es on the Wilderness
plank road. Here the corps rested until eleven o'clock, while artillery
and cavalry passed along the road in a continuous column. At eleven
o'clock the corps faced to the front, and advanced into the woods which
skirted the road.

The Sixth corps now occupied the extreme right of the line, General
Warren's Fifth corps the center, and Hancock's Second corps was on the
left, near Chancellorsville. Between Warren and Hancock was an
unoccupied space--a point of vital importance to our line. Thither
General Getty, with the First, Second and Fourth brigades of our Second
division, was sent to hold the ground till Hancock, who was ordered to
come up, should arrive. Our Third brigade being all that was left of the
Second division, it was assigned to the First division. General Meade's
head-quarters were just in rear of the Fifth corps. The wood through
which our line was now moving was a thick growth of oak and walnut,
densely filled with a smaller growth of pines and other brushwood; and
in many places so thickly was this undergrowth interwoven among the
large trees, that one could not see five yards in front of the line.
Yet, as we pushed on, with as good a line as possible, the thick tangle
in a measure disappeared, and the woods were more open. Still, in the
most favorable places, the thicket was so close as to make it impossible
to manage artillery or cavalry, and, indeed, infantry found great
difficulty in advancing, and at length we were again in the midst of the
thick undergrowth.

Warren's corps, on our left, was already fighting, and forcing the enemy
to retire from his front, when our own corps struck the rebel
skirmishers, who steadily fell back, disputing the ground. As our line
advanced, it would suddenly come upon a line of gray-coated rebels,
lying upon the ground, covered with dried leaves, and concealed by the
chapparal, when the rebels would rise, deliver a murderous fire, and
retire.

We thus advanced through this interminable forest more than a mile and a
half, driving the rebel skirmishers before us, when we came upon their
line of battle, which refused to retire.

Neill's brigade and the New Jersey brigade were in the first line of
battle, at the foot of a slope, and in the rear of these two brigades
were Russell's, Upton's and Shaler's. On the left of the First division
were Seymour's and Keiffer's brigades, General Morris with his brigade
remaining on the right.

The enemy no