Wilderness, Battle of The

(May 5–7, 1864) Engagement in the American Civil War. When Ulysses S.

Grant planned a Union campaign to capture Richmond, Va., and advanced with 115,000 troops, he was met by a Confederate army of 62,000 under Robert E. Lee in dense thickets called the Wilderness. After two days of intense and inconclusive fighting, Union casualties outnumbered those of the Confederacy (burning brush killed many of the wounded), and Grant saw the futility of further hostilities in the area. He moved on to do battle at Spotsylvania Courthouse, forcing Lee back toward Richmond.