May 21, 1864

May 21, 1864

 

---Battle of Spotsylvania, Day 13:  By this evening, Grant finally gets Hancock’s flank march going, as he heads southward.  But Lee does not take the bait: instead, tomorrow he marches a parallel course to shadow the Federals and hopefully block them from their next target. 

This battle has been one of the bloodiest battles in the War.  It has been the longest battle in the war, being 14 days of constant engagement between the two armies.  Going into the battle, Grant has 100,000 troops under his active command, and Lee has no more than 52,000.  But a total of almost 32,000 casualties makes this one of the most costly of battles for either side.  Confederate Victory.

Losses

	Killed	Wounded	Captured/Missing	Total
U.S.	2,725	13,416	2,258	18,399
C.S.	1,515	5,414	5,758	12,687

 

Horace Porter, an aide-de-camp to Gen. Grant, writes his own impressions of the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, particularly of the fight at the Bloody Angle on May 12:

 

The opposing flags were in places thrust against each another, and muskets were fired with muzzle against muzzle.  Skulls were crushed with clubbed muskets, and men stabbed to death with swords and bayonets thrust between the logs in the parapet which separated the combatants.  Wild cheers, savage yells, and frantic shrieks rose above the sighing of the wind and the pattering of the rain, and formed a demoniacal accompaniment to the booming of the guns as they hurled their missiles of death into the contending ranks.  Even the darkness of night and the pitiless storm failed to stop the fierce contest, and the deadly strife did not cease till after midnight.