MAY 25, 1864:
The Battle of The North Anna River (Day Three):
As
the sun rises in Virginia, the Army of Northern Virginia beholds a sight never
seen before. Overnight, the Army of The Potomac has entrenched itself in a line
running parallel to the Confederate position. The Springtime banks of the North
Anna River presage the green fields of France in another Great War yet to be
fought 2,000 miles away across a wide ocean fifty years in the future.
It is a strange day
of warfare. Neither side seems to know how to conduct the battle from their
fixed positions. Robert E. Lee is still ill, and his only orders have been to
hold the line. Ulysses S. Grant does not want to rush the Rebel works in a
replay of Spotsylvania, and so his orders are essentially the same: To hold the line. Small arms fire crackles intermittently
across the open and empty field, a no-man’s land, between the lines.
Occasionally, a section of the line erupts into an exchange of fire when the
opponents spot movement in their dopplegangered earthworks, but these
firefights start suddenly and end suddenly, without pattern or real purpose.
In the late
afternoon, the Union surprises the Confederacy by cutting the Virginia Central
Railroad, the Rebels’ main supply line; Lee’s army has been receiving supplies
and reinforcements by train throughout the battle. As it turns out, the cutting
of the rail line means little, so late in the battle.
In Georgia, William
T. Sherman’s Army of The Mississippi engages with Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of
Tennessee at New Hope Church. The Union attack over difficult terrain is
thwarted, and the Union suffers 1,600 casualties. The Confederacy suffers 350.
