The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5–6, 1864

VIII: MAY 6, EVENING: The Armies Reach Stalemate

VIII MAY 6, EVENING The Armies Reach Stalemate "The greatest opportunity ever presented to Lee'd army." JOHN GORDON WAS a born fighter. The lanky commander of EwelPs Georgia brigade needed only a quick survey of the ground'to intuit his best move. He was thirty-two years old and one of the finest combat officers in either army. An hour or so after midnight on May 5, after the firing had died out, Gordon's Georgians shifted to EwelPs far-left flank, next to Pegram 's brigade. Gordon dispatched scouts eastward to feel out the Union line while his soldiers enjoyed a few hours' sleep. At early dawn, the scouts reported back. The Federal line ended in a thick patch of woods across from Pegram. Gordon's brigade was unopposed and stretched past the end of Sedgwick's formation. The Georgians , it seemed, were splendidly poised to enfilade the Federals with little resistance. Gordon also received encouraging intelligence from Confederate patrols. Cowles's 1st North Carolina cavalry had been watching the countryside below the Rapidan, from Germanna Ford westward. From time to time, Cowles's riders came in with information. Gordon had been instructed to note the communications and to forward them to Ewell. As the sun burned off the early-morning mist, Gordon sensed the opportunity of a lifetime. If his scouts were correct, his brigade was positioned to slice across the Federal supply line and to roll up Grant's northern flank. The news seemed too good to be true. To ensure that there had been no mistake, Gordon ordered more grayclad scouts into the woods. Their job was to verify the initial reports, then to work around the Federal rear and determine whether enemy troops were waiting in reserve. The results of the second foray were all that Gordon could have MAY 6, EVENING wished. "The former report was not only confirmedas to the exposed position of that flank," Gordon later explained, "but the astounding information was brought that there was not a supporting force within several miles of it." Only a handful of northern vedettes were in the woods. A determined assault would brush them aside with ease. Gordon later acknowledged that his mind was "throbbing with the tremendous possibilities to which such a situation invited us, provided the conditions were really as reported."1 By then, the sun had risen. The rest of EwelPs line was engaged in battering back Sedgwick's morning attacks. Around six, during a lull in the fighting, a few of Cowles's Confederate cavalrymen arrived . "I am going to scout with a cavalrymanin the woods," Gordon informed his staff. "We will have to run for it, if discovered, and the fewer, the better in the crowd. Youall wait here." Thomas Jones, one of Gordon's aides, watched as Gordon and the cavalryman slipped from the Confederate line, worked their way down to Flat Run, and then turned right into a thick patch of woods about a half mile past the enemy line. "I recall watching them with our glasses as long as they were in sight, expecting every minute to seethem fired upon and run in," Jones later wrote. Apprehensive about the general's safety, a squad of Confederate skirmishers slinked over to where Gordon had turned into the woods. Jones joined them, then crept behind the Federal line, working south parallel to Sedgwick's formation.Seeing no sign of Gordon, he returned to the waiting squad.2 About an hour later, Gordon and his escort appeared. He was ebullient. Earlier reports had been correct "in every particular." In addition, the terrain afforded the Confederates an ideal place to form for attack. A few hundred yards above the Union flank was a small field,concealed from the Federals by some woods. Gordon could use the clearing to organize his troops before sending them forward. Circling back, Gordon had insisted on examining the end of the Union line. "Dismounting and creeping slowly and cautiously through the dense woods," he later recounted, "we were soon in ear-shot of an unsuppressed and merry clatter of voices. A few feet nearer and through a narrow vista, I was shown the end of General Grant's tem1 . Gordon, Reminiscences,243-44; John B. Gordon's Report, in OR, Vol. XXXVI, Pt. 1, p. 1077. 2. ThomasJones to John Daniel,December29, 1904, in Daniel Collection,DU. 405 Gordon's attack on the...