Existing comment:
Changing War:
A New Kind of War
May 12, 1864
The intensity of the Civil War reached its peak at Spotsylvania Court House, which saw the most vicious close-quarters combat of the conflict. Prior to 1864, a typical soldier might have been under fire for ten hours in a year. At Spotsylvania, some were under fire for ten hours in a single day.
The climax came on May 12, 1864, at the apex of Lee's Mule Shoe Salient. There, for more than 20 hours the armies grappled for control of an almost imperceptible turn in the works ever-after known as the "Bloody Angle." |