tack
till the evening of the twelfth. The morning of that desperate day
was foggy; and the attack was delayed. The Federal objective was
a commanding salient, jutting out from the Confederate center,
and now weakened by the removal of guns overnight to follow the
apparent Federal move toward the south. The gray sentries, peering
through the dripping woods, suddenly found them astir. Then wave
after wave of densely massed blue dashed to the assault, swarming
up and over on both sides, regardless of losses, and fighting hand
to hand with a fury that earned this famous salient the name of
Bloody Angle. Back and still back went the outnumbered gray, many of
whom were surrounded by the swirling currents of inpouring blue. But
presently Lee himself came up, and would have led his reinforcements
to the charge if a pleading shout of "General Lee to the rear!"
had not induced him to desist. Every spare Confederate rushed to
the rescue. From right and left and rear the gray streams came,
impetuous and strong, united in one main current and dashed against
the blue. There, in the Bloody Angle, the battle raged with
ever-increasing fury until the rising tide of strife, bursting
its narrow bounds, carried the blue attackers back to where they
came from. But they were hardly clear of that appalling slope before
they reformed, presented an undaunted front once more, and then
drew off with stinging resistance to the very last.

After five days of much rain and little fighting Grant made his
final effort on the eighteenth. This was meant to be a great surprise.
Two corps changed position under cover of the night and sprang
their trap at four in the morning. But Lee was again before them,
ready and resolute as ever. Thirty guns converged their withering
fire on the big blue masses and seemed to burn them off the field.
These masses never closed, as they had done six days before; and
when they fell back beaten the fortnight's battle in the Wilderness
was done.

During it there had been two operations that gave Grant better
satisfaction: Sheridan's raid and Sherman's advance. As large bodies
of cavalry could not maneuver in the bush Grant had sent Sheridan
off on his Richmond Raid ten days before. Striking south near
Spotsylvania, Sheridan's ten thousand horsemen rounded Lee's right,
cut the rails on either side of Beaver Dam Station, destroyed this
important depot on the Virginia Central Railroad, and then made
straight for Richmond. S