Battle of the Wilderness.
We stated briefly a few days ago some moral and fanciful reasons why the great battle in which
Jackson fell should be called the
Battle of the Wilderness. The matter of fact, however, is stronger than anything else in behalf of the name.
The great battle was
really fought in the Wilderness--a country of gravelly clay soil, and a black-jack growth, presenting in many places an almost impenetrable thicket.
There were occasional small openings of cleared and cultivated fields, in which the enemy had his works for defence.--The position was one of great strength and was very probably alluded to by
Hooker a short time since as one he knew of, from which the whole Confederate army could not dislodge him. If he thought he knew such an one he would certainly go to it, and no doubt did, in preference to all others accessible to him. It was indeed a strong one.
Yet
Jackson's impetuous charge in the very jaws of death, as it were, could not be resisted by the
Yankees, and they were driven from it. The name "
Wilderness" will perpetuate the nature of the position thus heroically stormed and carried — it will commemorate the last great fight of that Hero of many bloody fields whose last achievement was his greatest.
On the other hand, "
Chancellorsville" is the name of a place with only one dwelling-house situated several miles from the great fight of the two days combat; and unsuggestive as it is at best, it could not therefore be applied with topographical truthfulness to designate the bloody struggle with the ruthless invader.
