Battle of the Wilderness
To offset partially a two-to-one numerical superiority, Lee allowed Grant to cross the Rapidian River in Virginia and set the stage for the Battle of the Wilderness (May 5–7, 1864). It was here, near the old battlefield of Chancellorsville, that a nightmarish battle of the war was fought in tangled underbrush and trees that made vision difficult and cavalry and artillery useless. When the brush caught fire, many wounded were trapped in the flames. Alfred Waud’s drawing of the division under U.S. brigadier general James S. Wadsworth (1807–1864), who was mortally wounded while rallying his men, was reproduced in Harper’s Weekly the next month.
To offset partially a two-to-one numerical superiority, Lee allowed Grant to cross the Rapidian River in Virginia and set the stage for the Battle of the Wilderness (May 5–7, 1864). It was here, near the old battlefield of Chancellorsville, that a nightmarish battle of the war was fought in tangled underbrush and trees that made vision difficult and cavalry and artillery useless. When the brush caught fire, many wounded were trapped in the flames. Alfred Waud’s drawing of the division under U.S. brigadier general James S. Wadsworth (1807–1864), who was mortally wounded while rallying his men, was reproduced in <em>Harper’s Weekly</em> the next month.