vided and scrambled through the brush on either side of the First Rifles to protect the flanks. The two regiments inched through the thickets for about half a mile when suddenly they came up against a strong line of Rebel skirmishers. Almost as if to make up for two days of comparative inactiv­ity, when units all around them had been fighting their hearts out, the two Reserves regiments started to drive. Out of the brush into a little open field they pushed the enemy skirmishers. In the field they were met by another heavy line of gray soldiers. With their Spencers barking a steady flame, the Bucktails drove the Rebels back into their rifle pits. On a knoll back of the pits the artillery, which Warren had been worrying about, had been placed. The guns let out with a burst of grape and canister. The chase was over. Crawford ordered the two little regiments to fall back. Although it was stubborn, it was only a small Rebel pocket. That was what topside wanted to know.

For the Bucktails, it was "mission accomplished," as they trudged back over Wilderness Run and along the lane. They carried their dead and wounded with them. The ac­tion had been short, but sharp. In the few minutes in the thickets and the little field the First Rifles had suffered most of their casualties of the Wilderness fighting, two dead, twenty-three wounded.[4]

Gradually through the day orders for the next move fil­tered down through the chains of command from the gen­eral-in-chief. Although the men would not know what the plans were until the Army started out, Grant's decision had been made for quite a while. He had issued the order at six-thirty that morning. It called for another of his several moves to the left, moves which would finally take the Army of the Potomac from the Rapidan across the James. Then it would be on to Petersburg and eventually to a little court

 

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house in central Virginia, called Appomattox. All that was months ahead. Meanwhile, there would be much more marching, and fighting, and dying.

The Union Army was going to leave the Wilderness and fight some place where it could take advantage of its superior numbers. The Fifth Corps was to leave at eight-thirty that evening, but it was somewhat later when the column started along the turnpike and turned right onto the Brock Road. That turn south, instead of back toward the Rapidan, was significant. It was indicative of how U. S. Grant proposed to fight the war from then on. With the Pennsylvania Reserves well up ahead, the line started southeast. Some fifteen miles ahead was a small hamlet, Spotsylvania Court House by name. Lee had had a road hacked through the woods south of the plank road, and as Warren moved along through the spring night, so did the advance units of the Army of North­ern Virginia, by a somewhat shorter route a few miles away.[5]

On that night march General Warren became much dis­gusted with the Union cavalry which was supposed to have the way cleared for the infantry. The Federal troopers were improving all the time, but the night of May 7-8 was not one of their better moments. Around a cross-road, called Todd's Tavern, the blue troopers had the road completely blocked and seemed unable to straighten out the tangle. Much valu­able time was lost before, as Warren put it, the cavalry "got out of our way."[6]

 Robinson's Second Division was in the lead when the Fifth Corps was finally able to push on beyond Todd's Tavern. By this time another day had dawned. The sight which greeted Robinson across a little valley, a mile or two northwest of Spotsylvania, was gray-clad soldiers hastily dig­ging in behind earth and fence rails on the opposite ridge. Lee had won the race. By the time the Reserves and Warren's

 

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other divisions arrived, Robinson's men had been badly shot up by Longstreet's soldiers.

Crawford's Division went into the battle on the left of Griffin's First Division. The Bucktails were on the division right next to Griffin's men. These were the soldiers who had started the Wilderness fighting. Now Major Hartshorne could see a Rebel line all poised to hit Griffin in the left flank. The Bucktail commander sent Captain Sam Mack, with a squad of Company E men, through a little wood to break up this movement. Mack was able to get his men on the flank of the Southern would-be flankers. The little Buck­tail squad went to work with their Spencers. The Rebels soon started to return the fire. Mack's men were woefully out-numbered. Every one of them stopped Southern lead. Mack himself picked up two bullets.

In the slow advance across the shallow valley McCandless was wounded. The ground was uneven and full of ditches, and the Confederate fire was hot. After McCandless was knocked out of action, the Reserves became somewhat mixed up. When the rest of the Union line was shoved back, the Pennsylvania soldiers were glad to fall back too. Just before his division had gone forward, an enemy shell had cut off the top of a tree near where Crawford was standing. The top fell on the division commander, and he was out of the fighting for a while.[7]

Colonel S. M. Jackson, of the Eleventh Reserves, found himself at the head of the First Brigade as another try at the opposite ridge was decided upon. Nightfall was approach­ing, but Sedgwick's Corps was up. The artillery, which had not been able to do much in the Wilderness, had been pounding the Rebel line. With the First Brigade leading, the Reserves struggled forward once more, as the two Union corps tried to do something while it was still daylight. The

 

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tired-out soldiers just could not do it.[8] The battle died down with the Southern Army spread out in a great ragged semi­circle around the little grove of trees where stood Spotsyl­vania Court House. Around this ragged arc, the northern Army had spread another uneven half-circle. The Bucktails, along with all the other little outfits, which had marched and fought so long, fell back to the line of the Union arc. As the night drew in and the guns stopped their barking, a long line of loaded ambulances started bumping back toward Fredericksburg. In the darkness skirmish lines sputtered, and General Phil Sheridan started out on what was hoped would be a big cavalry raid toward Richmond.

To the south of the Union line ran the Po River. The next morning the First Brigade of the Reserves was sent out on a reconnaissance in that direction. The Bucktails had their usual position as skirmishers. They were joined by the First Regiment and a squad of the famed Berdan Sharp­shooters. Back in the Peninsula days the First Rifles, then armed with muzzle-loaders, had fought side by side with the Sharps-armed Berdan men. On that occasion the Bucktails' envy of the Sharpshooters, because of their breech-loaders, was greener than the uniforms which the Berdan men wore. This time it would be different.

When the river was reached, and while the brigade brass were trying to determine what next to do, the Berdan squad and a platoon of Bucktails started a little shooting match. Their target was a nest of butternut-clad soldiers across the river who had been sending some rather saucy bullets over the stream. The Sharpshooters started firing first. Soon the Spencer-armed Bucktails decided that the Berdan fire was much too slow. From this point on, like some other stories of Bucktail marksmanship, the story becomes a bit difficult to believe. Not only was the fire of the First Rifles platoon

 

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much faster than that of the Sharpshooters; it was more ac­curate than that of this crack outfit. While the Berdan score was zero, the Bucktail platoon dropped two Rebels and flushed the rest out of the bushes. The range was one thou­sand yards. The regimental historians recorded it all very solemnly.[9]

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