"
The enemy had already slipped out of his defenses before Fredericksburg
and at that moment was feeling his way through the tangled vines and
undergrowth with sure ominous tread.
The soul of the Confederate leader rose with elation at the prospect
before him. In this tangle called the Wilderness, broken only here and
there by small, scattered farm houses and fields, the Grand Army of the
Republic had more than twice his numbers, and nearly three times as many
big guns, but his artillery would be practically useless. It was utterly
impossible to use four hundred great guns in such woods. Lee's one
hundred and seventy were more than he could handle. It would be a fight
between infantry at close range. The Southerner knew that no army of men
ever walked the earth who would be the equal, man for man, with these
grey veteran dead shots, who were now silently creeping through the
undergrowth of their native woods.
On May the 1st, their two lines came into touch and Lee felt of his
opponent by driving in his skirmishers in a desultory fire of artillery.
On the morning of May the 2nd, the two armies faced each other at close
range.
With Sedgwick's division of forty thousand men now threatening Lee's
rear from Fredericksburg, his army thus caught between two mighty lines
of blue, Hooker was absolutely sure of victory.
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