Spotsylvania, Virginia
May 12-21, 1864
General Ulysses Grant hoped to establish a position at Spotsylvania, about twelve miles south of the Wilderness, where he could either take on Lee or push him closer to Richmond. Along the way he dispatched Phil Sheridan's cavalry to circle around behind Lee and cut his communications, hoping to force Lee out into the open. Jeb Stuart pursued Sheridan, a fatal error, as Sheridan's 10,000 horseman routed the Confederates on May 11th, mortally wounding Stuart. Back at Spotsylvania, Lee's infantry had already dug in behind strong fieldworks. Grant's options were to flank the Confederate defenses or try to smash through them; he tried both. This two-week battle was a series of combats along the Spotsylvania front. The Confederate lines were in a semicircle with Gen. George Anderson on the left, Richard Ewell in the center, and Jubal Early (temporarily replacing A. P. Hill) on the right. (The salient with Ewell's corps came to be called the "Mule Shoe.") On May 10th Gen. Gouverneur Warren sent his divisions toward Anderson's line with Winfield Scott Hancock on his right; meanwhile Col. Emory Upton led an attack on the Mule Shoe. Upton was beaten back after fierce combat--at times hand-to-hand with bayonets, rifle butts and fists--and on May 11th the armies glowered at each other, bracing for the next move. (Popular Union Gen. John Sedgwick was killed by a Confederate sharpshooter right after proclaiming, "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." Grant said Sedgwick's death was like losing an entire division of infantry.) The next big Union attack began at dawn on May 12th. Hancock's 2nd Corps charged through the rain and fog and captured nearly a division of Lee’s army. To the left, Gen. Burnside showed unusual vigor as the Federals took control of the salient in Lee's line and nearly split it in two. But Confederate counterattacks led by Gen. John B. Gordon plugged the gap at the "Bloody Angle" and fighting continued unabated for nearly 20 hours in what may well have been the most ferociously sustained combat of the Civil War. (On May 12th Grant lost 9,000 men and Lee lost 8,000.) The armies reached a costly stalemate. For several days Federal assaults from one direction, then another, failed to break Lee's lines. On May 19th, a Confederate attempt to turn the Union right flank at Harris Farm was beaten back with severe casualties. The fighting ended in a draw, with Union and Confederate casualties estimated at 18,000 and 12,000 respectively. On May 21st, Grant disengaged and continued his advance on Richmond, hoping to get around Lee's right. The opposing armies fought again along the North Anna River, then Grant concentrated his forces for his next big assault at a crossroads named Cold Harbor.
© 2004 David C. Hanson, Virginia Western Community College