(National Park Service map) |
You likely
have heard of the Bloody Angle at Spotsylvania Court House. But did you know that scene of
vicious combat was just one part of the Mule Shoe Salient, a bulge in the
Confederate fortifications at the Virginia battlefield?
A few members
of my family recently took a brief driving tour of the May 1864 site and I spent a
few minutes walking paths at the Bloody Angle. It was a pretty, late-spring day
and I worked up a bit of a sweat.
Line of earthworks near route of Upton advance |
We got a
quick orientation at the exhibit shelter on the beginning of the driving tour.
The next stop recalled the May 9 innovative charge of Col. Emory Upton’s Union
troops, a day after a failed attempt to dislodge Confederates from Laurel Hill.
Upton’s fast-moving column breached the Rebel line briefly, but Lee’s troops
began digging in.
Soon,
thousands of men faced off around the Mule Shoe, which provided a tempting target for Federal commanders.
The photo above shows the area
where Lee mistakenly removed artillery pieces when he thought Grant’s Yankees
were withdrawing. It was a big mistake. Winfield Hancock’s Federals burst through on May
12 and Confederate columns rushed to hold the salient.
According to
the Civil War Trust: “After the initial breakthrough … Lee shifted
reinforcements into the salient just as Grant hurled more troops at the
Confederate works. Fighting devolved into a point-blank slugfest – amid a
torrential downpour – which lasted for 22 hours.”
Monument to 126th Ohio Volunteer Infantry |
The 24-hour stubborn
Rebel defense of the Bloody Angle, a 200-yard western stretch of the salient,
bought time for Lee's engineers to construct a new line of earthworks to the rear. The exhausted men left the salient to their new positions, leaving a scene of unparalleled carnage.
Grant
left the field a few days when an effort to move on this new position was rebuffed by
massed artillery, according to the trust’s summary.
Spotsylvania,
which followed the Wilderness, was the third bloodiest battle of the war, with a
staggering 30,000 casualties (18,000 Union). It lasted nearly two weeks (May
8-21) and saw vicious hand-to-hand combat at times.
Look closely and you can make out raised fortification |
The National Park Service, which maintains the site, calls this part of the Overland Campaign inconclusive. Grant continued his efforts to flank Lee’s army.
South Carolina and New Jersey monuments |
Confederate troops rushed toward background to reinforce |
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