de no movement to dispute the passage
of the stream, from the fact, perhaps, that his army was _not_ either
"large" or "well-appointed." He preferred to await the appearance of
his adversary, and direct an assault on the flank of his column as it
passed across his front. From a speech attributed to General Meade, it
would seem to have been the impression in the Federal army that Lee
designed falling back to a defensive position somewhere near the South
Anna. His movements were, however, very different. Instead of retiring
before General Grant in the direction of Richmond, he moved with his
three corps toward the Wilderness, to offer battle.

[Illustration: Routes of Lee & Grant, May and June 1864.]

The head of the column consisted of Ewell's corps, which had retained
its position on the Rapidan, forming the right of Lee's line. General
A.P. Hill, who had been stationed higher up, near Liberty Mills,
followed; and Longstreet, who lay near Gordonsville, brought up the
rear. These dispositions dictated, as will be seen, the positions of
the three commands in the ensuing struggle. Ewell advanced in front
down the Old Turnpike, that one of the two great highways here running
east and west which is nearest the Rapidan; Hill came on over the
Orange Plank-road, a little south of the turnpike, and thus formed
on Ewell's right; and Longstreet, following, came in on the right of
Hill.

General Grant had plunged with his army into the dense and melancholy
thicket which had been the scene of General Hooker's discomfiture. His
army, followed by its great train of four thousand wagons, indicating
the important nature of the movement, had reached Wilderness Tavern
and that Brock Road over which Jackson advanced in his secret
flank-march against the Federal right in May, 1863. In May of 1864,
now, another Federal army had penetrated, the sombre and depressing
shadows of the interminable thickets of the Wilderness, and a more
determined struggle than the first was to mark with its bloody hand
this historic territory.

II.

THE FIRST COLLISION IN THE WILDERNESS.

To understand the singular combat which now ensued, it is necessary to
keep in view the fact that nothing more surprised General Grant than
the sudden appearance of his adversary face to face with him in the
Wilderness.

It had not been supposed, either by the lieutenant-general or his
corps-commanders, that Lee, with his small army, would have recourse
to a pr