On the 4th of May the great Army of the Potomac crossed the Rapidan and
advanced toward Chancellorsville. Lee moved two divisions of his army to
oppose them. Next morning the battle began at daybreak on the old ground
where Lee had defeated Hooker the year before. All day long the division
of Ewell supported the attack of the army corps of Sedgwick and Hancock.
Along a front of six miles, in the midst of the thick forest, the battle
raged the whole of the day. The Confederates, in spite of the utmost
efforts of the Northerners, although re-enforced in the afternoon by the
army corps of General Burnside, held their position, and when night put
an end to the conflict the invaders had not gained a foot of ground.

As soon as the first gleam of light appeared in the morning the battle
recommenced. The Federal generals, Sedgwick, Warren, and Hancock, with
Burnside in reserve, fell upon Hill and Ewell. Both sides had thrown up
earthworks and felled trees as a protection during the night. At first
the Confederates gained the advantage; but a portion of Burnside's corps
was brought up and restored the battle, while on the left flank of the
Federals Hancock had attacked with such vigor that the Confederates
opposed to him were driven back.

At the crisis of the battle Longstreet, who had marched all night,
appeared upon the ground, drove back Hancock's men, and was on the point
of aiding the Confederates in a decisive attack upon the enemy, when,
riding rapidly forward into the wood to reconnoiter, he was, like
Jackson, struck down by the fire of his own men. He was carried to the
rear desperately, and it was feared for a time mortally, wounded; and
his loss paralyzed the movement which he had prepared. Nevertheless,
during the whole day the fight went on with varying success; sometimes
one side obtaining a slight advantage, the other then regaining the
ground they had lost.

[Illustration: Map--THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS May 5th. to 9th. 1864.]

Just as evening was closing in a Georgia brigade, with two other
regiments, made a detour, and fell furiously upon two brigades of the
enemy, and drove them back in headlong rout for a mile and a half,
capturing their two generals and many prisoners. The artillery, as on
the previous day, had been little used on either side, the work being
done at short range with the rifle, the loss being much heavier among
the thick masses of the Northerners than in the thinner lines of the
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