Meade, however, had little or no cognizance of Grant's orders to the independent IX. Corps, and his orders, conflicting with those emanating from the Lieutenant-General's staff, puzzled Han cock and crippled his advance. At io the whole scheme was given up, and the now widely deployed Union army closed on its centre as best it could for a direct attack on the Spottsylvania position. At 4, before the new concentration was complete, and while Han cock was still engaged in the difficult operation of drawing back over the Po in the face of the enemy, Warren attacked unsup ported and was repulsed. In the woods on the left Wright was more successful, and at 6 P.M. a rush of 12 selected regiments under Col. Emory Upton carried the right of Lee's log-works. But for want of support this attack too was fruitless, though Up ton held the captured works for an hour and brought off i,000 prisoners. Burnside, receiving Grant's new orders to attack from Gayle's towards Spottsylvania, sent for further orders as to the method of attack, and his advance was thus made too late in the day to be of use. Lee had again averted disaster, this time by his magnificent handling of his only reserve, Hill's (now Early's) corps, which he used first against Hancock and then against Burn side with the greatest effect.
This was the fourth battle since the evening of May 4. On the morning of the i ith Grant sent his famous message to Washing ton, "I purpose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer." The i 2th was to be the fifth and, Grant hoped, the decisive battle. A maze of useful and useless entrenchments had been constructed on both sides, especially on the Union side, from mere force of habit. Grant, seeing from the experience of the loth that his corps commanders were manning these entrenchments so strongly that they had only feeble forces disposable for the attack, ordered all superfluous defences to be given up. Three corps were formed in a connected line (from right to left, V., VI., IX.) during the 11th, and that night Hancock's corps moved silently to a position between Wright and Burnside and formed up in the open field at Brown's in an attacking mass of Napoleonic density—three lines of divisions, in line and in battalion and brigade columns. Burn side was to attack from Gayle's (Beverly's on the map) towards McCool's. Warren and Wright were to have at least one division each clear of their entrenchments and ready to move.
Up to the iith Lee's line had extended from the woods in front of Block House bridge, through Perry's and Spindler's fields to McCool's house, and its right was diffused and formed a loop round McCool's. All these works faced north-west. In addition, Burnside's advance had caused Early's corps to entrench Spottsyl vania and the church to the south of it, facing east. Between these two sections were woods. The connection made between them gave the loop round McCool's the appearance from which it derives its historic name of The Salient. Upon the northern face of this salient Hancock's attack was delivered.
On the iith the abandonment of Burnside's threatening advance on his rear and other indications had disquieted Lee as to his left or Block House flank, and he had drawn off practically all Ewell's artillery from the McCool works to aid in that quarter. The in
fantry that manned the Salient was what remained of Stonewall Jackson's "foot cavalry," veterans of Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. But at 4.35, in the mist, Hancock's mass swept over their works at the first rush and swarmed in the in terior of the Salient, gathering thousands of prisoners and seizing the field batteries that Lee had sent back just too late.
The thronging and excited Federals were completely disordered by success, and the counter-attack of one or two Confederate brigades in good order drove them back to the line of the cap tured works. Then, about 6, there began one of the most remark able struggles in history. While Early, swiftly drawing back from Block house, checked Burnside's attack from the east, and Ander son, attacked again and again by parts of the V. Corps, was fully occupied in preserving his own front, Lee, with Ewell's corps and the few thousand men whom the other generals could spare, delivered all day a series of fierce counter-strokes against Hancock. Nearly all Wright's corps and even part of Warren's (in the end 45,000 men) were drawn into the fight at the Salient, for Grant and Meade well knew that Lee was struggling to gain time for the construction of a retrenchment across the base of it. If the counter-attacks failed to gain this respite, the Confederates would have to retreat as best they could, pressed in front and flank. But the initial superiority of the Federals was neutralized by their disorder, and keeping the fight alive by successive brigade attacks, while the troops not actually employed were held out of danger till their time came, Lee succeeded so well that after twenty hours' bitter fighting the new line was ready and the Confederates gave up the barren prize to Hancock. Lee had lost 4,00o prisoners as well as 4,500 killed and wounded, as against 7,00o in the Army of the Potomac and the IX. Corps.
There were other battles in front of Spottsylvania, but that of the 12th was the climax. From the i3th to the 20th the Federals gradually worked round from west to east, delivering a few partial attacks in the vain hope of discovering a weak point. Lee's posi tion, now semicircular, enabled him to concentrate on interior lines on each occasion. In the end the Federals were entrenched facing east, between Beverly's house (Burnside's old "Gayle") and Quisenberry's, Lee facing west from the new works south of Har rison's through the Court house to Snell's bridge on the Po. In the fork of the Po and the Ny, with woods and marshes to obstruct every movement, Grant knew that nothing could be done, and he prepared to execute a new manoeuvre. But here as in the Wilder ness, Lee managed to have the last word. While the Union army was resting in camp for the first time since leaving Culpeper, Ewell's corps suddenly attacked its baggage-train near Harris's house. The Confederates were driven off, but Grant had to defer his intended manoeuvre for two days. When the armies left Spott sylvania, little more than a fortnight after breaking up from winter quarters, the casualties had reached the totals of 35,000 out of an original total of 120,000 for the Union army, 26,000 out of 70,000 for the Confederates.