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Muleshoe Salient, Spotsylvania C.H., V.A

The battles in and around Spotsylvania Court House were fought May 8-21, 1864. An intense series of engagements that contained some of the most savage, desperate, hand-to-hand combat during the American Civil War. This chapter begins with Ulysses S. Grant's overland campaign beginning in the spring of 1864, what would hopefully be the final plunge into Virginia quickly turned into a test of the endurance of both commanders, and the men in both armies. After the first bloody confrontation in the Wilderness, Grant, unlike previous commanders, did not retreat after suffering a defeat. Moving east and south he forced Lee to abandon his fortifications and shift Southward to assume a new position between the Federals and the Confederate's vital supply routes leading south towards Richmond. The next stop on the map was Spotsylvania Court House, after tense, disorganized night march was made, Federal troops deployed into line the next morning to find Lee's Confederates arriving just in time to construct earthworks.. Robert E. Lee had won the race, by May 8th both sides had heavily entrenched and the Union generals were overlooking the situation, on May 10, a young Colonel named Emory Upton organized 12 hand picked regiments for a previously unattempted maneuver. Upton formed his regiments 3 abreast, 4 deep, the first 3 being the only ones allowed to cap their musket to allow for istant firing. The plan was simple, to surprise the enemy with a sudden dash up onto the parapet, the first line was to wheel facing down each end of the line and fire down its length, the 2nd line was to blunt any Confederate troops attempting to counter attack and/or rush over and seize the second line of entrenchments, the rest of the force lying prone on the backside of the first line to provide reinforcements as needed. The men formed up in the damp morning and started toward the unseen enemy, as they neared the edge of the woods where 200 yards of open ground seperated them from their foe. They were reformed, and taken into the open, where they dashed forward with a yell, leaning forward into the storm of bullets. The men tore through the abatis, somewhat disorganizing their line, and rushed up to the parapet, hand to hand combat ensued, thrusting bayonets and firing into each others faces, as the Federals began to gain a foothold, what was supposed to be a reinforcing division to exploit the breakthrough was shattered under direct artillery fire as Mott's men moved to provide support, as large numbers of Confedreates began to counter-attack the breakthrough Upton's men slowly gave ground and eventually were compelled to withdraw. The attack did not go unnoticed. Several high ranking officers including Grant learned of or saw the event, and immediately organized an assault for the next day, in the same style, seeing how the Rebel line was breached so completely by a handful of men. They would try it now with 20,000, Hancocks veteran 2nd corps, what the Federals did not know, the salient which was the target of the attack was stripped of its extremely vital artillery as the Federals were thought to be retreating. Which left it extremely vulnerable to an assault in force.


As they massed in the still darkness, the Confederates on picket duty noticed a low hum of voices and shuffling feet, and sent back for their commanding officer to come take a listen, after determining something was astir desperate pleas to have the artillery returned were made, the battalion commander had already reached Spottsylvania Court House and had horses unharnessed and men lying about resting and sleeping, when the order to return the guns reached him, by that time the Federal divisions had formed up and started off into the wet rainy morning, all officers up to division level leaving horses behind, tramping through the mud, a dense skirmish line made by the 66th New York went rolling over the Confederate pickets before they could hear them coming, and the large mass of men continued toward the enemy earthworks which they had absolutely no information about. They came to a ridge they made out to be the Confederate line, and with a sudden cheer they wildly rushed forward in a disorganized mass to find no Confederates on it. Just behind in the hollow lay the real line, tangled abatis and all, the men occupying having been aroused now if they had not already been on alert for hours. The Yankees plunged forward, a sharp fire greeted them as they frantically tried to rip apart the abatis, in a moment the Federals were on the parapet engaging the Confederates through slits in the logs and pitching bayoneted rifles over as if "spearing whales". At that moment the 22 recalled cannon came careening up to swing into action, before they could do much damage 20 of the 22 guns were in Union hands, luckily or unfortunately no infantryman knew how to swing them around and operate them to their own advantage, 4,000 Confederate troops were captured en masse, as numbers began to show, more and more Confederates streamed out of the fight. The confident Yankees went bounding off into the woods after the fleeing Rebels, not as the tough spearhead of a corps, but a disorganized, excited mob that would dissolve when it met any sort of resistance, what they did not know was that a Confederate division was being readied to drive the Yankees out of their works. Lee himself attempting to lead the counter-attack, men could be heard shouting "Lee to the rear!" and themselves had led his horse in the opposite direction, because they knew the Confederacy would stay alive no longer than he did. The fierce counter attack swept whatever they met back to the scene of the breakthrough, where the Yankees prepared to use the entrenchments in reverse and keep a hold on their prize. Thus began the 22 hour struggle over the mile wide area throughout which a relentless rain came down on the living, dead, and wounded. Men fought with no more than a log between them, "whites of their eyes" close. Whole sectons of artillery batteries which attempted to join in the melee were killed to a horse and man, none left standing, wounded men found alive under piles of bodies 4 or more deep, drowning in the trench filling with water and blood, whole groves of trees torn away by the flying lead, men struggling to shove their way up and get a shot in. Others staggering a few feet behind the firing line and dropping in the mud, dead asleep. The climax of battle, which usually lasted only a moment, hung taut in the air, neither side giving way under the unbearable atomsphere, 22 hours this fighting went on. Confederate soldiers were desperately trying to keep the blue tide at bay until new works were constructed at the throat of the salient. Around midnight the exhausted Rebels quietly withdrew, practically concluding the horrendous fight at Spottsylvania, it was but a small event in the greater series of battles which preceeded such as the fruitless assault at Cold Harbor, the 9 month long seige of Petersburg, and eventually the surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9th, 1865.