Valley Spirit

From the New York World.

Washington, May 10

But once before, in the history of this rebellion, have we been called upon to record a series of engagements extending over a period of one week. That occasion was when General McClellan, after failing in his attempt to capture Richmond, when the best devised plans had come to naught, was compelled to save his army by a retrograde movement to the James river, and was followed at every step by the overwhelming hosts of the enemy. The details of those dreadful battles filled the mind with horror and almost with despair, with scarcely a ray of hope for the future to illume the darkness that then pervaded the dead horizon. The contrast now is far different. We record the heroic deeds of a gallant army now as we did then, and accord the full meed of praise to those who fought as only men can fight who are impelled by the purest and most patriotic motives. We painted them as we do now, the gallant deeds of those noble men in their brightest colors, mourned with those who were called upon to mourn, and rejoiced with those who had cause for congratulation. At the close of the seven days fight upon the Peninsula we had occasion for thankfulness that so many of our brave men had been spared; at the period of writing we have the record of a series of victories, which may probably result in the speedy crushing of the rebellion. We now see light and hope where all before was midnight gloom, and look forward to a brilliant future for our arms and the cause in which they are engaged. We give herewith a comprehensive resume of the battles of the week. When the shades of Tuesday, May 3, fell upon the Army of the Potomac, that vast tented field gave forth no sign of movement. All was serene as it had been for months before, but all was ready for the signal from the lips of him whom the nation had called to the command of its armies. By midnight, however, this peaceful scene had changed. Every corps of the army was in motion, marching to a destination unknown even to the corps commanders and directed to the accomplishments of the well-matured plans of General Grant. By the morning of Wednesday, the late camps had been abandoned, and men had marched to new scenes and fairly entered upon the campaign which was destined to be one of victory or defeat. The hosts of Lee's army lay upon the south bank of the Rapidan, where they had entrenched themselves and rested comparatively undisturbed since the battle of Mine run, late in the autumn. All day on Wednesday the Army of the Potomac pursued its way over a distance of more than fifteen miles across Germania and Ely's fords of the Rapidan, to execute a well devised flank movement. All day long the steady stream of men and munitions of war continued to file along the roads and across the river. Quietly they moved, stepping with the tread of veterans, each man determined to do his duty manfully and nobly, be the consequences what they might. By dark on Wednesday night the Fifth corps, General Warren, the Sixth, General Sedgwick, and the Second General Hancock, had crossed the Rapidan and bivouacked upon the south bank and the historic field of Chancellorsville. The cavalry advance, which preceded the main army some distance, had encountered a small force of the enemy, but no engagement of importance took place and the reconnoissance was affected with slight loss. Thus far the advance had been successful, and that night the mighty army rested from the fatigues of the day in order to prepare for the bloody scenes of the morrow. All felt that Thursday's sun would not set without witnessing a battle, for the lines had been thrown so far forward that a collision must inevitably follow any further advance. Notwithstanding this, however, not a man faltered nor a cheek blanched with fear. The issues must be met; the period for action had arrived; the army was prepared; and each strove to do his duty in this trying hour.

The Battle of Thursday, May 5.

Early in the morning the Fifth and Sixth corps were in motion, and about 8 o'clock the center of the Fifth had reached the intersection of the turnpike and plank roads leading from Fredericksburg to Orange Court House, and near the "Wilderness." In its front was a broken and very irregular table land, densely covered with plank timber and undergrowth, and almost impassable. The eye could penetrate but a short distance into the maze of forest, and nature seemed to have exerted her curious handiwork to vail [sic] all beyond. Here was a dark curtain completely hiding the country in front, and presenting a barrier to rapid progress, or even the most careful maneuvering. The turnpike at this point was crossed at right angles by the road leading to Spottsylvania Court House. The army halted in column. The Second corps was on the left, and the Fifth and Sixth occupied the center and right respectively. The army thus remained motionless, momentarily expecting the order to march, until about noon, when the headquarters standard was fixed near Wilderness Tavern, and corps commanders began to gather around it awaiting the order for a further movement. A consultation ensued, notes were examined, but still no welcome order to march. At last Gen. Warren left headquarters, took the head corps, and the Fifth filed over the point of a hill to the left of Wilderness Tavern, and upon the summit of this eminence headquarters were removed. Line of battle was then formed with the whole army and scarcely had this been accomplis[h]ed when the sound of dropping shot indicated that skirmishing had begun. These evidences of strife were heard to the right and south of Wilderness Tavern, and proceeded from the engagement of a brigade of Griffin's division of the Fifth corps with the enemy, who had thrown one of his corps forward, preliminary to an attack on the whole line. The battle raged fiercely with this portion of the command until noon, when it became general. The brigade had scarcely formed for action when it was met by a heavy volley of musketry and the rebels, taking advantage of the momentary confusion, rushed forward at a charge. The ground had not been perfectly reconnoitered and in an attempt to employ artillery in repulsing the charge, two guns of battery D, First New York, were captured. These, however, were all the trophies the rebels succeeded in taking during the entire action. The charge was repulsed with infantry and Warren's corps soon became engaged against heavy masses of the enemy. Shortly after Gen. Sedgwick's army became involved. The rebels pressed forward steadily but were as steadily forced back, and the lines of the army, after repeated assaults, remained intact. The strife here was trifling compared with that in which General Hancock was engaged. Against him Longstreet; one of Lee's ablest lieutenants, had been thrown, and such was the nature of the ground that the fight was one almost wholly of musketry. No artillery could be brought to bear, and as the fight progressed the sound of small arms was terrific. Charge after charge by Longstreet was met and repulsed by volleys of musketry, delivered at short range and with terrible effect. Gradually, however, the enemy drew off, the firing ceased, night fell, and the battle was over for the day. The enemy had failed to drive us back from the field, although his efforts to do so were most persistent. He had had advantage of a naturally protected field of operations in which to maneuver, and this enabled him to handle his forces with the utmost rapidity, secrecy, and skill. The army was compelled to remain watchful along the whole line, not knowing at what point the enemy might be most expected, and uncertain how to maneuver to foil the adversary. Yet with all these advantages, Lee was unable to accomplish his object; and, though victory did not perch upon our eagles, it certainly did not rest upon his. Lee, in his official despatch to the rebel Secretary of War states that the attack was made by our troops; whereas it is evident from our accounts that the rebels themselves made the attack; for they came out from their entrenchments on Mine run with the probable intention of driving the Army of the Potomac back across the Rapidan. In this engagement the rebels lost General J.M. Jones, and Col. Warren of the 10th Virginia, killed, and Gen. Stafford mortally wounded. We lost heavily in the battle, and among the officers killed was Gen. Alex. Hays, of Pennsylvania. Lee made two ineffectual attempts on this day to out our army in two, but did not succeed. his strength was developed by the movement, and Gen. Grant deemed it advisable to order up Gen. Burnside's corps which had been left as a reserve near Manassas. This reinforcement made a most extraordinary march in order to obey the command, and arrived within supporting distance of the army before nightfall. Lieut. Gen. Grant was upon the field during the afternoon, and seemed satisfied with the progress of affairs.

The Battle of Friday May 6.

This day scarcely dawned ere the engagement was resumed, Longstreet massing his column against General Hancock's corps with great determination. It was alternately pushed backward and charged forward, and once was driven close to his field-works; but rallying again he drove the rebels before him with great slaughter. He had been fighting with indomitable courage for several hours, until finally he was reinforced by Burnside, and the contest on this portion of the line ceased. But the corps had suffered terribly; they fought with the utmost heroism, and are deserving of the highest praise. The enemy failing to pierce the lines at this point, next hurled his masses against Sedgwick's corps, the Sixth. This attack was conducted by A.P. Hill, and was most desperately made. The right of the Sixth was turned and almost instantly Milroy's old brigade was swallowed up, with the loss of Brigadier-General Seymour, of Olustee fame, and General Shaler, who were taken prisoners. The disaster was retrieved, however, and the enemy in turn met with a repulse. The safety of the army, at this moment, was insured by General Sedgwick, for, had the rebels succeeded in overpowering him, the Army of the Potomac would have been cut in twain, and it would have required the utmost skill of the generals, as well as the most indomitable courage and heroic self-sacrifices of the men, to have checked the onward tide of the enemy and saved the army from ruin. Happily, however, the danger was averted, and the rebels, having been foiled in their purpose, withdrew from the field.--in the early part of the day the enemy made an attempt to pierce General Warren's corps, but failed as signally as they did in their later efforts. During the engagement of this day Brigadier General Wadsworth was killed. Thus had the enemy attempted to pursue the tactics, peculiar to Lee, of hurling heavy mas[s]es of troops, first upon one and and [sic] then upon the other wing and center of our army. He failed in every endeavor, however, and was compelled to give up the contest at nightfall, baffled at all points.--thus closed the second day of the battle of the Wilderness.

Operations of Saturday May 7.

After the terrible struggle of the last two days, and the vigor with which the enemy had fallen upon and had outflanked General Sedgwick's corps at the very last moment on Friday, the Union army was in any thing but a a [sic] hopeful condition. Judging by the [sic] temper of the men, the feeling was that our troops although repulsing every attack had perhaps on the whole, the worst of the fighting. The valor of the rebels was so desperate and the handling of Lee's troops so masterly, that our men, at least many of them felt they had a harder job before them than they had anticipated. The battle commenced however at daylight between the advance pickets of the two armies. From all appearances Lee seemed intent upon turning our right so as to get between the Union army and Lieutenant general Grant, and General Grant and General Meade came up to the scene of action. The men, who had been fighting all day, gladly hailed the lieutenant general by loud cheers. The weather throughout was exceedingly warm, and many of the men were sun-struck.

The Position of Affairs, Monday May 7.

After the continuons [sic] march and fighting of a whole week the army impratively [sic] demanded rest. The six days' provisions, with which the troops had marched out on the Wednesday preceedeing [sic] had about run out, and it became necessary to replenish the haversacks and company wagons. A halt was therefore made till the supply wagons should be emptied. The number of wounded also was fearfully large, and it would be inhuman not to bend the whole energies of the army to have them conveyed to the rear and attended to. The wounded and all, are estimated as high as nineteen thousand men, which includes of course all the battles. The killed outright are supposed to number three thousand five hundred, while of missing there are are [sic] in the neighborhood of five thousand, almost all of whom had been captured in the fights of Thursday and Friday. Monday was well spent in bringing forward the artillery, in getting the army in motion, unloading the supply wagons, getting new cartridges, and making preparations for the advance on Spottsylvania Court House which took place during the afternoon of that day. By evening the whole army was well advanced, and, unexpected to the enemy, General Hancock's second corps, which was the freshest of the various commands, was ordered to the front to drive the rebels from the village, and occupy the lower bank of the Po. Ewel's corps contested the advance, but Hancock's command went valiantly on, and for two hours one of the most desperate fights of the whole four took place. There are two theories current in the army touching the movements of Lee; one is that it is only Ewell's corps with which we have been fighting for the last two days, and that the rest of Lee's army has fallen back to Richmond to overwhelm the forces under Generals Smith and Gilmore. The general opinion, however, is that all of Lee's army is still near to the front, and that they will resist our forces at every river crossing, drawing us thereby farther and farther from our base of supplies, while they get nearer to theirs, and are strengthened thereby. There have been rumors in the army that the forces of Generals Gilmore and Smith are coming up the Rappahannock to Fredericsburg with the view of reinforcing the army by the overland route. If this should prove true it would make our success certain; but it is not believed that there are transports enough or that such a movement enters into the plan of campaign which governs against Richmond.

The Battle of Tuesday May 8.
The Sixth and most Desperate Battle of the Campaign--Graphic Account of the Conflict by Eyewitnesses--Our Men Scale the Enemy's Breastworks with their hands--Nine Hundred Prisoners Captured.

Headquarters Army of the Potomac,
Battle Field Near Spottsylvania,
May 11--8 o'clock A.M.

The battles of the Wilderness were continued yesterday in the most sanguinary of six bloody engagements which have distinguished this campaign. The army was disposed at early morning as follows, slightly in advance of the position occupied the previous day. The Second corps on the right, west of the River Po, and nearly in a line with the road running from Shady Grove Church to Spottsylvania Court House; the Fifth corps in the center east of the river and facing southwestward of Spottsylvania, and the Sixth corps on the left, facing toward Spottsylvania. Batteries were posted inthe [sic] rear at all available points--Burns's Arnold's, Sleeper's, Rodgers's, and Ayell's batteries supporting the right and protecting the bridge across the Po river, formed of three pontoons.

Meade's and Stewart's batteries were disposed toward the left of the Fifth corps in front of a wood. The country is quite as wretched and barbarous for fighting purposes as that beyond the old Wilderness tavern on the Germania plank-road.

There are a few scattered openings across which our lines of battle could be seen at intervals, but the main position of our own army and that of the enemy was concealed as heretofore by the dense forest which made the battle almost a mystery. Desultory fighting began early in the day. Our artillery at from eight o'clock A.M. until after dark, was never silent. From every position wherever the enemy's lines were at all exposed the guns belched forth upon them a tempest of shrieking shot and shell.

Mink's battery, attached to the Fifth corps, and posted on the edge of the forest mentioned, evidently did terrible execution; and about eleven o'clock in the day a charge of the enemy, intended to effect its capture, was repulsed. Musketry firing by sharpshooters and fierce skirmishes continued at different points during the forenoon.

The enemy had evidently massed the greater portion of his troops on his left and left center. It having been determined to assault his center, the divisions of Gibbons and Birney, belonging to the Second corps, were withdrawn across the Po river to assist the attack. The first brigade, Robinson's, and the Second brigade of Cutter's division Fifth corps, General Rice, commenced the fighting. Griffin's division and the main portion of the Fifth corps, and Gibbons's division of the Second, then advanced, driving the enemy into their rifle pits after several hours of battle, during which the roar of musketry was louder and more continuous [t]han at Gettysburg. The works were not taken.

General Rice was killed early in the fight, while getting his column into position.

Meanwhile, Barlow's division of the Second corps, left across the Po river, and facing in a line nearly perpendicular to our general line, was attacked by a heavy body of the enemy in flank, and forced to swing round. A second charge of the rebels in overwhelming force drove the right of the division still further around, its rear in line with the river. Holding its own for a time, it finally withdrew across the bridge still fighting.

Officers returning from the right exaggerated the occurrence into a position very dangerous to army headquarters, tents, &c., which were suddenly struck, and the force evacuated at double quick.

The loss in all this fighting was very severe, both in men and officers.

General Barlow, being still pressed after retiring across the river, kept on fighting until dark.

Meanwhile the dispositions for a general assault by our whole line, which had been made in the afternoon to take place at 5 o'clock, were postponed until nearly dark. At 6 o'clock a withering fire upon the enemy's lines was opened by all our batteries in position; the roar and shrieking of shell and garpe-shot [sic] was awful. Generals Grant and Meade, with their staffs, took position, on a hill overlooking the woods, but from which very little of the battle itself could be seen.

At 6 1/2 o'clock precisely the engagement began with vindictive vigor. A portion of General Upton's brigades, of the Sixth corps, consisting of the One Hundred and Twenty-first New York, Fifteenth Maine, Ninety-sixth and One Hundred and Nineteenth Pennsylvania, the Fifth Wisconsin, Sixth Maine and Forty-ninth Pennsylvania, of General Russell's old brigade, and the Seventy-seventh New York, Forty-third Wisconsin, Second, Fifth and Sixth Vermont, with the Ninety-fifth Pennsylvania, Sixtieth New York, and Second New Jersey, partially in reserve, moved against the enemy's rifle-pits some three hundred yards in their front. A portion of the route was across an open space, where the lines were subjected to a deadly fire of grape and canister. They moved steadily forward, however, without firing a shot until they reached the breastworks, which they scaled with their hands and knees, driving the enemy out and capturing nine hundred prisoners. The assault was at the same time made by the Fifth and a portion of the Second corps to the right and center in the following order: Ward's brigade, of Birney's division, in rear on the right; Crawford's division Pennsylvania Reserves, in two lines in front on the right; Gibbons's division next on the left; the Fifth corps troops in center; Griffin's division on the left. The assault was undertaken with varying enthusiasm, but failed. Our men were nearly exhausted and fell back. We did not take any position of the enemy.

General Upton, whose achievements on the left are described, finding himself so far in advance of the main army, hard pressed and unsupported, retired from his position. I cannot perceive that the day's fighting has brought us any substantial advantage. We had advanced beyond the line occupied by us the previous night. Our right wing, at least, has been forced, from its position; the enemy still hold their own, and we rest on our arms this morning, having suffered since, the same hour yesterday, a loss which to estimate is quite impossible.

It is note-worthy that in yesterday's engagements, in which we suffered so seriously, the enemy did not employ much artillery, we had the advantage of position for artillery from the fire of which the foe must have greatly suffered, but in positions for troops they held that dreaded advantage which the formation of the country enables them to maintain. I believe we shall get Richmond in time. Not even General Grant can quite overcome the difficulties of this route. The enemy retiring before our troops, select their own fighting ground, are covered by the woods and protected by abatis and intrenchments, while our own troops, as during yesterday, are forced to expose themselves in charges across open fields, where both artillery and musketry do tremendous execution.

Our readers will find in to-day's paper an account of the military operations of the past week, as far as received up to the time of going to press. It will be seen that after eight days of the bloodiest fighting of the war, the two hostile armies still confront each other on the banks of the Po river. Whilst our army has been gradually gaining ground on the enemy, its advance has been met with a stubborness of resistance which still holds victory trembling in the balance. After the battles on the Rapidan, Lee fell back to the neighborhood of Spottsylvania Court House, where a series of battles were fought, the heaviest of which took place on Thursday. The battle was opened early on Thursday morning by General Hancock surprising the eastern flank of the enemy and capturing one whole division and thirty cannon. During the day the rebels re-captured twelve of the cannon. The fight closed late in the evening without any decisive result, leaving us in possession of eighteen cannon and from three to four thousand prisoners. Our men slept on their arms during the night, expecting to renew the attack in the morning. When morning came it was found that the enemy had withdrawn to a new line about four miles beyond, on the banks of the Po river, where he now is strongly intrenched. Since then there has been no fighting of which we have heard. The latest news from General Grant states that owing to the late heavy rains and consequent muddy condition of the roads, the army is unable to operate. The loss in these battles, in killed, wounded and missing, has been terrific. Ours has been estimated as high as seventy thousand, and that of the enemy equal, if not greater.

The line of battle formed by the enemy on Thursday was six miles South of Chancelorsville, and nine miles south of the Rappahannock at United States Ford. Their new line is thirteen miles from the Rappahannock. From Spottsylvania to Hanover Junction is twenty-four miles. From Spottsylvania to Richmond is forty-seven miles. South of the Po and between it and the South Anna, there are various streams all about the size of the Po and running through a similar country. First comes the Ta; then the Mat; then the East Northeast creek; then Polecat river; then the North Anna; then Little river; Newfound river and the South Anna. The two armies, as before stated, now confront each other on the Po, that river running between them.

General Sheridan has made an extensive cavalry raid in the rear of Lee's army. He cut the Virginia Central railroad, destroyed a large quantity of provisions and several trains of cars, passed the fortifications of Richmond and found them very strong, had several severe contests with the enemy, and finally reached the James river and formed a junction with General Butler. Nothing late has been heard from Butler, except that he is laying siege to Fort Darling.

The news from the southwest is encouraging. Dalton has been evacuated, and a dispatch just received states that a two days' battle has been fought between Sherman and Joe. Johnston in the vicinity of Resaca, in which Sherman was successful. No details are given.