Synopsis "The Battle of Spottsylvania Court House (in English)"
Having resolved to continue his advance southward from the Wilderness battlefield, and, if possible, to cut Lee off from Richmond, Grant set his army in motion on the evening of May 7, 1864. As the movement was to be made mainly with a view to getting outside of the Wilderness and inducing Lee to go out and give battle in the open, the first objective points assigned to the various army-corps, and the routes, were merely preliminary; subsequent movements would depend upon the movements of Lee's army. Hancock's corps [Second], which occupied the left of the line, was to remain in position until the trains and the rest of the army marched off the battlefield by the rear of his line. The trains were started in the afternoon, and at half-past eight the troops took up the march. Passing behind Hancock's line, Warren's corps [Fifth] moved by the Brock Road toward Spottsylvania Court House. Sedgwick's [Sixth] marched by way of Chancellorsville, Aldrich's, and Piney Branch Church, toward the same point. Burnside's corps [Ninth] followed Sedgwick's as far as Aldrich's. Hancock was ordered to follow close behind Warren to Todd's Tavern. The cavalry covered the movement in flank and rear, and pushed out ahead of the infantry columns. Todd's Tavern was about six miles from Wilderness Tav ern by the Brock Road, and Spottsylvania Court House was about twelve miles. By way of Chancellorsville Spottsylvania was about fourteen miles from Wilderness Tavern. In this preliminary movement the corps on different roads would be within short distances of one another; but the woods were so dose and the cross-trails so little known that it would be difficult to pass troops from one road to another. Lee was informed by Stuart on the afternoon of the 7th concerning the movement of the Federal wagon-trains, and he made no doubt that Grant's objective was Spottsylvania Court House. He, therefore, ordered Anderson, now commanding Longstreet's corps, to make a night march for the same point, by way of by-roads and Shady Grove Church Road. Stuart's cavalry was to retard the march of the Federal columns as much as possible, in order to enable Anderson to reach Spottsylvania ahead of them and take up a position. At Spottsylvania Court House several roads came together from the direction of Wilderness Tavern and Chancellorsville, as well as from Fredericksburg, now the Union base. Other roads led from Spottsylvania toward the east and south. The junction of all these roads gave the place a temporary strategic importance, and made it the field of a battle.
