re: On this day 160 years ago, the most savage battle of the Civil War was waged in Virginia

Did a tour of the battlefield some years ago - not large area-battlefield as I recall. Rifled musket fire was so intense at the Bloody Angle a 22 inch dia oak tree was felled by mini-balls hitting it. The stump is on display at the Smithsonian.

Spotsylvania Stump


"Until 12 May 1864, this shattered stump was a large oak tree in a rolling meadow just outside Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia. That morning, 1,200 entrenched Confederates, the front line of General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, awaited the assault of 5,000 Union troops from the Second Corps of the Army of the Potomac. Twenty hours later, the once-peaceful meadow had acquired a new name, the Bloody Angle. The same fury of rifle bullets that cut down 2,000 combatants tore away the twenty-two inch tree trunk. Several of the conical minie balls (bullets) are still deeply embedded in the wood. Unusual objects of war, such as this tree stump, come to symbolize the horror and heroism of a great battle. Originally presented to the U.S. Army's Ordnance Museum by Brevet Major General Nelson A. Miles, the stump was transferred to the Smithsonian in 1888."

quote:

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the most savage battle of the Civil War

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Antietam or Shiloh


One can claim Hiroshima or Nagasaki as the bloodiest day of ww2 but that does a disservice to peliliu, Guadalcanal, the solomans, Burma, Normandy etc