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Battle of Spotsylvania Court House
Virginia Civil War History
Battle of Spotsylvania
Court House
Other Names: Combats at Laurel Hill and Corbin’s Bridge
(May 8); Ni River (May 9); Laurel Hill, Po River, and Bloody Angle (May 10); Salient or Bloody Angle (May 12-13); Piney Branch Church (May 15); Harrison House (May 18); Harris
Farm (May 19); Stanard's Mill and Guiney's Station (May 21)
Location: Spotsylvania County, Virginia
Campaign: Grant's Overland Campaign (May-June 1864)
Date(s): May 8-21,
1864
Principal Commanders: Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Maj. Gen. George G. Meade [US]; General Robert E. Lee [CS]
Forces Engaged: 152,000 total (US 100,000; CS 52,000)
Estimated Casualties: 30,000 total (US 18,000; CS 12,000)
Result(s): Inconclusive (Grant continued his offensive.)
| Dead Confederate Soldier |
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| Vicinity of Spotsylvania Court House, May 1864 |
Description: After the Battle of the Wilderness, Grant’s and Meade’s advance on Richmond by the left flank was stalled at Spotsylvania Court House
on May 8. This two-week battle was a series of combats along the Spotsylvania front. The Union attack against the Bloody Angle at dawn, May 12-13, captured nearly a division of Lee’s army and came near to cutting the Confederate
army in half. Confederate counterattacks plugged the gap, 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 19, a Confederate attempt to turn the Union
right flank at Harris Farm was beaten back with severe casualties. Union generals Sedgwick (VI Corps commander) and Rice were
killed. Confederate generals Johnson and Steuart were captured, Daniel and Perrin mortally
wounded. On May 21, Grant disengaged and continued his advance on Richmond.
| Battle of Spotsylvania Court House |
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| Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, and Spotsylvania |
(About) Satellite photograph of the "Bloodiest Landscape in North America."
Unprecedented loss of life was witnessed at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, and Spotsylvania - more
than 85,000 men wounded; 15,000 killed. No place in the United States more vividly reflects the Civil War’s tragic cost. Portions
of the Spotsylvania Court House battlefield are now preserved as part of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military
Park. Satellite photograph is courtesy Microsoft Virtual Earth.
| Battle of Spotsylvania Court House Map |
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| Civil War Preservation Trust |
This map is of the Alrich Tract, the scene of fighting during
the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, May 12, 1864. The property (identified in pink) was the scene of a Union attack on
Heth's Salient, a key point in the Confederate lines. However, a successful Confederate flank assault on the Union lines eliminated
the threat to Heth's Salient.
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| Spotsylvania Court House |
Aftermath:
Lee's tactics had inflicted severe casualties on Grant's army. Moreover, as a consequence, Grant sustained more than 18,000
casualties, of which approximately 3,000 were killed. In two weeks of fighting, Grant had lost a staggering 35,000 men, and
an additional 20,000 returned home via enlistment expiration. In fact, Grant at one point on the North Anna had fewer than
65,000 effectives. But Lee did not conclude the series of battles unscathed, either. At Spotsylvania, he lost another 10,000 –
13,000 men, and the Confederates had to pull men away from other fronts to reinforce his now severely weakened army. Making
matters worse, the army had taken heavy losses among its veteran units and its best officers. This may have saved Grant
from a disaster on the North Anna, when his decimated army was positioned badly and was ripe to be attacked. Lee, however,
never attacked, because his Army of Northern Virginia was unable to seize the initiative. In fact, Lee's army would
never regain said initiative because of the losses it had sustained in those bloody two weeks in May 1864.
Estimates vary for
the casualties at Spotsylvania Court House. The following table summarizes estimates from a variety of popular sources:
|
Casualty
Estimates for the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House |
|
|
Source |
Union |
Confederate |
|
|
Killed |
Wounded |
Captured/
Missing |
Total |
Killed |
Wounded |
Captured/
Missing |
Total |
|
|
National Park Service |
|
|
|
18,000 |
|
|
|
12,000 |
|
|
Bonekemper, Victor, Not
a Butcher |
2,725 |
13,416 |
2,258 |
18,399 |
1,467 |
6,235 |
5,719 |
13,421 |
|
|
Eicher, Longest Night |
|
|
|
17,500 |
|
|
|
10,000 |
|
|
Esposito, West
Point Atlas |
|
|
|
17–18,000 |
|
|
|
9–10,000 |
|
|
Fox, Regimental Losses |
2,725 |
13,416 |
2,258 |
18,399 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Smith, Grant |
2,271 |
9,360 |
1,970 |
13,601 |
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|
|
|
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(Sources and related reading below.)
Recommended Reading:
The Battles For Spotsylvania Court House And The
Road To Yellow Tavern, May 7-12, 1864. Description: The second volume in Gordon C. Rhea's peerless five-book series on
the Civil War's 1864 Overland Campaign abounds with Rhea's signature detail, innovative analysis, and riveting prose. Here
Rhea examines the maneuvers and battles from May 7, 1864, when Grant left the Wilderness, through May 12, when his attempt
to break Lee's line by frontal assault reached a chilling climax at what is now called the Bloody Angle. Drawing exhaustively
upon previously untapped materials, Rhea challenges conventional wisdom about this violent clash of titans to construct the
ultimate account of Grant and Lee at Spotsylvania. Continued below.
About
the Author: Gordon C. Rhea is also the author of The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5–6, 1864; To the
North Anna River: Grant and Lee, May 13–25, 1864, winner of the Fletcher Pratt Literary Award; Cold Harbor: Grant and
Lee, May 26–June 3, 1864, winner of the Austin Civil War Round Table’s Laney Prize, and Carrying the Flag: The
Story of Private Charles Whilden, the Confederacy’s Most Unlikely Hero. He lives in St. Croix, U.S.
Virgin Islands, and in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina,
with his wife and two sons.
Recommended
Reading: To the North
Anna River: Grant And Lee, May
13-25, 1864 (Jules and Frances Landry Award Series). Description: With To the North Anna River, the third book in his outstanding five-book series,
Gordon C. Rhea continues his spectacular narrative of the initial campaign between Ulysses
S. Grant and Robert E. Lee in the spring of 1864. May 13 through 25, a phase oddly ignored by historians, was critical in
the clash between the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia. During those
thirteen days—an interlude bracketed by horrific battles that riveted the public’s attention—a game of guile
and endurance between Grant and Lee escalated to a suspenseful draw on Virginia’s North Anna River.
Continued
below.
From the bloodstained
fields of the Mule Shoe to the North Anna River, with Meadow Bridge, Myers Hill, Harris Farm, Jericho Mills, Ox Ford, and
Doswell Farm in between, grueling night marches, desperate attacks, and thundering cavalry charges became the norm for both
Grant’s and Lee’s men. But the real story of May 13–25 lay in the two generals’ efforts to outfox
each other, and Rhea charts their every step and misstep. Realizing that his bludgeoning tactics at the Bloody Angle were
ineffective, Grant resorted to a fast-paced assault on Lee’s vulnerable points. Lee, outnumbered two to one, abandoned
the offensive and concentrated on anticipating Grant’s maneuvers and shifting quickly enough to repel them. It was an
amazingly equal match of wits that produced a gripping, high-stakes bout of warfare—a test, ultimately, of improvisation
for Lee and of perseverance for Grant.
Recommended Reading: The Spotsylvania
Campaign: May 7-21, 1864 (Great Campaigns). Description: A very detailed examination of the Spotsylvania Campaign. A
dramatic study of the campaign and the clash of the titans - Robert E. Lee against Ulysses S. Grant – and it is a book
that you will refuse to put down. Continued below…
About the Author: John
Cannan has established a reputation among Civil War writers in a remarkably short time. His distinctions include three books
selected by the Military Book Club. He is the author of The Atlanta Campaign, The Wilderness Campaign, and The Spotsylvania
Campaign. Cannan is an historic preservation attorney residing in Baltimore.
Recommended Reading: The
Spotsylvania Campaign (Military Campaigns of the Civil War) (Hardcover). Description: The Spotsylvania Campaign marked
a crucial period in the confrontation between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee in Virginia. Waged over a two-week period
in mid-May 1864, it included some of the most savage fighting of the Civil War and left indelible marks on all involved. Approaching
topics related to Spotsylvania from a variety of perspectives, the contributors to this volume explore questions regarding
high command, tactics and strategy, the impact of fighting on officers and soldiers in both armies, and the ways in which
some participants chose to remember and interpret the campaign. They offer insight into the decisions and behavior of Lee
and of Federal army leaders, the fullest descriptions to date of the horrific fighting at the "Bloody Angle" on May 12, and
a revealing look at how Grant used his memoirs to offset Lost Cause interpretations of his actions at Spotsylvania and elsewhere
in the Overland Campaign. Continued below...
Meet the Contributors:
—William A. Blair, Grant's Second Civil War: The Battle for Historical Memory
—Peter
S. Carmichael, We Respect a Good Soldier, No Matter What Flag He Fought Under: The 15th New Jersey Remembers
Spotsylvania
—Gary W. Gallagher, I Have to Make the Best of What I Have: Robert E. Lee at Spotsylvania
—Robert
E. L. Krick, Stuart's Last Ride: A Confederate View of Sheridan's Raid
—Robert K. Krick, An Insurmountable Barrier
between the Army and Ruin: The Confederate Experience at Spotsylvania's Bloody Angle
—William D. Matter, The Federal
High Command at Spotsylvania
—Carol Reardon, A Hard Road to Travel: The Impact of Continuous Operations on the Army
of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia in May 1864
—Gordon C. Rhea, The Testing of a Corp Commander: Gouverneur
Kemble Warren at the Wilderness and Spotsylvania
Recommended Reading:
If It Takes All Summer: The Battle of Spotsylvania (Hardcover). Description: The termination of the war and the fate
of the Union hung in the balance in May of 1864 as Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and Ulysses S. Grant's Army of
the Potomac clashed in the Virginia countryside—first in the battle of the Wilderness, where the Federal army sustained
greater losses than at Chancellorsville, and then further south in the vicinity of Spotsylvania Courthouse, where Grant sought
to cut Lee's troops off from the Confederate capital of Richmond. This is the first book-length examination of the pivotal
Spotsylvania campaign of 7-21 May. Continued below.
Drawing on extensive research in manuscript collections across the country
and an exhaustive reading of the available literature, William Matter sets the strategic stage for the campaign before turning
to a detailed description of tactical movements. He offers abundant fresh material on race from the Wilderness to Spotsylvania,
the role of Federal and Confederate cavalry, Emory Upton's brilliantly conceived Union assault on 10 May, and the bitter clash
on 19 May at the Harris farm. Throughout the book, Matter assesses each side's successes, failures, and lost opportunities
and sketches portraits of the principal commanders. The centerpiece of the narrative is a meticulous and dramatic treatment
of the horrific encounter in the salient that formed the Confederate center on 12 May. There the campaign reached its crisis,
as soldiers waged perhaps the longest and most desperate fight of the entire war for possession of the Bloody Angle—a
fight so savage that trees were literally shot to pieces by musket fire. Matter's sure command of a mass of often-conflicting
testimony enables him to present by far the clearest account to date of this immensely complex phase of the battle. Rigorously
researched, effectively presented, and well supported by maps, this book is a model tactical study that accords long overdue
attention to the Spotsylvania campaign. It will quickly take its place in the front rank of military studies of the Civil
War.
Recommended Reading: Trench
Warfare under Grant and Lee: Field Fortifications in the Overland Campaign (Civil War America) (Hardcover). Description: In the study of field fortifications in the Civil War that began with Field Armies and Fortifications
in the Civil War, Hess turns to the 1864 Overland campaign to cover battles from the Wilderness to Cold Harbor. Drawing on
meticulous research in primary sources and careful examination of trench remnants at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna,
Cold Harbor, and Bermuda Hundred, Hess describes Union and Confederate earthworks and how Grant and Lee used them in this
new era of field entrenchments.
Sources: National Park Service; Photograph courtesy Library of Congress;
Bonekemper, Edward H., III, A Victor, Not a Butcher: Ulysses S. Grant's Overlooked Military Genius, Regnery, 2004; Eicher,
David J., The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War, Simon & Schuster, 2001; Esposito, Vincent J., West Point
Atlas of American Wars, Frederick A. Praeger, 1959. Reprinted by Henry Holt & Co., 1995; Fox, William F., Regimental Losses
in the American Civil War, reprinted by Morningside Bookshop, Dayton, Ohio, 1993; McPherson, James M., Battle Cry of Freedom:
The Civil War Era (Oxford History of the United States), Oxford University Press, 1988; Smith, Jean Edward, Grant, Simon and
Shuster, 2001; U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate
Armies, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1880–1901; Civil War Preservation Trust; Microsoft Virtual Earth.
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