158 years ago today in 1864, Robert E Lee in his first encounter with Ulysses S Grant personally rallies his men in the Battle of the Wilderness, holding off the Federal army and forcing them to disengage the next morning.
Grant would be the 6th commanding general to face Lee. The numbers and supplies would be in Grant’s favor, however Lee had a determined veteran army holding defensive positions in terrain they were familiar with. The battlefield would be a dense woods with tiny roads and a few pockets of clearings for farms. On the first day of the battle, the rebels managed to hold off the Federals and hope for much needed reinforcements to arrive the next morning. The woods caught fire and burned throughout the night, consuming many wounded men on both sides who could not escape the flames. Grant is reported in some of his staff’s memoirs to have wept the night after the battle, however he would wake up the next day determined to renew the attack.
On the 2nd day of the battle, the Federals were about to break through the center of the rebel position when Robert E Lee personally led a Texan brigade to hold the position in a famously recorded incident:
“Scarce had we moved a step, when Gen. Lee, in front of the whole command, raised himself in his stirrups, uncovered his grey hairs, and with an earnest, yet anxious voice, exclaimed above the din and confusion of the hour, "TEXANS ALWAYS MOVE THEM!”...never before in my lifetime or since, did I ever witness such a scene as was enacted when Lee pronounced these words, with the appealing look that he gave. A yell rent the air that must have been heard for miles around…”
Lee led 800 men across Widow Tapp’s field into a clearing that the Federal troops were marching on. Lee was spurring on his horse and encouraging the men to engage when the Texans noticed their general's foolhardy intention to remain with them as bullets whizzed by. Alarmed for his safety the men began to repeatedly shout at the top of their lungs "LEE TO THE REAR!” One man ran up and grabbed his horse's reins as others personally pleaded “Go back, General Lee, go back!" The Texan general then approached Lee and helped him regain his senses to not risk his life. The men made way for Lee as he rode back through the cheering rebel troops.
Of the 800 soldiers who charged with Lee, all but 250 of them would be killed or wounded. But their sacrifice would delay the Federals long enough for additional reinforcements to stabilize their position.
By time nightfall came, the Federal army failed to gain any significant positions. Like many of their previous encounters with Lee, the Army of the Potomac woke up the next morning on May 8th expecting to retreat towards Washington D.C. However, unlike his predecessors, Grant was not going to disengage after one bloody nose with Lee. To his cheering troops, Grant continued to march his army South and would fight continually over the next 5 weeks in what would become known as the Overland Campaign.
