prisoners and seizing the field batteries that Lee had sent back just too late.
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| From The Wilderness and Cold Harbor, by permission of Hugh Rees, Limited. |
The thronging and excited Federals were completely disordered by success, and the counter-attack of one or two Confederate brigades in good order drove them back to the line of the captured works. Then, about 6, there began one of the most remarkable struggles in history. While Early, swiftly drawing back from Block House, checked Burnside's attack from the east, and Anderson, attacked again and again by parts of the V. corps,[1] was fully occupied in preserving his own front, Lee, with Ewell's corps and the few thousand men whom the other generals could spare, delivered all day a series of fierce counter-strokes against Hancock. Nearly all Wright's corps and even part of Warren's (in the end 45,000 men) were drawn into the fight at the Salient, for Grant and Meade well knew that Lee was struggling to gain time for the construction of a retrenchment across the base of it. If the counter-attacks failed to gain this respite, the Confederates would have to retreat as best they could, pressed in front and flank. But the initial superiority of the Federals was neutralized by their disorder, and, keeping the fight alive by successive brigade attacks, while the troops not actually employed were held out of danger till their time came, Lee succeeded so well that after twenty hours' bitter fighting the new line was ready and the Confederates gave up the barren prize to Hancock. Lee had lost 4000 prisoners as well as 4500 killed and wounded, as against 7000 in the Army of the Potomac and the IX. corps.
There were other battles in front of Spottsylvania, but that of the 12th was the climax. From the 13th to the 20th the Federals gradually worked round from west to east, delivering a few partial attacks in the vain hope of discovering a weak point. Lee's position, now semicircular, enabled him to concentrate on interior lines on each occasion. In the end the Federals were entrenched facing E. between Beverly's house (Burnside's old “Gayle”) and Quisenberry's, Lee facing W. from the new works south of Harrison's through the Court House to Snell's Bridge on the Po. In the fork of the Po and the Ny with woods and marshes to obstruct every movement, Grant knew that nothing could be done, and he prepared to execute a new manœuvre. But here, as in the Wilderness, Lee managed to have the last word. While the Union army was resting in camp for the first time since leaving Culpeper, Ewell's corps suddenly attacked its baggage-train near Harris's house. The Confederates were driven off, but Grant had to defer his intended manœuvre for two days. When the armies left Spottsylvania, little more than a fortnight after breaking up from winter quarters, the casualties had reached the totals of 35,000 out of
- ↑ The tension was so great that, after threatening to deprive Warren of his command, Meade sent General Humphreys, his chief of staff, to direct the V. corps' attack.
