CHAPTER XXVIII.
MAY--INFLUX OF NEW PRISONERS--DISPARITY IN NUMBERS BETWEEN THE EASTERN AND WESTERN ARMIES--TERRIBLE CROWDING--SLAUGHTER OF MEN AT THE CREEK.
In May the long gathering storm of war burst with angry violence all along the line held by the contending armies.

The campaign began which was to terminate eleven months later in the obliteration of the Southern Confederacy.

May 1, Sigel moved up the Shenandoah Valley with thirty thousand men; May 3, Butler began his blundering movement against Petersburg; May 3, the Army of the Potomac left Culpeper, and on the 5th began its deadly grapple with Lee, in the Wilderness; May 6, Sherman moved from Chattanooga, and engaged Joe Johnston at Rocky Face Ridge and Tunnel Hill.
Each of these columns lost heavily in prisoners.

It could not be otherwise; it was a consequence of the aggressive movements.

An army acting offensively usually suffers more from capture than one on the defensive.