nd so
incessant and concentrated was the fire of musketry, that a tree of
about eighteen inches in diameter was cut down by bullets, and is
still preserved, it is said, in the city of Washington, as a memorial
of this bloody struggle.

[Illustration: The Wilderness. "Lee to the Rear"]

The fighting only ceased several hours after dark. Lee had not
regained his advanced line of works, but he was firmly rooted in an
interior and straighter line, from which the Federal troops had found
it impossible to dislodge him. This result of the stubborn action was
essentially a success, as General Grant's aim in the operation had
been to break asunder his adversary's army--in which he very nearly
succeeded.

At midnight all was again silent. The ground near the salient was
strewed with dead bodies. The loss of the three thousand men and
eighteen guns of Johnson had been followed by a bloody retaliation,
the Federal commander having lost more than eight thousand men.

V.

FROM SPOTTSYLVANIA TO THE CHICKAHOMINY.

After the bloody action of the 12th of May, General Grant remained
quiet for many days, "awaiting," he says, "the arrival of
reenforcements from Washington." The number of these fresh troops is
not known to the present writer. General Lee had no reinforcements to
expect, and continued to confront his adversary with his small army,
which must have been reduced by the heavy fighting to less than forty
thousand men, while that of General Grant numbered probably about one
hundred and forty thousand.

Finding that his opponent was not disposed to renew hostilities.
General Lee, on the 19th of May, sent General Ewell to turn his right
flank; but this movement resulted in nothing, save the discovery by
General Ewell that the Federal army was moving. This intelligence was
dispatched to General Lee on the evening of the 21st, and reached
him at Souther's House, on the banks of the Po, where he was calmly
reconnoitring the position of the enemy.

As soon as he read the note of General Ewell, he mounted his horse,
saying, in his grave voice, to his staff, "Come, gentlemen;" and
orders were sent to the army to prepare to move. The troops began
their march on the same night, in the direction of Hanover Junction,
which they reached on the evening of the 22d. When, on May 23d,
General Grant reached the banks of the North Anna, he found Lee
stationed on the south bank, ready to oppose his crossing.

The failure of Genera