Gordon Flank Attack Trail-The Battle of the Wilderness - Locust Grove VA
Posted by: 
Don.Morfe
N 38° 19.049 W 077° 45.417
18S E 258972 N 4244638
In this field and its surrounding woods fell nearly one-third of the men killed or wounded in the Battle of the Wilderness.
Waymark Code: WM134BK
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 09/12/2020
Views: 2
Gordon Flank Attack Trail-The Battle of the Wilderness- Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania Natioanl Military Park--In this field and its surrounding woods fell nearly one-third of the men killed or wounded in the Battle of the Wilderness.
The two-mile Gordon Flank Attack Trail tracks the Battle of the Wilderness in all its horrible forms: the open-field Union attacks here that initiated the battle; the stalemate in the tangled woods to the north; and the devastating Confederate flank attack that, after two days of fighting, almost brought the Federals to disaster.
The Wilderness: "Hell Itself"
The mature forests here today bear little resemblance to the Wilderness of 1864. For years before the war, vast tracts of the Wilderness had been timbered. When the armies arrived, they found a sometimes impenetrable landscape of matted thickets and young trees. Wrote one of Grant's officers, "It was a battle fought with the ear, and not the eye. All circumstances seemed to combine to make the scene one of unutterable horror."
LOCATION: Marker is near Locust Grove, Virginia, in Orange County. Marker is on Constitution Highway (State Highway 20), on the right when traveling west. The marker is in Wilderness Battlefield at the trail head of the Gordon Flank Attack trail, near Driving Tour Stop Two (the Exhibit Shelter). Post office area: Locust Grove VA 22508
Visit Instructions:
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