Battle of Wilderness left Culpeper free of Army

It was the winter of 1864, and the American Civil War had ravaged the fields of Virginia for nearly three oppressive years. In Culpeper County there was little quiet and rarely any peace as the tortuous thud-thud of a thousand boots marching was constant, first the Confederates, then the Yankees. The armies came and went in Culpeper as if there were an unguarded revolving door at the gateway. It was too much for many, as local citizens abandoned their homes for what they hoped would be a safer place.

By January of 1864 the Union Army of the Potomac, with an estimated 120,000 troops commanded by General George Meade, had settled in for the largest winter encampment of the war. They were literally everywhere, but with major concentrations at Brandy Station, Stevensburg and Culpeper Court20House.

Think Boy Scout Jamboree at Fort A.P. Hill or the 4th of July in DC; thousands of people, and streets choked with traffic. Now, compound the issues with longevity. For not a day or a week but for several months, issues of safety, waste, health, food and shelter became the new reality.

Atop Hansborough’s Ridge overlooking the valley of Stevensburg lived more than 20,000 men in huts built of log from nearby forest with chimneys built of brick from a nearby homes. Constructed alongside makeshift streets paved over with wooden planks, this mid 19th century tent city was served by a commissary, post office, hospital, religious services, livery, and all the added military components.

For five months these men lived in a hostile environment, hated by those they met and blamed for the decimation. They were lonely, homesick and well beyond envisioning any remnants of that early glow of glory so often associated with service to one’s country and cause.

One such soldier wrote to his mother from Brandy Station on April 14, 1864.

“It is now Spring and the weather fine. I could stay hear well enough if it were not for one thing and that is my longing for the quiet of home. I am sick of war. Three long years I have bin surrounded with the grim sentinels of death & I want to get out of it.” William Stowe, Co. F, 2nd Vermont Infantry.

Letter upon letter home described the desolation of Virginia’s once beautiful countryside and the heavy toll war was taking upon the families who called it home. In another letter to his mother William Stowe writes,

“Virgina is a desolate looking country with the two mightey armeys destroying every thing.”

Late on the evening of May 3, 1864, as a mighty giant awaking from hibernation and leaving Culpeper County to lick its wounds, the entire Army of the Potomac broke camp, secured rations and began the massive march east, each soldier praying that they could get well beyond the horrors of the Wilderness before engaging the enemy. But their activities of the past few months as well as their night exodus had been closely watched by General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia encamped across the Rapidan River in Orange County.

Outnumbered two to one, Lee intended to utilize the thickets and dense underbrush of the Wilderness to incapacitate the Union’s canon and cavalry. The Confederates attacked Union forces on May 5. 

May 5-7, 1864 witnessed 180,000 troops engaged in fierce fighting at numerous locations over more than 5,000 acres of ground.

With an estimated 29,000 casualties from both sides, it was considered a tactical win for the Confederate Army. However, there was no surrender or truce; the armies simply left this battleground in pursuit of the next found within 48 hours at Spotsylvania Court House.

And so it would continue for another year.