F@#$ The rest of Spotsylvania and Generica

So when I last finished off, Murph and I were finishing the Bloody Angle Hike.  This was actually stop #2 on the car tour.

Stop #1 was Upton's Attack.

 

Emory Upton was a young colonel who had a clever idea on how to assault the Confederate breastworks.  

Previously, during attacks, the Union would march up to within musket range and trade shots with the Confederates till one side had enough.  The battle lines were long and thin because you wanted the most coverage when you traded shots.  So digging these ditches was important.

Upton's idea was to limit the exposure of his brigade.  Instead of attacking on as broad of a front as he could, he narrowed his focus trying for a local break through.  He massed his men, and no one stopped and fired during the assault until the Yanks got into the Reb earthworks.   The problem with a local attack, is that its vulnerable to a counter attack.  You can take the position but you can't hold it.

This was thought of, and a division was assigned to 'support' this attack.  Support in this context means if/when Upton's brigade met his objective, the support division is supposed to march up and help.  Support him if you will.  Tactical labels aren't named to fool you.

The support division formed up in range of the Confederate canon telegraphing their intentions.  Of course this drew fire.  This drew so much fire that the new division was forced to retreat.  Upton's attack failed, but it was a close thing.

So a couple pics from the  Upton sign

Grant's persona was generally optimistic.  He didn't really need a whole lot of encouragement to keep up a fight.  He's known to have said on Upton's assault (paraphrased) "A brigade today?  A whole corps tomorrow"  (read 15,000 men instead of 1,500).  Grant actually delayed a day, wanting some extra time to properly prepare for this fight.

Lee took that delay, and some other reports to mean that Grant was about to move again, probably withdrawing.  It wasn't an awful assumption; Grant and Lee had clashed for a week this point, 2 days in The Wilderness and 5 days at Spotsylvania  Courthouse.  And Lee had gotten the better of Grant both times.  He withdrew his canon from the salient in preparation of moving to meet Grant again.


It was however a mistaken assumption.  This assault succeeded beyond the imaginations of the Union generals, and by the time they organized reinforcements, the Confederate's had regained their balance.  This started a 20 hour engagement.

Those of you have seen me in real life since I returned, you know that I have not stopped whining about a 16 hour train ride.  A train ride, where I did nothing more strenuous and stressful then sitting in an airline chair next to a pretty girl with a pierced tongue (totally out of range based on the half plus 7 rule).  I've led an easy life, and this battle is so outside my comprehension I can't even imagine it.

 Long story short, Lee rallied his troops and the counter attacks bought him enough time to build new entrenchments more aligned with his main battle lines.  Here's some pictures from stop #3 the east salient, which is where the Union massed for this attack.
 

So couple more spots on the car tour.

Heth's Salient faced attack after the Bloody Angle several days later.  No worthy pictures taken here.  This part of the park is a road and trees.

Fredericksburg Road was the route Grant used to redeploy to the southeast.

So Spotsyvania Courthouse off our list.  Sean and I head back up the road to Todd's Tavern.

This was an important moment in Grant's Overland campaign.  Chronologically for Grant it happens before the battle I just devoted this blog post too, but current time frame for Car Ramrod.

Marching down Brock Road, the Army of the Potomac KNOWS that they are going to turn left here.  It's been that pattern for 2 years.  Some general tries an attack, gets beat, then limps back to their proper side of the Rapidan.  Except they didn't turn left towards retreat.  They kept on going. 

The sight of this intersection is known as Todd's Tavern.

Jury is still out but this is an early contender for best snap shot I took.

So now, a babbling rant on Generica.

Sean wanted a car charger from Best Buy, so we headed towards Central Park, Fredericksburg

So I get Generica.  I've shopped at most of these places myself.  But this place was over the top.  This strip mall was as big as the Fredericksburg downtown, which we spent some time in, and we got lost in a strip mall TWICE, once looking for Best Buy and once looking for Target.  The point is, that I didn't travel 800 miles east to eat at Ruby Tuesday's.  And that's difficult to do at a lot of destinations.  Fortunately, Fredericksburg has a great downtown.  So Saturday night we ate at FoodE'

It's a neat place.  They serve meals with 'fresh' food, no long term storage.  So when they run out of something, that's it for the night.  Their menu had all but 2 entree's crossed out.  They had one pork chop left and some vegetarian dish.

Not a big deal.  I can't eat the pork chop after giving the finger to low sodium this afternoon at the Courthouse Cafe, so I get the chef salad.  Murph doesn't like pork chops so gets grilled cheese.  The salad was among the best I ever had.  Thanks FoodE'!

So anyways, end of Car Ramrod's day 1.