ing all the 7th, that Lee might again attack them, as indicated by the dispatch Grant sent to Washington, about noon of the 8th, in which he said:
The army commenced moving south at 9 p. m. yesterday, and when closed up to the position assigned for the first day's march will stand thus: General Warren's corps at Spottsylvania Court House; Hancock at Todd's tavern; Sedgwick on the road from Piney Branch church to Spottsylvania, and General Burnside at Aldrich's. It is not demonstrated what the enemy will do, but the best of feeling prevails in this army, and I feel at present no apprehension for the result. My efforts will be to form a junction with General Butler as early as possible, and be prepared to meet any enemy interposing. The result of the three days' fighting at the Old Wilderness was decidedly in our favor. The enemy having a strongly intrenched position to fall back on when hard pressed, and the extensive train we have to cover, rendered it impossible to inflict the heavy blow on Lee's army I had hoped. My exact route to the James river, I have not yet definitely marked out.
These lame excuses for his failures in the Wilderness battles, are ample confessions that Lee had thoroughly deranged Grant's confident plan of campaign. He was no longer urging Meade to hunt for Lee, and was looking anxiously for co-operation with Butler and the army of the James.
