Military
5
The Battle of the Wilderness reached its climax here in the twilight of May 6, 1864. After a day of seesaw fighting in the woods, the Confederates made a final effort to seize the Plank Road-Brock Road intersection. Thousands of Confederate troops charged through the woods in the smoke of burning leaves and underbrush, while thousands of Union soldiers waited behind earthworks. As the Confederates reached this point, piles of brush placed by Union soldiers slowed them, Union musket fire tore through their ranks, and fire creeping eastward toward the Union works blocked further advance. Only at one place, at the works opposite this point, did the Confederates break through the Union line, but a Union counterattack quickly sealed the breach and the final Confederate attack ended in bloody repulse.
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Lake Wilderness, Virginia · United States
