Union Headquarters

Ellwood stood in the midst of the Wilderness, a dark, forbidding forest characterized by stunted trees and densely tangled undergrowth. When Confederates challenged General Ulysses S. Grant’s advance through the Wilderness on May 5, 1864, the Union commander established his headquarters a few hundred yards north of Ellwood along the Orange Turnpike, now Route 20. For the next three days, Ellwood, a quiet farm in a desolate region, became the center of national attention. Union Fifth Corps commander Gouverneur K. Warren occupied a first-floor room to the left of the front door throughout the battle, and there on the evening of May 5 he received reports of staggering casualties from his chief surgeon, remarking, “It will never do to make a showing of such heavy losses.” The bloodshed was only beginning, and by the time the Army of the Potomac reached the James River six weeks later, it had suffered more than 60,000 casualties.

Virginia · United States