The Battle of Spotsylvania

At Spotsylvania, the opposing armies fought a desperate, prolonged, and deadly contest that raged from morning through night amid terrific cannonades, fierce charges, panic, stampedes, and confused masses of horses, vehicles, and men, leaving acres of dead and mutilated soldiers. Throughout the winter of 1863-1864, the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia rested and refitted on opposite sides of the Rapidan River. Union ranks swelled with thousands of new draftees and recruits, even as many questioned their commitment to the cause, while Ulysses S. Grant resolved to use the greatest number of troops practicable and hammer continuously against the enemy until attrition left nothing to him. Commanded by Major General George Gordon Meade, the Army of the Potomac numbered 100,000 men and 344 cannon. The Confederates struggled to keep their regiments full, and in the Wilderness they brought 13,000 fewer men than they had fielded at Gettysburg the year before. With the understanding that Grant intended to hold on and fight until they were worn out, and that Confederate losses could not be replaced as Union losses could, General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia entered the campaign with 55,000 men and 228 cannon.

Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia · United States