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Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse |
Photos & information gathered from the National Park Service. Please click on the photos to visit the NPS website.
On the morning of May 7, 1864, General Ulysses S. Grant made the key decision of the Civil War. Rather than retreat or remain in the same spot as the Army of the Potomac had always done previously, the Union army would go forward. Grant issued orders to march to Spotsylvania Court House. The importance of this place was not the court house building, shown here, but because the of a road intersection in the community called Spotsylvania Court House.
During the night of May 7, much of the Union army began southeast along the Brock Road, shown here. The building on the left is the Sanford Hotel.
Other Union troops advanced from the Wilderness toward the crossroads on a series of roads and across country eventually reaching the Fredericksburg Road, shown here. The intersection of this road with the Brock Road is in the center of this photo. The building with the columns in the middle of the photo is the Sanford Hotel shown in the previous image. This building still survives, although now as an office building. The building on the left is the court house which burned about 1900. A new and larger court house occupies this spot today.
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General Information about the Battle
The Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse was fought between
May 8 - 21, 1864
Key Individuals Involved in the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House:
Union: Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant, Major General George G. Meade
Confederate: General Robert E. Lee
The outcome was inconclusive, it is estimated that there were
30,000 casualties of which 18,000 were Union soldiers
Overview of the Battle : After 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 Stuart were captured, Daniel and Perrin mortally wounded. On May 21, Grant disengaged and continued his advance on Richmond. Source: CWSAC Battle Summaries
Perhaps the most notable death during this Battle was that of Sixth Corps commander Major General John Sedgwick, killed by a sharpshooter's bullet as he prowled the front lines on May 9. Shortly before, Sedgwick had chided some infantrymen trying to dodge the occasional minie balls whistling past with the comment that the Confederates "couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."
Did You Know?
If looked on as one campaign, the fighting at Wilderness and Spotsylvania resulted in more American casualties than any other campaign in history, 60,000.
