Description

The struggle over the fortified Confederate position known as Spotsylvanias Mule Shoe was without parallel during the Civil War A Union assault that began at 430 AM on May 12 1864 sparked brutal combat that lasted nearly twentyfour hours By the time Grants forces withdrew some 55000 men from Union and Confederate armies had been drawn into the fury battling in torrential rain along the fieldworks at distances often less than the length of a rifle barrel One Union private recalled the fighting as a seething bubbling soaring hell of hate and murder By the time Lees troops established a new fortified line in the predawn hours of May 13 some 17500 officers and men from both sides had been killed wounded or captured when the fighting ceased The site of the most intense clashes became forever known as the Bloody Angle

Here renowned military historian Jeffry D Wert draws on the personal narratives of Union and Confederate troops who survived the fight to offer a gripping story of Civil War combat at its most difficult Werts harrowing tale reminds us that the wars story often told through its commanders and campaigns truly belonged to the common soldier