the morning some slight
preparations were made to defend the turnpike from the westward; a
shallow line of rifle-pits, with a few epaulements for artillery, had
been constructed on a low ridge, commanding open fields, which runs
north from Dowdall's Tavern, and the wood beyond had been partially
entangled. But this was all, and even when the only reserve of the
Eleventh Army Corps, Barlow's brigade, was sent to Sickles, it was
not considered necessary to make any change in the disposition of the
troops. The belief that Lee and Jackson were retreating had taken
firm hold of every mind. The pickets on the flank had indeed
reported, from time to time, that infantry was massing in the
thickets; and the Confederate cavalry, keeping just outside effective
range, occupied every road and every clearing. Yet no attempt was
made, by a strong reconnaissance in force, to ascertain what was
actually going on within the forest; and the reports of the scouts
were held to be exaggerated.

The neglect was the more marked in that the position of the Eleventh
Army Corps was very weak. Howard had with him twenty regiments of
infantry and six batteries; but his force was completely isolated.
His extreme right, consisting of four German regiments, was posted in
the forest, with two guns facing westward on the pike, and a line of
intrenchments facing south. On the low hill eastward, where Talley's
Farm, a small wooden cottage, stood in the midst of a wide clearing,
were two more German regiments and two American. Then, near the
junction of the roads, intervened a patch of forest, which was
occupied by four regiments, with a brigade upon their left; and
beyond, nearly a mile wide from north to south, and five or six
hundred yards in breadth, were the open fields round the little
Wilderness Church, dipping at first to a shallow brook, and then
rising gradually to a house called Dowdall's Tavern. In these fields,
south of the turnpike, were the breastworks held by the second
division of the Eleventh Army Corps; and here were six regiments,
with several batteries in close support. The 60th New York and 26th
Wisconsin, near the Hawkins House at the north end of the fields,
faced to the west; the remainder all faced south. Beyond Dowdall's
Tavern rose the forest, dark and impenetrable to the view; but to the
south-east, nearly two miles from Talley's, the clearings of Hazel
Grove were plainly visible. This part of the line, originally
entrusted t