We had now come to the edge of that forest and thicket-covered district, the "Wilderness of Spottsylvania." Grant had crossed the Rapidan into this tangled chaparral, and it is said he was very much surprised that Lee did not dispute the passage of the river. But "Ole Marse Robert" had cut too many eye teeth to do anything like that. He was far too deep a file, to stop his enemy from getting himself into "a fix." He knew that when Grant's great army got over there, they would be "entangled in the land, the wilderness would shut them in." In that wilderness, three men were not three times as many as one man. No! no! not at all! Quite the reverse! Lee wouldn't lift a finger to keep Grant from getting _into_ the wilderness, but quick as a flash he was, to keep him from getting out. This, was why he had been marching the legs off of us, rations or no rations. This, was why he couldn't wait for Longstreet, but tore off with the men he had, to meet Grant and fight him, before he could disentangle himself from The Wilderness. We had got up in time; and into the chaparral our men plunged to get at the enemy, and out of it was now roaring back over our swift columns the musketry of the advance. As brigade after brigade dashed into line of battle the roar swelled out grander, and more majestic, until it became a mighty roll of hoarse thunder, which made the air quiver again, and seemed to shake the very ground. The battle of The Wilderness was begun, in dead earnest. The crushing, pealing thunder kept up right along, almost unbroken, hour after hour, all through the long noon, and longer evening, until just before night, it slackened and died away. It was the most _solemn_ sound I ever heard, or ever expect to hear, on earth. I never heard anything like it in any other battle. Nothing could be seen, no movements of troops, in sight, to distract attention, or rivet one's interest on the varying fortunes of a battlefield. Only,--out of the dark woods, which covered all from sight, rolled upward heavy clouds of battle-smoke, and outward, that earth shaking thunder, now and then fiercely sharpened by the "rebel yell,"--the scariest sound that ever split a human ear,--as our men sprang to the death grapple.