3d Mich., our support, was suddenly withdrawn, without any notice to me, We were hotly engaged. I then, upon my own responsibility, and according to a general instruction to conform to the movement of the line on my right, moved in retreat firing. We found the (our) line of battle behind a nice breastwork alongside the road. We had a very sharp skirmish and had fairly held a line of battle with our skirmish line of Sharp's Rifles. The moment the skirmishers had formed with the other troops, our line of battle began to blaze away, as is usual with many, although they could not see a single "Reb". Yet the fact of hearing a ball whistle overhead is often a sufficient incentive for some of our Infantry Regiments to commence firing. Hearing occasionally the peculiar report of a Sharp's rifle in the woods in front I concluded that some of my Sharp Shooters had become a little too interested in their sport, and might remain long enough to get between two fires, and thus be sacrificed. Accordingly I succeeded in quieting the fire of our line by telling them that the skirmishers not all been withdrawn. I then jumped my horse over the breastwork and "went in" in search of my "green breaches". I found here and there one who was amusing himself behind a tree with a pop at the enemy, who by the way were pouring in a heavy but wild and ill directed fire. What few Sharp Shooters I found I sent back in double quick. I yet heard the occasional crack of a Sharp's rifle across the brook. So I rushed my horse and just as I emerged from the low bushes growing around the stream, the firing in front of me ceased, and where the air was almost thick with balls, there was now "nary a whistle," but instead, directly in front of me about forty or fifty yards, was a Regiment of "Johnies" yelling "Come in, come in," and at the same time leveling their muskets at me to convince me that it was of no avail to "skedaddle" then. I hesitated a moment, and was upon the point of turning my horse and trying a run for life. But then there was the fact that the thick bushes and the brook would impede my course more than that of two or three hundred bullets. It was but a short moment, but I had time to weigh all the chances. It was simply death or capture, and I very ungallantly chose the latter. I raised my hat and started toward them. They at once flocked around me, and of course claimed my pistols and sword, which gave them as a sort of "Hobson's choice." I was at once conducted to Capt. Brown, Asst. Inspector General on Brig. Gen. {Henry H.} Walker's Staff, who exchanged horses with me, as he has a special fancy for mine with sleek sides and nice trappings. I was then sent to the rear and delivered to the Provost Guard. I had been here but a moment before Capt. {Simon} Brennan of the 3d Mich. came in. Capt. B had supported the Sharp Shooters and was captured while hunting up stragglers, just as I was. Presntly Capt. Nash and Lieut. Lee {T.J. Leigh} of Gen. Ward's staff came in. So Birney's Division is very well represented. The fight is still raging quite furiously, and a charge by our Brigade (as we have since learned) has just caused not a little commotion among the "Johnies". As yet here has been but very little artillery used on either side, owing to the nature of the field, which is nothing more or less than one was waste of woodland fitly called "The Wilderness"

At night we were moved about a mile and a half to Parker's Store, where there has been something of a cavalry skirmish. We now number about 10 officers and 150 men. But they say that a large squad of prisoners have already been sent to Orange Court House, 20 miles away. I suppose we shall soon follow in their illustrious footsteps. However, we now make up our beds and lie down to think of the varying fortunes of a soldier. We hear that Gen. Hays, our Brigade Commander, is killed, Lt. Kinsman, of the Sharp Shooters is reported killed.

Give God the Glory: Memoirs of a Civil War Soldier, Edited by Melvin Jones

Private Samuel B. Cummings, 151st New York Volunteer Infantry, 3rd Division, Sixth Army Corps

May the 5th

Arose at daybreak, got our breakfast and fell into line, then resumed our march southward. Saw Gen. Grant for the first time. Marching very slow. Very warm. Fighting commenced at 11 o'clock A.M. and continued all day until dark. Saw Gen. Burnside. He is here with 6,000 men. We captured 500 men today. The picket firing lasted all night. Slept on the ground with my knapsack for a pillow and the canopy of heaven for a tent.

In the Wilderness, May 6th 1864

The fighting commenced at daylight. The cannons roared like thunder. Several charges were made but very little was accomplished on either side. Capt Billings of my own company, & Nicholas Beck, my old bunk mate were both killed by the same shell., and several more comrades belonging to Co F of our Regt. were killed & wounded. The Provose Guard were deployed as skirmishers in the rear of the line of battle to take charge of the prisoners if any taken & to hold the straglers in check. Our lines were broken. The Rebels made a grand charge on the first Division of the Old 6th Corps & after a hard struggle our line was broken & driven back but the Provost Guard fixed bayonets and stopped every man. Our line was soon formed again at dark the Old 6th Corps charged on the Rebels and drove them out of the breast works they had taken from us before 10 o'clock in the evening.

Vermont Brigade at the Brock and Orange Plank Roads. In addition to author Gordon Rhea's account of the Vermont Brigade at the Wilderness we have also included passages from A War of the People: Vermont Civil War Letters which were letters written by Private Bradford P. Sparrow of Elmore, Company K, Fourth Vermont Infantry, to his family, May 13, 1864. and Lieutenant Colonel Charles Cummings of Brattleboro, Seventeenth Vermont Infantry, to his wife, Elizabeth, May 15, 1864. We have also inlcuded a website at the end of these passages for the Vermont in the Civil War site which has an extensive list of resources on the Vermont Brigade in the Wilderness.

The Battle of the Wilderness: May 5-6, 1864; by Gordon C. Rhea; Louisiana State University Press; 1994p.p 195-197

"Getty's lone Federal division constituted the first wave of the Union assault. Unsupported except for two cannon borrowed from the 2nd Corps, Getty's blue-clad regiments struggled through the dense thickets. A Federal officer recalled that the ranks became "more and more crooked and disordered" as the division advanced.

South of the Orange Plank Road, the lead brigade of Vermonters slashed ragged swaths through switchlike saplings and creepers. These soldiers were the pride of the Getty's division, Green Mountain men who had served as the Federal rear guard at Chancellorsville a year before. The brigade's head, Lewis Grant, had a balding forehead neatly balanced by a bushy beard that made him look like the successful Yankee lawyer he was.He adequately compensated for his scant military training with unabashed bravery. For his present assignment, he formed dual lines, two regiments in front and three behind. He threw two companies forward as skirmishers to test the underbrush ahead. Impossibly thick foilage limited visibility in some places to twenty yards and got the Vermonters off to a shaky start. Their advance became even more confused when the colonel in charge of pickets, who was stationed on the line's right, failed to notify the far end to move out. Skirmishers near the roadway stabbed ahead while those on the left stayed put. Troops building up behind were also forced to grope forward unprotected. Apparently the mix-up also caused Grant's leftmost regiment to veer southward from the rest of the formation.

About three hundred yards out, a "tremendous volley" exploded from point blank range. The Federals had stumbled into Cooke's and Walker's Confederates, who were emptying their rifles with practiced eyes from behind their natural earthworks. Once again the impatience of Union headquarters had turned out a recipe for disaster.

Returning fire, Lewis Grant's men slumped to the ground. "Advance!" sounded the order, and the northerners rose instinctively, only to be torn to pieces by Confederate veterans shooting to kill. "So many were at once shot down that it became plain that to advance was simply destruction," reported the Union brigade's historian. Blue forms hugged the earth, unable to move. Sheets of lead howled and whistled above. "The rebels had the advantage of position," Grant later reported, "inasmuch as the line was protected by a slight swell of the ground, while ours was on nearly level ground." The Confederates kept up a "rapid and constant fire of musketry," wrote the Federal brigade commander. Rebel bullets cut his men down "with such slaughter that it was found impractical to do more than maintain our then present position." Grant ordered his second lline to join the first, to prevent the enemy from enveloping him. Standing erect spelled certain death, so men crawled into place. "The musketry silenced all other sounds," recalled a Union soldier, "and the air in the woods was hot and heavy with sulphurous vapor. The tops of the bushes were cut away by the leaden showers which swept through them; and when the smoke lifted occassional glimpses could be got of gray forms crouching under the battle-cloud which hung low upon the slope in the front." Another Vermont soldier who survived the carnage wrote home that "the woods was a dense thicket of small trees about the size of hop poles, and they stood three times as numerous as they are usually set in a line in a hop yard; but along the whole length of the line I doubt if a single tree could have been found that had not been pierced several times by bullets, and all were hit about breast high. Had the rebels fired a little lower, they would have annihilated the whole line; they nearly did it as it was." Attrition in commanders threatened to paralyze the Vermont briagde. Colonel Newton Stone, leading the Second Vermont, fell with a ball through his thigh, had the wound dressed, then returned only to receive a fatal head wound. His replacement was soon killed, leaving the regiment with no field officer. Colonel George P. Foster, of the 4th Vermont was shot through the leg, Lieutenant Colonel John L. Lewis of the 5th Vermont, was knocked out of service with a shattered arm., and Colonel Elisha L. Barney, of the 6th Vermont, was bowled over with a mortal wound in his temple.

Grant, with ammunition failing and his command fast turning into bullet-riddled corpses, called for support. Three 2nd Corps regiments - the 20th Indiana, 141st Pennsylvania, and the 40th New York, all from Birney's division, of Brigadier General J.H. Hobart Ward's brigade - were rushed to the Vermonters' aid. Grant meanwhile located an apparent thin spot in the enemy line and proposed that the 5th Vermont, supported by two of the fresjh regiments, attack there to relieve the Confederate pressure. Major Charles P. Dudley, in charge of the 5th Vermont, listened to Grant's proposal and gamely answered, "I think we can." Grant then queried the 40th New York and the 20th Indiana. "We will," the soldiers replied with enthusiasm. At Grant's command, the newly arrived Federals stood and sprinted for the Confederate ridge. The front rebel line buckled, but a galling enemy fire soon had the Union troops flat on their bellies. Dudley, finding his regiment riddled from front to side, also ordered his men down. The Union advance was stymied, although not without some small rewards. Captured by the 20th Indiana were the 55th Virginia's flag and several prisoners.

Things were getting desperate for the Vermonters and their reinforcements. Rebel minie balls whistled down from the little ridge, pinning them to the ground and exacting a fearful toll. It was an impossible situation. Moving meant immediate death. Lying still guaranteed slow annihiliation."

A War of the People: Vermont Civil War Letters, Jeffrey B. Marshall; Editor. University of New England Press, 1999. (p.p. 227-228)

"the Vt Brigade is all cut up"

Private Bradford P. Sparrow of Elmore, Company K, Fourth Vermont Infantry, to his family, May 13, 1864.

Battle Field May 13th/64

Dear Parents & Brothers; I am permited by kind providence to live to see this day & write this letter, but I do not know as you will be permitted (to) get it. It is awful times. I have been in a terrible battle & have been in considerable danger all the time for 8 days, but was not in the front line where I could shoot but one day, the 5th. I have not been hurt but am quite fatigued, the Vt Brigade is all cut up. I have thought of you & longed to write but no mail has gone from here untill this morning, my regiment...was away from the brigade & we knew nothing about it, but I write this to send the first opportunity, I suppose you (are) all suffering great anxiety by suspense & expectation & uncertainty, My prayer is god will protect me & comfort you

I don't know how much longer this will last but I hope to see you again, Please send this picture of mine to Cousin Frances, may god watch over us all, Good Bye

From your Son & Brother

Bradford P. Sparrow

"It is all I can do by hook and by crook to live...but who cares if only we can win"

Lieutenant Colonel Charles Cummings of Brattleboro, Seventeenth Vermont Infantry, to his wife, Elizabeth, May 15, 1864

Near Salem Church four miles from Fredericksburg May 15th 1864

My Dear Wife,

One week ago to-day I pencilled a few lines to you & forwarded them by Col Keifer to Washington, from thence to be mailed to you. I do not know whether you have received them or not. In either case I will recapitulate. Wednesday May 4th we left Bristow & marched past Catlett's to Bealton four miles from Rappahannock Station. The next day we crossed the Rappahannock river and marching southeasterly crossed the Rapidan at Germania Ford, marching two or three miles further we encamped for the night. At 1:30 a.m. Friday morning we renewed our march and soon after sunrise we were in the line of battle. The 17th drove in a skirmish line in a short time and held the position until noon when we were withdrawn. In the forenoon we lost one killed and fifteen or twenty wounded; among the latter Capt Brown of Co. A., whose left shoulder was amputated in consequence thereof near the left shoulder. In the afternoon we were further removed to the left and about 2 p.m. we were hotly engaged with Longstreet's troops. It was in the woods where artillery fire could not be used; so the engagement was close and musketry firing fearful. We made one charge on our own hook and carried one rifle pit but not being supported could not hold it, so we were forced to withdraw ten yards. Soon after, while on one knee the better to discern the enemy and to direct the fire of my men (smoking my pipe meanwhile) a minie ball struck me on the right side of my head against my hat band. It cut a hole four inches long backwards & upwards - as my head was pitched forward at the time - and about two and a half inches long in my scalp. The blow did not make me reel but it bled with such profuseness from a breaking of a branch of the temporal artery that I concluded to go to the rear, thinking I might faint if I remained & then if repulsed I should fall into the hands of the rebels...

Vermont in the Civil War "The Wilderness". This outstanding website lists the Vermont units present / engaged at the Wilderness, Casualties, Readings, and a biography on Medal of Honor winner Carlos H. Rich of the 4th Vermont Infantry Regiment

http://vermontcivilwar.org/battles/wild.php#readings