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MAY 8: GRANT AND LEE MEET AT LAUREL HILL
Fitzhugh Lee's cavalrymen used the night of May 7-8 to
strengthen their log barricades across Brock Road. At morning's first
light, Brigadier General Wesley Merritt's Union cavalry division
attacked the makeshift blockades with little success. Warren's Fifth
Corps meanwhile advanced to the front. Around 7:00 A.M., when it became
clear that Merritt was stymied, Meade ordered Warren to punch through
with infantry.
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LIKE HIS MENTOR, JEB STUART, FITZ LEE WAS A SPIRITED AND CAPABLE
CAVALRYMAN. HIS STUBBORN FIGHTING ON THE BROCK ROAD ON MAY 7-8 ENABLED
CONFEDERATE FORCES TO REACH SPOTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE AHEAD OF THE UNION
INFANTRY. (BL)
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The Union Fifth Corps started down Brock Road, Brigadier General John
C. Robinson's division leading, followed by Griffin's. Fitzhugh Lee's
exhausted horsemen retired before superior numbers. About a mile south,
at the Alsop place, Brock Road split into two branches that bowed apart,
then joined again on the Spindle farm's northern edge. James Breathed,
who was commanding Fitzhugh Lee's horse artillery, made a stirring stand
at the Alsop place until one of his guns became mired in the freshly
plowed field. "Surrender that gun, you rebel scoundrel!" Northerners
hollered as they approached the piece. Breathed freed the gun from its
injured team, mounted the wheel horse, and brought the piece to safety
through a hail of bullets, all the while brazenly thumbing his nose at
the Yankees.
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ANDERSON WINS THE RACE TO SPOTSYLVANIA: MAY 8
Successful delaying tactics by Fitzhugh Lee enable Anderson's men to
reach Laurel Hill just minutes ahead of the Union army. Warren
repeatedly attacks Anderson's position on the ridge, but his
uncoordinated assaults fail to dent the Confederate line. Toward evening
Sedgwick pushes past Warren's left in an effort to turn Anderson out of
his position, only to be thwarted by the arrival of Ewell's corps.
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In a final attempt to stem the blue-clad tide cresting down Brock
Road, Fitzhugh Lee formed his division along a shallow ridge below the
Spindle clearing. Jeb Stuart arrived and helped Lee stake out his
formation along the rise, which Union officers dubbed Laurel Hill. The
Rebel cavalry chief, a soldier reminisced, was "just as cool as a piece
of ice, though all the time laughing."
While Fitzhugh Lee waged his determined delaying action, Anderson's
First Corps moved south on parallel roads. Near sunrise, Anderson's men
bivouacked near Block House Bridge on the Po. They were but a short
distance from Laurel Hill and breakfasted to the rattle of musketry
from Lee's and Warren's bitter action. Suddenly messengers from Lee
pounded up with pleas for Anderson's help. He hurried his foremost
units—the brigades of Colonel John W. Henagan and of Brigadier
General Benjamin G. Humphreys, along with Major John C. Haskell's
artillery battalion—toward Laurel Hill. As Anderson's men reached
the back side of the ridge, Stuart waved them into place. According to
witnesses, Warren's Federals were no more than a hundred yards away. Lee
had been saved by a last-minute rescue that modern Hollywood could
scarcely rival.
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RICHARD H. ANDERSON HAD ONLY BEEN IN COMMAND OF THE FIRST CORPS FOR ONE
DAY WHEN LEE ORDERED HIM TO MARCH TO SPOTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE. (LC)
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Warren assumed that only cavalry occupied the far ridge and ordered
his troops ahead. "Never mind cannon! Never mind bullets! Press on and
clear this road," he reportedly shouted, then added in a more practical
vein: "It's the only way to get to your rations."
The Union charge dissolved into a rout. Troops advancing east of
Brock Road dropped into a depression and found themselves pinned against
the steep side of Laurel Hill by Confederate musketry whizzing overhead.
Units west of the roadway were slammed by blistering fire as they
reached a high spot in the field near the Spindle house. Some of
Griffin's soldiers managed to reach the Confederate works but lacked
the support necessary to achieve a breakthrough. As his remaining
divisions arrived—Crawford's Pennsylvania Reserves and Cutler's
division, formerly under Wadsworth—Warren pushed them into the
melee. The result was tremendous Union casualties.
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AS HIS TROOPS CAME TUMBLING BACK IN CONFUSION FROM LAUREL HILL,
GOUVERNEUR WARREN RALLIED THEM AROUND THE FLAG OF THE THIRTEENTH
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS. (LC)
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By noon, Warren had abandoned any pretext of taking Laurel Hill by
storm and began concentrating instead on massing his corps behind
earthworks along the Spindle clearing's northern edge. Soldiers
complained that the affair had been poorly managed and their numerical
advantage "dissipated by dribbling into the attack regiment after
regiment, each succeeding one too late to be of any service to the one
that had gone before." Another mumbled, "There appeared to have been a
miscalculation somewhere."
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