May 24, 1864---The Battle of The North Anna River (Day Two); The Battle of Wilson's Wharf

MAY 24, 1864:             

The Battle of The North Anna River  (Day Two):                     

Union troops cross the North Anna River in force without encountering resistance. The Confederates fall back. Although Grant and his commanders assume this is a retreat, the Army of Northern Virginia is only taking up its positions behind the entrenchments and earthworks they spent the night preparing.

The day nearly goes South when the hard-drinking Brigadier General James H. Ledlie U.S.A., who has chosen today to go on a ferocious bender, decides to take on the entire western flank of the Hog Snout (nine brigades under General A.P. Hill, C.S.A.) with his single brigade.  Although Ledlie is ordered not to attack, he orders an infantry charge against a line of Confederate cannons, regardless. His men, charging into the mouths of cannons, wisely hit the deck. Although the cannon shot passes over them, the massed infantry in the trenches behind the cannons begins firing at will. Fortunately for the Union men, a violent thunderstorm comes up, and soaks everybody and everything, including Confederate powder. The shooting on that flank stops suddenly, and the men crawl back to safety, most none the worse for wear, but muddy. Unbelievably enough, the brigade receives a commendation for gallantry (which they deserve) and Ledlie is promoted to a Divisional Command (which he does not deserve). He is to become historically notorious in late July for his actions during The Battle of The Crater.

Elsewhere on the field, the Union charges headlong into the entrenchments, but the rain forces a halt to the attack. A few men use bayonets, but most are just glad to get out of the rain. The battle goes on as the weather dries, but in fits and starts. Once Grant receives Intelligence that the apex of the arrowhead or the “hog snout” is the strongest position held by Lee, he exults, much to the surprise of his subordinates.  

Grant realizes that Lee is offering him another Muleshoe, another heavily fortified position to attack, another Bloody Angle. Grant declines Lee’s invitation. Despite seeing Gray troops on the field, Grant correctly ascertains that Lee has no intention of attacking The Army of The Potomac. Grant writes:

Lee's army is really whipped. The prisoners we now take show it, and the actions of his Army show it unmistakably. A battle with them outside of intrenchments cannot be had. Our men feel that they have gained the morale over the enemy, and attack him with confidence. I may be mistaken but I feel that our success over Lee's army is already assured.

The Army of Northern Virginia has a serious problem, though Grant cannot know it. Lee, after weeks of stressful campaigning, is suddenly struck down by The Old Soldier’s Disease, a very bad case of touristas. Too sick to effectively run the battle himself, Lee has no one of sufficient mettle to do so in his stead. Jackson is now long dead, Stuart more recently so; Longstreet is absent, recovering from wounds.

With no one to run the battle, the Southerners are told simply to hold the line, even as Grant refuses to rush the line.  The day ends inconclusively.  

The Battle of Wilson’s Wharf:          

Benjamin Butler’s Army of The James leaves its base at The Bermuda Hundred to tangle with flank elements of The Army of Northern Virginia. It is a Union victory, albeit a small one. However, it marks the first time that The Army of Northern Virginia faces United States Colored Troops in battle. To be defeated by “Colored” troops is so psychologically difficult for the Southerners to bear that postwar memoirists invent a story of Union gunboats shelling their position in order to force their defeat. However, the Union has no record of gunboats being assigned to the operation. Nor does any Union veteran recall gunboats being present.