Wilderness is the name of an area near the border of Orange

Orange County, Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 25,881 people, 10,150 households, and 7,470 families residing in the county. The population density was 76 people per square mile . There were 11,354 housing units at an average density of 33 per square mile...

 and Spotsylvania

Spotsylvania County, Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 90,395 people, 31,308 households, and 24,639 families residing in the county. The population density was 226 people per square mile . There were 33,329 housing units at an average density of 83 per square mile...

 counties in Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

. Although not an official town, it is known as a locality and understood to be at the intersection of Virginia primary 20

Virginia State Route 20

Virginia State Route 20 is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of Virginia. The state highway runs from U.S. Route 15 in Dillwyn north to SR 3 in Wilderness. SR 20 is a C-shaped route that connects Charlottesville with Farmville in Southside Virginia...

 and Virginia primary 3

Virginia State Route 3

State Route 3 is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of Virginia that extends from the town of Culpeper south and eastwardly to Gloucester in Virginia's Middle Peninsula region...

.

The name likely comes from the Civil War battle

Battle

Generally, a battle is a conceptual component in the hierarchy of combat in warfare between two or more armed forces, or combatants. In a battle, each combatant will seek to defeat the others, with defeat determined by the conditions of a military campaign...

field nearby known as The battle of the wilderness

Battle of the Wilderness

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...

. Locust Grove

Locust Grove, Virginia

Locust Grove is an unincorporated community in eastern Orange County, Virginia, United States. Its ZIP code is 22508; the population of the ZCTA for that ZIP code was 7,605 at the 2000 census...

is a nearby town and the official mailing address for Wilderness.