acked the Federal right, driven the force at
that point in disorder from their works, and but for the darkness this
success might have been followed up and turned into a complete defeat
of that wing of the enemy. It was only discovered on the next morning
what important successes Gordon had effected with a single brigade;
and there is reason to believe that with a larger force this able
soldier might have achieved results of a decisive character.[1]

[Footnote 1: General Early, in his "Memoir of the Last Year of the War
for Independence," bears his testimony to the important character of
the blow struck by General Gordon. He says: "At light, on the morning
of the 7th, an advance was made, which disclosed the fact that the
enemy had given up his line of works in front of my whole line and a
good portion of Johnson's. Between the lines a large number of his
dead had been left, and at his breastworks a large number of muskets
and knapsacks had been abandoned, and there was every indication of
great confusion. It was not till then that we understood the full
extent of the success attending the movement of the evening before."
General Gordon had proposed making the attack on the _morning_ of the
6th, but was overruled.]

Such had been the character and results of the first conflicts between
the two armies in the thickets of the Wilderness. As we have already
said, the collision there was neither expected nor desired by General
Grant, who, unlike General Hooker, in May of the preceding year, seems
fully to have understood the unfavorable nature of the region for
manoeuvring a large army. His adversary had, however, forced him to
accept battle, leaving him no choice, and the result of the actions of
the 5th and 6th had been such as to determine the Federal commander to
emerge as soon as possible from the tangled underwood which hampered
all his movements. On the 7th he accordingly made no movement to
attack Lee, and on the night of that day marched rapidly in the
direction of Hanover Junction, following the road by Todd's Tavern
toward Spottsylvania Court-House.

For this determination to avoid further fighting in the Wilderness,
General Grant gives a singular explanation. "On the morning of the
7th," he says, "reconnoissance showed that the enemy _had fallen
behind his intrenched lines_, with pickets to the front, covering a
part of the battle-field. From this it was evident that the two-days'
fighting had satisfied him of