carnage became fearful. For
two hours the struggle continued, and when the sounds of battle became
less, and as darkness finally came over the wilderness, it brought a
season of respite to the hard fought divisions.

A thousand brave men of the Vermont brigade, and nearly as many of
Wheaton's brigade, with hundreds from the Fourth brigade, had fallen
upon that bloody field.

In the evening the contest was renewed, especially along the line of the
Sixth corps, and the dark woods were lighted with the flame from the
mouths of tens of thousands of muskets.

Charges and counter-charges followed each other in quick succession, and
the rebel yell and northern cheer were heard alternately, but no decided
advantage was gained by either party. At two o'clock at night the battle
died away, but there was no rest for the weary soldiers after the
fatiguing duties of the day. Each man sat with musket in hand during the
wearisome hours of the night, prepared for an onset of the enemy.
Skirmishing was kept up during the entire night, and at times the
musketry would break out in full volleys, which rolled along the
opposing lines until they seemed vast sheets of flame.

The position of the two armies on the morning of the 6th was
substantially that of the day before; the Sixth corps on the right, its
rear on Wilderness Run near the old Wilderness Tavern, the Fifth corps
next on its left, and the Second corps with three brigades of the Second
division Sixth corps, on the left; the line extending about five miles.
Besides these corps, General Burnside was bringing his troops into the
line.

Between the two armies lay hundreds of dead and dying men whom neither
army could remove, and over whose bodies the fight must be renewed.

The battle was opened at daylight by a fierce charge of the enemy on the
Sixth corps, and soon it raged along the whole line. The volleys of
musketry echoed and reechoed through the forests like peals of thunder,
and the battle surged to and fro, now one party charging, and now the
other, the interval between the two armies being fought over in many
places as many as five times, leaving the ground covered with dead and
wounded. Those of the wounded able to crawl, reached one or the other
line, but the groans of others, who could not move, lent an additional
horror to the terrible scene whenever there was a lull in the battle. At
ten o'clock the roar of battle ceased, and from that time until five
P.M., it w