John D. Billings, The history of the Tenth Massachusetts battery of light artillery in the war of the rebellion

1

The field where the first rencontre of the armies had taken place, and where it was now decreed the battle should be fought, was that region known as ‘The Wilderness.’ It is impossible to conceive a field worse adapted to the movements of a grand army. The whole face of the country is thickly wooded, with only an occasional opening, and intersected by a few narrow wood roads. The region rests on a bed of mineral rocks, and, for above a hundred years, extensive mining has here been carried on. To feed the mines, the timber of the country for many miles had been cut down, and in its place there had arisen a dense undergrowth of low-limbed and scraggy pines, stiff and bristling, chincapins, scrub-oaks, and hazel. It is a region of gloom and the shadow of death. Maneuvering here was necessarily out of the question, and only Indian tactics told. The troops could only receive direction by a point of the compass; for not only were the lines of battle entirely hidden from the sight of the commander, but no officer could see ten files on each side of him. Artillery was wholly ruled out of use; the massive concentration of three hundred guns stood silent, and only an occasional piece or section could be brought into play in the roadsides. Cavalry was still more useless. But in that horrid thicket there lurked two hundred thousand men, and through it lurid fires played; and though no array of battle could be seen, there came out of its depths the crackle and roll of musketry like the noisy boiling of some hell-caldron, that told the dread story of death. Such was the field of the battle of the Wilderness; and General Grant appointed that at five o'clock of the morning the fight should be renewed. Combinations or grand tactics there were none; the order of battle was simple, and was to all the corps—Attack all along the line. Swinton's Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac.