17th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment

At 2 p.m. on May 12, 1864, two Ninth Corps brigades were ordered to attack Confederate works one-quarter mile southeast of this spot. The 17th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment, part of the 9th Corps, 3rd Division, 1st Brigade, held the extreme left of the Federal line. As it approached its objective, Brig. Gen. James Lane's North Carolina Brigade emerged from thick woods and struck its left flank. In the bloody hand-to-hand fighting that followed, the regiment lost its national colors and 189 of the 225 men it carried into battle. Its recorded losses for May 12, 1864, were 26 killed, 70 wounded, and 100 missing or captured. Three soldiers later received the Medal of Honor for their brave but unsuccessful efforts to save the colors.

Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia · United States