Chapter 6

The Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor

            Spring of 1864 brought with it renewed campaigning.  On May 2^nd, Confederate lookouts near their camps in Virginia south of the Rapidan River detected signs of unusual activity in the Union camps across the river.  Major General Ulysses S. Grant had come east with the title of Commander of the Armies of the United States and had been promoted to Lieutenant General.  Although he would retain Meade as the nominal commander of the Army of the Potomac, for the remainder of the war it would be Grant who actually directed the army’s military operations.  On May 4^th, Grant put the Army of the Potomac in motion and crossed the Rapidan heading south.  He hoped to be able to pass around Lee’s right quickly enough to avoid combat in The Wilderness, and into more open ground, more favorable to his advantages in numbers and firepower.  Lee however, wanted to pin Grant down in the thick second-growth forests and thickets where the Federal numerical and artillery advantages would be at least partially neutralized. [114]

            Heth’s Division was in the Third Corps’ vanguard on May 5, 1864 as it marched northeast on the Orange Plank Road to intercept the Army of the Potomac.  The corps’ commander, A. P. Hill, was ill and within days would have to temporarily turn over his command to Major General Jubal Early.  Joseph Davis, the brigade commander, was also on the sick list and was replaced by his very capable senior colonel, John M. Stone of the 2^nd Mississippi.  Colonel Stone’s capacity for higher command was very soon to be put to the test. [115]

            Heth’s Division reached the vicinity of the intersection of the Plank and Brock roads in the early afternoon and found it occupied by units of John Sedgwick’s VI and Winfield Scott Hancock’s II Corps from the Army of the Potomac.  The division fanned out on both sides of the Plank Road, Colonel Stone’s [Davis’] Brigade to the left, Brigadier General John Cooke’s North Carolina brigade in the center astride the road itself, and Brigadier General Henry Walker’s Virginia brigade to the right.  Brigadier General William Kirkland’s brigade of North Carolina troops was held in reserve.  The Confederates prepared hasty breastworks and prepared to receive the anticipated attack.  Stone’s sector covered a frontage of about five hundred feet on the left of the division line, about nine hundred feet north of the Plank Road along the ridge bordering Wilderness Run.  Accounts indicate the initial deployment was with the 26^th Mississippi on the extreme left, with the 42^nd Mississippi to its right.  The 55^th North Carolina was to the right center of the brigade and the 2^nd Mississippi, 11^th Mississippi, and 1^st Confederate Battalion filled in the area to the left and right of the 55^th North Carolina.  With Colonel Stone now acting brigade commander, the 2^nd Mississippi was placed under the temporary command of Captain Thomas J. Crawford of Company G. [116]

            Successive Federal assault waves hit Heth’s line as Hancock sent his forces in piecemeal.  After two hours of assaults, all of which had been bloodily repulsed, the Union attack crested at about 5:00 p.m.  By this point in time, Hancock had finally succeeded in massing his infantry for an effective blow and drove the Confederates back a quarter mile.  After another hour of fighting, having withstood seven separate assaults and with no help forthcoming, Stone was about to order what would have almost certainly been a suicidal countercharge to try and stabilize his front.  Finally about 6:30 p.m. Brigadier General Edward L. Thomas’ Georgia brigade of Wilcox’s Division arrived to relieve Stone’s men who were in the process of preparing to sacrifice themselves to hold the position until nightfall.  A counterattack would no longer be necessary.  Stone pulled his battered brigade back to regroup in the deepening shadows. After dark, Colonel Stone was ordered to move south of the Plank Road to the right of the Confederate line near Popular Run and about a mile below the Plank Road.  Like other regiments in the brigade, the 2^nd Mississippi suffered severely in killed and wounded during the first days’ fighting. [117]

            Hancock’s II Corps attacked again at dawn on May 6^th.  The attack swept down on the flank of Wilcox’s Division and routed it.  Heth’s Division also began to give way.  Stone’s Brigade alone held firm while the Federal masses swept past on their left and continued to hammer at their front for two hours.  Except for Stone’s Brigade, Heth’s Division was put out of action for the remainder of May 6^th. [118]

            About 6:30 a.m., Longstreet finally arrived with First Corps reinforcements.  The Texas Brigade began the counterattack (in the presence of General Lee, himself) with a charge on the north side of the Plank Road and other fresh troops continued to throw back the Federal advance.  Thirty minutes later, Stone’s men were relieved and moved to the rear.  However, twice later that day, Colonel Stone volunteered his brigade to support Confederate counteroffensives to help stall the Federal advance, including Brigadier General John B. Gordon’s crushing assault into Hancock’s flank.  When again placed on the defensive, the 2^nd Mississippi held its position against continuing Federal attacks until dark. [119]

            Unfortunately for Lee, Grant’s reverses in the Wilderness fighting did not result in a Federal withdrawal back North to refit and regroup as had been the case with other Union commanders.  Instead Grant once more attempted to pass the Army of the Potomac around Lee’s right flank.  Lee again countered by shifting his forces to Spotsylvania Court House, and beat Grant to his objective.  The new Confederate line rested its left on the Po River near the Block House Bridge and faced northwest, while the right flank curved around to the south beyond the Fredericksburg Road and faced generally east.  The 2^nd Mississippi occupied a position with Heth’s Division in reserve behind the far right flank. [120]

            Grant, on the morning of May 10^th, sent Hancock’s II Corps across the Po River in an attempt to turn the Confederate left flank.  This venture would appear to have offered little chance for success however, for the Po turned south beyond the Confederate flank and would have to be crossed a second time by the Federals in order to reach the Confederate rear.  When Hancock found that the closest bridge across the Po that led to the rear of the Southern lines was well guarded, he dispersed his troops in search of another crossing place. [121]

            Lee dispatched Major General Jubal Early, temporarily commanding the Third Corps, to engage the Federals probing his left flank.  Early put together a combined arms task force consisting of Heth’s Division reinforced by additional cavalry and artillery.  From the right of the Confederate line they marched entirely across the rear of the Army of Northern Virginia and crossed the Po River well south of the area recently occupied by the Federal II Corps.  Heth deployed his division in a line facing north with Davis’ Brigade on the left. [122]

            Although Grant had ordered Hancock to bring his men back across the Po, Brigadier General Francis C. Barlow’s Division was still south of the river at 2:00 p.m. when it was struck by Early’s troops.  The 2^nd Mississippi supported several assaults against Barlow in the area of Talley’s Mill.  These attacks were unsuccessful until the Confederates were able to infiltrate troops around the Federal flank and rear.  The Federals then fell back across the river with the Confederates in pursuit.  The action came to a halt when the Southerners came within artillery range of the Union guns across the river. [123]

            Mission accomplished, Early returned to the right end of the Confederate line on the afternoon of May 10^th.  On May 12^th, the day of the Federal assault on the “Bloody Angle,” Davis’ and Walker’s Brigades of Heth’s Division were unsuccessfully attacked by the Federals, probably by Major General Thomas L. Crittenden’s division of Burnside’s IX Corps. [124]

            With Grant’s army continually trying to move around the Confederate right, the next fighting occurred along the North Anna River from May 23^rd to May 26^th.  Davis’ Brigade, near the left end of the Confederate line, saw little action at this time.  Another move by Grant around the Confederate right brought the two armies to a new set of lines that overlapped those of the old Gaines’ Mill battlefield of 1862.  Here Grant foolishly ordered a series of assaults that were bloodily repulsed by Lee’s entrenched Confederates at Cold Harbor on June 3^rd.  Again, the 2^nd Mississippi, stationed with Heth’s Division at the far left of the Confederate lines near Bethesda Church, was not involved in the heaviest fighting although it did suffer some additional losses.  For the combined losses of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor, the 2^nd Mississippi reported 24 killed and 107 wounded.  Its strength at the beginning of The Wilderness is unknown, but based on statistical estimates using a portion of the bimonthly muster roll data, the regiment probably had about 280 effectives in its ranks. [125]