Number 1

Web Site

66 Pages

Response…..5
by David E. Roth

The Battle of the Bloody Angle, or “Mule Shoe”: Spotsylvania Court House, May 12, 1864…..6
by Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White

Union Colonel Emory Upton’s surprise attack on the western base of the Confederate “Mule Shoe” salient at Spotsylvania Court House on the evening of May 11, 1864 nearly succeeded spectacularly, and the success caused Union General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant to try it again on May 12…with Winfield Scott Hancock’s entire Union II Corps.  The attack smashed into Edward Johnson’s Confederate division holding the Mule Shoe, nearly wiping out the unit and capturing Johnson in the process.  The following 24 hours saw some of the worst fighting of the war as more men were fed into the maelstrom on both sides.  Lee decided to sacrifice men for time in order to build a new shorter, stronger line across the base of the salient.  Lee’s gamble succeeded, and by the early morning hours of May 13 the Confederates retired to this line.  Lee had lost over 8,000 men and Grant over 9,000 during the fighting.  The authors, who both work at the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, used a wide variety of sources from the park’s bound manuscript collection.

Spotsylvania Court House Order of Battle…..27

Author’s Endnotes…..28

Tour Maps…..53

On the Back Roads–Sacramento’s Civil War Legacy…..29
by Robert Bundy

Sacramento, California is not the first place you would think of as having a rich Civil War legacy, but it does, as described in this article.  The Old Sacramento Historic District contains many buildings which were around at the time of the Civil War.  The massive Victorian mansion of Leland Stanford, one of California’s wartime governors, was recently refurbished.  Sacramento also contains two Civil War Battlefield living tree memorials, a cemetery containing numerous veterans of the war, and a marker denoting the military camp which was formed in the city during the war.

Book Reviews…..37

1. The Ninth Vermont Infantry: A History and Roster by Paul G. Zeller
2. A Heart Divided: Letters of Sally Baxter Hampton 1853-1862 edited by Anne Fripp Hampton
3. Vital Rails: The Charleston & Savannah Railroad and the Civil War in Coastal South Carolina by H. David Stone, Jr.
4. The Jones-Imboden Raid by Darrell L. Collins
5. America’s Civil War: The Operational Battlefield, 1861-1863 by Brian Holden Reid
6. Colonels in Blue: Union Army Colonels of the Civil War–The Mid-Atlantic States: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia by Roger D. Hunt

Blue and Gray Sutler…..41

Driving Tour–The Bloody Angle at the Spotsylvania Court House Battlefield…..51
by Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White, with Dave Roth

This tour starts at the Chancellorsville Visitor Center and ends with a walking tour of the Mule Shoe salient.

B&G Back Issues…..66