Clash on the Orange Turnpike

On May 5, 1864, Lee moved swiftly eastward through Orange County and struck Federal forces along the Orange Plank Road and the Orange Turnpike, beginning two bloody, largely separate battles that evolved and eventually merged into a huge conflict engulfing the Wilderness and consuming thousands of lives. After joining the Army of the Potomac in March 1864, Grant pressed for aggressive action, and when Meade reported Confederates advancing down the Orange Turnpike, Grant ordered an immediate attack. Fighting began in Saunders Field, where General Gouverneur K. Warren's Fifth Corps charged across the clearing and engaged General Richard S. Ewell's Confederates in hand-to-hand combat. The struggle spread into the adjoining woods as Grant and Meade tried to outflank the Southern line, but Ewell stopped their efforts, and by evening the exhausted armies entrenched. On May 6, after morning gunfire along the Orange Turnpike faded, Union soldiers relaxed until rifle fire in the woods north of the road signaled a flank attack by five thousand Confederates under General John B. Gordon. Panic spread down the Union line, and two Federal generals and 800 other men were captured, but nightfall and a strengthening Union defense limited Gordon's gains. Though battered, the Army of the Potomac established a new line of works, and the Battle of the Wilderness ended in stalemate.

Lake of the Woods, Virginia · United States