At Spotsylvania, Virginia, after several days of comparable quiet on Wednesday, May 18, 1864 Union troops assaulted Lee’s left flank, failing to take the strong Confederate emplacements in a series of attacks. With Burnside’s and Meade’s troops failing to dislodge the Confederates, Ulysses Grant determined that the Confederate positions were too strong to be taken and ordered a flanking movement to the south and east, attempting to turn Lee’s right flank. Grant’s order ended the series of battles known as Spotsylvania; combined with Union losses in the Wilderness, Grant suffered the loss of over 33,000 men in a single month. However, his casualties could be replaced by the North; Southern casualties, although much lower, could not be so easily replaced. Grant had effectively started a war of attrition against Lee’s forces.
00000174-b11b-ddc3-a1fc-bfdbb1a20000The Schreiner University Department of History is honoring the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War with a series of short vignettes focusing on events from 1861 through 1865. The Civil War was the most destructive conflict in American history, but it was also one of our most defining moments as a people and as a nation. Let us know what you think about "This Week in the Civil War." E-mail your comments to Dr. John Huddleston at jhuddles@schreiner.edu.Airs: Weekdays at 5:19 a.m., 8:19 a.m., 4:19 p.m. on KTXI and 4:49 a.m., 9:29 p.m. on KSTX.