Spotsylvania Court House, Battle of the

The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, sometimes simply referred to as the Battle of Spotsylvania (or the 19th century spelling Spottsylvania), is the second major battle in Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Overland Campaign of the American Civil War.

Following the bloody but inconclusive Battle of the Wilderness, Grant's army disengages from Confederate General Robert E. Lee's army and moves to the southeast, attempting to lure Lee into battle under more favorable conditions.

Elements of Lee's army beat the Union army to the critical crossroads of Spotsylvania Court House and begin entrenching.

Fighting occurs on and off from May 8 through May 21, 1864, as Grant tries various schemes to break the Confederate line.

In the end, the battle is tactically inconclusive, but with almost 32,000 casualties on both sides, it is the costliest battle of the campaign.On May 8, Union Maj. Gens.

Gouverneur K. Warren and John Sedgwick unsuccessfully attempt to dislodge the Confederates under Maj. Gen. Richard H. Anderson from Laurel Hill, a position that is blocking them from Spotsylvania Court House.

On May 10, Grant orders attacks across the Confederate line of earthworks, which by now extend over 4 miles (6.5 km), including a prominent salient known as the Mule Shoe.

Although the Union troops fail again at Laurel Hill, an innovative assault attempt by Col. Emory Upton against the Mule Shoe shows promise.Grant uses Upton's assault technique on a much larger scale on May 12 when he orders the 15,000 men of Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock's corps to assault the Mule Shoe.

Hancock is initially successful, but the Confederate leadership rallies and repulses his incursion.

Attacks by Maj. Gen. Horatio G. Wright on the western edge of the Mule Shoe, which becomes known as the "Bloody Angle", involves almost 24 hours of desperate hand-to-hand fighting, some of the most intense of the Civil War.

Supporting attacks by Warren and by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside are unsuccessful.Grant repositions his lines in another attempt to engage Lee under more favorable conditions and launches a final attack by Hancock on May 18, which makes no progress.

A reconnaissance in force by Confederate Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell at Harris farm on May 19 is a costly and pointless failure.

On May 21, Grant disengages from the Confederate Army and starts southeast on another maneuver to turn Lee's right flank, as the Overland Campaign continuestoward the Battle of North Anna.

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