Hell itself : the Battle of the Wilderness, May 5-7, 1864 / by Chris Mackowski.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mackowski, Chris, author.

Series:

Emerging Civil War series.

Emerging Civil War Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wilderness, Battle of the, Va., 1864.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (193 pages) : illustrations, photographs.

Place of Publication:

El Dorado Hills, California : Savas Beatie, 2016.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

A Civil War historian recounts the first battle between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee-a bloody and horrifying conflict in the Wilderness of Virginia. Known simply as the Wilderness, soldiers called the seventy square miles of dense Virginian forest one of the "waste places of nature" and "a region of gloom." Yet here, in the spring of 1864, the Civil War escalated to a new level of horror. Ulysses S. Grant, commanding all Federal armies, opened the Overland Campaign with a vow to never turn back. Robert E. Lee, commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, moved into the Wilderness to block Grant's advance. Thick underbrush made for difficult movement and low visibility. And these challenges were terrifyingly compounded by the outbreak of fires that burned casualties and left both sided blinded in a sea of smoke. Driven by desperation, duty, confusion, and fire, soldiers on both sides marveled that anyone might make it out alive. "This, viewed as a battleground, was simply infernal, " a Union soldier later said. Another called it "Hell itself."

Contents:

Ellwood

The Wilderness

Grant takes command

Lee moves in

Quandary at Saunders Field

The sprawl of battle

Homeplaces in the swirl of war

Crises along the Plank Road

A heavy pounding match

The most critical moment

Horror in the forest

Confederates unleashed

Gordon's flank attack

Grant moves south

Epilogue.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781611213164

1611213169