Confederate Earthworks

After fighting on the evening of May 6, Longstreet’s troops began erecting these infantry entrenchments and improved them the following day. This was a reserve line, with the main Confederate position a few hundred yards in front along modern Hill-Ewell Drive. The small earthen mounds extending at right angles from the trenches, called traverses, protected against flanking artillery fire and provided a new defensive front if enemy infantry pierced the line. By 1864, armies routinely constructed field fortifications that displayed remarkable effort and engineering skill, and an elaborate defensive system could be built overnight. These earthworks used logs as well as dirt and originally stood four to six feet high, and Spotsylvania Court House Battlefield preserves outstanding examples of the soldiers’ entrenching prowess.

Virginia · United States