Fury at the Bloody Angle: Spotsylvania, Part III

Grant's May 11 preparations for a major assault the next day were hampered by the first fall of rain in two weeks. The weather changed from unbearably hot to unseasonably wet, windy, and cold. But this mattered not to the commanding general, whose spirits and hopes remained very high. He ordered Hancock to march his corps from the extreme right to a position due north of the Mule Shoe salient. It would be with this corps that Grant would throw at the enemy formations in the same fashion Upton did the previous day. Ambrose Burnside's independent IX Corps, on the extreme left, would be thrown against the eastern face of the Mule Shoe as Hancock spear-headed the center. The other two corps--Warren's and Wright's--would remain behind ready to fill in after Hancock broke through and created a gap in the Confederate stronghold.

The weather that delayed Grant somewhat also played to his advantage. By his not attacking on the 11th, something he wasn't going to do anyway, Lee was left wondering about Grant's intentions. Based on reports of Federals marching east in front of Anderson's line (Hancock's corps) as well as on his own assumptions, Lee conjectured that Grant was pulling out for yet another flanking march, or perhaps toward Fredericksburg. However, some of his subordinates believed Grant was a butcher preparing for yet another attack. They were confident that Grant was simply slaughtering his own troops by attacking such formidable positions. "Gentlemen," Lee responded, "I think General Grant has managed his affairs remarkably well up to the present time" (Jaynes, 1986, p. 94).

To prepare for the possibility of needing to react to a flanking march, Lee ordered 22 of Ewell's 30 guns limbered and ready to move out on a minute's notice. These cannon were removed from the Mule Shoe itself, just hours before Hancock's attack on that salient would begin. This made many of the men in Johnson's and Rodes' divisions nervous. In fact, it was around midnight--just after the guns were removed from the line--that a rumbling noise from the east seemed to be heading in the direction of the Confederate stronghold. That noise was an army on the move, and the men in Johnson's division knew it. Johnson hurriedly scribbled a message to Ewell imploring him to return the guns. Though promised the return of the cannon by 2 a.m., they did not actually reach the lines until after the fighting started on the morning of May 12.

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