THE WILDERNESS CAMPAIGN.
NARRATIVE OP EVENTS.
and Hays’s division of Early’s Corps. Russell stormed the Rappahannock redoubts and captured eight battle-flags ־with 2000 prisoners.
Meade crossed the Rappahannock, and on the 28th of November was south of the Rapidan confronting Lee, who had fortified the line of Mine Run, co vering Orange Court House. On December 1 the army retreated to the north bank of the Rapidan without a battle, and established winter quarters. Lee remained at Orange Court House and Gordonsville, where Longstreet’s Corps rejoined him in March, 1864.
The most noteworthy affair in Virginia during the winter was a Union cavalry raid in rear of Lee’s army. The cavalcade, led by General Kilpatrick and Colonel Ulric Dahlgren, rode to the fortifications of Richmond without meeting serious opposition. Some sharp fighting took place in front of the Confederate works, and the raiders retreated down the Peninsula. Colonel Dahlgren was ambushed and killed during the retreat.
Lee’s retreat from Gettysburg to Virginia ended in placing his army in its former position at Culpeper. Longstreet’s corps was transferred to the scene of Bragg’s operations around Chattanooga, and fought at Chickamauga and Knoxville. After the battle of Chick-amauga, the Eleventh and Twelfth Union Corps, under Howard and Slocum, were sent to Chattanooga. Late in September Meade pushed across the Rappahannock and Rapidan, forcing Lee to abandon Culpeper. As a counter move, Lee attempted to turn Meade’s flank and get between the Army of the Potomac and Washington. Thereupon Meade retired slowly to Centreville. On October 14, General G. K. Warren (the new commander of the Fifth Corps) repulsed a desperate attack by A. P. Hill’s corps at Bristoe. Lee followed Meade toward Centreville, but, without offering general battle, retired to the Rapidan. Meade pursued, and a brilliant action was fought at the crossing of the Rappahannock, November 7, between Russell’s division of the Sixth Corps
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC AT BRANDY STATION.
such vast importance to the whole nation that the feeling or wishes of no one person should stand in the way of selecting the right men for all positions. For himself, he would serve to the best of his ability wherever placed. I assured him that I had no thought of substituting any one for him. As to Sherman, he could not be spared from the West.
This incident gave me even a more favorable opinion of Meade than did his great victory at Gettysburg the July before, selected, and not those who seek, from whom we may always expect the most efficient service. . . .
On the 23d of March I was back in Washington, and on the 26th took up my headquarters at Culpeper Court House, a few miles south of the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac.
Although hailingfrom Illinois myself, the State of the President,
It is men who wait to be
GENERAL GRANT WHITTLING DURING THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS. From a war-time sketch.
PREPARING FOR THE CAMPAIGN.*
BY ULYSSES S. GRANT, GENERAL, U. S. A.
commanding the Army of the Potomac, at his headquarters, Brandy Station, north of the Rapidan. I had known General Meade slightly in the Mexican war, hut had not met him since until this visit. I was a stranger to most of the Army of the Potomac—I might say to all, except the officers of the regular army who had served in the Mexican war. There had heen some changes ordered in the organization of that army before my promotion. One was the consolidation of five corps into three, thus throwing some officers of rank out of important commands. Meade evidently thought that I might want to make still one more change not yet ordered. He said to me that I might want an officer who had served with me in the West, mentioning Sherman especially, to take his place; if so, he begged me not to hesitate about making the change. He urged that the work before us was of
* “ Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.” Copyright, 1885, by TJ. S. Grant. All rights reserved.
GENERAL GRANT RECONNOITERING THE CONFEDERATE POSITION AT SPOTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE.
From a sketch made at the time.
road from the left toward the right of the line. The position was one looking directly toward the Court House proper, and was part of the line seized by Burnside’s Corps on May 9th. Warren’s Corps occupied it from the 14th to the 21st. Veterans will recognize this as a faithful portrait of the general as he appeal ed in the field during that campaign.
Note.—Mr. Heed, the artist, belonged to Bigelow’s 9tli Massachusetts battery (Warren’s Corps), which, with a battery of the 5th Regular Artillery, was holding the Fredericksburg road, at the place where General Grant made his observation. The troops seen in the background are the 9th Massachusetts Volunteers, who at the time were crossing the