Posted on 05/08/2021 6:33:57 PM PDT by NohSpinZone
In May 1864, Confederate forces clashed with the advancing Union Army in the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, which lasted for the better part of two weeks and included some of the bloodiest fighting of the Civil War. After an indecisive battle in the dense Virginia woods known as the Wilderness ended on May 7, Union General Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the Potomac marched southward, meeting Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia once again at the crossroads town of Spotsylvania Court House the next day. Over the 12 days that followed, Union troops briefly broke the Confederate line, but the rebels managed to close the gap and hold their ground.
The battle, which cost 18,000 Union and 11,000 Confederate casualties, included nearly 20 hours of brutal hand-to-hand combat at the infamous “Bloody Angle,” a section of the Confederate salient, on May 12-13. On May 21, Grant disengaged his troops and ordered them to continue their march south toward the Confederate capital of Richmond.
(Excerpt) Read more at history.com ...
#5. Try standing at the top of Little Round Top at Gettysburg, looking down the slope and fields where Pickett led his bloody “charge”, imagining how many bodies were lying there in the sun as the battle raged.
All brave men, but thank God for Chamberlain and his men.
The “Bloody Spring” ended in the stalemate at Petersburg. A blow to Northern morale that endangered Lincolns re-election. The Atlanta Campaign successes put Lincoln back on top.
All of this bloodshed to get Lincoln re-elected.
It was all to put down the Southern rebellion. Who won the 1864 election wasn't going to change the outcome of the war.
LOL. That spring "offensive" was timed to get Richmond to fall just before the Nov. elections.
LOL! Grant was the first Union general to realize that taking Richmond would solve nothing. Lee's army was target. Destroy that and the rebellion ends.
Spotsylvania C.H. proves my point. Grant hits a wall there and instead of grinding it out he wheels left and keeps going stretching his his supply chain to the breaking point. Why? He wanted to take Richmond for his top hatted Fuhrer.
The Union supply chain was never an issue. Why did Grant move to the left? Because he knew Lee would have to move with him. Lee would have to be reactive and not proactive and Grant would have the initiative. And yes, Lee would have to worry about Richmond - Comrade Davis would make sure of that. But in the end it all wound up at Petersburg and not Richmond. If Richmond had been Grant's aim then all he needed to do was shift to the right and take it once he had Lee bottled up. But it was Lee's army and not Richmond that was Grant's goal.
Amazing that anyone made it out of it alive. And I thought Chancellorsville was bad.
Thank you for sharing.
I’ve been with the Civil War Preservation for some years too. Donate all the time.
LOL!!!!
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