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General Robert E. Lee meets with generals on top of Clark Mountain. Lee predicts Grant's forces are ready for battle as he can see them.
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Through lots of thinking and planning, General Lee decides his best option is to intercept Union forces in the Wilderness, rather than in open fields, altough he is outnumbered 65,000 men to Grant's 120,000.
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Dawn. Leading Corps of the Union Army reaches Germanna Ford, 18 miles west of Fredericksburg.
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Union army crosses the Rapidan River. Lee decides to engage the army in the Wilderness and orders the corps of A.P. Hill, Ewell, and Longstreet to march toward the Union troops.
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U.S.; Grant orders his corps to march through the jungle and thickets toward open ground and avoid battle in the jungle.
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Confederate corps of General Ewell surprises Warren's corps in Saunders field.
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Three miles south along Plank Road, another battle begins through the end of the day between A.P. Hill's corps and the troops of Hancock and Sedgwick.
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5 a.m. Hancock attacks along Plank Road. At first Hancock's troops overwhelm Confederate forces until the first Corps of Longstreet arrived, inflicting 50% casualties against some parts of the Union army.
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The fighting at the Wilderness did not resume because fires burned through the forest. The Union had lost 18,000 soldiers to 8,000 for the Confederates, and the battle was practically over.
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Unlike other commanders of the U.S. Army before him, Grant pursued the fight, marching his troops toward Spotsylvania and another battle with General Lee. Leading to The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House.
