The 1st New Jersey Brigade at the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse

The May 9th -21st, 1864, Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse was the second battle of the Overland Campaign, and one of the bloodiest of the Civil War. The most intense fighting occurred on May 12th, when the U.S. forces attacked what was called the Mule Shoe Salient, a portion of the Confederate earthworks that extended out from the main Rebel line. In a hellish setting, thousands of troops from both sides were crowded together on either side of the earthworks, with intense combat including hand to hand fighting for hours in a pouring rain. Casualty numbers on both sides were enormous.

Battle of Spotsylvania by Thure de Thulstrup

General Horatio Wright

Five Union Corps—the 2nd, 5th, 6th, and 9th—took part in the May 12th attack. One of the brigades in the 6th Corps was the 1st New Jersey Brigade, consisting of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 10th, and 15th New Jersey Infantry regiments. This brigade of veteran regiments under the command of Colonel Henry W. Brown, made up the 1st brigade of Brigadier General David Russell’s 1st Division of Brigadier General Horatio Wright’s 6th Army Corps.

As the fighting got underway on the morning of May 12th, Wright’s 6th Corps formed the Union right as the U.S. troops attacked the salient. The 1st New Jersey Brigade was initially held in reserve until midmorning when it was ordered to move forward and form on the right of Colonel Emory Upton’s 2nd Brigade of Russell’s division. However, other units were already in place on Upton’s right, so the New Jersey men had to march farther to the right and then swing around to attack.

The brigade formed in two lines with the 1st, 4th, and 15th Regiments left to right in front and four companies of the 2nd Regiment on the left and the 3rd Regiment on the right behind the 1st line. Colonel Brown’s objective was an area of the Rebel line that was part of the West Angle of the Mule Shoe Salient, or as it came to be known, the Bloody Angle. This part of the Angle was occupied by Brigadier General Nathaniel H. Harris’ Brigade of Mississippians, but in order to attack that position, the New Jerseymen would have to swing to the left and rush past a portion of the line held by Brigadier General Stephen D. Ramseur’s Brigade of North Carolina regiments. This exposed the right of the brigade, especially the 15th New Jersey, to heavy fire from the North Carolinians. The regimental historian of the 15th recalled:

As soon as we appeared, charging over the open plain, they poured upon us their deadly, concentrated fire. Our direction brought us obliquely upon their work. For a long distance to our right the enemy’s rifle pits could be seen, and their occupants, having no attacking enemy on their front, poured an enfilading fire upon our ranks.

Much of the 15th’s right was obliterated by that enfilading fire. Despite that staggering blow, the brigade continued forward and portions of it advanced up and over the breastworks. The two sides engaged in hand to hand combat, with guns, bayonets, and sabers. The remainder of the 15th captured about 100 prisoners and one flag, but the brigade could not capitalize on the breach in the line and was compelled to retire, ending its fighting for the day after about a half hour of bloody conflict.

Struggle for the Works at the Bloody Angle Spotsylvania Court House

The brigade sustained heavy losses, with the 15th New Jersey suffering the most. All but one man in the color guard was a casualty, and several officers who were in the thick of the fighting were killed or wounded. The regimental historian recalled:

Captain James Walker, of Company D, our senior Captain, a brave man who always went where he was ordered, and always carried Company D with him, was shot

Captain James Walker, Co. D. 15th New Jersey KIA at Spotsylvania Court House May 12, 1864

through the head, just as we emerged from the trees upon open space. He fell back dead, with both arms outstretched….Captain Cornelius C. Shimer, Company A, was killed near Captain Walker, almost at the same moment and in the same way, being struck by a bullet in the head…Lieutenant George C. Justice, Company A, of whom Colonel Campbell said, “He was brave as a lion,” as he rose on the breastwork, waving his sword and shouting to his company, was shot by one of the skulking prisoners, who was in turn run through by the bayonet of a man from Company A.

Officers of the 15th New Jersey Infantry. Four were killed or mortally wounded and three others were wounded in the Spotsylvania fighting

Though the assault of May 12th was over, fighting around Spotsylvania Court House continued until the end of the May 19th Battle of Harris’s Farm.

In the battles at Spotsylvania Court House from May 8th-21st, the 1st New Jersey Brigade listed 780 total casualties, with 132 killed, 500 wounded, and 167 missing. Some of those wounded later died of their wounds. The 15th New Jersey reported 75 killed, 157 wounded, and 38 missing for the two week period; that was raised to 80 killed and mortally wounded in the fighting of May 12th alone. The 10th New Jersey reported 149 total casualties and the 3rd New Jersey had 148.

After the Battle of Harris’s Farm Grant resumed marching the Army of the Potomac south on the night of May 20th-21st, continuing his Overland Campaign.

Sources

The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern, May 7-12, 1864 by Gordon C. Rhea

“Hand to Hand Fighting at Spotsylvania” by G. Norton Galloway. In Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Volume IV. Edited by Robert U. Johnson and Clarence C. Buel

History of the Fifteenth Regiment New Jersey Volunteers by Alanson A. Haines

History of the First Brigade, New Jersey Volunteers From 1861-1865 by Camille Baquet

If It Takes All Summer: The Battle of Spotsylvania by William D. Matter

The Maps of Spotsylvania Through Cold Harbor: An Atlas of the Fighting at Spotsylvania Court House Through Cold Harbor, Including All Cavalry Operations, May 7 through June 3, 1864 by Bradley M. Gottfried

Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies in the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Volume 36, Part 1

Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1861-1865 by William F. Fox