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May 9–21, 1864 · Civil War

Battle of Spotsylvania Court House

11 Medals of Honor were earned in the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House (May 9–21, 1864). Result: Inconclusive.

11Medals of Honor
1posthumous
Inconclusiveresult
Date
May 9–21, 1864
Location
Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia
Result
Inconclusive
Part of
American Civil War

About the battle

The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, sometimes more simply referred to as the Battle of Spotsylvania (or the 19th-century spelling Spottsylvania), was the second major battle in Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Maj. Gen. George G. Meade's 1864 Overland Campaign of the American Civil War. Following the bloody but inconclusive Battle of the Wilderness, Grant's army disengaged from Confederate General Robert E. Lee's army and moved to the southeast, attempting to lure Lee into battle under more favorable conditions. Elements of Lee's army beat the Union army to the critical crossroads of the Spotsylvania Court House in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, and began entrenching. Fighting occurred on and off from May 8 through May 21, 1864, as Grant tried various schemes to break the Confederate line. In the end, the battle was tactically inconclusive, but both sides declared victory.

From the Wikipedia article “Battle of Spotsylvania Court House”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Result, date and location from the article’s infobox and Wikidata.

Medal of Honor recipients (11)

Where it happened

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.