F@#$ River Crossings, Wilderness and Spotsylvania Courthouse

Day 2 was much much better. 

First off, I was so F#$%ing tired that the unpossible happened, I slept well in a hotel.  Fitfully, I was up often, but never for long and when I was out I slept hard.

So, we are preparing our first move.  There are a couple really, really important events if you are following Grant's trail.  Event number one:  Crossing the Rapidan river.

Some quick background here.  Lee was expecting the move.  Lincoln did not appoint Grant to General of the Armies to sit back and train.  So Grant's first objective was to cross the Rapidan as quickly as possible, so Lee wouldn't attack him mid crossing.

He did that at the Germana Ford.  I got pictures of the sign there, but it's a sign.  White background black text that says what happened here on May 4 1864.  Nothing exciting or worthy of that picture, except to prove that I was there.  Gonna have to take my word for it.

Grant got across the ford with no major problems.  The river is not actually all that imposing, but on trips like this you have to keep in mind that what is easy for a couple of people riding in a VW Beetle and hiking along well marked paths is actually quite difficult for an army of 100,000 dragging 5 ton cannons with nothing but muscle power.  A 30 foot wide, 10 foot deep stream is nothing to scoff at!  (Didn't keep us from that sarcastic refrain of "19th Century People were stupid")

Grant's next objective was to get through an area known as The Wilderness.  The Wilderness is not named to fool you.  Now there are paved roads and helpful signs to keep you oriented, not so much for those stupid 19th century folks.  Historic accounts say that in general you couldn't see 50 feet in front of you, and this was the ideal place for Lee to engage Grant.  At this point in the war, it's debatable whether the Army of Northern Virginia's infantry was better than the Army of the Potomac's.  My own personal opinion is that if there was an edge for the Rebels, it was marginal.  What is clear though, is that the Wilderness was no place for artillery, something that the Union had the clear edge.  By engaging here, Lee nullified the artillery edge.

Basic battle was the Union attacking the Confederate center on day one, and as the Rebels were still arriving, it was a pretty close thing.  Grant continued attacks on day two, which didn't fare as well, then Lee counter punched turning both flanks, driving the Union back a considerable way, but never breaking them.  The Army of the Potomac although retreated, was never routed.  They dug in, and awaited renewed counter-attacks or new movement orders.

Next stop was Wilderness Tavern.  It's burnt down now, but the chimney is still up

and Here I am.

 

Onto to the Park!  We got to the visitors shelter, which is just a overhang with pictures detailing the battle.  There's a 2 mile walking trail labeled "Gordon's Flank Attack" and we took that.  It's a nice walk in the woods, no hills and well marked for points of interest.

The path starts at Saunders field, one of the few cleared areas in the Wilderness.

Mostly, it looks like this.

Again not too imposing for 2 hikers on a well groomed path.  Try carrying 80 lbs and have people trying to kill you.  Top picture, on the left there's a shallow swell.  That's all that remains of the earth works.  I took more pictures, but most didn't come out well.  The old earth works basically looks like a ditch in the woods.

The most interesting feature on the hike was the Copper Mine Road

even a cart path like this is strategically important because you don't have to make a new road.

So Campaign Ramrod went slightly out of order, next stop was Grant's HQ, which should have been stop #1 on the car tour per supplied map.

Notice the subtle differences between these woods and the woods 2 miles to the south on Gordon's flank walk.  Grant just had a tent here.  That's been removed for some reason.

Next Stop Ellwood House.  Jake Blues didn't get a house in Virginia.

Since its a cleared field we get, there are occasional archeological digs, see the marks.

I don't know what this is but it sure seemed neat

There's a trail at Ellwood house.  We took it, and found where Stonewall Jackson's arm was buried after the Battle of Chancellorsville.  We "Eye rolled".  Wrong campaign.  Here's some pics of the countryside

There's only a couple more spots on the Auto Tour.

By the way, some words on the Auto Tours of these battle fields.

I love them.  The stops are either noteworthy or picturesque.  Since my civil war vacations are mostly themed walks and drives, this is awesome.  Plus, they are cheap. Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor were free, Petersburg cost $5 but you got museum entry too.

Higgerson Farm pics

Longstreet's Wounding

I didn't take any interesting pics here, but this was a seminal moment of the campaign.  Lee's most trusted corp commander severely wounded here, and that played a big part in the engagements to follow.

So what were the consequences of The Wilderness?  Well the battle showed the merits of both commanders.  Lee once again showed a knack for anticipating his enemy's moves and timing his counter attacks.  He thrashed Grant harder than he did Hooker a year ago at Chancellorsville, Hooker only had one flank turned.  But where Hooker panicked, Grant kept his head.  Trusted his men to bend but not break, and did not give up.  Lee surrendered the "Strategic Initiative" to Grant after a local tactical victory.  WTF does that mean?  It means that Lee beat Grant, but let Grant call the next play.  Reacting instead of acting.

Lunch Time!

We drove to Spotsylvania battlefield to scout first, then went a little further south to the town.  Had lunch at the Courthouse Cafe

I loved this place once I read the sign Breakfast All Day. I had the biscuits and gravy with scrambled eggs.  This was the one time I completely blew off the low sodium diet.  Not saying everything else was good for me, but sausage gravy is usually something I should avoid.

Back to the battlefield. 

Battle background:  Grant moves east trying to get to the Spotsylvania crossroads.  If he can get there, he has a huge advantage.   Lee anticipates the move again, and sends cavalry led by J.E.B. Stuart to delay the Union.  He gets in place quite literally in the nick of time, Shelby Foote's account has Southern Cavalry shouting to their infantry right before a Northern assault "Run!  Run! Or you won't make it in time!"  2 weeks of assaults, and a near catastrophic mistake by Lee in the "Muleshoe". 

 There's a driving tour and a couple walks.  We opted for the 1 mile walk but decided that if we had a chance the 6 mile walk would be great.  We never got the chance, but it remains something I want to do in the future.  Once again we did the hike first then the driving tour.

The Bloody Angle

This was a salient in the front of the Lee's lines that drew a lot of attention from Grant.  

What's a salient?  It's part of the battle line that sticks out exposed.  They are bad for a number of reasons, it extends your lines and requires more men to fill the ranks.  It's vulnerable too, an attacker can hit multiple sides at once.

On the animated picture above, the top most point was known as the angle, or the Bloody Angle after several assaults.  And some pics from this walk.

There's not water to cross here.  That bridge is over the earth works.  They're 150 years old and eroding.  To try to keep them visible any time you have to cross them a bridge is constructed over them.  Also, signs are everywhere asking people to stay off them to help preserve.

Ok, so wow.  This post has gone on for long enough.  I still have lots of Spots to cover but signing off for now.  Fear not, more boring pictures of trees and ditches coming tomorrow and Saturday.