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Wilderness is to the southward of the Rappahannock, occupying about two hundred square miles, a plateau sloping to cultivated lowlands on every side. The original forests were long ago cut off, and a dense growth of scrub timber and brambles covered nearly the whole surface, with an occasional patch of woodland or a clearing. After the battle of Antietam the anxiety for another forward movement to Richmond led the Administration to remove McClellan, and then General Burnside took command. His troops crossed the Rappahannock in December to attack General Lee's Confederate position on the Heights of Marye, where they were strongly entrenched; but the attack failed, the shattered army after great carnage withdrawing to the north bank of the river, and it lay there for months in winter quarters. Burnside was superseded by General Hooker, and in May, 1863, the Northern army again crossed the Rappahannock at several fords above Fredericksburg and started for Richmond. Lee quickly marched westward from Fredericksburg, and Lee and Hooker faced each other at Chancellorsville. Then came another of Stonewall Jackson's brilliant flank movements. Chancellorsville is on the eastern border of the Wilderness, and Jackson, making a long detour to the south and west through that desolate region, got around and behind Hooker's right flank, surprised him, and sent General Howard's entire corps in panic down upon the rest of the Union forces, making the greatest surprise of the war. During that same night Jackson, after his victory, was accidentally shot by his own men, a blow from which the Confederacy never recovered. Twelve miles south of Fredericksburg, at Guinney Station, is the little house where Jackson died. He and his aides, after reconnoitering, had returned within the Confederate lines, and the pickets, mistaking them for the enemy, fired into the party. Several of his escort were killed and Jackson was shot in three places, an arm being shattered. Being put upon a litter one of the bearers stumbled, and Jackson was additionally injured by being thrown to the ground. The arm was amputated, but afterwards pneumonia set in, which was the immediate cause of his death. He lingered a week, dying May 10th, in his fortieth year, his last words, dreamily spoken, being:
gpt
Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees.