Battle of the Wilderness

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Union Army Order of Battle
Army of the Potomac

LTG Ulysses S. Grant, commanding

IX Corps

MG Ambrose Burnside*

Provost Guard

  • 8th U.S. Infantry: Cpt Milton Cogswell

Division

Brigade

Regiments and Others

First Division
     BG Thomas G. Stevenson (k) MG Thomas Crittenden

1st Brigade


   Col Cumner Carruth

  • 35th Massachusetts: Maj Nathaniel Wales
  • 56th Massachusetts: Col Charles E. Griswold
  • 57th Massachusetts: Col William F. Bartlett
  • 59th Massachusetts: Col J. Parker Gould
  • 4th United States: Cpt Charles H. Brightly
  • 10th United States: Maj Samuel B. Hayman

2nd Brigade


   Col Daniel Leasure

  • 3rd Maryland: Col Joseph M. Sudsburg
  • 21st Massachusetts: Ltc George P. Hawkes
  • 100th Pennsylvania: Ltc Matthew M. Dawson

Artillery

  • 2nd Battery (B), Maine Light: Cpt Albert F. Thomas
  • 14th Battery, Massachusetts Light: Cpt Joseph W. B. Wright

Second Division
     BG Robert B. Potter

1st Brigade


   Col Zenas Bliss

  • 36th Massachusetts: Maj William F. Draper
  • 58th Massachusetts: Ltc John C. Whiton
  • 51st New York: Col Charles W. LeGendre
  • 45th Pennsylvania: Col John I. Curtin
  • 48th Pennsylvania: Ltc Henry Pleasants
  • 7th Rhode Island: Cpt Theodore Winn

2nd Brigade


   Col Simon Goodell Griffin

  • 31st Maine: Ltc Thomas Hight
  • 82nd Maine: Maj Arthur Deering
  • 6th New Hampshire: Ltc Henry H. Pearson
  • 9th New Hampshire: Ltc John W. Babbitt
  • 11th New Hampshire: Col Walter Harriman
  • 17th Vermont: Ltc Charles Cummings

Artillery

  • 11th Battery, Massachusetts Light: Cpt Edward J. Jones
  • 19th Battery, New York Light: Cpt Edward W. Rogers

Third Division
     BG Orlando B. Wilcox

1st Brigade


   Col John F. Hartranft

  • 2nd Michigan: Col William Humphrey
  • 8th Michigan: Col Frank Graves
  • 17th Michigan: Col Constant Luce
  • 27th Michigan: Maj Samuel Moody
  • 109th New York: Col Benjamin F. Tracy
  • 51st Pennsylvania: Ltc Edwin Schall

2nd Brigade


   Col Benjamin C. Christ

  • 1st Michigan Sharpshooters: Col Charles V. De Land
  • 20th Michigan: Ltc Byron M. Cutcheon
  • 70th New York: Col David Morrison
  • 60th Ohio: Ltc James N. McElroy
  • 50th Pennsylvania: Ltc Edward Overton, Jr.

Artillery

  • 7th Battery (G), Maine Light: Cpt Adelbert B. Twitchell
  • 34th Battery, New York Light: Cpt Jacob Roemer

Fourth Division
     BG Edward Ferrero

1st Brigade


   Col Joshua K. Sigfried

  • 27th U. S. Colored Troops: Ltc Charles J. Wright
  • 30th U.S. Colored Troops: Col Delayan Bates
  • 39th U.S. Colored Troops: Col Ozora P. Stearns
  • 43rd U.S. Colored Troops: Ltc H. Seymour Hall

2nd Brigade


   Col Henry G. Thomas

  • 30th Connecticut (colored), detachment: Cpt Charles Robinson
  • 19th U.S. Colored Troops: Ltc Joseph G. Perkins
  • 23rd U.S. Colored Troops: Ltc Cleaveland J. Campbell

Artillery

  • Battery D, Pennsylvania Light: Cpt George W. Durell
  • 3rd Battery, Vermont Light: Cpt Romeo H. Start

Cavalry

  • 3rd New Jersey: Col Andrew J. Morrison
  • 22nd New York: Col Samuel J. Crooks
  • 2nd Ohio: Ltc George A. Purington
  • 13th Pennsylvania: Maj Michael Kerwin

 

Reserve Artillery


   Cpt John Edwards, Jr.

  • 27th Battery, New York Light: Cpt John B. Eaton
  • Battery D, 1st Rhode Island Light: Cpt William W. Buckley
  • Battery H, 1st Rhode Island Light: Cpt Crawford Allen, Jr.
  • Battery E, 2nd United States: Lt James S. Dudley
  • Battery G, 3rd United States: Lt Edmund Pendleton
  • Batteries L and M, 3rd United States: Lt Erskine Gittings

 

Provisional Brigade


   Col Elisha Marshall

  • 24th New York Cavalry (dismounted): Col William C. Raulston
  • 14th New York Heavy Artillery: Ltc Clarence H. Corning
  • 2nd Pennsylvania Provisional Heavy Artillery: Col Thomas Wilhelm

 

Army of the Potomac

MG George Meade

Headquarters units

Provost Guard
BG Marsena R. Patrick

  • 1st Massachusetts Cavalry, Companies C and D: Cpt Edward A. Flint
  • 80th New York Infantry (20th Militia): Col Theodore B. Gates
  • 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry: Maj James W. Walsh
  • 68th Pennsylvania Infantry: Ltc Robert E. Winslow
  • 114th Pennsylvania Infantry: Col Charles H. T. Collis

Volunteer Engineer Brigade
BG Henry W. Benham

  • 15th New York Engineers: Maj William A. Ketchum
  • 50th New York Engineers: Ltc Ira Spaulding
  • U.S. Engineer Battalion: Cpt George H. Mendell

Guards and Orderlies

  • Independent Company Oneida (New York) Cavalry: Cpt Daniel P. Mann

Artillery
BG Henry J. Hunt

Division

Brigade

Regiments and Others

Artillery Reserve
     Col
Henry S. Burton

1st Brigade


   Col J. Howard Kitching

  • 6th New York Heavy: Ltc Edmund R. Travis
  • 15th New York Heavy: Col Louis Schirmer

2nd Brigade


   Maj John A. Tompkins

  • 5th Battery (E), Maine Light: Cpt Greenleaf T. Stevens
  • Battery A, 1st New Jersey Light: Cpt William Hexamer
  • Battery B, 1st New Jersey Light: Cpt A. Judson Clark
  • 5th Battery, New York Light: Cpt Elijah D. Taft
  • 12th Battery, New York Light: Cpt George F. McKnight
  • Battery B, 1st New York Light: Cpt Albert S. Sheldon

3rd Brigade


   Maj Robert H. Fitzhugh

  • 9th Battery, Massachusetts Light: Cpt John Bigelow
  • 15th Battery, New York Light: Cpt Patrick Hart
  • Battery C, 1st New York Light: Lt William H. Phillips
  • 11th Battery, New York Light: Cpt John E. Burton
  • Battery H, 1st Ohio Light: Lt William A. Ewing
  • Battery E, 5th United States: Lt John R. Brinckle

II Corps

MG Winfield S. Hancock

Escort

  • 1st Vermont Cavalry, Company M: Cpt John H. Hazelton

Division

Brigade

Regiments and Others

First Division
     BG Francis C. Barlow

1st Brigade


   Col Nelson A. Miles

  • 26th Michigan: Maj Lemuel Saviers
  • 61st New York: Ltc K. Oscar Broady
  • 81st Pennsylvania: Col H. Boyd McKeen
  • 140th Pennsylvania: Col John Fraser
  • 183rd Pennsylvania: Col George P. McLean

2nd Brigade (Irish Brigade)


   Col Thomas Alfred Smyth

  • 28th Massachusetts: Ltc George W. Cartwright
  • 63rd New York: Maj Thomas Touhy
  • 69th New York: Cpt Richard Moroney
  • 88th New York: Cpt Denis F. Burke
  • 116th Pennsylvania: Ltc Richard C. Dale

3rd Brigade


   Col Paul Frank

  • 39th New York: Col Augustus Funk
  • 52nd New York: Maj Henry M. Karples
  • 57th New York: Ltc Alford B. Chapman
  • 111th New York: Cpt Aaron P. Seeley
  • 125th New York: Ltc Aaron B. Myer
  • 126th New York: Cpt Winfield Scott

4th Brigade


   Col John R. Brooke

  • 2nd Delaware: Col William P. Baily
  • 64th New York: Maj Leman W. Bradley
  • 66th New York: Ltc John S. Haremell
  • 53rd Pennsylvania: Ltc Richards McMichael
  • 145th Pennsylvania: Col Hiram L. Brown
  • 148th Pennsylvania: Col James A. Beaver

Second Division
     BG John Gibbon
Provost Guard

  • 2nd Company Minnesota Sharpshooters: Cpt Mahlon Black

1st Brigade


   BG Alexander S. Webb

  • 19th Maine: Col Selden Connor
  • 1st Company Andrew (Massachusetts) Sharpshooters: Lt Samuel G. Gilbreth
  • 15th Massachusetts: Maj I. Harris Hooper
  • 19th Massachusetts: Maj Edmund Rice
  • 20th Massachusetts: Maj Henry L. Abbott
  • 7th Michigan: Maj Sylvanus W. Curtis
  • 42nd New York: Maj Patrick J. Downing
  • 59th New York: Cpt William McFadden
  • 82nd New York: Col Henry W. Hudson

2nd Brigade (Philadelphia Brigade)


   BG Joshua T. Owen

  • 152nd New York: Ltc George W. Thompson
  • 69th Pennsylvania: Maj William Davis
  • 71st Pennsylvania: Ltc Charles Kochersperger
  • 72nd Pennsylvania: Col De Witt C. Baxter
  • 106th Pennsylvania: Cpt Robert H. Ford

3rd Brigade


   Col Samuel S. Carroll

  • 14th Connecticut: Col Theodore G. Ellis
  • 1st Delaware: Ltc Daniel Woodall
  • 14th Indiana: Col John Coons
  • 12th New Jersey: Ltc Thomas H. Davis
  • 10th New York Battalion: Cpt George M. Dewey
  • 108th New York: Col Charles J. Powers
  • 4th Ohio: Ltc Leonard W. Carpenter
  • 8th Ohio: Ltc Franklin Sawyer
  • 7th West Virginia: Ltc Jonathan H. Lockwood

Third Division
     MG David B. Birney

1st Brigade


   BG J. H. Hobart Ward

  • 20th Indiana: Col William C. L. Taylor
  • 3rd Maine: Col Moses B. Lakeman
  • 40th New York: Col Thomas W. Egan
  • 86th New York: Ltc Jacob H. Lansing
  • 124th New York: Col Francis M. Cummins
  • 99th Pennsylvania: Ltc Edwin R. Biles
  • 110th Pennsylvania: Ltc Isaac Rogers
  • 141st Pennsylvania: Ltc Guy H. Watkins
  • 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters: Lc Homer R. Stoughton

2nd Brigade


   BG Alexander Hays (k)

  • 4th Maine: Col Elijah Walker
  • 17th Maine: Col George W. West
  • 3rd Michigan: Col Byron R. Pierce
  • 5th Michigan: Ltc John Pulford
  • 93rd New York: Maj Samuel McConihe
  • 57th Pennsylvania: Col Peter Sides
  • 63rd Pennsylvania: Ltc John A. Danks
  • 105th Pennsylvania: Col Calvin A. Craig
  • 1st U.S. Sharpshooters: Maj Charles P. Mattocks

Fourth Division
     BG Gershom Mott

1st Brigade


   Col Robert McAllister

  • 1st Massachusetts: Col Napoleon B. McLaughlen
  • 16th Massachusetts: Ltc Waldo Merriam
  • 5th New Jersey: Col William J. Sewell
  • 6th New Jersey: Ltc Stephen R. Gilkyson
  • 7th New Jersey: Maj Frederick Cooper
  • 8th New Jersey: Col John Ramsey
  • 11th New Jersey: Ltc John Schoonover
  • 26th Pennsylvania: Maj Samuel G. Moffett
  • 115th Pennsylvania: Maj William A. Reilly

2nd Brigade


   Col William R. Brewster

  • 11th Massachusetts: Col William Blaisdell
  • 70th New York: Cpt William H. Hugo
  • 71st New York: Ltc Thomas Rafferty
  • 72nd New York: Ltc John Leonard
  • 73rd New York: Ltc Michael W. Burns
  • 74th New York: Col Thomas Holt
  • 120th New York: Cpt Abram L. Lockwood
  • 84th Pennsylvania: Ltc Milton Opp

Artillery Brigade


   Col John C. Tidball

  • 6th Battery (F), Maine Light: Cpt Edwin B. Dow
  • 10th Battery, Massachusetts Light: Cpt J. Henry Sleeper
  • 1st Battery, New Hampshire Light: Cpt Frederick M. Edgell
  • Battery G, 1st New York Light: Cpt Nelson Ames
  • 3d Battalion, 4th New York Heavy: Ltc Thomas Allcock
  • Battery F, 1st Pennsylvania Light: Cpt R. Bruce Ricketts
  • Battery A, 1st Rhode Island Light: Cpt William A. Arnold
  • Battery B, 1st Rhode Island Light: Cpt T. Frederick Brown
  • Battery K, 4th United States: Lt John W. Roder
  • Batteries C and I, 5th United States; Lt James Gilliss

 

V Corps

MG Gouverneur K. Warren
Provost Guard

  • l2th New York Battalion: Maj Henry W. Rider

Division

Brigade

Regiments and Others

First Division
     BG Charles Griffin

1st Brigade


   BG Romeyn B. Ayres

  • 140th New York: Col George Ryan
  • 146th New York: Col David T. Jenkins
  • 91st Pennsylvania: Ltc Joseph H. Sinex
  • 155th Pennsylvania: Ltc Alfred L. Pearson
  • 2nd United States, Companies B, C, F, H, I, and K: Cpt James W. Long
  • 11th United States, Companies B, C, D, E, F, and G, First Battalion: Cpt Francis M. Cooley
  • 12th United States, Companies A, B, C, D, and G, 1st Battalion, and Companies A, C, D, F, and H, 2nd Battalion: Maj Luther B. Bruen
  • 14th United States, 1st Battalion: Cpt Edward McK. Hudson
  • 17th United States, Companies A, C, D, G, and H, 1st Battalion, and Companies A, B, and C, 2nd Battalion: Cpt James F. Grimes

2nd Brigade


   Col Jacob B. Sweitzer

  • 9th Massachusetts: Col Patrick Robert Guiney
  • 22nd Massachusetts: Col William S. Tilton
  • 32nd Massachusetts: Col George L. Prescott
  • 4th Michigan: Ltc George W. Lurebard
  • 62nd Pennsylvania: Ltc James C. Hull

3rd Brigade


   BG Joseph J. Bartlett

  • 20th Maine: Maj Ellis Spear
  • 18th Massachusetts: Col Joseph Hayes
  • 1st Michigan: Ltc William A.Throop
  • 16th Michigan: Maj Robert T. Elliott
  • 44th New York: Ltc Freeman Conner
  • 83rd Pennsylvania: Col Orpheus S. Woodward
  • 118th Pennsylvania: Col James Gwyn

Second Division
     BG John C. Robinson

1st Brigade


   Col Samuel H. Leonard

  • 16th Maine: Col Charles W. Tilden
  • 13th Massachusetts: Cpt Charles H. Hovey
  • 89th Massachusetts: Col Phineas S. Davis
  • 104th New York: Col Gilbert G. Prey

2nd Brigade


   BG Henry Baxter

  • 12th Massachusetts: Col James L. Bates
  • 83rd New York: Col Joseph A. Moesch
  • 97th New York: Col Charles Wheelock
  • 11th Pennsylvania: Col Richard Coulter
  • 88th Pennsylvania: Cpt George B. Rhoads
  • 90th Pennsylvania: Col Peter Lyle

3rd Brigade


   Col Andrew W. Denison

  • 1st Maryland: Maj Benjamin H. Schley
  • 4th Maryland: Col Richard N. Bowerman
  • 7th Maryland: Col Charles E. Phelps
  • 8th Maryland: Ltc John G. Johannes

Third Division
     BG Samuel W. Crawford

1st Brigade


   Col William McCandless

  • 1st Pennsylvania Reserves: Col William C. Talley
  • 2nd Pennsylvania Reserves: Ltc Patrick McDonough
  • 6th Pennsylvania Reserves: Col Wellington H. Ent
  • 7th Pennsylvania Reserves: Maj LeGrand B. Speece
  • 11th Pennsylvania Reserves: Col Samuel M. Jackson
  • 13th Pennsylvania Reserves (1st Rifles): Maj William R. Hartshorne

3rd Brigade


   Col Joseph W. Fisher

  • 5th Pennsylvania Reserves: Ltc George Dare
  • 8th Pennsylvania Reserves: Col Silas M. Baily
  • 10th Pennsylvania Reserves: Ltc Ira Ayer, Jr.
  • 12th Pennsylvania Reserves: Ltc Richard Gustin

Fourth Division
     BG James S. Wadsworth

1st Brigade


   BG Lysander Cutler

  • 7th Indiana: Col Ira G. Grover
  • 19th Indiana: Col Samuel J. Williams
  • 24th Michigan: Col Henry A. Morrow
  • 1st New York Battalion Sharpshooters: Cpt Volney J. Shipman
  • 2nd Wisconsin: Ltc John Mansfield
  • 6th Wisconsin: Col Edward S. Bragg
  • 7th Wisconsin: Col William W. Robinson

2nd Brigade


   BG James C. Rice

  • 76th New York: Ltc John E. Cook
  • 84th New York: Col Edward B. Fowler
  • 95th New York: Col Edward Pye
  • 147th New York: Col Francis C. Miller
  • 56th Pennsylvania: Col J. William Hofmann

3rd Brigade


   Col Roy Stone

  • 121st Pennsylvania: Cpt Samuel T. Lloyd
  • 142nd Pennsy1vania: Maj Horatio N. Warren
  • 143rd Pennsy1vania: Col Edmund L. Dana
  • 149th Pennsy1vania: Ltc John Irvin
  • 150th Pennsylvania: Cpt George W. Jones

Artillery Brigade


   Col Charles S. Wainwright

  • Battery C, Massachusetts Light: Cpt Augustus P. Martin
  • Battery E, Massachusetts Light: Cpt Charles A. Phillips
  • Battery D, 1st New York Light: Cpt George B. Winslow
  • Batteries E and L, 1st New York Light: Lt George Breck
  • Battery H, 1st New York Light: Cpt Charles E. Mink
  • 2nd Battalion, 4th New York Heavy: Maj William Arthur
  • Battery B, 1st Pennsylvania Light: Cpt James H. Cooper
  • Battery B, 4th United States: Lt James Stewart
  • Battery D, 5th United States: Lt Benjamin F. Rittenhouse

 

VI Corps

MG John Sedgwick

Escort

  • 8th Pennsylvania Cavalry, Company A: Cpt Charles E. Fellows

Division

Brigade

Regiments and Others

First Division
     BG Horatio Wright

1st Brigade (First New Jersey Brigade)


   Col Henry W. Brown

  • 1st New Jersey: Ltc William Henry, Jr.
  • 2nd New Jersey: Ltc Charles Wiebecke
  • 3rd New Jersey: Cpt Samuel T. DuBois
  • 4th New Jersey: Ltc Charles Ewing
  • 10th New Jersey: Col Henry O. Ryerson
  • 15th New Jersey: Col William H. Penrose

2nd Brigade


   Col Emory Upton

  • 5th Maine: Col Clark S. Edwards
  • 121st New York: Ltc Egbert Olcott
  • 95th Pennsylvania: Ltc Edward Carroll
  • 96th Pennsylvania: Ltc William H. Lessig

2nd Brigade


   BG David Allen Russell

  • 6th Maine: Maj George Fuller
  • 49th Pennsylvania: Col Thomas Hulings
  • 119th Pennsylvania: Maj Henry P. Truefitt, Jr.
  • 5th Wisconsin: Ltc Theodore B. Catlin

4th Brigade


   BG Alexander Shaler

  • 65th New York: Col Joseph E. Hamblin
  • 67th New York: Col Nelson Cross
  • 122nd New York: Ltc Augustus W. Dwight
  • 82nd Pennsylvania (detachment)

Second Division
     BG George W. Getty

1st Brigade


   BG Frank Wheaton

  • 62nd New York: Col David J. Nevin
  • 93rd Pennsylvania: Ltc John S. Long
  • 98th Pennsylvania: Col John F. Ballier
  • 102nd Pennsylvania: Col John W. Patterson
  • 139th Pennsylvania: Ltc William H. Moody

2nd Brigade (1st Vermont Brigade)


   Col Lewis A. Grant

  • 2nd Vermont: Col Newton Stone
  • 3rd Vermont: Col Thomas O. Seaver
  • 4th Vermont: Col George P. Foster
  • 5th Vermont: Ltc John R. Lewis
  • 6th Vermont: Col Elisha L. Barney

3rd Brigade


   BG Thomas H. Neill

  • 7th Maine: Col Edwin C. Mason
  • 43rd New York: Ltc John Wilson
  • 49th New York: Col Daniel D. Bidwell
  • 77th New York: Maj Nathan S. Babcock
  • 61st Pennsylvania: Col George F. Smith

4th Brigade


   BG Henry L. Eustis

  • 7th Massachusetts: Col Thomas D. Johns
  • 10th Massachusetts: Ltc Joseph B. Parsons
  • 37th Massachusetts: Col Oliver Edwards
  • 2nd Rhode Island: Ltc Samuel B. M. Read

Third Division
     BG James B. Ricketts

1st Brigade


   BG William H. Morris

  • 14th New Jersey: Ltc Caldwell K. Hall
  • 106th New York: Ltc Charles Townsend
  • 151st New York: Ltc Thomas M. Fay
  • 87th Pennsylvania: Col John W. Schall
  • 10th Vermont: Ltc William W. Henry

2nd Brigade


   BG Truman Seymour

  • 6th Maryland: Col John W. Horn
  • 110th Ohio: Col J. Warren Keifer
  • 122nd Ohio: Col William H. Ball
  • 126th Ohio: Col Benjamin F. Smith
  • 67th Pennsylvania (detachment): Cpt George W. Guss
  • 138th Pennsylvania: Col Matthew R. McClennan

Artillery Brigade


   Col Charles H. Tompkins

  • 4th Battery (D), Maine Light: Lt Melville C. Kimball
  • 1st Battery (A), Massachusetts Light: Cpt William H. McCartney
  • 1st Battery, New York Light: Cpt Andrew Cowan
  • 3rd Battery, New York Light: Cpt William A. Harn
  • 1st Battalion, 4th New York Heavy: Maj Thomas D. Sears
  • Battery C, 1st Rhode Island Light: Cpt Richard Waterman
  • Battery E, 1st Rhode Island Light: Cpt William B. Rhodes
  • Battery G, 1st Rhode Island Light: Cpt George W. Adams
  • Battery M, 5th United States: Cpt James McKnight

 

Cavalry Corps

MG Philip Sheridan

Escort

  • 6th United States: Cpt Ira W. Claflin

Division

Brigade

Regiments and Others

First Division
     BG Alfred T. A. Torbert

1st Brigade (Michigan Brigade)


   BG George A. Custer

  • 1st Michigan: Ltc Peter Stagg
  • 5th Michigan: Col Russell A. Alger
  • 6th Michigan: Maj James H. Kidd
  • 7th Michigan: Maj Henry W. Granger

2nd Brigade


   Col Thomas Devin

  • 4th New York: Ltc William R. Parnell
  • 6th New York: Ltc William H. Crocker
  • 9th New York: Col William Sackett
  • 17th Pennsylvania: Ltc James Q. Anderson

Reserve Brigade


   BG Wesley Merritt

  • 19th New York (1st Dragoons): Col Alfred Gibbs
  • 6th Pennsylvania: Maj James Starr
  • 1st United States: Cpt Nelson B. Sweitzer
  • 2nd United States: Cpt Theophilus F. Rodenbough
  • 5th United States: Cpt Abraham K. Arnold

Second Division
   BG David McM. Gregg

1st Brigade


   BG Henry E. Davies, Jr.

  • 1st Massachusetts: Maj Lucius M. Sargent
  • 1st New Jersey: Ltc John W. Kester
  • 6th Ohio: Col William Stedman
  • 1st Pennsylvania: Col John P. Taylor

2nd Brigade


   Col John Irvin Gregg

  • 1st Maine: Col Charles H. Smith
  • 10th New York: Maj M. Henry Avery
  • 2nd Pennsylvania: Ltc Joseph P. Brinton
  • 4th Pennsylvania: Ltc George H. Covode
  • 8th Pennsylvania: Ltc Samuel Wilson
  • 16th Pennsylvania: Ltc John K. Robison

Third Division
     BG James H. Wilson
Escort

  • 8th Illinois (detachment): Lt William W. Long

1st Brigade


   Col Timothy M. Bryan, Jr.
   Col John Baillie McIntosh

  • 1st Connecticut: Maj Erastus Blakeslee
  • 2nd New York: Col Otto Harhaus
  • 5th New York: Ltc John Hammond
  • 18th Pennsylvania: Ltc William P. Brinton

2nd Brigade


   Col George H. Chapman

  • 3rd Indiana: Maj William Patton
  • 8th New York: Ltc William H. Benjamin
  • 1st Vermont: Ltc Addison W. Preston

Horse Artillery

1st Brigade


Cpt James M. Robertson

  • 6th Battery, New York Light: Cpt Joseph W. Martin
  • Batteries B and L, 2nd United States: Lt Edward Heaton
  • Battery D, 2nd United States: Lt Edward B. Williston
  • Battery M, 2nd United States: Lt Alexander C. M. Pennington, Jr.
  • Battery A, 4th United States: Lt Rufus King, Jr.
  • Batteries C and E, 4th United States: Lt Charles L. Fitzhugh

2nd Brigade


   Cpt Dunbar R. Ransom

  • Batteries E and G, 1st United States: Lt Frank S. French
  • Batteries H and I, 1st United States: Cpt Alanson M. Randol
  • Battery K, 1st United States: Lt John Egan
  • Battery A, 2nd United States: Lt Robert Clarke
  • Battery G, 2nd United States: Lt William N. Dennison
  • Batteries C, F, and K, 3rd United States: Lt James R. Kelly

* The Army of the Potomac and the IX Corps were treated as separate commands at the start of the Overland Campaign. This was done since Burnside was senior in rank to Meade and would therefore assume command of the army if the IX Corps was assigned to it. Grant wished to retain Meade in command of the army, so he had both men report directly to himself. This created troubles in coordinating attacks and movements between the two commands, so on May 24, 1864, Burnside agreed to be placed under the command of Meade.

Key
 
Military Rank
Gen = General
LTG = Lieutenant General
MG = Major General
BG = Brigadier General
Col = Colonel
Ltc = Lieutenant Colonel
Maj = Major
Cpt = Captain
Lt = Lieutenant
 
Other
w = wounded
mw = mortally wounded
k = killed
c = capture

References: Rhea, Gordon C. The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern May 7-12, 1864. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1997; ----- To The North Anna River: Grant and Lee May 13-25, 1864. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2000; Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies.

Recommended Reading: Battle in the Wilderness: Grant Meets Lee (Civil War Campaigns and Commanders), by Grady McWhiney. Description: Designed for those beginning to cultivate an interest in the Civil War, enthusiasts and scholars alike will soon discover the treasure of information contained within the pages of these books. Photographs, biographical sketches and detailed maps are used to illustrate the events of the unfolding drama as each author remains sharply focused on the particular story at hand. Separate and complete, each book conveys the agony, glory, death and wreckage of America's greatest tragedy.

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Recommended Reading: The Battle Of The Wilderness, May 5-6, 1864, by Gordon C. Rhea. From Publishers Weekly: Rhea, a Virginia attorney, offers what will likely become the definitive account of one of the Civil War's most confusing engagements: the Battle of the Wilderness, the first encounter between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, fought in Virginia. The author's reconstruction of the fighting highlights the difficulties of controlling troops once they had been committed to action. Grant's original plan was to maneuver Lee out of his defensive position along the Rapidan River, then crush his troops with superior numbers. Instead, Rhea notes, the Wilderness became a "soldiers' battle," with raw courage compensating for inadequate generalship on both sides. Continued below…

Grant relied too heavily on the Army of the Potomac's commander, George Gordon Meade, who failed to coordinate the movements of subordinates disoriented by the broken ground they fought over. Rhea also criticizes Lee for consistently taking the offensive with an army that could not afford the major losses it sustained in attacking. History Book Club main selection.

 
Recommended Reading: Commanding the Army of the Potomac (Modern War Studies) (Hardcover). Description: During the Civil War, thirty-six officers in the Army of the Potomac were assigned corps commands of up to 30,000 men. Collectively charged with leading the Union's most significant field army, these leaders proved their courage in countless battlefields from Gettysburg to Antietam to Cold Harbor. Unfortunately, courage alone was not enough. Their often dismal performances played a major role in producing this army's tragic record, one that included more defeats than victories despite its numerical and materiel superiority. Stephen Taaffe takes a close look at this command cadre, examining who was appointed to these positions, why they were appointed, and why so many of them ultimately failed to fulfill their responsibilities. He demonstrates that ambitious officers such as Gouverneur Warren, John Reynolds, and Winfield Scott Hancock employed all the weapons at their disposal, from personal connections to exaggerated accounts of prowess in combat, to claw their way into these important posts. Continued below...

Once appointed, however, Taaffe reveals that many of these officers failed to navigate the tricky and ever-changing political currents that swirled around the Army of the Potomac. As a result, only three of them managed to retain their commands for more than a year, and their machinations caused considerable turmoil in the army's high command structure. Taaffe also shows that their ability or inability to get along with generals such as George McClellan, Ambrose Burnside, Joseph Hooker, George Meade, and Ulysses Grant played a big role in their professional destinies. In analyzing the Army of the Potomac's corps commanders as a group, Taaffe provides a new way of detailing this army's chronic difficulties-one that, until now, has been largely neglected in the literature of the Civil War.

 

Recommended Reading: Trench Warfare under Grant and Lee: Field Fortifications in the Overland Campaign (Civil War America) (Hardcover). Description: In the study of field fortifications in the Civil War that began with Field Armies and Fortifications in the Civil War, Hess turns to the 1864 Overland campaign to cover battles from the Wilderness to Cold Harbor. Drawing on meticulous research in primary sources and careful examination of trench remnants at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna, Cold Harbor, and Bermuda Hundred, Hess describes Union and Confederate earthworks and how Grant and Lee used them in this new era of field entrenchments.

 

Recommended Reading: In the Footsteps of Grant and Lee: The Wilderness Through Cold Harbor (Hardcover), by Gordon C. Rhea (Author), Chris E. Heisey (Photographer). Description: In early May 1864, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant initiated a drive through central Virginia to crush Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. For forty days, the armies fought a grinding campaign from the Rapidan River to the James River that helped decide the course of the Civil War. Several of the war's bloodiest engagements occurred in this brief period: the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, the North Anna River, Totopotomoy Creek, Bethesda Church, and Cold Harbor. Pitting Grant and Lee against one another for the first time in the war, the Overland Campaign, as this series of battles and maneuvers came to be called, represents military history at its most intense. In the Footsteps of Grant and Lee, a unique blend of narrative and photographic journalism from Gordon C. Rhea, the foremost authority on the Overland Campaign, and Chris E. Heisey, a leading photographer of Civil War battlefields, provides a stunning, stirring account of this deadly game of wits and will between the Civil War's foremost military commanders. Continued below…

Here, Grant fought and maneuvered to flank Lee out of his heavily fortified earthworks. And Lee demonstrated his genius as a defensive commander, countering Grant's every move. Adding to the melee were cavalry brawls among the likes of Philip H. Sheridan, George A. Custer, James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart, and Wade Hampton. Forty days of combat produced horrific casualties, some 55,000 on the Union side and 35,000 on the Confederate. By the time Grant crossed the James and began the Siege of Petersburg, marking an end to this maneuver, both armies had sustained significant losses that dramatically reduced their numbers. Rhea provides a rich, fast-paced narrative, movingly illustrated by more than sixty powerful color images from Heisey, who captures the many moods of these hallowed battlegrounds as they appear today. Heisey made scores of visits to the areas where Grant and Lee clashed, giving special attention to lesser-known sites on byways and private property. He captures some of central Virginia's most stunning landscapes, reminding us that though battlefields conjure visions of violence, death, and sorrow, they can also be places of beauty and contemplation. Accompanying the modern pictures are more than twenty contemporary photographs taken during the campaign or shortly afterwards, some of them never before published. At once an engaging military history and a vivid pictorial journey, In the Footsteps of Grant and Lee offers a fresh vision of some of the country's most significant historic sites. Includes 61 color illustrations and 15 maps.

 

Recommended Reading: Bloody Roads South: The Wilderness to Cold Harbor, May-June 1864, by Noah Andre Trudeau. From Publishers Weekly: Ulysses Grant's relentless hammering tactics prevented Robert E. Lee from regaining the strategic initiative in 1864, although the Southern general's defensive operations during May-June of that year are regarded by many as his greatest military accomplishment. It was during this campaign that Grant came to be called "The Butcher" because of the horrendous casualties he was willing to accept as he ordered assault after assault. Continued below…

He did not retreat after suffering tactical defeats in the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Courthouse and Cold Harbor, but continued to push his troops ever closer to the rebel capital of Richmond. Not a formal campaign study, this is a dramatic account told through the eyes of soldiers, civilians and government leaders. One of the elements that historian Trudeau dramatizes is the shifting emotional reaction of President Lincoln as he worried whether Grant would prove as faint-hearted as other generals who had faced Lee in the field. When word was brought from Grant that "There is no turning back," the president literally kissed the messenger, for this was probably the most important of several historic turning-points in the four-year Civil War. Includes numerous illustrations.

 

Recommended Reading: The Wilderness Campaign (Military Campaigns of the Civil War), Gary W. Gallagher (ed.). Description: In the spring of 1864, in the vast Virginia scrub forest known as the Wilderness, Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee first met in battle. The Wilderness campaign of May 5-6 initiated an epic confrontation between these two Civil War commanders—one that would finally end, eleven months later, with Lee's surrender at Appomattox. Continued below…

The eight essays here assembled explore aspects of the background, conduct, and repercussions of the fighting in the Wilderness. Through an often-revisionist lens, contributors to this volume focus on topics such as civilian expectations for the campaign, morale in the two armies, and the generalship of Lee, Grant, Philip H. Sheridan, Richard S. Ewell, A. P. Hill, James Longstreet, and Lewis Armistead. Taken together, these essays revise and enhance existing work on the battle, highlighting ways in which the military and nonmilitary spheres of war intersected in the Wilderness.

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