Military
4
In the dank, pre-dawn light of May 12, 1864, Confederates huddled along muddy works heard Union troops approaching, and moments later the first of 20,000 Union soldiers poured over the works like a wave, engaging Confederate defenders in furious hand-to-hand combat. Nearly 400 yards of the Confederate line fell into Union hands as the blue-clad masses surged deeper into the Salient, threatening Lee’s army. While Union troops pushed forward into the woods behind this position, Lee scrambled to find troops to resist them and needed time to build a new line farther to the rear. Confederate troops, fully aware of the crisis, contested the Union advance and then pushed it back, eventually recapturing the works near the Bloody Angle. For the rest of the day they stubbornly held on, buying Lee the time he desperately needed.
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Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia · United States
