Spotsylvania Sentinel 5 x 7 pastel on Uart 400 grit 8 ply board

On May 10, 1864, at approximately 6:30 PM, Union troops under the command of Colonel Emory Upton would burst through the woods in the distance in an attempt to breach the Confederate earthworks approximately 200 yards away. Unlike most assaults of the time, instead of forming his troops in a line, and formed them in a tightly compacted column, all with fixed bayonets and only the first three ranks loaded to fire their muskets. The idea was to act like a battering ram and to overwhelm the soldiers in gray.

Upton’s troops covered the 200 yards in a matter of seconds. The initial line of soldiers were cut down by the Georgians defending the Confederate trenches, but they were soon overwhelmed by the mass of blue who cut through their line like a hot knife through butter. Onward came the blue wave toward the CSA second line. Here they met resistance from the reinforcements deployed by Lee to break the Union assault. The Union troops held, but Upton, realizing no reinforcements were coming to his aid, slowly pulled back to his own lines.

Upton’s plan was only to penetrate the Confederate entrenchments and to that end, it would be considered a success. General Grant, would take that success two days later and send the entire second Corps under Winfield Hancock to assault the same general area in a similar fashion. The Muleshoe would become synonymous with the term the horrors of war, as American fathers, sons, brothers and young men would commit untold amounts of carnage upon each other not before seen in this already far too bloody conflict.