Military
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To support Hancock’s May 12 assault at the East Angle, General Ambrose E. Burnside’s Ninth Corps attacked the eastern face of the Muleshoe Salient here. Pushing through wet woods, Burnside’s men reached this spot shortly after dawn, where General James H. Lane’s North Carolina brigade waited behind substantial earth-and-log trenches at the top of the hill. As the Federals approached, the Carolinians answered with prolonged cheers and deadly volleys. Some Union soldiers stopped to return fire, while others pressed on to the works and fought the Confederates hand to hand in a brief but lethal struggle. When Confederate reinforcements arrived, the Union troops withdrew down the slope and dug in here. For the rest of the day they remained pinned down, suffering 2,500 casualties without success. Formerly commander of the Army of the Potomac, Burnside had resigned after his defeat at Fredericksburg in December 1862, and by May 1864 he commanded the Ninth Corps.
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Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia · United States
