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This day in 1864 was the single most horrid battle of the Civil War. The Bloody Angle of Spotsylvania. 22 hours of face to face,hand to hand combat in pouring rain. Once engaged, the Soldiers of both sides refused to quit. Beyond the control of any officer or General, it was a true "Soldier's Battle", the most horrible of all battles. Many thousands died on a piece of ground about the size of a city block. Give thoughts and say a prayer for the thousands of brave men who died that day. Screw the North vs. South part, they were ALL Americans and ALL were our Brothers. Rest in the arms of the Angels Brothers.

Hear, hear.

AMEN!

Well said!

Indeed. RIP brothers.

Amen, RIP

Warfare often consumes the wrong people

It's cold there, in that spot, on the 12th of May.

The Bloody Angle is not large in area; maybe 1/2 the size of a city block, at most, and the epicenter could be covered by a baseball toss from a decent Little Leaguer. It's a space into which the Union and Confederacy packed a measure of Hell on Earth that may not have been rivaled before, and pray that it is never equaled again.

There's a small museum in Spotsylvania Courthouse that has artifacts from that battle. Among them is a barreled action from an Three-Band Enfield. The lock is broken, the barrel loaded, and the barrel bent about 10 degrees at EACH barrel band location.

A man took that musket that would no longer fire and wielded it as a club, swinging it so hard and so many times against his foes that the barrel bent to that degree.

Men that fell in that battle were buried, wounded but alive, beneath the bodies of the other fallen - often 4 or 5 deep. Men still fighting climbed atop the ramparts of the dead and dying to engage in hand-to-hand combat.

The piles of dead and wounded served as cover and concealment for both sides, and walls over which attackers and counter-attackers had to climb in order to face their foe; themselves often then becoming the next layer on that same wall.

Bodies were so mutilated that men's feet were shot to pieces, bodies identified only by the remains of beards or not identified at all. Body parts severed and separate were placed with bodies that might have once been the greater whole of a man based only on the most cursory view of uniform color and severed stumps.

This continued for 22 straight hours; throughout the day of May 12 and until roughly 0400 May 13. All day, and almost all night, these men fought in an intensity that is unimaginable, on through passing rain showers and a rather significant electrical storms with driving rains and high winds that hit near midnight. The last reinforcements to both sides were sent to the breach in that storm. These were men who had been seeing and hearing the battle rage for almost 18 hours; seeing the broken remains brought back to the lines, hearing and smelling the death that flowed from that spot. To them, it must have seemed as though they were being sent into the Front Door of Hell... and perhaps they were indeed.

It's always cold there, in that spot on the 12th of May...

I can't even begin to fathom it.

The ghosts cry in anguish. It wasn't rain that day. The Heavens cried.

May they rest in peace.

Ed

Such a grievous toll.....

What a savage war...and I do mean savage. When I think of Bull Run, Pickett's charge and Sherman's march I just cringe. powdr

The resolve of both sides was manifested in savage brotherly carnage so typical of this war.Once again bravery for their cause was beyond reproach...

Amen, and may those grand Americans, no matter whence they came, rest in peace.