Wilderness Battle Civil War Scott 1181 Block of 4 x 5¢ US Postage Stamps

On May 5 1964 in Fredericksburg, VA; the USPS remembered the Wilderness Battle with this addition to the Civil War Centennial series. The Battle of the Wilderness, fought May 5–7, 1864, was the first battle of Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Virginia Overland Campaign against Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Both armies suffered heavy casualties, a harbinger of a bloody war of attrition by Grant against Lee's army and, eventually, the Confederate capital, Richmond, Virginia. The battle was tactically inconclusive, as Grant disengaged and continued his offensive.