Battle of the Wilderness • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments & Markers • The Armies
The Battle of the Wilderness monument was one of a series erected around Virginia in the 1920s by the United Daughters of the Confederacy to commemorate Civil War battlefields. Consisting of a cast metal tablet set onto a masonry base and placed alongside main roads, they were some of the first highway markers.
The monument is at Stop 3 on the Auto Tour. The Battle of the Wilderness compass is just to the west, and two wayside markers, “A Wild, Wicked Roar” and The Confederate Line, are a short distance away down a footpath.
Text from the marker:
Battle of the Wilderness
Here May 5,6, 1864, 70,000 Confederates under Lee defeated 120,000 Federals under Grant. Confederate loss 11,500. Federal 18,000. This battle, fought with conspicuous bravery, in a Wilderness on fire, will take its place among the great battles of the Civil War.
Erected by the 13th Virginia Regiment Chapter U.D.C. 1927
Location of the monument
The monument is on the east side of Hill-Ewell Drive just south of Virginia Route 20. (38°18’57.9″N 77°45’33.7″W)