Qualla: Battle of Spotsylvania Court House

Battle of Spotsylvania Court House: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Muhranoff, CC BY-SA 4.0. An oak tree about two feet thick stood in the Confederate earthworks at Spotsylvania Court House on the morning of May 12, 1864. By the afternoon of May 13, it was lying on the ground, cut down not by an axe but by the steady whittling of small-arms fire. A piece of that stump is now in the Smithsonian. The tree fell during what came to be called the Bloody Angle, a single twenty-four-hour stretch in which the fighting was so close and so continuous that Confederate soldiers had to pause to throw their own dead over the parapet to make room to shoot.

Image: Muhranoff | CC BY-SA 4.0

Battle of Spotsylvania Court House: The Mule Shoe

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Francis H. Schell. A list of artists and engravers can be found on p. 21 of the PDF., Public domain. After the inconclusive Battle of the Wilderness on May 5-7, Ulysses S. Grant did what no Union commander had done before. He did not retreat. He marched south, around Lee's right flank, toward the crossroads of Spotsylvania Court House - the next obstacle on the road to Richmond....

Image: Francis H. Schell. A list of artists and engravers can be found on p. 21 of the PDF. | Public domain

Battle of Spotsylvania Court House: Twenty-Four Hours of the Bloody Angle

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Hancock's II Corps - 15,000 men - jumped off at 4:35 a.m. in mist and heavy rain. The recent storms had soaked Confederate gunpowder; the artillery that should have shredded the attack had been pulled back the day before on Lee's misjudged orders and was just being returned when ...

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Battle of Spotsylvania Court House: Sedgwick and the Generals

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Julian Scott, Public domain. Five general officers died in the battle. Union Major General John Sedgwick was killed on May 9 by a Confederate sharpshooter while his men ducked at the whistling rifle balls. Sedgwick, trying to steady them, said the famous line: They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance. ...

Image: Julian Scott | Public domain

Battle of Spotsylvania Court House: If It Takes All Summer

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Clariosophic, CC BY-SA 3.0. On the morning of May 11, the day before the great assault on the Mule Shoe, Grant sent a message to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton in Washington. The result to this time, he wrote, is much in our favor. Our losses have been heavy as well as those of the enemy. I propose to fi...

Image: Clariosophic | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Spotsylvania Court House: What Remains on the Ground

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Muhranoff, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Spotsylvania battlefield is preserved today as part of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, which protects 2,773 acres of the fighting ground - including the Mule Shoe, Laurel Hill, and the Bloody Angle itself. The American Battlefield Trust has added more ...

Image: Muhranoff | CC BY-SA 4.0