Warren hastily ordered Griffin to ‘push a force out at once against the enemy, and see what force he has.’ Meanwhile, Warren located Meade and told him of the developments. Instead of swinging into line alongside Hill, the I Corps was to march in support of Hill. According to Wilcox, the move through the dense woods was slow for the first half-mile. Now, directed by Meade to attack down the road, Getty’s troops crept forward, scarcely able to see 10 yards ahead of them. The Federals, behind earthworks and backed by cannons, had the odds in their favor, and despite a few scary moments they held on. Cut haversacks from dead men. All were expected to march undisturbed through some of the roughest countryside in Virginia, beneath the very noses of their ever-vigilant opponents, and to do so in less than 30 hours, which was the amount of time it had taken Lee to move his army into position to counterattack during the Mine Run campaign the previous November. More by instinct than actual order, Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia strengthened its lines during the night. Stuart delegated the task to his chief of staff, Major Henry B. McClellan, who set off at once. Ominous, muffled popping sounds marked the explosion of dozens of cartridge belts tied around wounded soldiers’ waists, sending deadly shards of tin slicing through their bowels. Well before 4 p.m., Lee was back near the Orange Plank Road, where the follow-up attack was at last ready. The ‘unquenchable fellows,’ as an admiring Union officer termed them, knelt in the dust 30 yards from the Federal breastworks, desperately firing their muskets at the few heads bobbing above the works. At Union headquarters, Grant had a different view of the first day’s fighting. ‘The incessant roar of the rifles; the screaming of bullets; the forest on fire; men cheering, groaning, yelling, swearing and praying!’ General Jones, seeing his line waver as the enemy struck hard at his exposed right flank, rode to the front to encourage his troops. The two sides had spent a comparatively comfortable winter–particularly from the perspective of the Union troops, who passed the winter huddling in their snug tents and cabins, writing letters home, engaging in mock-heroic snowball fights, going to armywide revival meetings and enlarging upon that endlessly fascinating topic: What are our generals going to do next? This article was written by Noah Andre Trudeau and originally appeared in the September 2000 issue of America’s Civil War. Not long after midday, Lee broke camp and rode eastward with his staff, finally stopping at New Verdiersville about 6 p.m. And Longstreet’s corps was still a day away. Outcome: Inconclusive Lee seemed content to let Longstreet run the show. Whatever the reason, Grant elected to keep Meade in titular command of the Army of the Potomac, but he pitched his own headquarters tent nearby, and all messages, inquiries and orders went through him first, not the army’s bootless commander. The army would be divided into two wings, which would cross the Rapidan at the Germanna and Ely fords and march quickly down the Germanna Plank Road to reunite at the intersection with the region’s one really good road, the Orange Turnpike. The aide reported that Longstreet had received the message and by way of reply had made it clear that his troops would be up in the morning when Lee needed them. ‘I was not much use as a staff officer for full fifteen minutes,’ Hyde admitted. Lacking sufficient staff to handle the work, it fell to the army commander to process the confusing odds and ends. One of Law’s men later recollected seeing Lee and thinking that he ‘appeared to be very much perturbed over his misfortune and [it was] the only time I ever saw him excited.’ Lee repeated the scene with the Texas Brigade when told who the new troops were, crying, ‘God bless the Alabamians. Here Lee pondered his situation. At 3 a.m. on May 4, the Army of the Potomac began crossing the Rapidan at Germanna Ford. Hill’s III Corps was to move along the Orange Plank Road to New Verdiersville. Lee’s remaining infantry corps, Lt. Gen. James Longstreet’s I Corps, had been serving in the Western theater and had only returned in late April. In fact, all their energies were directed at improving a crude defensive line that had been scratched out along the Brock Road. First, Meade was to cross the Rapidan River east of the Confederate position at Orange Court House, before swinging west to engage the enemy. The Wilderness had triumphed over Lee on those two days. Gen. Evander Law’s Alabama Brigade. In the face of near-constant defeats on the eastern front of the war, Grant had been a consistent beacon of good news–and good generalship–in the West. Their situation was further imperiled by a lack of cavalry patrols on the roads leading towards Lee. Obeying Lee’s orders not to contest the crossing, the pickets of the 1st North Carolina Cavalry fell back from the river and scattered into the pre-dawn darkness, leaving behind their half-cooked breakfast.
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