Existing comment:
Accept Not The Verdict of Battle:
In the Wilderness, Ulysses S. Grant ignored the verdict of battle -- stalemate -- and continued southward. The decision transformed the experience of soldiers and charted an inexorable path for the next eleven months of war in Virginia.
Faced with stalemate, Grant responded as no Union general in Virginia had before; he kept going. On the night of May 7, as the woods still burned, Grant turned the Army of the Potomac south -- toward Spotsylvania Court House, toward victory. If he could not defeat Lee outright, he would pressure him relentlessly.
For the men, Grant's decision would mean continuous fighting for the next six weeks. Though the soldiers would suffer most from the decision, they cheered it -- literally. Yankee huzzahs resounded through the burning forests. The course was set. There would be no turning back.
Changed War:
"Nothing in history equals this contest. Desperate, long, and deadly, it still goes on. From morn till night, nor ends the carnage there -- all night it goes on too. I cannot tell you any of the particulars. You could not understand it. I do not understand it myself... All nature seems changed. Humanity seems changed.... The usual course of feeling seems turned back or suspended. Where is the place of safety?"
-- William Taylor, 110th Pennsylvania Infantry |