dramatic and literary ability shown in these plays, all of which were published later in book form, was as undoubted as their diction and ideas were characteristically paradoxical. In 1893 the licenser of plays refused a licence to Wilde’s Salome, but it was produced in French in Paris by Sarah Bernhardt in 1894. Mis success as a dramatist had by this time gone some way to disabuse hostile critics of the suspicions as regards his personal character which had been excited by the apparent looseness of morals which since his Oxford days it had always pleased him to affect; but to the consternation of his friends, who had ceased to credit the existence of any real moral obliquity, in 1895 came fatal revelations as the result of his bringing a libel action against the marquis of Queensberry; and at the Old Bailey, in May, Wilde was sentenced to two years' imprisonment with hard labour for offences under the Criminal Law Amendment Act. It was a melancholy end to what might have been a singularly brilliant career. Even after leaving prison he was necessarily an outcast from decent circles, and he lived mainly on the Continent, under the name of “Sebastian Melmoth.” He died in Paris on the 30th of November 1900. In 1898 he published his powerful Ballad of Reading Gaol. His Collected Poems, containing some beautiful verse, had been issued in 1892. While in prison he wrote an apology for his life which was placed in the hands of his executor and published in 1905. The manuscripts of A Florentine Tragedy and an essay on Shakespeare’s sonnets were stolen from his house in 1895. In 1904 a five-act tragedy, The Duchess of Padua, written by Wilde about 1883 for Mary Anderson, but not acted by her, was published in a German translation (Die Herzogin von Padua, translated by Max Meyerfeld) in Berlin. It is still impossible to take a purely objective view of Oscar Wilde’s work. The Old Bailey revelations removed all doubt as to the essential unhealthiness of his personal influence; but his literary genius was none the less remarkable, and his plays were perhaps the most original contributions to English dramatic writing during the period. (H. Ch.)
WILDENBRUCH, ERNST VON (1845–1909), German poet and
dramatist, was born on the 3rd of February 1845 at Beyrout
in Syria, the son of the Prussian consul-general. Having passed
his early years at Athens and Constantinople, where his father
was attached to the Prussian legation, he came in 1857 to
Germany, received his early schooling at the Pädagogium at
Halle and the Französische Gymnasium in Berlin, and, after
passing through the Cadet school, became, in 1863, an officer
in the Prussian army. He abandoned the military career two
years later, but was recalled to the colours in 1866 for the war
with Austria. He next studied law at the university of Berlin,
and again served in the army during the Franco-Prussian War,
1870-71. In 1876 Wildenbruch was attached to the foreign
office, which he finally quitted in 1900 with the title of counsellor
of legation. He achieved his first literary successes with the
epics Vionville (1874) and Sedan (1875). After publishing
a volume of poems, Lieder und Balladen (Berl., 1877; 7th ed.,
1900), he produced, in 1882, the tragedy, Die Karolinger. Among
his chief dramas may be mentioned the tragedy Harold (1882);
Die Quitzows (1888); Der Generalfeldoberst (1889); Die Haubenlerche
(1891); Heinrich und Heinrichs Geschlecht (1895); Die
Tochter des Erasmus (1900); and König Laurin (1902). Wildenbruch
was twice (in 1884 and 1896) awarded the Schiller prize,
and was, in 1892, created a doctor of philosophy honoris causa
by the university of Jena. He also wrote several volumes of
short stories (Novellen, 1883; New Novellen, 1885; Tiefe
Wasser, 1897, &c.). He died on the 15th of January 1909.
Cf. B. Litzmann, Das deutsche Drama in den Bewegungen der Gegenwart (1894; 4th ed., 1897); H. Bulthaupt, Dramaturgie des Schauspiels, vol. iv. (1901).
WILDERNESS, a large forest in Spottsylvania county,
Virginia, U.S.A., on the S. bank of the Rapidan, extending
from Mine Run on the E. to Chancellorsville on the W. It is
famous in military history for the battles of Chancellorsville
(1863) and Wilderness (1864) during the American Civil War.
Chancellorsville.—In May 1863 a three days' battle was fought at Chancellorsville between the Army of the Potomac, under General J. Hooker, and General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, which had stemmed the tide of invasion in the East by taking up a defensive position along the right or south bank of the Rappahannock. General Burnside had suffered a severe repulse in front of the Confederate position at Fredericksburg in December 1862, and his successor resolved to adopt the alternative plan of turning Lee’s flank and so gaining the road to Richmond. General Lee had meanwhile weakened his forces by detaching Longstreet’s two divisions and the cavalry brigades of Hampton, Robertson and Jones. Hooker had now at his disposal 12,000 cavalry, 400 guns and 120,000 infantry and artillery, organized in seven corps (I. Reynolds, II. Couch, III. Sickles, V. Meade, VI. Sedgwick, XI. Howard, XII. Slocum). General Lee counted only 45,000 men of all arms effective. Hooker detached 10,000 cavalry under Stoneman and Sedgwick’s corps (30,000) to demonstrate on his flanks along the Rapidan and at Fredericksburg, while with the remainder he moved up the Rappahannock and crossed that river and afterwards the Rapidan and on the 30th of April fixed his headquarters at Chancellorsville, a farmhouse in the Wilderness. Lee’s cavalry under Stuart had duly reported the Federal movements and Lee called up “Stonewall” Jackson’s four divisions from below the Massaponax as soon as Sedgwick’s corps crossed the river at Fredericksburg. At Chancellorsville Anderson’s division was in position, and McLaws was sent to support him, while Jackson took three divisions to the same point, leaving Early’s division to observe Sedgwick. Hooker had cleared and entrenched a position in the forest, inviting attack from the E. or S. General Lee, however, discovered a route by which the Federals might be attacked from the N. and W., and Jackson was instructed to execute the turning movement and fall upon them. As soon as a brigade of cavalry was placed at his disposal Jackson marched westward with his corps of 22,000 men and by a détour of 15 m. gained the Federal right flank, while Anderson and McLaws with 20 guns and 12,000 men demonstrated in front of Hooker’s army and so kept 90,000 men idle behind their earthworks. One of Stuart’s cavalry brigades neutralized Stoneman’s 10,000 horsemen. Sedgwick was being contained by Early. Jackson’s attack surprised the Federals, who fled in panic at nightfall, but Jackson was mortally wounded. Next day the attack was resumed under the direction of Stuart, who was reinforced by Anderson, while McLaws now threatened the left flank of the Federals and Fitz Lee’s cavalry brigade operated against their line of retreat. Hooker finally gained the shelter of an inner line of works covering the ford by which he must retreat. Meanwhile, Early had checked Sedgwick, but when at last the Federal corps was about to overwhelm the Confederate division Lee came to succour it. Then Sedgwick was assailed by Early, McLaws and Anderson, and driven over the Rappahannock to join the remainder of Hooker’s beaten army, which had recrossed the Rapidan on the 5th of May and marched back to Falmouth. Phisterer’s Record states that the Federal loss was 16,000 and that of the Confederates 12,000 men.
See A. C. Hamlin, Chancellorsville; G. F. R. Henderson, Stonewall Jackson; A. Doubleday, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War and Official Records of the War of Secession. (G. W. R.)
Grant’s Campaign of the Wilderness and Cold Harbor.—On the evening of the 3rd of May 1864, after dark, the Army of the Potomac, commanded by Major-General G. G. Meade and consisting of the II., V. and VI., and Cavalry corps, left its winter quarters about Culpeper to manœuvre across the Rapidan with a view to fighting a battle at or near New Hope Church and Craig’s Church. The army, and the IX. corps (Burnside), which was an independent command, were directed by Lieutenant-General Grant, the newly appointed commander of the armies of the United States, who accompanied Meade’s headquarters. The opposing Army of Northern Virginia under General R. E. Lee lay in quarters around Orange Court House (A. P. Hill’s corps), Verdiersville (Ewell’s corps) and Gordonsville
