Spotsylvania Court House is located off of Route 613 southwest of Fredericksburg Virginia. The battle was fought over the course of two weeks from May 8-21, 1864. Spotsylvania Court House was a vital intersection that controlled the shortest route to Richmond. On May 7, 1864 both the Confederate and Union armies raced to reach the town first. General Lee arrived first and dug a series of trenches that withstood attacks from General Grant and the Union army.
On May 12, two of the Federal corps attacked the Confederate army along a bulge in their line known as “the Muleshoe”. The initial Federal attack took the Rebels by surprise and the Union troops were able to capture 3,000 prisoners and 20 cannon. General Lee sent brigade after brigade into the bloody battle that raged for more than 20 hours.
The fighting raged throughout the afternoon and well into the night. A 22-inch oak tree was cut in half by the intense artillery and musket fire at a spot called “the bloody angle”.
“Nothing but the piled up logs of breastworks separated the combatants. Our men would reach over the logs and fire into the faces of the enemy, would stab over with their bayonets; many were shot and stabbed through crevices and holes between the logs; men mounted the works and with muskets rapidly handed them kept up a continuous fire until they were shot down, when others would take their places.”
The Confederates eventually fell back to a new line and that day’s battle ended. The fighting at the Bloody Angle stood out as the worst slaughter of the war. It is said that the intensity of fighting at the angle was the bloodiest up until that point in the history of the world.
Both armies finally retreated south from Spotsylvania Court House without a clear winner leaving behind 30,000 casualties and miles of trenches. The town was left to deal with the ravages of war and the mass of dead and wounded soldiers.
It is no wonder that some of the homes left standing around the battlefield that were used as field hospitals are reported to be haunted. A house called Wake Hill was used as a temporary hospital and the land behind the house turned out to be the final resting place for many dead soldiers. The owners of Wake Hill report cold spots, banging cabinets, strange footsteps, and frightened pets.
Our visit to Spotsylvania in June of 2003 started out as a side trip to our research at Fredericksburg. The “side trip” turned out to be a most interesting experience.
The Spotsylvania Battlefield offers a waling tour of the area surrounding the Bloody Angle. Between walking tour stop 4 (where the Federal troops gathered along a tree line and dug trenches parallel to the dirt road) and the remains of the Landrum house, the dowsing rods began to spin counter clockwise at a steady pace. As we walked along the dirt road to the Landrum house (used as a field hospital and headquarters for General Hancock) 500 yards away the dowsing rods continued to spin. At this time a strange wailing noise could be heard from the nearby woods where the Union troops massed for their attack on May 12.
When we arrived at the Landrum house ruins the dowsing rods became very active and the wailing noise intensified. Trista began to feel very uncomfortable and wanted to leave immediately. I snapped several photos and captured one orb on film. The woods seemed to be beckoning and at the same time warning you to stay away, which we did. Once we returned to the main walking tour the wailing noise stopped suddenly.
As we were returning to our car we spotted a park ranger and asked him about the noise in the woods. The conversation went like this. I said “We were back by the Landrum house ruins and” then he finished the sentence for me. The ranger said “YOU HEARD THE NOISE”. I continued, “Yes, we didn’t know what was making the sound. It sounded like a mix of cows and people moaning. The ranger continued on saying “I don’t know what it is, it could be almost anything but I’ll take a look”. We thought it was very strange that the ranger finished the sentence for me and knew what I was going to say. It was obvious that other people have heard the noise also and had mentioned it to him. Could it be the moans of agony from the slaughtered soldiers or just the wind in the trees?
