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Show The "Bloody Angle" May 12, 1864 TVTEN fought from the top of ''-I heaps of dead men, till their own bodies were added to the pile and others came to take their places. Not a tree or a sapling was left alive and standing. One tree, nearly two feet in diameter, was literally lit-erally cut In two by musket balls." So the historic Elson speaks of the fighting In the "Bloody Angle" at the battle of Spotsylvania, May 12, 1864. "The battle," he goes on, "was one of the' most tremendous of modern times. Had It continued another day, it would have surpassed Get "The Battle Was One of the Most Tremendous of Modern Times." tysburg. Neither side won. The losses, about the same on each side, footed up the frightful total of 36,-000 36,-000 men." The "Bloody Angle," which Elson describes, Is known to British military mil-itary historians as the Salient. It was an almost octagonal bulge in Lee's battle line, protecting Spotsylvania Spotsyl-vania Court House. Manned by the remnants of Stonewall Jackson's veteran "foot cavalry," it was overwhelmed over-whelmed when Hancock's federals swept over the breastworks in the mists of dawn. Disordered by the excitement of their own success, the Union forces were at once attacked by Lee. The result was the deadliest dead-liest fighting of the Civil war. Orderly furrows have replaced the ominous breastworks In some parts of the battlefront, and farm produce pro-duce Is growing where once death swept by. Yet a great part of the "Bloody Angle" field is marked almost al-most as clearly as on the day when thousands of valiant men were killed within and on either side of the sector. The trenches, which were partly filled and which later served as the burying ground for thousands, still are plainly visible. Trees have grown up in the years that have passed, but they have served only to lend a softening touch to the view of the row of rifle pits In advance of the front line, the ammunition holes, the supporting sup-porting trenches and the gun emplacements em-placements which General Lee built when Spottsylvanla Court House was the wedge In the Federal line held by the Confederates. At the tip of this wedge now stand three small granite monuments monu-ments as tributes to the bravery of the New York, New Jersey and Ohio regiments that were mowed down by buckshot and minie balls from the guns of Lee's mra. The "Bloody Angle" Is now a peaceful breastwork covering four acres, and has been given to the United States by Mr. and Mrs. Edward Ed-ward T. Stuart of Philadelphia. Through their generosity It becomes., therefore, what it shonld be. a part ! of America's holy ground. New ' York EverJng Post. |