Long after the Civil War, Sergeant Rice Bull of the 123rd New York Volunteers remembered the early morning hours of May 3, 1863, when a beautiful sunrise gave way to a terrible struggle. In five hours of fighting, more than 17,500 soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured, perhaps making it the bloodiest morning in America's history. The most intense fighting took place in these woods, where soldiers by the thousands killed and maimed one another among the spring's budding green foliage. The struggle was bitter and the fighting tenacious. When Union artillery at Fairview shelled the woods, the dry leaves caught fire, consuming dead and wounded alike and deepening the morning's horror. Confederate General James Lane recalled marching through the burning woods amid unexploded shells and muskets going off in all directions, the dead of both sides enveloped in flames, the cries of helpless wounded Federals, and the stifling sulfurous smoke, calling it a perfect hell on earth.