d, Grant marched south
through the Wilderness on the fifth of May. The Wilderness was
densely wooded; the roads were few and bad; the clearings rare
and too small for large units. When Lee attacked from the west
and Grant turned to face him the fighting soon became desperate,
close, and somewhat confused. Neither side gained any substantial
advantage on the first day. Next morning Grant, preparing to attack
at five, was forestalled by Lee, who wished to keep him at arm's
length till Longstreet came up on the southern flank. Again the
opposing armies closed and fought with the greatest determination
for over an hour, when the Confederates fell back in some confusion.
Then Longstreet arrived and restored the battle till he was severely
wounded. After this Lee took command of his right, or southern, wing
and kept up the fight all day. Meanwhile Sheridan had countered
the Confederate cavalry under Stuart, which had been trying to
swing round the same southern flank. The main bodies of infantry
swayed back and forth till dark, with the woods and breastworks
on fire in several places, and many of the wounded smothering in
the smoke.

On the seventh reassuring news came in from Sherman and Butler,
Sheridan drove off the Confederate cavalry at Todd's Tavern, and
the southward march continued. As Grant and Meade rode south that
evening, past Hancock's corps, and the men saw they were heading
straight for Richmond, there was such a burst of cheering that
the Confederates, thinking it meant a night attack, deluged the
intervening woods with a heavy barrage till they found out their
mistake.

The race for Richmond continued on the eighth, each army trying to
get south of the other without exposing itself to a flank attack.
Grant had sent his wagon trains farther east, to move south on
parallel roads and keep those nearest Lee quite clear for fighting.
This movement at first led Lee to suspect a Federal retirement on
Fredericksburg, which caused him to send Longstreet's corps south
to Spotsylvania. The woods being on fire, and the men unable to
bivouac, the whole corps pushed on to Spotsylvania, thus forestalling
Grant, who had intended to get there first himself.

This brought on another tremendous battle in the bush. Lee formed
a semicircle, facing north, round Spotsylvania, in a supreme effort
to stem, if not throw back, Grant's most determined advance. Grant,
on the other hand, indomitably pressed home wave after wave of at