Gordon's Attack Falters

As twilight turned to darkness in these gloomy woods, Union reinforcements rushed toward the fighting while Confederate forces lost direction and momentum in the smoke and fading light, and the firing eventually died away. The attack achieved only a local, though spectacular, success. Gordon believed that if the assault had begun earlier in the day, it would have brought a decided disaster to the whole right wing of General Grant's army, if not to its entire organization. Jubal Early wrote that darkness came fortunately to close the affair, because if the enemy had discovered the disorder on the Confederate side, fresh troops might have been brought up to exploit their condition. Gordon's men built and occupied these trenches on the night of May 6.

Lake of the Woods, Virginia · United States