Major-General George G. Meade’s Federal Army of the Potomac, with General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant in overall command, was in the process of shifting to the southeast to try getting around the right flank of General Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia around Spotsylvania Court House. Grant received information on May 17 indicating that Lee was moving troops to block the Federals, which potentially weakened his left flank. Grant looked to exploit this supposed weakness.
Lee’s left was held by Lieutenant-General Richard Ewell’s Second Corps. Ewell held strong defensive positions, covered by artillery. And if the Federals attacked, he would not be surprised like he was on the 12th. Grant assigned the Sixth and Second corps under Major-Generals Horatio G. Wright and Winfield Scott Hancock to attack this sector of the enemy line.
The Federals advanced slowly on the morning of the 18th, seizing the “Bloody Angle” of what had been the Mule Shoe salient. Around 8 a.m., Ewell ordered his 29 guns to open fire, and after sustaining about 2,000 casualties in two hours, the Federals fell back. A Federal officer recalled:
“Moments seemed like hours. Then the cheering ceased and dark masses of our men were seen through the openings in the uprising smoke returning as they went but with awfully suggestive gaps in their ranks. The assault had failed. Soon the smoke cleared away and disclosed the ground for long distances thickly strewn with our dead and dying men. It was an awfully grand spectacle, one often repeated around that ground which has been justly styled ‘Bloody Spotsylvania.’”
Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore Lyman of Meade’s staff noticed a pattern emerging in this campaign: “It is a rule that, when the Rebels halt, the first day gives them a good riflepit; the second, a regular infantry parapet with artillery in position; and the third a parapet with an abattis in front and entrenched batteries behind. Sometimes they put this three days’ work into the first 24 hours.”
Meade wrote his wife after the engagement, “We found the enemy so strongly entrenched that even Grant thought it useless to knock our heads against a brick wall. We shall now try to maneuver again so as to draw the enemy out of his stronghold.”
Lee informed Secretary of War James A. Seddon, “The enemy opened his batteries at sunrise on a portion of Ewell’s line, attempted an assault, but failed. He was easily repulsed.” Lee also reported the situation to President Jefferson Davis:
“(Grant’s) position is strongly entrenched, and we cannot attack it with any prospect of success without great loss of men which I wish to avoid if possible. The enemy’s artillery is superior in weight of metal and range to our own, and my object has been to engage him when in motion and under circumstances that will not cause us to suffer from this disadvantage. I think by this means he has suffered considerably in the several past combats, and that his progress has thus far been arrested. I shall continue to strike him wherever opportunity presents itself, but nothing at present indicates any purpose on his part to advance. Neither the strength of our army nor the condition of our animals will admit of any extensive movement with a view to drawing the enemy from his position. I think he is now waiting for reenforcements… The importance of this campaign to the administration of Mr. Lincoln and to General Grant leaves no doubt that every effort and every sacrifice will be made to secure its success.”
Later, Lee repeated his request for Davis to send him the troops currently guarding Richmond, adding, “The question is whether we shall fight the battle here or around Richmond. If the troops are obliged to be retained at Richmond I may be forced back.”
Grant tried to remain optimistic, but after learning of the Federal defeats at New Market and Drewry’s Bluff, he conceded: “I thought the other day that they must feel pretty blue in Richmond over the reports of our victories; but as they are in direct telegraphic communication with the points at which the fighting took place, they were no doubt at the same time aware of our defeats, of which we have not learned till to-day; so probably they did not feel as badly as we imagined.”
Early on the 19th, Lee directed Ewell to conduct a reconnaissance in force to determine the location of the Federal right flank. If Wright and Hancock had withdrawn, then Ewell’s corps was to advance toward Fredericksburg in an effort to cut the Federals’ supply line and capture their wagon train. Neither Lee nor Ewell were aware that Wright and Hancock had not been withdrawn, in fact, they had been reinforced, mostly with heavy artillery regiments fresh from guard duty around Washington.
Ewell dispatched two divisions that came up against Wright’s corps around the Harris and Alsop farms, and vicious fighting ensued with the heavy artillerymen. The Confederates initially pushed the Federals back; a Federal private wrote, “With the most terrific yells,” they came “crashing through us, firing as they came and wounding and killing our men at close range.”
Federal reinforcements ultimately stopped the Confederate drive toward the Fredericksburg Pike. Ewell had his horse shot out from under him and, having lost a leg at Second Bull Run, Ewell took a hard fall that put him out of action. An officer assessed the performance of the Federal heavy artillerymen in this engagement: “Well, after a few minutes they got a little mixed and didn’t fight very tactically, but they fought confounded plucky.”
Lee recalled the Confederates before they were caught in a full-scale battle while isolated from the rest of the army. But they did not disengage until 9 p.m., and many were captured after getting lost in the dark. The Confederates lost 900 killed, wounded, or missing. This ended active operations around Spotsylvania Court House.
Lee, having lost nearly 18,000 men in that same span, now had just about 40,000 troops left. He had also lost top lieutenants James Longstreet, Jeb Stuart, A.P. Hill, and now Ewell. Lee soon learned that Grant was maneuvering around his right flank once more, prompting him to shift his Confederates south toward the North Anna River.
Grant adjusted his plans, as summed up by Meade: “We shall now try to maneuver again so as to draw the enemy out of his stronghold, and hope to have a fight with him before he can dig himself into an impregnable position.” Grant placed Burnside’s Ninth Corps directly under Meade’s command; previously Burnside had answered to Grant because he had once been Meade’s superior. To Grant’s surprise, Burnside welcomed the change. “I am glad to get the order assigning the corps to the Army of the Potomac,” Burnside told Grant, “because I think good will result from it.”
The bulk of the Federal army was now directly east of Spotsylvania Court House, having moved completely around from the west to east of the place since May 8. Two weeks of constant marching and fighting, combined with enlistment expirations, had cut the Army of the Potomac nearly in half since the campaign began. Warren summed up the mindset of the Federals in a letter to his wife: “The intense mental anxiety I have to occasionally endure is very trying indeed but… I try to await the result of our efforts resignedly for better or for worse.”
Bibliography
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