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Click here
for the larger picture.
In this picture, you are standing right in front of
the Confederate earthworks at the Bloody Angle. The
entrenchments behind you would have been shoulder height, rain would
have been falling, and the mud here slick and slippery. You
can see from the terrain how a Union soldier, moving along the
valley and trying to keep from exposing himself to fire from the
Confederate line extending to your right would have been naturally
funneled to this position.
The monument on the left of the picture marks a
second ridge. The other side of it was also shielded from
Confederate view, but the moment they crossed the ridge they were
exposed to fire. The monument marks where many Union soldiers
died, coming out of the low ravine and into the hail of Confederate
fire.
At this position, Union soldiers would have huddled
in the mud and rain, before climbing onto or over the wall, to shoot
at or engage Confederate soldiers in vicious hand to hand combat on
the other side.
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Click here
for the larger picture.
This view is taken from the Confederate side of the
entrenchments, marked here by natural grass and protected with a
rope barrier. This would have been lined with logs, shoulder
height, with traverses every twenty feet so no one could fire down
the line.
For a defending soldier, it would have been like
being in a three sided, shoulder height roofless log cabin twenty
feet wide, with Union soldiers vaulting over the top in the rain and
mud and engaging you in hand to hand combat, or firing at point
blank range.
As Confederate reinforcements moved up into this
area, they were met by a steady stream of unseen Union soldiers
moving up from the ravine beyond, and they would continually meet
face to face behind this entrenchment for the next twenty hours.
Bodies and wounded stacked up layers deep, making it
even harder to stand in the water and blood drenched mud.
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The Bloody Angle was also more than just the scene
of savage hand to hand fighting. At this location, a
twenty-two inch oak tree was eventually cut down by the number of
Minie balls striking it. You can see the actual stump at the
Smithsonian Institute - click
here.
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A monument to the 6th Corps men who died while
attacking the Bloody Angle.
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Another monument to the Union soldiers who attacked
this part of the line along the Bloody Angle.
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Some Confederate soldiers reinforcing the Bloody
angle would have moved along this area. You can see the
entrenchments on your left. Up on top of the ridge to the
right, you can see the 6th Corps monument, right at the Bloody
Angle.
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A view from the wooden bridge over the remaining
earthworks. Fighting was desperate here because the Confederates
knew that if the Union army broke through, their army would be cut in half
and severely defeated. As they fought, other soldiers put up a new
line in their rear.
Once it was completed, some 23 hours after the initial
assault on the Mule Shoe by Hancock, the Confederates abandoned this
portion of their line and fell back to the new positions.
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Another view of the ravine leading up to the Bloody
Angle. Wright's men of the 6th Corps would have been attacking from
the tree line in the distance along a considerable front, and moving down
into the shelter of the swale, before coming up and into the Confederate
line.
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Click
here for the larger picture.
This view, especially when enlarged, really shows you how
the swale would have been a relatively safe place to move along, right up
until the last push over to the Bloody Angle, marked by the two
monuments. You can also see how exposed to fire this location is.
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A similar view, with a close up of the Ohio monument
across the swale from the Bloody Angle.
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