battle of spotsylvania

Battle of SpotsylvaniaMay 8-19, 1864

Commanders

• Ulysses S. Grant led the Union.

• Robert E. Lee led the Confederates.

Ulysses S. Grant Robert E. Lee

Where did the come from?

• Union troops were sent from the Battle of the Wilderness southeast to Richmond while trying to pressure the Confederate right flank.

• Lee sent Richard Anderson to meet the Union at Spotsylvania in an attempt to stall the Union until the main Confederate army could arrive.

Richard H. Anderson Richard Ewell

Phillip Henry SheridanGouverneur K. Warren

The Beginning

• Anderson’s troops met and fought with Philip H Sheridan’s Union Cavalry and Gouverneur K. Warren’s Corps on May 8.

• Richard Ewell came on May 9 to reinforce Richard Anderson.

May 9, 1864

• All the forces had reached the field.

• Lee’s forces held the high ground and both flanks extended to the Poe River. Here they dug entrenchments covered by trees.

• A.P. Hill was on the Confederate Right. Richard Ewell held the center. Richard H. Anderson was on the left.

To Richmond• Grant gave Phillip Sheridan permission to

move towards Richmond.

• Lee sent J.E.B. Stuart and his cavalry to chase Sheridan down.

• J.E.B. Stuart was mortally wounded in the liver at a clash at Yellow Tavern. He died on May 12, 1864.

May 10,1864• Colonel Emory Upton penetrated Richard

Ewell’s entrenchments at the Confederate center. This caused the Union to capture 300 Confederates. However, Confederate reinforcements drove the Union back.

May 12, 1864

• Grant sent Winfield Scott Hancock and 18,000 Union troops to attack the Confederate center.

• The Union captured 2,8000 Confederates and 20 cannons, but were turned away by reinforcements.

Bloody Angle

• On May 12, there was savage hand-to-hand fighting across the breastworks. Rank after rank was killed.

Rain

• Rain slows battle until May 17 when Grant again attacks the Confederate center.

• The attack, made by Hancock, had heavy losses and did not gain ground.

The End

• The battle finishes in a stale mate, and Grant leaves the area. Lee continues to try to cut him off.

• Union – 100,000 men at battle– 18,399 dead

• Confederates– 50,000 men at battle– 10,000 dead