Flank Attack! The Battle of the Wilderness - Lake Wilderness VA - U.S. Civil War Sites on Waymarking.com

Flank Attack!-The Battle of the Wilderness— Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park —These woods saw some of the heaviest fighting of the Battle of the Wilderness. On May 5, then again on May 6, 1864 ragged Union and Confederate battle lines surged back and forth on both sides of the Orange Plank Road. The stalemate here finally broke late on the morning of May 6, when Confederate General James Longstreet managed to move troops opposite the Union left flank, in front of you.

At 11 a.m., Longstreet’s men surged through the woods ahead of you screaming the rebel yell. Panic gripped the Union army. One after another, Northern soldiers broke ranks and fled through the brush toward the Brock Road, one-half mile to your left. Within minutes, the entire left wing of the Union army was in tatters. Back at the Brock Road, General Winfield Scott Hancock strove to rally the fragments of his shattered command. But would he have time?

Colonel Sorrel, it was splendid; we shall smash them now.
General Micah Jenkins, Confederate staff officer.

LOCATION: Marker is near Lake Wilderness, Virginia, in Spotsylvania County. Marker is at the intersection of Orange Plank Road (Virginia Route 621) and Wilderness Park Drive, on the right when traveling east on Orange Plank Road. Marker is in the Wilderness Battlefield section of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Battlefield, on Orange Plank Road (Route 621), about 1/2 mile west of Brock Road (Route 613). Located at stop seven of the driving tour of the Wilderness Battlefield. Postal address: 10925 Orange Plank Rd, Spotsylvania VA

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Date Logged Log User Rating   10/02/2021 Don.Morfe visited it