Struggle for the Bloody Angle

Struggle for the Bloody Angle (HM191K)

Location: Spotsylvania, VA 22553 Spotsylvania County
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Country: United States of America
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N 38° 13.414', W 77° 35.967'

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Inscription

The Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse

For 22 hours combat raged on the landscape in front of you. Although the fighting extended for half a mile, the battle focused on (and became identified with) a slight bend in the Confederate lines known thereafter as the Bloody Angle. The fighting here consisted of sustained, close-range rifle fire punctuated by Union attempts to storm the Confederate works.

So heavy was the rifle fire that a 22-inch oak tree was felled by the impact of bullets alone. Bodies piled up in the rain-filled trenches, the living sometimes buried beneath the dead. After the battle, men were found torn by dozens of bullets. One man had 11 bullets though the soles of his feet alone. Another was so mutilated that friends could identify him only by the unusual color of his beard. It was carnage on an unimaginable scale.

The question became, pretty plainly, whether one was willing to meet death, not merely to run the chances of it.
Lieutenant James F. J. Caldwell
1st South Carolina Infantry

(captions)
Called by one modem observer the "signature artifact of America's military experience," the stump of the Bloody Angle oak is on display at the Smithsonian Institution.

"Strike for God and Country," by Don Stivers. Used with permission.
Details
HM NumberHM191K
Tags
Placed ByFredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park
Marker ConditionNo reports yet
Date Added Friday, October 10th, 2014 at 1:56pm PDT -07:00
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Locationbig map
UTM (WGS84 Datum)18S E 272451 N 4233815
Decimal Degrees38.22356667, -77.59945000
Degrees and Decimal MinutesN 38° 13.414', W 77° 35.967'
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds38° 13' 24.84" N, 77° 35' 58.02" W
Driving DirectionsGoogle Maps
Area Code(s)540
Closest Postal AddressAt or near 200-204 Bloody Angle Dr, Spotsylvania VA 22553, US
Alternative Maps Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap

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