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MILITARY · HISTORICAL MARKER
Battle of the Wilderness
Lake of the Woods, Virginia
· May 5th, 1864
Military
6
On May 5, 1864, the 1st North Carolina Cavalry and Ewell's lead infantry regiments fought Sedgwick's three divisions throughout the Lake of the Woods area. Sedgwick's skirmishers encountered the 1st North Carolina Cavalry in the area of Mount Pleasant Drive to Beachside Circle, and by noon Sedgwick had established the 1st Division Field Hospital at Spotswood's Farm. Sedgwick's 1st Division moved down Culpeper Mine Road toward Saunder's Field, where the 49th Pennsylvania Volunteers chased dismounted troopers of the 1st North Carolina Cavalry near the number 1 fairway, prompting Pvt. Westbrook to say, "We drove the rebels in our front like a lot of sheep." At 2:00 p.m., Ewell deployed skirmishers in front of regiments that had moved up Culpeper Mine Road, while the 33rd Virginia Infantry formed a line near the 5th green to the lake and some artillery placed near Lee Circle sent solid shot through the treetops along the 6th and 7th fairways. Sedgwick's line stretched from Mansion Court back to Germanna Plank Road, and the 5th Wisconsin Infantry attacked Ewell's 1st Division near LOW Church. Regiments from nine states fought there, including Union infantry from Maine, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, Confederate infantry from Louisiana and Virginia, and cavalry from North Carolina. Sedgwick's Corps, numbering 24,163 troops, passed down Culpeper Mine Road and through the Wilderness, and during the next 36 hours of intense combat, 3,660 wounded walked or were carried back up the road to the field hospital while another 1,375 were killed or captured. By midnight of May 6, the rest had retreated to behind Keaton Lake.
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