I am stuck on what I will call this thread….I figure The Wilderness Reconsidered will work.
I know there is a school of scholarship which chastises US Grant for being “stuck in the Wilderness” and other such. The issues around Spotsylvania also deal with heavy cover and the same could be said all the way to the James.
But there are 2 points I want to bring out. The first is the area which covers the section of Virginia for the Overland Campaign had about half to a third of the forestation it has today. Old woodlots which were clear cut have grown back and the NPS and locale groups have kept a lot of green space where much did not exist at the time of the War. So much of the Wilderness was more open than it is today.
The second point is I am convinced that Grant’s attitude about the ability to fight in difficult terrain was colored by his experiences out West; specifically the battles of Port Gibson and Champion’s Hill from the Vicksburg Campaign and the operation against Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain at Chattanooga.
I just returned from a weeklong tour of the Vicksburg area conducting a tour of the campaign with a friend. I had not been back in 5 years and grew to have a new and better appreciation of the terrain.
These are photos of the approach road for the site of the Battle of Port Gibson, the first of the battles which made up the Vicksburg Campaign after Grant crossed the river.
This was called the Old Rodney Road now the Shaifer Road. Grant pushed 2 corps up this road to to attack Bowen's Division southwest of the town.
The trees were all leafed out at the time and all of the lowland was filled with cane brakes 10 to 20 feet high.
I know there is a school of scholarship which chastises US Grant for being “stuck in the Wilderness” and other such. The issues around Spotsylvania also deal with heavy cover and the same could be said all the way to the James.
But there are 2 points I want to bring out. The first is the area which covers the section of Virginia for the Overland Campaign had about half to a third of the forestation it has today. Old woodlots which were clear cut have grown back and the NPS and locale groups have kept a lot of green space where much did not exist at the time of the War. So much of the Wilderness was more open than it is today.
The second point is I am convinced that Grant’s attitude about the ability to fight in difficult terrain was colored by his experiences out West; specifically the battles of Port Gibson and Champion’s Hill from the Vicksburg Campaign and the operation against Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain at Chattanooga.
I just returned from a weeklong tour of the Vicksburg area conducting a tour of the campaign with a friend. I had not been back in 5 years and grew to have a new and better appreciation of the terrain.
These are photos of the approach road for the site of the Battle of Port Gibson, the first of the battles which made up the Vicksburg Campaign after Grant crossed the river.
This was called the Old Rodney Road now the Shaifer Road. Grant pushed 2 corps up this road to to attack Bowen's Division southwest of the town.
The trees were all leafed out at the time and all of the lowland was filled with cane brakes 10 to 20 feet high.
Comment