Brock Road/Plank Road Intersection - Wilderness VA
N 38° 18.041 W 077° 42.566
18S E 263072 N 4242650
One of the most horrific battles of the Civil War took place in the overgrown woods at this intersection of the Wilderness.
Waymark Code: WM8T9J
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 05/10/2010
Views: 8
During the Battle of the Wilderness, both the Union and Confederate armies sought to control the important intersection of Brock Road and Plank Road. Some of the heaviest fighting of the Civil War occurred in the dense, entangled woods at the intersection.
On May 5, 1864, George W. Getty's Union troops reached the intersection just ahead of Gen. A. P. Hill's Confederate division. They built earthworks along Brock Road and launched their attack through the woods, but the Confederates, hidden in the leaves, fought back. Confederate Gen. R. E. Lee and his troops captured part of the earthworks, but were repelled in a Union counterattack.
The fighting that raged between the armies was violent and horrible. The second growth and density of the forest made combat extremely difficult for both sides. The wounded and the dead were left where they fell and many burned in the fires started by the constant gunfire.
The fighting seesawed back and forth for two days and ended in a stalemate when Union Gen. U. S. Grant ordered his troops onward to Richmond. Thousands of bodies were left behind and the landscape resembled a mangled scorched hell.
Today at this intersection, which is part of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, there is a small parking area with historical markers and monuments including the 12th Regiment NJ Volunteers . A ½-mile loop trail through the woods that witnessed the bloody fighting passes by the Federal earthworks, several historical signs, and the monument to the Vermont Brigade.
Admission is free and is opened daily to sunset.
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