Illustration of the violent clash at Spotsylvania

Spotsylvania Court House

Spotsylvania

Spotsylvania County, VA  |  May 8 - 21, 1864

The inconclusive Battle of Spotsylvania Court House was the second major engagement in Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s Overland Campaign, a major Union offensive to chase down Robert E. Lee, destroy his forces, and defeat the Confederacy.

How it ended

Inconclusive. The battle took place over 12 days and cost 18,000 Union and 12,000 Confederate casualties. Union troops tried repeatedly but failed to break the Confederate line. Grant ultimately disengaged from the fight and ordered his men to continue their march south.

In context

Spotsylvania Court House was the second engagement of the Overland Campaign, a series of battles fought in Virginia during May and June 1864. Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, general-in-chief of all Union armies, directed the Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. Gen. George Meade, against Confederate general Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Grant’s objectives were to pursue Lee, cripple his army, and capture the Confederate capital of Richmond. Success relied on a relentless pursuit of the enemy, so Grant instructed Meade, "Wherever Lee goes, there you will go also."

Although the Union suffered severe losses during the campaign, it was a strategic victory for Grant. The battles inflicted proportionately higher casualties on Lee's army, driving his forces into a siege at Petersburg and eventually leading him to surrender his forces at Appomattox in April 1865.

On May 7, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant issues orders for the Army of the Potomac to march toward Spotsylvania Court House, a small village where the Brock Road meets the road to Fredericksburg. Grant hopes to get between Gen. Robert E. Lee's army and Richmond or, at the very least, to draw the Confederates into the open where he can take advantage of superior Union numbers. It is Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's job to prevent the Federals from reaching Spotsylvania. For two days, a division of Stuart's cavalry, led by Fitzhugh Lee, battles Union horsemen for control of the Brock Road. Forced to relinquish his position near Todd's Tavern, Lee withdraws to a rise of ground known as Laurel Hill, on the south side of the Brock Road, on May 8. Laurel Hill is the last defensible position north of Spotsylvania: if the Confederates lose the hill, they will also lose the crossroads at the courthouse. 

Fortunately for Stuart and Fitzhugh Lee, Maj. Gen. Richard Anderson reaches Spotsylvania by the morning of May 8 and is within two miles of Laurel Hill. Anderson's corps is going into bivouac near the Po River when one of Stuart's couriers arrives to warn him of the Union army's approach. The new corps commander instantly puts his troops back on the road and leads them toward Laurel Hill. 

Forces Engaged
152,000
Union
100,000
Confed.
52,000

May 8. Believing Spotsylvania to be within his grasp, Union Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren advances his Fifth Corps up to the hill where they are surprised to find Anderson's corps opposing them. Warren's attempts to drive back the Confederates are rebuffed with heavy losses and the two sides begin to entrench. During this fight, Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick, commander of the Union Sixth Corps, is shot dead, becoming the highest-ranking Union officer killed during the war. 

May 9–10. Grant tries to break the deadlock at Spotsylvania over the next two days. On May 9, he sends a portion of Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock's Second Corps across the Po River to find Lee's left flank. Spying Hancock's move, Lee shifts two divisions to counter the Federals at Block House Bridge, forcing the Yankees back across the river. Grant spends May 10 probing Lee's line for weaknesses, and nearly finds one, when a young colonel named Emory Upton briefly breaches the Confederate line with a tightly packed, fast-moving column of 12 regiments. Though Upton's assault is indecisive, it gives Grant an idea. 

May 12. The Confederates have established a long line of earthworks, which includes a huge half-mile bulge, or salient, called the “mule shoe” because of its shape. Following up on Upton's attack, Grant masses 20,000 men of the Second Corps opposite the tip of the salient. Lee notes the Federal movement, but mistakenly believes that Grant is preparing to withdraw and removes his artillery from the area. So, when Hancock's men advance, on the morning of May 12, they strike the Confederate line where only infantry remain. After an initial breakthrough, Lee shifts reinforcements into the salient just as Grant hurls more troops at the Confederate works. Fighting devolves into a horrific, hand-to-hand, struggle—amid a torrential downpour. It lasts for 22 hours and claims roughly 17,000 casualties. The area is known thereafter as the Bloody Angle.

The stubborn stand by Confederates at the Bloody Angle gives Lee the time he needs to construct a new line of earthworks across the base of the salient. The Army of the Potomac, exhausted from its attacks, does not test the new line—at least, not right away. Instead, Grant slides his army to the left, followed by Lee sliding to his right. For three days, both sides consolidate their new lines.

May 18. Grant’s forces attack Lee’s new position early in the day and are met by massed artillery fire and easily repulsed. Stymied but undaunted, Grant calls off the attack. 

May 19. Believing it best to continue moving his army to the southeast, Grant orders Hancock to pull back the Second Corps toward the Fredericksburg Road. Observing the movement, Lee sends Richard S. Ewell’s Second Corps forward as a reconnaissance force to determine where the Federals are going. Ewell’s men run into stiff resistance by a brigade of new heavy artillery-turned-infantry regiments at the Harris family farm.

May 20–21. In the evening, both sides pull out of their Spotsylvania defenses and move south and east toward the North Anna River. 

Union
18,399
2,725 killed
13,416 wounded
2,258 missing & captured
Estimated Casualties
31,086
Union
18,399
Confed.
12,687
Confederate
12,687
1,515 killed
5,414 wounded
5,758 missing & captured

The battle is tactically inconclusive, but both sides declare victory—the Confederacy because they are able to hold their defenses and the Union because they inflict severe losses on Lee's army. With a total of about 30,000 casualties, Spotsylvania is the costliest battle of the Overland Campaign. The carnage continues as the contest between Grant and Lee moves southeast to the North Anna River.

1. What factors contributed to the staggering carnage at the “Bloody Angle”?

Wet weather, impenetrable fog, poor intelligence about the terrain and layout of the Confederate defenses, and a lack of coordination among corps commanders all hampered the Union effort to break the Confederate line at the perilous turn known as the Bloody Angle. The stubborn Confederate resistance and fresh troop reinforcements by Lee allowed for a prolonged fight with no victor. 

Before the Union assault on May 12, 1864, Union corps commanders met to coordinate the attack, but little reconnaissance had been made and they had scant information about what they would actually find when they penetrated the Mule Shoe salient. Neither Grant nor Meade was directly involved in the details of the battle scheme. Union troops initially made some headway, but they were driven deep into the enemy line and hit with gunfire as Lee replenished his forces. Soon the confrontation degenerated into a man-to man struggle at close quarters. At a stalemate for 22 hours, the inconclusive fight resulted in the loss of 17,000 men, whose mangled bodies littered the trenches.  G. Norton Galloway, a Union Soldier with the 95th Pennsylvania Regiment, survived the carnage and described the harrowing scene:

The rain was still falling in torrents and held the country about in obscurity. . . . It was not long before we reached an angle of works constructed with great skill. Immediately in our front an abatis had been arranged consisting of limbs and branches interwoven into one another, forming footlocks of the most dangerous character. But there the works were, and over some of us went many never to return. At this moment Lee's strong line of battle . . . appeared through the rain, mist, and smoke. We received their bolts, losing nearly one hundred of our gallant 95th. Colonel Upton saw at once that this point must be held at all hazards; for if Lee should recover the angle, he would be enabled to sweep back our lines right and left, and the fruits of the morning's victory would be lost. The order was at once given us to lie down and commence firing; the left of our regiment rested against the works, while the right, slightly refused, rested upon an elevation in front. And now began a desperate and pertinacious struggle.
Upon reaching the breastwork, the Confederates for a few moments had the advantage of us, and made good use of their rifles. Our men went down by the score; all the artillery horses were down; the gallant Upton was the only mounted officer in sight. Hat in hand, he bravely cheered his men, and begged them to 'hold this point.' All of his staff had been either killed, wounded, or dismounted. At this moment . . . a section of Battery C, 5th United States Artillery, under Lieutenant Richard Metcalf, was brought into action and increased the carnage by opening at short range with double charges of canister. This staggered the apparently exultant enemy. In the maze of the moment these guns were run up by hand close to the famous Angle, and fired again and again, and they were only abandoned when all the drivers and cannoneers had fallen. The battle was now at white heat . . . . So continuous and heavy was our fire that the head logs of the breastworks were cut and torn until they resembled hickory brooms.
2. What innovative battle tactic did Col. Emory Upton employ at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House?

Unlike the standard infantry assault, which employed a wide battle line that stopped to fire and reload at will, Upton devised a scheme in which troops formed into groups of 12, three-by-four men across, and rushed a small part of the enemy position without pausing to trade fire. The goal was to overwhelm the defenders and break through their defenses.

Upton led twelve regiments in such an assault against the Confederate's Mule Shoe salient on May 10, 1864. His tactics worked and his command penetrated to the center of the V-shaped Mule Shoe, but they were left unsupported by other corps and forced to withdraw in the face of enemy artillery and mounting reinforcements. Still, Grant was so impressed with Upton, his men, and their success that he promoted Upton to brigadier general. Upton, who had graduated from West Point just as the Civil War began, was only in his early twenties during the battle of Spotsylvania Court House, but he was well on his way to earning a reputation as an accomplished military strategist. His ingenious attack on the Confederate breastworks foreshadowed tactics used in the trench warfare of World War I.

All battles of the Grant's Overland Campaign

The Wilderness
Spotsylvania and Orange Counties, VA  |  May 5 - 7, 1864
Result: Inconclusive
Est. Casualties: 29,800
Union: 17,000
Confederate: 13,000
Spotsylvania Court House
Spotsylvania County, VA  |  May 8 - 21, 1864
Result: Inconclusive
Est. Casualties: 31,086
Union: 18,399
Confederate: 12,687
North Anna
Caroline County and Hanover County, VA  |  May 23 - 26, 1864
Result: Inconclusive
Est. Casualties: 4,200
Union: 2,600
Confederate: 1,600
Totopotomoy Creek
Hanover County, VA  |  May 28 - 30, 1864
Result: Inconclusive
Est. Casualties: 2,324
Union: 731
Confederate: 1,593
Cold Harbor
Hanover County, VA  |  May 31 - Jun 12, 1864
Result: Confederate Victory
Est. Casualties: 17,332
Union: 12,737
Confederate: 4,595
Trevilian Station
Louisa County, VA  |  Jun 11 - 12, 1864
Result: Confederate Victory
Est. Casualties: 1,950
Union: 950
Confederate: 1,000

Related Battles

Spotsylvania County, VA | May 8, 1864
Result: Inconclusive
Commanders
Forces Engaged
152,000
Union
100,000
Confed.
52,000
Estimated Casualties
31,086
Union
18,399
Confed.
12,687

The Battlefields Today