The Heart of Hell

On December 8, 2022, historian Jeffry D. Wert delivered a lecture on the bloody attack and defense of the “Mule Shoe” at Spotsylvania Court House on May 12, 1864. The Union assault on the Confederate Mule Shoe at Spotsylvania on May 12, 1864, ignited a struggle unlike any other during the four-year conflict. A Massachusetts soldier described the fighting as “the death-grapple of the war” as the foes killed and maimed each other often at the length of a rifle barrel for more than twenty hours. A Mississippi private said of the day, “I don't expect to go to hell, but if I do, I am sure Hell can't beat that terrible scene.” When the combat ended in the early morning darkness of May 13, roughly 17,500 men had been killed, wounded, or captured. Jeffry D. Wert is the author of many books on the Civil War, including The Sword of Lincoln: The Army of the Potomac; A Glorious Army: Robert E. Lee's Triumph, 1862–1863; Civil War Barons: The Tycoons, Entrepreneurs, Inventors, and Visionaries Who Forged Victory and Shaped a Nation; and, most recently, The Heart of Hell: The Soldier’s Struggle for Spotsylvania’s Bloody Angle. The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.