General Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia held a defense line in front of Spotsylvania Court House, northeast of the Confederate capital of Richmond. The line generally resembled an upside-down “L”:
- Major-General Richard H. Anderson’s First Corps held the left flank, which ran eastward from Laurel Hill
- Lieutenant-General Richard Ewell’s Second Corps held the center, which ran from Anderson’s right to the east, then jutted northeast and turned southward
- Lieutenant-General A.P. Hill’s Third Corps (temporarily commanded by Major-General Jubal Early) held the eastern face of the line, which ran north-south from Ewell’s right
A portion of the Confederate defenses in the northeastern sector protruded from the rest of the line and resembled a mule shoe, giving the salient its name. About 5,000 Federals from Major-General George G. Meade’s Army of the Potomac (with General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant in overall command) tried to take this position on May 10 but failed. Grant therefore planned to attack with 15,000 men on the 12th.
Lee had pulled 22 guns out of the Mule Shoe because he thought Grant would fall back eastward. But when word spread that Grant would be attacking that point again, Lee hurriedly ordered the guns returned. As another fight seemed imminent, a Confederate chaplain recalled, “Nothing was said by our officers, but there was a nameless something in the air which told each man that a crisis was at hand. Orders were given in low tones. The dim, shadowy outlines of the different commands as they took their positions under the sombre shades of the pines, gave a weird effect to the scene.”
In preparation for the attack, the bulk of Major-General Winfield Scott Hancock’s Second Corps was shifted from the Federal right (west) to the center, facing the Mule Shoe. To Hancock’s right was Major-General Horatio G. Wright’s Sixth Corps, and Major-General Gouverneur Warren’s Fifth Corps now held the right (west) flank. Major-General Ambrose E. Burnside’s Ninth Corps held the Federal left, on a north-south line facing west.
Grant ordered Hancock to attack at 4 a.m., but darkness and rain caused a 30-minute delay. Hancock had scouted the enemy positions the previous day, but “owing to the uncertainty as to the exact point to be attacked no very definite information was obtained.” The advancing Federals were unaware of what would be facing them up ahead.
As the Federals emerged from their defenses on this foggy morning, Hancock watched them pass and, confident that they would capture the Mule Shoe, said, “They will not come back. I know they will not come back.” Brigadier-General Francis C. Barlow, commanding a division in Hancock’s corps, told his staff, “Make your peace with God and mount, gentlemen; I have a hot place picked out for some of you today.”
Hancock’s men charged against the apex of the Mule Shoe salient and penetrated the Confederate line. At the salient’s eastern tip, Barlow’s men overran Brigadier-General George Steuart’s brigade and captured some 3,000 men, including both Steuart and his division commander, Major-General Edward “Allegheny” Johnson. The Federals also captured most of the famed Stonewall Division and split the Confederate army in two.
Burnside was to aid Hancock by attacking the eastern face of the salient, but Burnside did not advance until around 2 p.m., when both Grant and Meade ordered Burnside to attack. The ensuing assault was repelled, and Burnside fell back when a Confederate brigade threatened his flank. Colonel Cyrus Comstock of Grant’s staff observed Burnside’s performance and judged it to be “Rather weak & not fit for a corps commander.”
To the northwest, Hancock’s attack soon spread around the Mule Shoe’s apex and onto its western face. His Federals had broken through, but they had no plan for what to do next. Moreover, the troops had been massed in such a compact formation that the individual commands became disorganized.
As the Confederate line seemed about to collapse, Lee rode out to the front, removed his hat, and silently watched the action. A nearby Confederate recalled, “As he sat on his charger, I never saw a man look so noble or witnessed a spectacle so impressive.” Brigadier-General John B. Gordon rode up and told Lee, “General, these are Virginians! These men have never failed! They never will! Will you, boys?” The soldiers hollered, “No! No!” Gordon insisted that Lee go back to safety, and the men shouted, “General Lee to the rear!” A soldier led Lee’s horse away, and Gordon ordered a counterattack that soon reclaimed the eastern face of the Mule Shoe. Meanwhile, Major-General Robert E. Rodes’s Confederate division worked to shore up the western face.
Around 6:30 a.m., Grant ordered Wright and Warren to attack. Wright’s Federals struck the Mule Shoe’s western face where it rounded to the apex. The heaviest fighting of the day occurred in this sector, which became known as the “Bloody Angle.” Brigadier-General Abner M. Perrin, who commanded a brigade in Early’s corps, was killed after announcing, “I shall come out of this fight a live major general or a dead brigadier.” Colonel Theodore Lyman of Meade’s staff described the action at the “Bloody Angle”: “The combat growing hotter & hotter! In some places our men just on one side of the breastwork, and the rebels, 50 feet off, on the other!”
Warren’s Federals attacked Laurel Hill around 8:15 a.m. The men had failed to take the hill several times since the 8th, and few had any confidence that it could be taken today. Consequently, the attack was not in full force, and after 30 minutes, Warren informed Meade that he could not advance any further “at present.” Enraged, Meade ordered Warren to attack “at once at all hazards with your whole force, if necessary.”
Meade wrote Grant, “Warren seems reluctant to assault. I have ordered him at all hazards to do so, and if his attack should be repulsed to draw in the right and send his troops as fast as possible to Wright and Hancock.” Grant replied, “If Warren fails to attack promptly, send (Andrew) Humphreys (Meade’s chief of staff) to command his corps and relieve him.”
Warren passed the order to his division commanders, adding, “Do it. Don’t mind the consequences.” The corps attacked but was repelled once again, this time by just one Confederate division under Major-General Charles W. Field. Not only had Warren failed to break the line, but his attacks were so weak that Lee did not need to reinforce that part of his line and could keep his main focus on the Mule Shoe.
Meanwhile, Confederates in the Mule Shoe kept up the hard fighting in the rain while their comrades hurried to build a new defensive line at the salient’s base. This was the heaviest firing ever concentrated on a battlefield. Only a lack of accuracy due to men firing so fast saved both armies from virtual destruction. Some of the Confederate gunpowder was too wet to ignite, forcing them to use their bayonets and hand-to-hand combat. A Federal officer recalled:
“It was chiefly a savage hand to hand fight across the breastworks. Rank after rank was riddled by shot and shell and bayonet-thrusts, and finally sank, a mass of mutilated corpses; then fresh troops rushed madly forward to replace the dead, and so the murderous work went on. Guns were run up close to the parapet, and double charges of canister played their part in the bloody work. The fence-rails and logs in the breastworks were shattered into splinters, and trees over a foot and a half in diameter were cut completely in two by the incessant musketry fire.”
A Federal from the Sixth Corps wrote, “The flags of both armies waved at the same moment over the same breastworks, while beneath them Federal and Confederate endeavored to drive home the bayonet through the interstices of the logs.” A tree 22 inches in diameter was sawed in half by bullets. Everything in the path of the opposing armies was laid to waste, as (unlike most battles) both sides refused to yield.
According to a Federal officer, “I never expect to be fully believed when I tell what I saw of the horrors of Spotsylvania, because I should be loath to believe it myself were the case reversed.” Lieutenant-Colonel Horace Porter of Grant’s staff recalled:
“Our own killed were scattered over a large space near the ‘angle,’ while in front of the captured breastworks the enemy’s dead, vastly more numerous than our own, were piled upon each other in some places four layers deep, exhibiting every ghastly phase of mutilation. Below the mass of fast-decaying corpses, the convulsive twitching of limbs and the writhing of bodies showed that there were wounded men still alive and struggling to extricate themselves from the horrid entombment. Every relief possible was afforded, but in too many cases it came too late.”
Fighting continued through the night, as Robert Park of the 12th Alabama wrote:
“It was a night of unrest, of misery, of horror. The standing men would occasionally hear a comrade utter an exclamation as a stray bullet from the enemy pierced some part of his body and placed him hors du combat. And it was well that the men were kept standing, as I saw many of them walking by the right flank and then by the left flank, and in profound sleep, wholly unconscious of what they were doing.”
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