Battle of Spotsylvania Court House 1864
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Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 13 May 1864 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1864 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Location | United States | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | North America | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | American Civil War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | United States | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 38.2242, -77.5981 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, sometimes more simply referred to as the Battle of Spotsylvania (or the 19th-century spelling Spottsylvania), was the second major battle in Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Maj. Gen. George G. Meade's 1864 Overland Campaign of the American Civil War. Following the bloody but inconclusive Battle of the Wilderness, Grant's army disengaged from Confederate General Robert E. Lee's army and moved to the southeast, attempting to lure Lee into battle under more favorable conditions. Elements of Lee's army beat the Union army to the critical crossroads of the Spotsylvania Court House in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, and began entrenching. Fighting occurred on and off from May 8 through May 21, 1864, as Grant tried various schemes to break the Confederate line. In the end, the battle was tactically inconclusive, but both sides declared victory. The Confederacy declared victory because they were able to hold their defenses. The United States declared victory because the Union offensive continued and Lee's army suffered losses that could not be replaced. With almost 32,000 casualties on both sides, Spotsylvania was the costliest battle of the campaign.
On May 8, Union Maj. Gens. Gouverneur K. Warren and John Sedgwick (who was shot and killed during the battle on May 9) unsuccessfully attempted to dislodge the Confederates under Maj. Gen. Richard H.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Spotsylvania Court House (revision 1374823515), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
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- Battle of Salem Church 1863 · 9 km
- Battle of Chancellorsville 1863 · 11 km
- Battle of Fredericksburg 1862 · 14 km
- Second Battle of Fredericksburg 1863 · 14 km
- Battle of Franklin's Crossing 1863 · 15 km
Other battles of the American Civil War
- Siege of Suffolk 1863
- Siege of Vicksburg 1863
- Skirmish at Ashley's Mills 1863
- Skirmish near Brooklyn, Kansas 1863
- Skirmish of Sporting Hill 1863
- Action at Ashley's Station 1864
- Ambush of the steamboat J. R. Williams 1864
- Bahia incident 1864
- Battle of Adairsville 1864
- Battle of Albemarle Sound 1864
All 498 battles of the American Civil War →
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