The Lost Indictment of Robert E. Lee by John Reeves

“It was as though Christian men had turned to fiends, and hell itself had usurped the place of the earth,” wrote one officer. The incessant gunfire caused the woods to catch fire, resulting in hundreds of men burning to death. Officers couldn’t even see their own men during the fighting. The impenetrable forest and gunfire smoke made it impossible to view the enemy. The alarming casualties do not begin to convey the horror of this battle, one of the most gruesome in American history. On the opposing side, the Union suffered 17,666 casualties. Lee, who faced tremendous difficulties replacing fallen soldiers, lost 11,125 men-or 17% of his entire force. Lee was never again able to launch offensive operations against Grant’s army. But two days of relentless fighting in dense Virginia woods, Robert E. A Fire in the Wilderness tells the story of that perilous time when the future of the United States depended on the Union Army’s success in a desolate forest roughly sixty-five miles from the nation’s capital.Īt the outset of the Battle of the Wilderness, General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia remained capable of defeating the Army of the Potomac. Lincoln assumed he’d lose the November election, and he firmly believed a Democratic successor would seek peace immediately, spelling an end to the Union. The Army of the Potomac had performed poorly over the previous two years, and many Northerners were understandably critical of the war effort.

In the spring of 1864, President Lincoln feared that he might not be able to save the Union. Lee-a battle that sealed the fate of the Confederacy and changed the course of American history. The riveting account of the first bloody showdown between Ulysses S. A Fire in the Wilderness The First Battle Between Ulysses S.

The Lost Indictment of Robert E. Lee by John Reeves