Battle in the Wilderness
- Oliver Groom
- Aug 24
- 6 min read
Updated: 10 hours ago
Abstract: The 111th was encamped camp near Dumpling Mountain, Virginia, where they were a part of the Battle of the Wilderness. This was the second bloodiest battle for the 111th.
Original written by siblings George & Deb McGraw, October 2023. Revised and edited by Erika Newcombe, Deb Hall, and Oliver Groom, August 2026.
The 111th was encamped near Dumpling Mountain, Virginia. The weather could never make up its mind for the day, transitioning by what felt like the hour as the sky transformed from sun to rain to the occasional snow, yet the men drilled and went on picket duty.
Sgt. Thomas Geer wrote to a friend on March 20, 1864, about Co. A: “At
present we have got thirteen privates and one Corporal for duty … We are still in our old camp on the hill, but no man knows what morrow may bring forth …We may stay here some time yet or we may not stay two hours. When we lie down at night we don’t make any calculation about what time we might get up. We leave that to higher authority … Most of the soldiers say give us Uncle Abraham for four years longer. If he gets nomination he will surely be elected … Officers in this Regiment are about played out. Four Companies in this Regiment have no commissioned officers with them … We expect to accomplish something when we move. There is no such thing as ‘I cant’ with General Grant.”
Sgt. Daniel Hutchins of Co. D wrote in his diary on April 2, “Very unpleasant all day raining & snowy but more pleasant in the afternoon Co B came back to Regt having been gone 9 month.” Before the war, Daniel was a schoolteacher in Wayne County. According to the Michigan Library, “Hutchins recorded his singularly awful experiences as he was transported through a succession of Confederate prison camps, including Libby, Andersonville, Charleston, S.C., and Florence.”
Both Co. B and C had been guarding the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad stations near Washington, D.C. since June 1863 and did not rejoin the 111th until April 1864. They had missed the Battle of Gettysburg, but they were a welcome addition, bringing the regiment’s strength to 439 men. Hutchins wrote on April 19, “… we had a chance to vote for some corporals we never had the change to vote for non-commissioned officers before.”
The regiment was still significantly undermanned and commanded by Lt. Col. Aaron P. Seeley (formerly a captain in Co. A), as Col. Clinton MacDougall and other officers were still recruiting in New York.
President Abraham Lincoln had appointed Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in March 1864 as general-in-chief of all Union armies. Grant started planning a major offensive in Virginia with the goal of engaging and destroying Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia before capturing the Confederate capital of Richmond. This new offensive, known as the “Overland Campaign,” raged from May 4-June 12 and began with the Battle of the Wilderness, which was fought from May 5-6.
Both armies suffered heavy casualties, nearly 30,000 in total. The Battle of the Wilderness was a harbinger of Grant’s war of attrition against Lee’s army. The outcome was inconclusive as Grant disengaged on May 7, but then continued his offensive south toward Richmond. His troops were heartened to see his continued pursuit of Lee despite the heavy losses, which previous Union commanders in the Eastern Theater had failed to do.
Sgt. Hutchins’s diary described the battle on May 3: “Very pleasant we had battalion drill In the four noon I went to Sadler’s and got my shoes fixed we got marching orders in the afternoon but did not march until about 11 o’clock in the evening we marched all night and very hard we took six days rations with us I was sleepy.”
On May 4, he wrote, “very pleasant we are still on the march and have had little rest men are very tired and hungry we are crossing the Rapidan river at about 9 AM and it is now 2 o’clock and we have halted to cook rest and be at Chancellorsville the roads are quite dusty and the weather is warm many men fell out and threw their clothing etc away.”
On May 5, Hutchins wrote, “the weather continues to be very beautiful and the roads are good we started our day march about 8 o’clock we marched very slowly and rest very often about 4 o’clock we had to counter march and went back into the wilderness, where we had a serve fight. We lost 9 men wounded and 1 [unknown] we lost 8 killed one Lt. and 1 Corporal Missing We were badly [unknown].”
He continued on May 6, “Fine weather we did not get much rest last night nor much to eat we had to go in the fight again today our CO was under command of LT Smith and myself we had to go skirmish line, where we Hurt 1 kill and 1 wounded. We had to fall back and was flanked when we retreated Disorderly our loss is five wounded one killed.” On May 7, his company got some sleep and a little food. On the 8th and 9th, they spent time on picket duty and at the breastworks on the bank of the Po River.
Hutchins wrote on May 9, “I came near being hit with a rib shell it did not burst.” His diary entry for the 10th sadly reported, “very warm some hard lightning took place, were obligated to fall back our regiment was sent to Picket and was forced to fall back in disorder we joined the brigade but as most of the members We’re out of ammunition they are returned I with a few of my CO stayed and fought with the 52NY so doing I was taken prisoner and John Dearlove was killed and one of the rebels tried to take my watch I was taken to the rear.” In future articles, we’ll learn more about Sgt. Hutchins’s time at the Andersonville (Georgia) and the Florence Stockade (South Carolina) POW camps before his release in early 1865.
The Wilderness was the site of the 111th’s second highest losses in the war after the bloody days at Gettysburg. 48 were killed, fifteen more died of wounds, and 104 were wounded and recovered. Thirteen, including Hutchins, were sent to Andersonville, where four would die. Much of the battle was fought in heavily wooded areas with limited visibility due to the density of the trees and underbrush. There were numerous incidents where the high volumes of rifle and artillery fire started brush fires, adding to the difficulty and chaos of the battle.
The examples of bravery and sacrifice were numerous, as was the case for James Snedaker, who enlisted as a private in Co. D in December 1863 and was joined by his younger brother, Pvt. Albert in January 1864. James was promoted to second lieutenant on April 13, only to die three weeks later in the Wilderness battle on May 5. Albert would survive the Wilderness, only to be captured at Spotsylvania later in May and die a POW at Andersonville in August 1864.
The Wayne County Historical Society encourages anyone with family members who served and lived in Wayne or Cayuga Counties during the 1860s to contact the Wayne County Historical Society at info@waynehistory.org or (315) 946-4943. If you are not sure about your Civil War ancestry, you can follow up with the link below:
Photos:
“The War in Virginia - Sketch on the Line - 2nd Corps at the Battle of the Wilderness - Waiting for the Enemy” by Edwin Forbes, May 10, 1864
“Genl. U.S. Grant at Wilderness” by Edwin Forbes, May 7, 1864
Cemetery #2 was established in 1865 to hold the remains of the Unknow Union dead from the battle of the Wilderness.
“Escaping from the Burning Woods” by Alfred R. Waud, May 5, 1864
James W. Snedaker (photo on findagrave uploaded by Dale B.)
Sources:
Daniel B. Hutchins Journals, James S. Schoff Civil War Collection, William L. Clements Library, The University of Michigan. https://findingaids.lib.umich.edu/catalog/umich-wcl-M-3254hut?__cf_chl_f_tk=5pUoH9JetdNPNPzIgB33j49uVlVCLMm4HVlK7YAX64k-1783015768-1.0.1.1-REmlrWaJnIc1yj0kX88chl5lcnikKOurjgLfPAdQsLE#using-these-materials
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