McCool's house, within the "Bloody Angle." The photographs were taken in
1864, shortly after the struggle of Spotsylvania Court House, and show the
old dwelling as it was on May 12th, when the fighting was at flood tide
all round it; and below, the Confederate entrenchments near that
blood-drenched spot. At a point in these Confederate lines in advance of
the McCool house, the entrenchments had been thrown forward like the
salient of a fort, and the wedge-shaped space within them was destined to
become renowned as the "Bloody Angle." The position was defended by the
famous "Stonewall Division" of the Confederates under command of General
Edward Johnson. It was near the scene of Upton's gallant charge on the
10th. Here at daybreak on May 12th the divisions of the intrepid Barlow
and Birney, sent forward by Hancock, stole a march upon the unsuspecting
Confederates. Leaping over the breastworks the Federals were upon them and
the first of the terrific hand-to-hand conflicts that marked the day
began. It ended in victory for Hancock's men, into whose hands fell 20
cannon, 30 standards and 4,000 prisoners, "the best division in the
Confederate army."
[Illustration: CONFEDERATE ENTRENCHMENTS NEAR "BLOODY ANGLE"]
Flushed with success, the Federals pressed on to Lee's second line of
works, where Wilcox's division of the Confederates held them until
reënforcements sent by Lee from Hill and Anderson drove them back. On the
Federal side the Sixth Corps, with Upton's brigade in the advance, was
hurried forward to hold the advantage gained. But Lee himself was on the
scene, and the men of the gallant Gordon's division, pausing long enough
to seize and turn his horse, with shouts of "General Lee in the rear,"
hurtled forward into the conflict. In five separate charges by the
Confederates the fighting came to close quarters. With bayonets, clubbed
muskets, swords and pistols, men fought within two feet of one another on
either side of the entrenchments at "Bloody Angle" till night at last left
it in possession of the Federals. None of the fighting near Spotsylvania
Court House was inglorious. On the 10th, after a day of strengthening
positions on both sides, young Colonel Emory Upton of the 121st New York,
led a storming party of twelve regiments into the strongest of the
Confederate entrenchments. For his bravery Grant made him a
brigadier-general on the field.
[Illustration: UNION ARTILLERY MASSING FOR THE ADVANCE THAT EWELL'S ATTACK
DELAYED THAT SAME AFTERNOON