Sometime in March, 1864, Major-General Ulysses S. Grant was appointed Lieutenant-General and assumed command of the armies of the United States. In April he made his headquarters at Culpepper Court-House, and took personal command of the army of the Potomac. During the months of March and April re-enforcements were gathered from the four quarters of the globe and sent to this army.
On the 1st day of May, the official return of the Army of the Potomac showed, present for duty, one hundred and forty-one thousand one hundred and sixty men, of all arms. General Lee had, in round numbers, sixty-four thousand men.
I give the relative strength of the two armies, in order that the reader may have a proper appreciation of the difficulties which beset our army in thwarting the designs of our wily adversary, in the campaign we were now just entering. That the brilliant genius of our immortal Lee, made amends for paucity in numbers, and proved more than a match for brutal force, the bloody field extending from the Wilderness to the James River will attest.
On the 3d of May, our army held the south bank of the Rapidan River. Its right rested near the mouth of Mine Run; its left extended as far as Liberty Mills, on the road to Gordonsville. Grant, with his main body encamped in Culpepper County, occupied the north hank of the Rapidan. On the 4th of May, Grant crossed his forces to the south side, and began his advance into the "Wilderness."
Running eastwardly to Fredericksburg, from Orange Court-House, are two parallel roads; the one nearest the river is called the "Stone Turnpike," and the other the "Plank-Road."
As soon as Grant's movements were known, our army was put in motion. On the morning of the 4th, our division (Heth's) and Wilcox's, of A. P. Hill's corps, moved eastwardly along the "Plank-Road." Simultaneously Ewell's corps moved on the stone turnpike. That night we bivouacked at Verdiersville, near where we fought the battle of Mine Run.
The "Wilderness" is an almost impenetrable thicket of undergrowth; and our sagacious Lee resolved to fight Grant in these pathless woods, where their artillery would be least available, and where their massive columns would be most embarrassed in their movements.