Bloody angle.
McCool's house, within the “Bloody angle.”
The photographs were taken in 1864, shortly after the struggle of Spotsylvania Court House, and show the old dwelling as it was on May 12th, when the fighting was at flood tide all round it; and below, the
Confederate entrenchments near that blood-drenched spot.
At a point in these Confederate lines in advance of the
McCool house, the entrenchments had been thrown forward like the salient of a fort, and the wedge-shaped space within them was destined to become renowned as the “Bloody angle.”
The position was defended by the famous “Stonewall Division” of the
Confederates under command of
General Edward Johnson.
It was near the scene of
Upton's gallant charge on the 10th.
Here at daybreak on May 12th the divisions of the intrepid
Barlow and
Birney, sent forward by
Hancock, stole a march upon the unsuspecting Confederates.
Leaping over the breastworks the
Federals were upon them and the first of the terrific hand-to-hand conflicts that marked the day began.
It ended in victory for
Hancock's men, into whose hands fell 20 cannon, 30 standards and 4,000 prisoners, “the best division in the Confederate army.”
Flushed with success, the
Federals pressed on to
Lee's second line of works, where
Wilcox's division of the
Confederates held them until reenforcements sent by
Lee from
Hill and
Anderson drove them back.
On the
Federal side the Sixth Corps, with
Upton's brigade in the advance, was hurried forward to hold the advantage gained.
But
Lee himself was on the scene, and the men of the gallant
Gordon's division, pausing long enough to seize and turn his horse, with shouts of “
General Lee in the rear,” hurtled forward into the conflict.
In five separate charges by the
Confederates the fighting came to close quarters.
With bayonets, clubbed muskets, swords and pistols, men fought within two feet of one another on either side of the entrenchments at “Bloody angle” till night at last left it in possession of the
Federals.
None of the fighting near Spotsylvania Court House was inglorious.
On the 10th, after a day of strengthening positions on both sides, young
Colonel Emory Upton of the 121st New York, led a storming party of twelve regiments into the strongest of the
Confederate entrenchments.
For his bravery
Grant made him a brigadier-general on the field.
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The apex of the battlefield: McCool's house, within the “bloody angle.”
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Confederate entrenchments near “bloody angle” |
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