Spotsylvania - Warren's Attacks

Laurel Hill or the Spindle Farm

May 8-12, 1864

 

     On May 8th, due the delaying actions of Confederate cavalry, Anderson was able to block the road to Spotsylvania Courthouse before the Army of the Potomac, with Warren's V Corps in the lead, could reach the crossroads.  A dispute between Meade and Sheridan had led to Grant dispatching his cavalry on a raid to Richmond.  Without any cavalry scouts himself and thinking that he was still facing only Confederate cavalry, Warren would order hasty piecemeal attacks in the area of the Spindle Farm which failed with heavy losses.   Having been slow in the battle of the Wilderness, Warren perhaps acted rashly in reaction here at Spotsylvania.

   


Spindle Farm / Laurel Hill

    Warren's men approached along the Brock Road on the right of the picture.  Hancock Road and Grant Drive didn't exist at the time, but they now roughly mark where the Union army would later entrench.  In several fights already that morning, Warren had faced only cavalry, and a scout reported that he had seen only cavalry beyond the Spindle Farm, but he also reported that the enemy had knapsacks, an item cavalrymen did not have.

    At around 8:30 am, advancing without skirmishers in a column with a one regiment front, Lyle's brigade attacked toward the intersection in the area to the left of the Brock Road.  (At the time, a strip to the left of the road was cleared.)  At this intersection, the road continues straight, becoming the Block House Road which later crosses the Po River.  Forking off to the left, the Brock Road continues to the vital crossroads of Spotsylvania Courthouse.  Henagen's brigade of Kershaw's division had only recently been guided into place by none other than Jeb Stuart, and as had become the custom, they began to entrench.  The Yankees got to within 30 yards of the position but broke and took cover on the lower slopes of the hill.

Later in the Battle:  As the subsequent attacks failed, Lyle's brigade was attacked on their left flank and fell back beyond modern Grant Drive into the Alsop Field.  Pursuing Confederates briefly took some cannon, but Warren rallied his men, and the Confederates returned to their original positions.  Other repulsed brigades on the far side of the Brock Road fell back behind modern Hancock Road before rallying.

    After Lyle's advance, Denison's 700 man brigade of three Maryland regiments arrived, and like their predecessors, they attacked in column without skirmishers, this time through the area between the Brock Road and the Spindle House.  Reaching the ridgetop about 100 yards in front of the Confederate position, they came under small arms fire from the front, and enfilade artillery fire from the intersection.  They stopped to return fire, and confusion predictably ensued.  But the Yankees advanced closer to the Confederate position before falling back, having lost nearly 200 men, including brigade commander Denison, and division commander Robinson wounded.

    Bartlett's brigade was next, attacking through the area to the right of the Spindle House, with Aryes' brigade advancing in support to his right.


Bartlett Attacks

    Advancing from the low wooded area on the far left of the picture, Bartlett's brigade crossed the ridgeline near where this picture was taken, with their left flank near the Spindle House near the prominent tree.  Denison's brigade was to their front left in the grassy area in the right-center of the picture.  At some point, the attack bogged down, but the brigade got moving again.  Descending into the ravine on the right of the picture, Bartlett's men continued up the slope toward the Confederate lines, probably even reaching them and engaging in hand to hand combat.

    The flight of Denison's brigade, however, made Bartlett's flank vulnerable, and a Confederates attack exploited this, sending Bartlett back also.  Ayres' brigade on the right flank of this series of disjointed attacks got to within a few yards of the Confederate position, but was also repulsed.  It was still only around 9:15 at this point.    


    Crawford and Cutler's divisions of Warren's V Corps arrived and advanced at around 10:30, but the Confederate defenses held once again.  Sedgwick's VI Corps arrived and probed east, halting in the face of Confederate troops at what became the Mule Shoe Salient.  At the same time, a relatively insignificant action also took place at here at Laurel Hill.  For reasons unknown, soldiers would in error call this area Laurel Hill, and the name stuck.


Ward's Penetration

    May 9th passed with the armies concentrating and entrenching.  For May 10th, Grant planned to use Hancock's II Corps to move around Lee's left flank to the west across the Po River.  (On the map, north is down.)  Meeting resistance, Hancock withdrew, but he was lucky he didn't lose much of his command as it re-crossed the river.  Since Lee's left was protected, Grant believed that he must be weak elsewhere, so he ordered a large scale attack on Confederate positions at 5pm.  Upton's attack would be the most prominent part of this attack.  Warren, however, successfully lobbied to conduct an earlier attack.  Like the ones before, it failed.  Rice's brigade got closest to the Confederate lines, but he was repulsed and he fell mortally wounded.  (This was in the area of the clearing on the left of the picture, which then was wooded, between where the photo was taken and the Spindle House.  The prominent treeline roughly marks the location of the Confederate entrenchments.)

    Warren's attack also disrupted the plan for the large scale 5pm attack, which was pushed back to 6pm.  This, in turn, disrupted the support Mott's division was to give to Upton's attack on the Mule Shoe.  Warren couldn't meet the 6pm schedule, and instead planned to attack at seven, with Hancock starting off first to his right.  Hancock's corps attacked along this portion of the line, with Ward's brigade of Birney's division gaining the most success.  Attacking in column in this vicinity, near where the Confederate line began to bend back to the rear, the Yankees scaled the earthworks and moved into an artillery redoubt held by the Richmond Howitzers.  A counterattack, however, forced them back.  Seeing the result, Warren's corps did not continue the attack, although its support may have taken the position.

    No major action took place on May 11th, but Grant began withdrawing the II Corps from this area for a massive assault on the Mule Shoe early on the 12th.  With the early success of that attack, Warren was ordered forward in order to pin down Anderson's Confederates, but he got his men started later than expected, and were once again repulsed.  Anderson was able to send reinforcements to the endangered Mule Shoe sector.

 


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