Wilderness Campaign
May 5-6, 1864. The titanic struggle between Grant and Lee having begun in this vicinity on May 5, both armies entrenched. As the next day wore on, neither side gained the advantage. About a half mile north, John Gordon, young Georgia brigadier, noted that the enemy's right was exposed. He wanted to make a flank attack, but was overruled. Later in the afternoon Lee visited this front and authorized the attack. Darkness robbed the move of its full possibilities, though not before two brigadiers and several hundred men had been captured and panic spread in the Union ranks.
This park road follows Ewell's Confederate trench remains southward to A. P. Hill's sector.
United States Department of the Interior National Park Service
