a thin soil
grew pine trees and pine trees, scrub oak and scrub oak. The growth was
of the densest, mile after mile of dense growth. A few slight farms and
clearings appeared like islands; all around them was the sea, the sea of
tree and bush. It stretched here, it stretched there, it touched all
horizons, vanishing beyond them in an amethyst haze.

Several forest tracks traversed it, but they were narrow and worn, and
it was hard to guess their presence, or to find it when guessed. There
were, however, two fair roads--the old Turnpike and the Plank Road.
These also were sunken in the thick, thick growth. A traveller upon them
saw little save the fact that he had entered the Wilderness. Near the
turnpike stood a small white church, the Tabernacle church. A little
south of the heart of the place lay an old, old, abandoned iron
furnace--Catherine Furnace. As much to the north rose a large old
house--Chancellorsville. To the westward was Dowdall's Tavern. Around
all swept the pine and the scrub oak, just varied by other trees and
blossoming shrubs. The ground was level, or only slightly rolling. Look
where one might there was tree and bush, tree and bush, a sense of
illimitable woodland, of far horizons, of a not unhappy sameness, of
stillness, of beauty far removed from picturesqueness, of vague,
diffused charm, of silence, of sadness not too sad, of mystery not too
baffling, of sunshine very still and golden. A man knew he was in the
Wilderness.

Mayday here was softly bright enough, pure sunshine and pine odours, sky
without clouds, gentle warmth, the wild azalea in bloom, here and there
white stars of the dogwood showing, red birds singing, pine martens
busy, too, with their courtship, pale butterflies flitting, the bee
haunting the honeysuckle, the snake awakening. Beauty was everywhere,
and in portions of the great forest, great as a principality, quiet. In
these regions, indeed, the stillness might seem doubled, reinforced, for
from other stretches of the Wilderness, specifically from those which
had for neighbour the roads, quiet had fled.

To right and left of the Tabernacle church were breastworks, Anderson
holding them against Hooker's advance. In the early morning, through the
dewy Wilderness, came from Fredericksburg way Stonewall Jackson and the
2d Corps, in addition Lafayette McLaws with his able Roman air and
troops in hand. At the church they rested until eleven o'clock, then,
gathering up Anderson, the