The Fighting Ends in Stalemate

Two days of bitter fighting in the Wilderness left the landscape charred and smoking from brush fires, with corpses scattered across ground scarred by miles of earth-and-log entrenchments. Fires ignited by muzzle blasts and fueled by dead leaves and twigs swept through the dry woods, obscuring vision, choking soldiers with smoke, and causing hundreds of wounded men who could not escape the flames to die agonizing deaths, while some chose suicide rather than face the fire. Although the battle produced no clear winner, the Confederates could claim a tactical victory because Lee inflicted heavy Union losses and twice turned Grant's flanks, while Grant held the strategic advantage by retaining the initiative and reducing Lee's army by twenty percent, losses the Confederates could not readily replace. With both armies bloodied, exhausted, and entrenched, and unwilling to attack Lee's strong position, Grant ordered a night march to Spotsylvania Court House on May 7, believing Lee might retreat toward Richmond; Warren and Hancock moved by the Brock Road while Sedgwick and Burnside took routes farther east, but Lee anticipated the movement and sent his army toward Spotsylvania that same night. The Union army lost more than 17,500 men in the Wilderness, while Confederate casualties in the two-day battle were around 11,000, with many of the dead later buried in Fredericksburg cemeteries though some from both armies may still lie on the battlefield.

Lake of the Woods, Virginia · United States