General Francis Channing Barlow

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Lee’s position at Spotsylvania featured an unusual projection nicknamed the ‘Mule Shoe.’ The salient was formed when Lee extended his main line to include the high ground in front of his position. Grant, who had seen Colonel Emory Upton’s attempt at a massed-penetration attack come close to succeeding at Spotsylvania on May 10, decided to try a similar assault on a grander scale. The idea was to mass columns of men against a single point, break through the exposed Mule Shoe, smash Lee’s lines and inflict a crushing defeat on the Confederates. Grant chose Hancock’s corps to storm the Confederate works, and Hancock, in turn, called upon Barlow to spearhead the operation.

At 7 p.m. on May 11, 1864, Barlow, Gibbon and Brig. Gen. David Birney were summoned to Hancock’s headquarters and received word that they were to make an assault on the enemy’s right flank at daybreak. ‘We were told that it was movement of more than usual importance, and were reminded of the gratitude which the country would feel for those officers who should contribute to the success of the enterprise,’ Barlow recalled. He and the other divisional commanders soon found out that little information was available regarding their own jumping-off positions, let alone the Confederate lines. ‘No information whatever,’ Barlow later wrote, ‘was given us as to the strength or position of the enemy, or as to the troops to be engaged in the movement (except that the 2nd Corps was to take part in it), or as to the plan of attack, or why any attack was to be made at that time or place.’

Despite the lack of solid reconnaissance and the uncertainties of a night march in the fog, Barlow had his division in line by 1 a.m. When Barlow finished getting his men into position, he went over to Brig. Gen. Gershom Mott’s headquarters, hoping to obtain more precise information. There he found Lt. Col. Waldo Merrian of the 16th Massachusetts. Merrian, Barlow later explained, used the headquarters’ wall as a canvas on which he drew ‘a sketch of the [Union and Confederate] position, and this was the sole basis on which the disposition of my division was made.’ Barlow was thoroughly disgusted by the lack of accurate information regarding the Rebel positions and the ground over which he would have to lead his men. He handed over his personal effects to a friend, having concluded that he had been assigned to lead a ‘forlorn hope.’

The general plan of attack was for the II Corps to storm the Mule Shoe from the left-center and the IX Corps to hit it from the right. Barlow’s division was placed on the left of the assault force and Birney on the right. Mott’s division fell in behind Birney, while Gibbon’s men were held in reserve.

Poor visibility caused Hancock to postpone the strike for 35 minutes in hopes of better light. At 4:35, Barlow’s men launched their assault. Following their commander’s orders, the Northerners moved forward silently at quick time, with the division and brigade commanders marching in the center of the column between the first and second lines. Halfway to the Confederate lines they broke into double-quick time, and when they saw the Confederate works, they sent up a yell. Barlow’s men ‘instinctively swerved’ to their left to hit the Mule Shoe ‘directly on the angle.’ The Southern defenders were stunned by the enormity of the blue tidal wave descending upon them, and Barlow later recalled ‘their bewildered look.’ One Confederate with a premonition of the immediate future yelled: ‘Look out, boys! We will have blood for supper.’

Barlow’s men smashed through the Confederate line, tearing away the abatis by hand and overrunning the salient. The desperate Confederates resisted as best they could, but most of those in the front lines of the Mule Shoe had few choices but flight or surrender. The Federals overran almost a mile of Confederate lines, crushed the defensive formations, mauled the famous Stonewall Brigade and captured a large part of Maj. Gen. Edward Johnson’s division, one of the finest in Lees army. Thirty flags and 18 fieldpieces were taken by the Union troops in their headlong assault.

Tags: 19th Century, America's Civil War, American Civil War, Historical Conflicts, Historical Figures

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