The Confederate Line

The Confederate Line. The Battle of the Wilderness. Dick Ewell was raring for a fight. When a subordinate approached him early on May 5, 1864, and asked Ewell about his orders, the balding, pop-eyed general piped up cheerily: "... Just the orders I like - to go right down the [turnpike] and strike the enemy wherever I find him.", Ewell made contact with the Union army here at Saunders Field. Deploying in line of battle across the turnpike, the Confederates began to entrench using knives, bayonets, shovels made from canteen halves, or whatever other tools they could find. The earthen mounds around you are a remnant of their handiwork., For two days Ewell's men stubbornly defended this ridge against attacks by the Union Fifth and Sixth corps. Unable to dent Ewell's strong position here along the turnpike, Grant turned his attention south, to the Orange Plank Road. It was there that the battle was decided., "A bayonet served to loosen the dirt, and the shovels followed after. Our men were good woodcutters and were not slow to fell trees as the basis for the works .... It was surprising to see how hastily they threw up trenches in a night and even in a few hours." - Assistant Surgeon Thomas F. Wood, 3rd North Carolina Infantry