Battle of the Wilderness • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments & Markers • The Armies
The WIlderness Exhibit Shelter is a roofed, open-air shelter just off Virginia Route 20, known today as Constitution Highway and during the Civil War as the Orange Turnpike. It is Stop 2 on the Wilderness Battlefield Auto Tour. (see map below) Inside the shelter are three walls of exhibits that tell the story of the Battle of the Wilderness. They provide a good orientation before proceeding with the rest of the Auto Tour.
Collision of Giants (see more)
…is the theme of the north wall. Its five displays tell the background of the armies and their leaders that clashed in The WIlderness.
Clash on the Orange Turnpike and Stuggle on the Orange Plank Road (see more)
…are the themes of the east wall. This talks about the two major parts of the battle, which were almost two unconnected fights, and tells of the fighting three miles to the southeast. 
The fighting ends in stalemate (see more)
… is the theme of the south wall, which talks about the results of the battle. With almost 30,000 casualties, the Battle of the WIlderness was the fourth deadliest battle of the Civil War. 
The most significant result of the battle was Grant’s reaction. Instead of pulling back across the river and licking his wounds as Union armies had always done in the past, Grant ordered Meade to continue south – to what would be an even more terrible clash at Spotsylvania Court House.
Location of the Exhibit shelter
The shelter is at Tour Stop Two on the north side of Constitution Highway, Virginia Route 20, about 1.7 miles southwest of Virginia Route 3. (38°19’02.8″N 77°45’23.9″W)
(return to the Stop 2 page)
(return to the Battlefield Auto Tour page)