Civil War Articles by Julian WilliamsCivil War Sees Two Sets Of Graves At "The Wilderness"
This article was compiled by Julian Williams.
As the men from Telfair County and the other units began to arrive in May, 1864, at the great battle site, the Union men also began to assemble on the old Chancellorsville and Wilderness battlefields which had seen much war the year before. They suddenly realized they were in the presence of strange company. They began to notice that the very ground they were camped upon started yielding the eerie remains of those brave men who had died in that other battle of not so long ago. Winter rains had washed open the shallow graves of the Federal and Rebel soldiers. Skeletons were everywhere. It was not a good feeling.
"It grew dark and we built a fire," a green private remembered. "The dead were all around us; their eyeless skulls seemed to stare steadily at us --- The trees swayed and sighed gently in the soft wind. As we sat smoking --- an infantry soldier had -- been prying [into the ground] with his bayonet suddenly rolled a skull on the ground before us and said in a deep, low voice: 'That is what you are all coming to, and some of you will start toward it tomorrow.'"
This was not an encouraging prelude to the coming bloodshed. As the men gazed in the quietness out into the tangled thickets of The Wilderness, the question kept coming - "Will I come out of there alive?" The answer - more quietness - interrupted only by the chirping crickets, the murmur of the soft summer breeze and the relentless gaze of the eyeless sockets of the skulls all around. As the soldiers' eyes met, they wondered to themselves who among them would haunt this place tomorrow -- and the days to follow?
Against such a background of gloom and doom, sat another sad and dejected figure in Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy. With moist eyes, refusing to see anyone, was President Jefferson Davis. Just a few days before, his young son, Joseph Evan Davis, only five years old, had fallen from a balcony railing at the Confederate White House and died from his injuries. Rumor persisted that Jeff, Jr. had pushed him but there were no witnesses to such; in fact, his father and mother were not at home when the tragedy happened. Most of the family always believed little Joseph Evan was merely trying to "copy" his bigger brother in walking the high railing. Sadly, Jeff, Jr. would never seem to recover from the unfortunate incident which resulted in his brother's death. He was pulled out of military school at Virginia Military Institute after the war by his father for fear he was going to be expelled anyway. After going pillar to post he wound up in Memphis where he died of a yellow fever epidemic. He had lived barely into his 20's. Jefferson Davis had told his wife Varina, "We do not understand the boy, and I fear never shall."
As Jefferson Davis and Varina mourned the death of their son, Joseph Evan, the compassionate man of high resolve turned his eyes of duty toward The Wilderness. The men there would need him. The leaders would need him. He had suffered tragedy, and would continue to suffer it, but he must not let them down. They needed his support. He must go on. When they heard what happened, the Telfair men grieved with their president, but not for long; in less than a week they would have plenty of grief of their own.
Yes, the leaders would need him because they faced a leader from the North who was of a different breed than his predecessors. General Lee had toyed throughout the war with the likes of McClellan, Pope, Burnside, Hooker, and Meade. But now a little giant had entered the fray - a crumpled, cigar-smoking, whisky-drinking soldier named Ulysses Simpson Grant. But U.S. Grant was not his real name; it was Hiram, but someone wrote it down wrong at West Point and he never bothered to correct it. And the U.S. became a trademark abbreviation for Grant - Unconditional Surrender.
Even Lee had to discipline Capt. U.S. Grant in the earlier Mexican War because of his slovenly dress. To be sure, Grant didn't put too much stock in the little niceties of military etiquette and ritual. It is said his soldiers didn't even salute him - they just got to their feet as he passed by and stared in awe at the wrinkled little giant for whom they had great respect.
But even Grant had to break for his own men the spell cast by the charismatic and efficient Lee. The soldiers of the East listened to Grant's staff tell of his triumphs in the West, but they were not impressed. "That may be," one said, "but you never met Bobbie Lee and his boys."
So the die was cast. Now, the two great leaders of the conflict were met upon a battlefield not only of blood and sod but one of defining strategy and will. Lee had been ever the aggressor. Now he had met his adversary, General Grant. Grant was ever the aggressor also. Grant redefined the philosophy of the Northern militarists. His purpose was characteristically simple: "To get possession of Lee's army was the first object. With the capture of his army, Richmond would necessarily follow. It was better to fight him outside his stronghold than in it." In other words, Grant was bent on defeating soldiers, not cities.
In the blazing inferno of bullets and fire of The Wilderness, over 18,000 casualties were recorded for the Union. Over 11,000 were suffered by the Confederates. But the truth was becoming quite evident: With only 8 percent of the resources and only 29 percent of the manpower, the South was barely hanging on. And the North had men to spare. It was noted that the 1864 boat races between Harvard and Yale were not canceled due to the War and not a member of either collegiate team volunteered for military service. It was not that way for the South. The scholars of the University of Georgia left a closed school and hurried to the battlefields.
In May,1864, As Union and Confederate forces battled, this advertisement was published in Atlanta's Intelligencer:
"ATTENTION MILITIA! All persons between the ages of 16 and 60, not in the service of the Confederate States, in the second ward, are hereby notified to be and appear at the City Hall today, at 2 o'clock P.M., for the purpose of being armed and equipped for local defense. Herein fail not under penalty."
They may have been too young or too old to row the boats at Harvard and Yale, but they had to fight in a war which seemed to be a bloody and bottomless pit - swiftly accepting sacrifices as quickly as they could be offered.
Longing for home so dear,
Urging the vigil awaken,
Feeling the end so near,
Glimpsing the hope forsaken,
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day;
Caisson and dirge, the Blue,
Dirge and caisson, the Gray.
And Telfair men were killed and wounded at a place called The Wilderness. Their names will be mentioned later. There was grief aplenty.
Credits:
"The Civil War" by Geoffrey C. Ward with Ric and Ken Burns;
"A Battlefield Atlas of the Civil War" by Craig L. Symonds;
"Georgia 49th Regiment" by John Griffin;
an adaptation of "The Blue and The Gray" by Francis Miles Finch.
