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Writer's pictureGeorge Castrioti

May 10th, 1864 - The Battle of Spotsylvania

Conflict: American Civil War

Combatants: Confederates vs. Federals

Location: Virginia (USA)

Outcome: Inconclusive


Seeking to meet and destroy Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, Federal General Ulysses Grant confronted the Confederate army in a series of engagements from May 8th to May 18th, 1864. On May 10th, a Federal assault on the Confederate center failed and was followed by a second assault under Colonel Emory Upton, initially successful, but turned back when support troops did not advance as planned.


Battle of Spotsylvania by Kurz & Allison

Point of Interest:

  • Over the ten days of fighting, the Union suffered about 17,000 casualties; the Confederates approximately 10,000.

  • Grant would later be elected as President of the United States; Lee would serve as President of Washington College (Washington and Lee College).


Major General Ulysses S. Grant by E. and H.T. Anthony
General Robert E. Lee by Mathew Benjamin Brady





















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Sources:

Bowman, John S. (Ed.) (1983). The Civil War Almanac. New York: World Almanac.


Catton, Bruce (1955). This Hallowed Ground. Kingsport, Tennessee: Kingsport Press, Inc.


Dupuy, Trevor N., Johnson, Curt, & Bongard, David L. (1992). The Harper's Encyclopedia of Military Biography. New York: Castle Books (HarperCollins).


Dupuy, R. Ernest & Dupuy, Trevor N. (1993). The Harper's Encyclopedia of Military History. New York: HarperCollins.


Eggenberger, David (1985). An Encyclopedia of Battles: Accounts of Over 1,560 Battles from 1479 B.C. to the Present. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.


Hogue, James M. & McPherson, James M. (2009). Ordeal By Fire. New York: MaGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.


Long, E.B & Long, Barbara (1971). The Civil War Day by Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. New York: De Capo Press, Inc.

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