Bloody Angle, Crowded Ravine

Fighting at the Muleshoe Salient centered on a slight turn in the Confederate earthworks known as the Bloody Angle, where a small knoll commanded adjacent parts of the Confederate line and control of the knoll meant control of the Salient. For 22 hours Union and Confederate soldiers fought for possession of the Angle, firing across the works and engaging in hand-to-hand combat. Union soldiers took cover in the ravine in front of the position and repeatedly rushed forward to attack the Angle, but were beaten back each time, leaving the ground between the ravine and the Angle strewn with hundreds of wounded and dying men. Bodies lay three, four, even five deep, creating what one man called “a perfect rampart of [the] dead….” By day’s end, up to 17,000 men had been killed, wounded, or captured, most within sight of this ground, while thousands of troops covered the area and the Union battle lines extended for nearly a half mile.

Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia · United States