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Wilderness campaign
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| US Military History Companion: Battle of the Wilderness |
(1864)
The Battle of the Wilderness, fought on 5 and 6 May 1864, was the first Civil War confrontation between Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Gen. Robert E. Lee. Now heading the Union war effort, Grant sought to destroy Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, which numbered about 65,000 soldiers and occupied strong earthworks below the Rapidan River. Grant planned to send Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac, supplemented by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside's 9th Corps, directly against Lee, while Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler's Army of the James advanced up the James River into Richmond, and another army under Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel threatened Lee's western flank. Hampered by shortages in food, horses, and supplies, Lee decided to bide his time and strike Grant when he crossed the Rapidan.
At midnight on 3–4 May, Grant's main force of 120,000 began moving around Lee's eastern flank, crossing the Rapidan at two fords and camping in the forested Wilderness of Spotsylvania. Lee reacted by dividing his army, already outnumbered two to one, and thrusting Lt. Gen. Richard Stoddert Ewell's 2nd Corps east toward Grant along Orange Turnpike and Lt. Gen. A. P. Hill's 3rd Corps east along Orange Plank Road. Lee's purpose was to pin Grant in place with Ewell and Hill, then swing his 1st Corps under Lt. Gen. James Longstreet into Grant's southern flank. The scheme entailed risk, but Lee counted on the Wilderness's dense underbrush to offset Grant's considerable advantage in troops and weaponry.
Early on 5 May, Ewell deployed along the western edge of a clearing named Saunders' field. Meade ordered Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren's 5th Corps to attack immediately, but the troops were unable to form in the woods until early afternoon. Well entrenched, Ewell repulsed first Warren's 5th Corps, then Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick's 6th Corps. Hill's Confederates meanwhile advanced along Orange Plank Road, but were stopped at the Brock Road intersection by a detachment under Brig. Gen. George W. Getty. Hill constructed a defensive line a few hundred yards west of Brock Road. Late in the afternoon, Getty and Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock's 2nd Corps attacked. With only two divisions, Hill fought a stubborn defensive action against overwhelming odds and was saved by the arrival of night.
Grant now rearranged his army to concentrate overwhelming numbers against Hill. Hancock, augmented by Getty, was to attack Hill frontally, while four brigades under Brig. Gen. James S. Wadsworth slammed Hill's northern flank. Warren and Sedgwick meanwhile were to keep Ewell occupied, and Burnside was to march between Ewell and Hill and attack Hill's rear. Recognizing Hill's perilous situation, Lee ordered Longstreet to abandon his flanking movement and hurry to relieve Hill. Lee assumed that Longstreet would arrive before daylight and so permitted Hill's tired men to rest without repairing their lines.
Early on 6 May, however, before Longstreet's troops arrived, Hancock and Wadsworth overwhelmed Hill and poured into Widow Tapp's field, where Lee had his headquarters. At the last moment, Longstreet's Confederates reached the clearing. “Lee to the rear!” they shouted, refusing to advance until Lee retired to safety. Saving the day for the Confederates, Longstreet first repulsed Hancock, then launched a surprise attack against the southern Union flank from an unfinished railroad gradient. Longstreet was accidentally wounded by his soldiers, and the Confederate offensive ground to a halt.
Ever aggressive, Lee once again attacked Hancock, who had entrenched along Brock Road. A portion of Hancock's works ignited, and Southerners poured through the breach, only to be driven back by well‐placed Union artillery. Fighting sputtered to a close around 6:00 P.M. Shortly before dark, Confederate Brig. Gen. John B. Gordon assaulted the northern end of Grant's line and overran a portion of Sedgwick's corps. Darkness ended the attack.
Lee had fought Grant to impasse and occupied a strong position along high ground. Instead of renewing his attacks, Grant decided to try to maneuver Lee onto more favorable terrain. After dark, Grant started south toward the crossroads hamlet of Spotsylvania Courthouse, intending to interpose between Lee and Richmond.
During the two‐day battle, Grant took approximately 18,000 casualties, Lee 11,000. Neither could claim victory. Grant had suffered a tactical defeat, but he persisted in his strategic goal of attempting to destroy Lee's army, exhibiting a measure of tenacity previously unknown in the east. For his part, Lee had thwarted a well‐provisioned force twice as large as his own, but his grievous loss in men had gutted his offensive capacity. Henceforth, the Army of Northern Virginia would fight defensively. The Wilderness to Petersburg Campaign, which began with the Battle of the Wilderness, would last five weeks and include the bloody battles of Spotsylvania Courthouse and Cold Harbor.
[See also Civil War: Military and Diplomatic Course; Confederate Army; Union Army.]
Bibliography
- Andrew A. Humphreys, The Virginia Campaign of '64 and '65, 1883.
- Morris Schaff, The Battle of the Wilderness, 1910.
- Edward Steere, The Wilderness Campaign, 1960.
- Gordon C. Rhea, The Battle of the Wilderness: May 5–6, 1864, 1994
| US Military Dictionary: Battle of the Wilderness |
A Civil War battle fought on May 5-7, 1864 in densely wooded areas of Spotsylvania County, Virginia. Large forces under the commands of Gens. Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee exacted large numbers of casualties from each other in continuous attempts to outmaneuver. While the battle itself was a tactical draw, it did not stop Grant from continuing his campaign to take Petersburg, the rail center serving Richmond.
See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.
| US History Encyclopedia: battles of the Wilderness |
On 4 May 1864 Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's army prepared to cross the Rapidan River in Virginia to attack General Robert E. Lee's forces. But the move had been anticipated. Instead of attacking the Union troops in the act of crossing, as might have been expected, Lee withdrew to the Wilderness, a heavily wooded and tangled region, where the Union's two-to-one superiority in numbers and artillery would be somewhat neutralized. Grant directed his main movement at Lee's right, hoping to move clear of the Wilderness before effective resistance could be offered. Lee, however, countered rapidly. Road divergence separated his two wings; Confederate General James Longstreet, expected to support either wing, was late in arriving. On 5 May Grant attacked. Confederate generals Richard S. Ewell on the left and Ambrose P. Hill both held firm until night ended the fighting.
The next day Grant resumed his attack, and Hill's troops were driven in confusion. Lee personally rode among the fleeing men to rally and lead them back into battle. As the cry "Lee to the rear" rose on every side, Longstreet's tardy command arrived and struck with suddenness and fury, driving Grant's men back. Ewell, on Lee's left, repulsed all attacks. In the midst of success, Longstreet was wounded by his own men, just as General Thomas J. ("Stonewall") Jackson had been at Chancellorsville a year earlier (2 May 1863). Soon afterward fighting ceased for the day.
It is doubtful whether Longstreet's wounding had any important effect on the outcome of the day's fighting. The troops on both sides were very disorganized, the hour was late, and little more could have been accomplished. On 7 May the two armies faced each other from behind their hasty breastworks. The two days had seen bitter fighting in difficult terrain for battle. Thousands of acres of tangled forest, interlaced undergrowth, and scrub trees impeded movement, and the narrow roads were little more than paths. Cavalry and artillery were useless. Vision was limited to short distances, and, once the fighting began, control passed to local commanders. The brush caught fire and many wounded were burned to death.
Perceiving the uselessness of again assaulting Lee's lines, Grant decided to move by the flank toward Richmond, thus forcing Lee to come and meet him. As Grant's advance troops reached their objective of Spotsylvania Courthouse, Lee's men were in position to meet the threat. The first act was completed of a bitterly fought campaign replete with brilliant strategical and tactical movements.
Bibliography
Gallagher, Gary W., ed. The Wilderness Campaign. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997.
Priest, John M. Victory Without Triumph: The Wilderness, May 6th and 7th, 1864. Shippensburg, Pa.: White Mane, 1996.
Rhea, Gordon C. The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5–6, 1864. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1994.
Scott, Robert G. Into the Wilderness with the Army of the Potomac. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985.
Steere, Edward. The Wilderness Campaign: The Meeting of Grant and Lee. Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1960.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Wilderness campaign |
Wilderness campaign, in the American Civil War, a series of engagements (May-June, 1864) fought in the Wilderness region of Virginia. Early in May, 1864, the Northern commander in chief, Grant, led the Army of the Potomac (118,000 strong) across the Rapidan River into the Wilderness, a wild and tangled woodland c.10 mi (16 km) W of Fredericksburg. Grant planned to clear the Wilderness before trying to destroy the smaller Confederate Army of Northern Virginia (60,000 troops) under Robert E. Lee. But Lee advanced on the Union troops while they were still in that area, causing Grant to face about and order an attack. The nature of the terrain made the battle of the Wilderness (May 5-6) a disjointed but bloody fight. After the repulse of a Union attack on May 6 through the opportune arrival of the 1st Corps under James Longstreet, Lee counterattacked, and the battle became stabilized. Grant then pushed ahead by Lee's right, heading toward Spotsylvania Courthouse, c.12 mi (19 km) to the southeast. Lee, anticipating the move, was soon entrenched there. In the battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse (May 8-19), Grant unsuccessfully hammered away at the Confederate lines. The bloodiest fighting of this battle occurred on May 12 when the Union assault on the salient forming the Confederate center (the Bloody Angle) was repulsed after initial success. Lee confronted Grant's next move from a position S of the North Anna River, so impregnable that even Grant did not attack. By the beginning of June both armies were near Richmond. Fearing that Lee might withdraw within the defenses of the capital, Grant made another unsuccessful frontal assault on his strongly entrenched enemy in the battle of Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864. The Union lost 7,000 men in a few hours-the most horrible slaughter of the war. After several days of desultory trench fighting Grant then withdrew, crossed the James River, and moved against Petersburg. He had lost about 60,000 men in the campaign, and although Lee's army sustained the proportionately larger loss of 20,000, it was by no means destroyed.
Bibliography
See C. Dowdy, Lee's Last Campaign (1960); E. Steere, The Wilderness Campaign (1960, repr. 1987).
| Wikipedia: Battle of the Wilderness |
For the French and Indian War battle, see Battle of the Wilderness 1755.
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The Battle of the Wilderness, fought May 5–7, 1864, was the first battle of Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Virginia Overland Campaign against Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Both armies suffered heavy casualties, a harbinger of a bloody war of attrition by Grant against Lee's army and, eventually, the Confederate capital, Richmond, Virginia. The battle was tactically inconclusive, as Grant disengaged and continued his offensive.
Contents |
Background
The battlefield was the Wilderness of Spotsylvania, an expanse of nearly impenetrable scrub growth and rough terrain that encompassed more than 70 square miles (181 km²) of Spotsylvania County and Orange County in central Virginia. A number of battles were fought in the vicinity between 1862 and 1864, including the bloody Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863. It is often said that the Wilderness and Chancellorsville were fought in the same spot, but the 1864 battle was actually fought a few miles to the west, and only overlapped the old battlefield along the Brock Road on the Union army's left flank.
On May 2, 1864, the Army of the Potomac, nominally under the command of Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, but taking orders from Grant, crossed the Rapidan River at three separate points and converged on the Wilderness Tavern, which had been the concentration point for the Confederates one year to the day earlier when they launched their devastating attack on the Union right flank at Chancellorsville. But Grant chose to set up his camps to the west of the old battle site before moving southward. Unlike the Union army of a year before, Grant had no desire to fight in the Wilderness.
For Lee it was imperative to fight in the Wilderness for the same reason as the year before: his army was massively outnumbered, with ~61,000 men to Grant's ~101,000, and his artillery had fewer and worse guns than those of Grant's. Fighting in the tangled woods would eliminate Grant's advantage in artillery, and also the close quarters and ensuing confusion there could give Lee's outnumbered force better odds.
Battle
While waiting for the arrival of Lt. Gen. James Longstreet and his two divisions of the First Corps (Pickett's division was absent, still recovering from its losses at the Battle of Gettysburg, manning the defenses of Richmond) which had been posted 25 miles (40 km) to the west to guard the crucial railroad junction of Gordonsville, Lee pushed forward his Second Corps, commanded by Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell, and the 22,000 man Third Corps under the command of Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill, in a successful attempt to engage Grant before he moved south. On May 5, Ewell, on Lee's left flank, and Hill on the right, engaged Union soldiers.
On the left, Ewell met up with the V Corps under the command of Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren, and fought it to a standoff. For much of the day Ewell's 18,500-man corps actually held a slight numerical advantage on this part of the field. But on the right, Hill was hit hard and driven back by the Union II Corps under Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock and a division from the VI Corps. He held his ground, however.
On May 6, Hancock, now commanding close to 40,000 men, resumed the attack on Hill's corps, while heavy Union reinforcements on Ewell's front prevented Lee from sending Second Corps men to aid Hill. By late morning, Hancock had driven Hill's corps back more than 2 miles (3.2 km) and inflicted heavy casualties. With the Third Corps in dire straits Lee began to look desperately for Longstreet, who had been expected hours before.
Longstreet and the 12,000-man First Corps finally arrived at around noon, with perfect timing: Hancock's men were tired and disorganized from six hours of fighting. Lee was exuberant that the reinforcements had arrived and attempted to lead the 800-man Texas Brigade in a charge against the Union line. The brigade refused to advance as their line was not yet formed and they knew the South could not afford Lee being killed or wounded. Longstreet and the Texas Brigade launched their attack once Lee agreed to withdraw to a safer distance.[3]
When Longstreet attacked the Union forces they withdrew, and within two hours the situation was totally reversed: Longstreet had regained all the ground lost and advanced 1 mile (1,600 m) further, forcing Hancock to regroup along the Brock Road. At a crucial moment in the fighting Longstreet attacked through a cutting of an unfinished railroad that had split the Union forces, increasing the confusion. However, Longstreet did not have enough men to complete his victory, and the fighting soon petered out near the Brock Road. As the fighting wound down on this part of the battlefield, Longstreet was badly wounded by friendly fire and did not return to the Army of Northern Virginia for several months. (By coincidence, Longstreet was accidentally shot by his own men only about 4 miles (6.4 km) away from the place where Stonewall Jackson suffered the same fate a year earlier.)
Just as this phase of the battle was ending a division of the Second Corps under Maj. Gen. John B. Gordon launched a final assault on the Union right, partially turning the Army of the Potomac's flank and taking close to 1,000 prisoners. But darkness fell and ended the battle, before the Confederates had a chance to press their advantage.
In one of the more horrifying incidents of the war, a brushfire broke out between the two armies' lines during the night. Hundreds of wounded soldiers left on the field died screaming as they were burned alive in front of their comrades.
Aftermath
Although the battle is usually described as a draw, it could be called a tactical Confederate victory, but a strategic victory for the Union army. Lee inflicted heavy numerical casualties (see estimates below) on Grant, but they were a smaller percentage of Grant's forces than the casualties Lee’s army suffered. And, unlike Grant, Lee had very little opportunity to replenish his losses.
Understanding this disparity, part of Grant's strategy was to grind down the Confederate army by waging a war of attrition. The only way that Lee could escape from the trap that Grant had set was to destroy the Army of the Potomac while he still had sufficient force to do so, but Grant was too skilled to allow that to happen. Thus, the Overland Campaign, initiated by the crossing of the Rappahannock, and opening with this battle, set in motion the eventual destruction of the Army of Northern Virginia.
Therefore, even though Grant withdrew at the end of the battle (which is usually the action of the defeated side), unlike his predecessors since 1861 Grant continued his campaign instead of retreating to the safety of Washington, D.C. The significance of Grant’s advance is noted by historian James A. McPherson:
Both flanks had been badly bruised, and [Grant's] 17,500 casualties in two days exceeded the Confederate total by at least 7,000. Under such circumstances previous Union commanders in Virginia had withdrawn behind the nearest river. Men in the ranks expected the same thing to happen again. But Grant had told Lincoln “whatever happens, there will be no turning back.”While the armies skirmished warily on May 7, Grant prepared to march around Lee’s right during the night to seize the crossroads village of Spotsylvania a dozen miles to the south. If successful, this move would place the Union army closer to Richmond than the enemy and force Lee to fight or retreat. All day Union supply wagons and the reserve artillery moved to the rear, confirming the soldiers’ weary expectation of retreat. After dark the blue divisions pulled out one by one.
But instead of heading north, they turned south. A mental sunburst brightened their minds. It was not another ‘’Chancellorsville…another skedaddle’’ after all. ‘’Our spirits rose,’’ recalled one veteran who remembered this moment as a turning point in the war. Despite the terrors of the past three days and those to come, ‘’we marched free. The men began to sing.’’ For the first time in a Virginia campaign the Army of the Potomac stayed on the offensive after its initial battle.[4]
On May 8 Grant ordered the Army of the Potomac to resume its advance, skirmishing with Lee's Army at the Battle of Todds Tavern and, a few days later, fighting another major, inconclusive battle at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House 10 miles (16 km) to the southeast.
Casualties
Estimates of the casualties in the Wilderness vary. The following table summarizes estimates from a number of sources:
| Source | Union | Confederate | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Killed | Wounded | Captured/ Missing |
Total | Killed | Wounded | Captured/ Missing |
Total | |
| National Park Service | 18,400 | 11,400 | ||||||
| Bonekemper, Victor, Not a Butcher | 2,246 | 12,037 | 3,383 | 17,666 | 1,495 | 7,928 | 1,702 | 11,125 |
| Catton, Grant Takes Command | 2,265 | 10,220 | 2,902 | 15,387 | ||||
| Eicher, Longest Night | 2,246 | 12,037 | 3,383 | 17,666 | 7,750 – 11,400 |
|||
| Esposito, West Point Atlas | 15,000 – 18,000 |
c. 7,500 | ||||||
| Foote, Civil War | 17,666 | 7,800 | ||||||
| Fox, Regimental Losses | 2,246 | 12,037 | 3,383 | 17,666 | ||||
| McPherson, Battle Cry | 17,500 | under 10,500 |
||||||
| Rhea, Battle of the Wilderness | over 17,666 | about 11,000 |
||||||
| Smith, Grant | 2,261 | 8,785 | 2,902 | 13,948 | ||||
Gordon C. Rhea acknowledges the officially reported Union casualties of 17,666, but suspects that some of the returns—particularly in Warren's corps—were falsified on the low side, to minimize the negative impact of the battle on the public. He estimates Grant's loss at 17%. He accepts Union estimates of 11,000 Confederate casualties.[5]
Battlefield preservation
Portions of the Wilderness battlefield are preserved as part of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, established in 1927 to memorialize the battlefields of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania Court House, and the Wilderness. In addition to this land that has been protected by the National Park Service, several volunteer organizations have been active in preservation activities.[6] The Friends of the Wilderness Battlefield have been active in helping to preserve and enhance the Ellwood Mansion, which was the headquarters for both Gouverneur K. Warren and Ambrose Burnside during the battle and the family cemetery there holds the plot where Stonewall Jackson's arm was buried. While the NPS acquired 180 acres (73 ha) of Ellwood in the 1970s, the FOWB is responsible for the preservation of the 1790s era house and its interpretation.[7]
The Civil War Preservation Trust in 2008 began a campaign to prevent the development of a 138,000-square-foot (3.2-acre; 12,800 m2) Wal-Mart Supercenter on a 55-acre (22 ha) tract north of the intersection of Routes 3 (the Germanna Highway) and 20 (the Orange Turnpike), immediately across Route 3 from the National Military Park, near the site of the Wilderness Tavern.[8] Other organizations supporting the campaign are the Vermont state legislature and the "Wilderness Battlefield Coalition", which includes the Piedmont Environmental Council, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Parks Conservation Association, Friends of the Wilderness, and Friends of the Fredericksburg Area Battlefields.[9]
Steve Szkotak of The Associated Press reported on May 4, 2009 (one day before the 145th anniversary of the battle), that actor Robert Duvall (who is a descendant of Robert E. Lee) was joined with Representatives Ted Poe (R-Texas) and Peter Welch (D-Vermont) in making a pledge "to do 'anything we can' to support the fight against the Wal-Mart store" and further added that they'll "graciously chase out Wal-Mart".[10] Duvall is the first Hollywood celebrity to fight against the construction proposition, which had previously "drawn opposition from 250 historians, including David McCollough and James McPherson, and film-maker Ken Burns".[10] Wal-Mart has argued that the store's location "near a strip mall and across from McDonald's will not diminish the battlefield".[10] Local supporters for Wal-Mart also argue that the store "could bring needed jobs and tax revenue to the rural county".[10] As a result, the Orange County planners have "scheduled a May 21 hearing on the proposal and will have the final say on the store".[10]
On August 25, 2009, after a public hearing the day before, the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted 4 to 1 in favor of Wal-Mart building their store next to the battlefield. However, preservationists have vowed a court fight to block the construction and urged WalMart to reconsider their location.[11]
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c NPS
- ^ a b Bonekemper, pp. 307-08. Although estimates of Union casualties are relatively consistent across sources, historians have presented significantly different figures for Confederate casualties. See the Aftermath section on casualties.
- ^ Rhea, pp. 300-01.
- ^ McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, pp. 726-8.
- ^ Rhea, pp. 435-36, 440.
- ^ CWPT Leads Effort To Stop Wal-Mart At The Wilderness
- ^ The Restoration of Ellwood - fowb.org
- ^ CWPT's Campaign to Stop the Wilderness Walmart
- ^ A Letter to Mr. H. Lee Scott Jr., CEO of Walmart Corporation - The Wilderness Battlefield Coalition
- ^ a b c d e Steve Szkotak (2009-05-05). "Actor Duvall Fights to Block Wal-Mart Near VA. Battlefield". The Virginian-Pilot.
- ^ Press release, August 25, 2009, from the CWPT.
References
- National Park Service battle description
- Bonekemper, Edward H., III, A Victor, Not a Butcher: Ulysses S. Grant's Overlooked Military Genius, Regnery, 2004, ISBN 0-89526-062-X.
- Eicher, David J., The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War, Simon & Schuster, 2001, ISBN 0-684-84944-5.
- Esposito, Vincent J., West Point Atlas of American Wars, Frederick A. Praeger, 1959.
- Foote, Shelby, The Civil War, A Narrative: Red River to Appomattox, Random House, 1974, ISBN 0-394-74913-8.
- Fox, William F., Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, Albany Publishing, 1889.
- McPherson, James M., Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford History of the United States), Oxford University Press, 1988, ISBN 0-19-503863-0.
- Rhea, Gordon C., The Battle of the Wilderness May 5–6, 1864, Louisiana State University Press, 1994, ISBN 0-8071-1873-7.
- Smith, Jean Edward, Grant, Simon and Shuster, 2001, ISBN 0-684-84927-5.
- U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1880–1901.
Further reading
- Gallagher, Gary W., ed., The Wilderness Campaign, University of North Carolina Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8078-2334-1.
- Longstreet, James, From Manassas to Appomattox: Memoirs of the Civil War in America, J. B. Lippincott and Co., 1896, (reprinted by Da Capo Press) ISBN 0-3068-0464-6.
External links
- National Park Service battlefield site
- CWPT's Campaign to Stop the Wilderness Walmart
- Battle of The Wilderness: Maps, Histories, Photos, and Preservation News (CWPT)
- West Point Atlas map of the Overland Campaign
- Animated History of the Overland Campaign
- Chatham Plantation: Witness to the Civil War, a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan
- Battle of the Wilderness animated battle map by Jonathan Webb
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Mentioned in
- Longstreet, James (American Confederate general)
- Stuart, James Ewell Brown (American Confederate general)
- Spotsylvania (county, Virginia)
- Rappahannock (river, Virginia)
- Smithsonian's Great Battles of the Civil War, Vol. 6 (1992 Film)
- Army of the James
- Battle of Cold Harbor
- John Gibbon (American military leader)
- Clara Barton
- Richard Stoddert Ewell (American military leader)
- John Brown Gordon (American statesman & military leader)
- Fredericksburg (city, Virginia)
- Arlington National Cemetary: A Video Salute to America's Heroes (History Film)
- John Gregg
