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Military Campaigns of the Civil War
The Wilderness Campaign
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.
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 A. Grant. 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.
The contributors:
--Peter S. Carmichael, 'Escaping the Shadow of Gettysburg: Richard S. Ewell and Ambrose Powell Hill at the Wilderness' --Gary W. Gallagher, 'Our Hearts Are Full of Hope: The Army of Northern Virginia in the Spring of 1864' --John J. Hennessy, 'I Dread the Spring: The Army of the Potomac Prepares for the Overland Campaign' --Robert E. L. Krick, 'Like a Duck on a June Bug: James Longstreet's Flank Attack, May 6, 1864' --Robert K. Krick, ''Lee to the Rear,' the Texans Cried' --Carol Reardon, 'The Other Grant: Lewis A. Grant and the Vermont Brigade in the Battle of the Wilderness' --Gordon C. Rhea, 'Union Cavalry in the Wilderness: The Education of Philip H. Sheridan and James H. Wilson' --Brooks D. Simpson, 'Great Expectations: Ulysses S. Grant, the Northern Press, and the Opening of the Wilderness Campaign'
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 A. Grant. 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.
The contributors:
--Peter S. Carmichael, 'Escaping the Shadow of Gettysburg: Richard S. Ewell and Ambrose Powell Hill at the Wilderness' --Gary W. Gallagher, 'Our Hearts Are Full of Hope: The Army of Northern Virginia in the Spring of 1864' --John J. Hennessy, 'I Dread the Spring: The Army of the Potomac Prepares for the Overland Campaign' --Robert E. L. Krick, 'Like a Duck on a June Bug: James Longstreet's Flank Attack, May 6, 1864' --Robert K. Krick, ''Lee to the Rear,' the Texans Cried' --Carol Reardon, 'The Other Grant: Lewis A. Grant and the Vermont Brigade in the Battle of the Wilderness' --Gordon C. Rhea, 'Union Cavalry in the Wilderness: The Education of Philip H. Sheridan and James H. Wilson' --Brooks D. Simpson, 'Great Expectations: Ulysses S. Grant, the Northern Press, and the Opening of the Wilderness Campaign'
301 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 26, 1997
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About the author
Gary W. Gallagher
108 books98 followersGary W. Gallagher, the John L. Nau III Professor of History at the University of Virginia, is the author or editor of many books in the field of Civil War history, including The Confederate War; Causes Won, Lost, and Forgotten: How Hollywood and Popular Art Shape What We Know about the Civil War; and The Union War.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 22, 2022
It was nice to read a book from what might have been the golden age of Civil War military scholarship. In this period, old orthodoxies were being questioned but the new regime was not yet in place. As such, the opinions here are generally more nuanced and balanced than what one gets in 2022.
May 26, 2025
This review was originally published on my website at: https://www.stuartellisgorman.com/blo...
As I child I spent many days in The Wilderness. My father was something of a Civil War buff and on the weekends he would, in moments of desperation, put my brothers and I in the car and drive us to a nearby battlefield where we could run around to our heart’s content. As a result, I have visited the battlefields of central Virginia countless times. The Wilderness was always my favorite. I could say it was because of some enduring fascination with those violent days in May 1864, but in reality, that came later. The Wilderness is fundamentally just a dense forest, and as a kid who liked being outside in the woods that made it infinitely more appealing than an open field.
For all the time I’ve spent wandering those woods (most recently in 2023 with my daughter, because these traditions must be passed down), my knowledge of the battle was pretty limited. On my last trip I decided to correct this by grabbing a book on The Wilderness from the Chancellorsville visitor’s center (there isn’t a dedicated center for The Wilderness, but Chancellorsville is spitting distance). That book was The Wilderness Campaign, a collection of chapters edited by the eminent Civil War scholar Gary W. Gallagher, whose edited volume on the Lost Cause I really enjoyed.
Edited volumes can be a bit of a gamble, at least when it comes to learning about a new subject. I have read, and enjoyed, many edited volumes that while they contained interesting chapters the overall work failed to cohere together enough for me to consider it a good book on its stated subject. In these cases, the individual articles provide great insight into aspects of the subject, but there is no connective tissue, and certain concepts may be overlooked. Those books can still be excellent, but they are a supplement to other reading, not an introduction for a relative neophyte.
What I prefer, though, are books that manage to focus on individual aspects of their subject in each chapter, but the chapters as a whole have been carefully selected to create a coherent work. The Wilderness Campaign is an excellent example of this latter type. The first three chapters discuss the lead up to the Overland Campaign through discussion of Grant’s relationship with the press, and the expectations that were set for his coming East, a reexamination of the morale of the Army of Northern Virginia in early 1864, and a thorough analysis of the how the Army of the Potomac was reorganized to prepare for the coming campaign. The battle itself is told almost vignette style thanks to chapters on the poor performance of the new Union cavalry officers (most notably Sheridan) taking command in the Army of the Potomac, the performance of the Confederate generals Ewell and A.P. Hill’s in the battle, a narrative discussion of the actions of the Texas brigades and their “Lee to the Rear” incident, the hard fighting of the Vermont brigade, and finally the dramatic Confederate flank attack that ended in General Longstreet’s serious wounding. Together these chapters create a larger picture of the battle as a whole.
While not necessarily as comprehensive as Rhea’s hefty volume on the battle, which I will have to tackle soon I expect, The Wilderness Campaign does some deep digging, and I think encourages lively reconsideration of long held truths about the war in 1864. I don’t want to drone on about each individual chapter, but here are a few I had some thoughts on.
Brooks D. Simpson’s chapter on Grant and the northern press was a thoroughly satisfying deep dive into a subject that is often mentioned but only briefly in other works. The role of the press and public opinion in influencing military policy cannot be ignored, but most general histories of the Civil War don’t have space to really dig into it so it was great to read a deeper exploration of its impact on this campaign. It is particularly relevant to the beginnings of the Overland campaign as Grant came east with such high expectations but knew that the summer ahead would be a brutal slog, not a quick victory. I will also confess that it had not occurred to me just how much of an influence Napoleonic era warfare had on public perception of the Civil War, as writers and their audience were both constantly looking for an American Waterloo.
I’m partial to any dedicated re-examination of a long-held historical truth, so of course I devoured Peter S. Carmichael’s chapter on Ewell and Hill and their performance at The Wilderness. These two generals have never had a particularly sterling reputation, and Carmichael is not determined to redeem them in general. Rather, Carmichael sets out a strong argument that their specific performance at The Wilderness was not so poor as is often held and that historians have too often relied on the memoirs of their subordinates, who were incredibly hostile to both generals. Carmichael shifts much of the blame for Ewell and Hill’s failures at The Wilderness back up the chain to Lee – a figure that postwar historiography was determined to absolve of all mistakes – and points to effective command in the moment by both generals in less-than-ideal circumstances. I found this a compelling argument that added a lot of nuances to a narrative that often tends towards simplicity.
Perhaps the only (minor) disappointment for me in The Wilderness Campaign was Robert K. Krick’s chapter on the “Lee to the Rear” incident. While by no means a bad chapter, it is a detailed exploration of the events around the Widow Tapp’s farm on May 6, I felt like it lacked the kind of strong thesis and arguments that made the other chapters shine. It is perfectly good narrative history, but I wanted slightly more. I would have loved a deeper discussion of how the “Lee to the Rear” incident became famous and what it meant to soldiers and veterans of the war. Instead, its importance is assumed, and the chapter digs deep into trying to assemble the timeline of what happened rather than what it means. I will admit that this is partly down to personal preference, but this chapter just didn’t impress me to the same degree as others in the book.
The final two chapters provide excellent insight into the brutality of the fighting and the personal stories, particularly those of the Vermont brigade in the chapter on the “Other Grant”, while also not slouching on providing excellent analysis of what it all meant. The discussion of the Confederate flank attack on Hancock in the final chapter includes excellent analysis on the wider use of flank attacks by the Army of Northern Virginia and the interesting parallel between Jackson’s death in a dramatic flank attack at Chancellorsville and Longstreet’s severe wounding during a flank attack at The Wilderness, only a few miles to the west and almost exactly a year later. While these two chapters only tell a narrow section of the overall battle – the struggle between the two parts of the armies located further north is entirely absent from these chapters and discussed only briefly in earlier ones – together they still give valuable insight into what the battle was like for those who fought in it.
Overall, The Wilderness Campaign is an excellent read that packs a lot of history into fewer than 300 pages. It is eminently readable and requires only limited preexisting knowledge of the American Civil War but is still a great showcase for some of the excellent scholarship that has come to define writing on the subject over the past few decades. While now nearly thirty years old it never felt antiquated and to my mind at least it is still worthy of your attention and time.
As I child I spent many days in The Wilderness. My father was something of a Civil War buff and on the weekends he would, in moments of desperation, put my brothers and I in the car and drive us to a nearby battlefield where we could run around to our heart’s content. As a result, I have visited the battlefields of central Virginia countless times. The Wilderness was always my favorite. I could say it was because of some enduring fascination with those violent days in May 1864, but in reality, that came later. The Wilderness is fundamentally just a dense forest, and as a kid who liked being outside in the woods that made it infinitely more appealing than an open field.
For all the time I’ve spent wandering those woods (most recently in 2023 with my daughter, because these traditions must be passed down), my knowledge of the battle was pretty limited. On my last trip I decided to correct this by grabbing a book on The Wilderness from the Chancellorsville visitor’s center (there isn’t a dedicated center for The Wilderness, but Chancellorsville is spitting distance). That book was The Wilderness Campaign, a collection of chapters edited by the eminent Civil War scholar Gary W. Gallagher, whose edited volume on the Lost Cause I really enjoyed.
Edited volumes can be a bit of a gamble, at least when it comes to learning about a new subject. I have read, and enjoyed, many edited volumes that while they contained interesting chapters the overall work failed to cohere together enough for me to consider it a good book on its stated subject. In these cases, the individual articles provide great insight into aspects of the subject, but there is no connective tissue, and certain concepts may be overlooked. Those books can still be excellent, but they are a supplement to other reading, not an introduction for a relative neophyte.
What I prefer, though, are books that manage to focus on individual aspects of their subject in each chapter, but the chapters as a whole have been carefully selected to create a coherent work. The Wilderness Campaign is an excellent example of this latter type. The first three chapters discuss the lead up to the Overland Campaign through discussion of Grant’s relationship with the press, and the expectations that were set for his coming East, a reexamination of the morale of the Army of Northern Virginia in early 1864, and a thorough analysis of the how the Army of the Potomac was reorganized to prepare for the coming campaign. The battle itself is told almost vignette style thanks to chapters on the poor performance of the new Union cavalry officers (most notably Sheridan) taking command in the Army of the Potomac, the performance of the Confederate generals Ewell and A.P. Hill’s in the battle, a narrative discussion of the actions of the Texas brigades and their “Lee to the Rear” incident, the hard fighting of the Vermont brigade, and finally the dramatic Confederate flank attack that ended in General Longstreet’s serious wounding. Together these chapters create a larger picture of the battle as a whole.
While not necessarily as comprehensive as Rhea’s hefty volume on the battle, which I will have to tackle soon I expect, The Wilderness Campaign does some deep digging, and I think encourages lively reconsideration of long held truths about the war in 1864. I don’t want to drone on about each individual chapter, but here are a few I had some thoughts on.
Brooks D. Simpson’s chapter on Grant and the northern press was a thoroughly satisfying deep dive into a subject that is often mentioned but only briefly in other works. The role of the press and public opinion in influencing military policy cannot be ignored, but most general histories of the Civil War don’t have space to really dig into it so it was great to read a deeper exploration of its impact on this campaign. It is particularly relevant to the beginnings of the Overland campaign as Grant came east with such high expectations but knew that the summer ahead would be a brutal slog, not a quick victory. I will also confess that it had not occurred to me just how much of an influence Napoleonic era warfare had on public perception of the Civil War, as writers and their audience were both constantly looking for an American Waterloo.
I’m partial to any dedicated re-examination of a long-held historical truth, so of course I devoured Peter S. Carmichael’s chapter on Ewell and Hill and their performance at The Wilderness. These two generals have never had a particularly sterling reputation, and Carmichael is not determined to redeem them in general. Rather, Carmichael sets out a strong argument that their specific performance at The Wilderness was not so poor as is often held and that historians have too often relied on the memoirs of their subordinates, who were incredibly hostile to both generals. Carmichael shifts much of the blame for Ewell and Hill’s failures at The Wilderness back up the chain to Lee – a figure that postwar historiography was determined to absolve of all mistakes – and points to effective command in the moment by both generals in less-than-ideal circumstances. I found this a compelling argument that added a lot of nuances to a narrative that often tends towards simplicity.
Perhaps the only (minor) disappointment for me in The Wilderness Campaign was Robert K. Krick’s chapter on the “Lee to the Rear” incident. While by no means a bad chapter, it is a detailed exploration of the events around the Widow Tapp’s farm on May 6, I felt like it lacked the kind of strong thesis and arguments that made the other chapters shine. It is perfectly good narrative history, but I wanted slightly more. I would have loved a deeper discussion of how the “Lee to the Rear” incident became famous and what it meant to soldiers and veterans of the war. Instead, its importance is assumed, and the chapter digs deep into trying to assemble the timeline of what happened rather than what it means. I will admit that this is partly down to personal preference, but this chapter just didn’t impress me to the same degree as others in the book.
The final two chapters provide excellent insight into the brutality of the fighting and the personal stories, particularly those of the Vermont brigade in the chapter on the “Other Grant”, while also not slouching on providing excellent analysis of what it all meant. The discussion of the Confederate flank attack on Hancock in the final chapter includes excellent analysis on the wider use of flank attacks by the Army of Northern Virginia and the interesting parallel between Jackson’s death in a dramatic flank attack at Chancellorsville and Longstreet’s severe wounding during a flank attack at The Wilderness, only a few miles to the west and almost exactly a year later. While these two chapters only tell a narrow section of the overall battle – the struggle between the two parts of the armies located further north is entirely absent from these chapters and discussed only briefly in earlier ones – together they still give valuable insight into what the battle was like for those who fought in it.
Overall, The Wilderness Campaign is an excellent read that packs a lot of history into fewer than 300 pages. It is eminently readable and requires only limited preexisting knowledge of the American Civil War but is still a great showcase for some of the excellent scholarship that has come to define writing on the subject over the past few decades. While now nearly thirty years old it never felt antiquated and to my mind at least it is still worthy of your attention and time.
March 3, 2025
This collection of essays is a fantastic deep dive but it doesn’t really read as a full coverage of the wilderness campaign. The chronological aspect of the essays feels a bit disjointed and doesn’t read as a developing event. The immense depth of soldiers views and political discourse is fantastic if you are looking for a deep dive on this specific period of the war. Feels a bit slow compared to other period books due to the nature of the material. Would be a five star review if I was using this for a paper or as a source document.
December 17, 2022
Excellent book full of essays by great authors on this pivotal battle, the opening stanza of the clash between Grant and Lee known as The Overland Campaign!
January 28, 2025
This is an excellent book of essays describing the significant battles of the Wilderness Campaign. A renowned Civil War historian authors each essay.
October 2, 2015
“In some respects the battle of the Wilderness was the most remarkable of the civil war,” comments Brig Gen Lewis Grant, Commander, 2nd Vermont Brigade. Gallagher's collection of essays does a great job of capturing the important elements of this battle. These include an excellent discussion of Longstreet’s flank attack (which might have carried the battle for the Confederates had Longstreet not been wounded just after), a defense of the leadership of A.P. Hill and Richard Ewell (and a balanced critique of Robert E. Lee), another excellent critique of the new Union cavalry leadership under Phil Sheridan and James Wilson by Gordon Rhea, and a thoughtful essay on preparation for the Overland Campaign by our own John Hennessy, NPS Chief Historian, Fredricksburg, Chancellorsville, and Wilderness National Park. This should be in the library of every Wilderness devotee.
November 1, 2022
Like the other books in Mr. Gallagher's series, I personally like most of the essays, the ones that re-examined specific aspects of the battle, such as A.P. Hill's and Richard Ewell's performances. However, other essays (such as Robert E.L. Krick's essay on Longstreet's flank attack) simply describe the battle without any analysis.
August 24, 2013
Not necessarily written for the reader wanting an overview of the Wilderness battle. Collection of interesting essays addressing specifics of the battle and the mood of the North and South leading up to campaign in the spring of 1864.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews