Spotsylvania Courthouse, Battle of
SPOTSYLVANIA COURTHOUSE, BATTLE OF
SPOTSYLVANIA COURTHOUSE, BATTLE OF (8–21 May 1864). An advance corps of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's southward march from the Wilderness in Virginia was stopped northwest of Spotsylvania Courthouse by Confederate troops under Gen. Richard Anderson. After a failed Union assault on 9 May, Confederate generals Richard Ewell and Ambrose Hill entrenched along a front four miles long. Here on 10 May they repulsed waves of attacks by Union forces under Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock and Gen. Ambrose Burnside. Another Union offensive on 12 May captured Ewell's salient but was driven back in hand-to-hand combat. About midnight Ewell retired to an inner line. Thereafter, for some days Grant gradually withdrew south. Grant's losses at Spotsylvania were seventeen thousand; Lee's, eight thousand.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Gallagher, Gary W., ed. The Spotsylvania Campaign. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998.
Matter, William D. If It Takes All Summer: The Battle of Spotsylvania. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988.
Rhea, Gordon C. The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern, May 7–12,1864. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press 1997.
Joseph Mills.Hanson/a. r.
See alsoCivil War ; Cold Harbor, Battle of ; Petersburg, Siege of ; Richmond Campaigns ; Army of Northern Virginia ; Wilderness, Battles of the .