"Herds of African Elephants..."

Sunday, May 8, 1864, Chewning Farm

It is perhaps safe to write this. We have been entrenched here since Friday last when we were ordered out of that bad place called the Wilderness. When God was through making the Earth, he took all of the bushes, trees and vines that he could not use and tossed them there for the Devil to play with. Herds of African elephants could be lost there. My trousers are shredded. I hope never to go there again.

Our brigade was last in the line of march on Thursday. No one liked this. All of us wanted to be the first in line as we would then be the first to engage the Yankees. As we entered the Wilderness sometime after Noon, we could tell that if there was to be a fight, that it would be a hard one. Once formed into line of battle, it rapidly became impossible to maintain a straight line. One portion of the line would be stopped by the undergrowth while the rest would advance and then have to stop to allow the rest to catch up. Some time later, this same thing would happen to another part. We made little progress for the time that we spent there.

Some time, I know not how long, we heard firing coming from our front. We were following Heth's division and took it to be that Heth's men had met the Yankees. The firing rapidly became furious and we thought we would soon be engaged. Some bullets, perhaps intended for Heth's men found their way into our ranks.

Finally, we were ordered forward and forward we went, not to relieve Heth but to go through and engage the Yankees. We met them shortly and then began an exchange of volleys. There were no charges back and forth, in spite of officers orders to do so. The thickets would not permit rapidity of movement. Our lines were straight as a dogs hind leg. We were able to bring enough pressure to bear to cause a slow forward movement. We could tell by the flags that the Yankees opposing us were from New York and Delaware. It makes no difference where they are from; we shot them down just the same.

The undergrowth, as I have said, allowed for units and parts of units to become crooked and disconnected. Somehow, the regiment advanced beyond our supports. We found ourselves in advance of the rest of the brigade and we were being fired upon from three sides. In spite of the undergrowth, we got out of somewhat faster than we got in. We made connection with the rest of the brigade and left the thickness to encamp just north of the Orange Plank road. We did not make camp but slept in line under arms. A rumor passed  that Colonel Miller had been wounded.

On Friday, the Yankees hit us very hard, hard enough to put a hole in our lines right at the road. The brigade was closest to the road and we had to allow our right to be bent back. We were entrenched but not to any great extent. Even so, our little efforts allowed us to hang on for awhile. Our being bent back let us fire into the flank of the Yankees.

Our line on the other side of the road broke up and left the field in retreat, exposing all of us on the north side. I will admit that our part of the line was breaking up and a retreat if not a rout was in the cards when word was received that Longstreet was up. We left to this place and Longstreet's men took over and not a moment too soon. We started digging in.

All day yesterday, our division and Heth's have been entrenched and out of the battle. We have spent our time between looking over our works and putting ourselves back into some semblance of an army. We have had time to take stock of our losses. Colonel Miller is indeed dead and was replaced by Lieutenant Colonel Bookter who is now wounded. Perhaps Major Clyburn now runs the regiment; I do not really know. Tom Adams is killed. Bill Bruce is wounded. Our hardest loss is Junior.

We lost Bill Barton, Senior, at Gettysburg. He was one of the original members of our Dandy Eights mess. When we lost him, the mess became seven.  Junior was much troubled by the loss of Senior. He was never the same after Gettysburg. Junior had just returned about a week ago from furlough. They are together now. Our mess numbers six.

What happens now is no lon  


I Send You These Few Lines


Some years ago, a friend, Kimberly, and myself paid a short visit to the outskirts of the Wilderness. We parked the van at a NPS information stop. We walked into the Wilderness only a few yards before turning around. I cannot describe the entanglements adequately. To understand the Wilderness, you have to visit it.

There was something very bad that happened to some of the soldiers at the Wilderness. It caught fire.
As the fire spread, it threatened those of the wounded who could not get out of the path of the fire. Some made it. Others did not.

Thomas Adams enlisted in Lancaster, South Carolina on April 17, 1862. His widow, E.P. Adams, would file a claim with the Confederate government for recovery of anything owed from him. William Bruce enlisted in August of 1861 at Lancaster. Bruce was trained in Columbia at Camp Lightwood Knot Springs.

I have not been able to figure out the Bartons, William, Senior and William, Junior. Senior enlisted at the age of 25. Junior was 19 when he enlisted so they were not father and son. With two William Bartons in the same company, were the designations junior and senior used in-house to tell them apart?

Tooms did not mention it as he was interrupted but General Longstreet is also numbered among the casualties. His corps had been pushing to bring itself up to battle. The rest of Lee's army was trying to fix Grant in the Wilderness until Longstreet could come up and deal Grant a mighty blow. Longstreet arrived at just the right time; his corps charged into Grant's troops, forcing them back. However, Longstreet, as Jackson before him, was wounded by his own troops. He will be out of action for some time.

Grant's plan for the spring offensive was to send go into the Wilderness and exit out the other side to turn Lee's flank and threaten Richmond. Grant was planning that either he would capture Richmond, or better yet, lure Lee's army out into the open and destroy it. The Union Army of the Potomac was reorganized. George Meade retained command of the army but Grant, in the field with the Army, commanded Meade.

Grant also commanded a corps, the IX, not a part of the Army. The corps, under a former commander of the Army, was headed by Ambrose Burnside. and he reported directly to Grant, not Meade. What Meade commanded was the II Corps under Winfield Scott Hancock, whose nickname was, "Hancock the Superb." He still suffers from his Gettysburg wound. Gouverneor K. Warren has replaced George Sykes as commander of V Corps. John Sedgewick retains command of VI Corps. Alfred Pleasonton is out as commander of the Cavalry Corps and Philip Sheridan is in.

Two Union corps no longer exist. I Corps, under John Newton, was broken up and folded into V Corps. III Corps, under David Birney, was broken up to reinforce II and VI Corps.  This new organization represented the Army of the Potomac.

Lee has blunted Grant. By stopping Grant in the Wilderness, Lee has largely nullified the Union artillery and cavalry which cannot do well in the thickets of the Wilderness. Now it is time for the Army of the Potomac, as it has done several times before, to retreat away from the Confederates in order to lick its wounds and gird up for another try at Lee and Richmond.