Spotsylvania - The Mule Shoe

This past Sunday, the sound of cannon fire boomed across the valley between the Confederate Mule Shoe Salient and the Landrum House Ridge. The modern day version of the Stafford Light Artillery stood by their bronze Napoleon, executing the battle drills of a bygone era. The noise, smoke, and confusion of a misfire clearly demonstrated the battlefield ordeal of a Civil War gun crew. All that was missing was an enemy bent on their capture or destruction.

If we multiply this single cannon by a hundred, add the continuous rattle of musketry, the shouts of men, and the explosion of case shot, we might have witnessed the carnage of 12 May 1864.

Fire! The noise is deafening. Flame leaps from the cannon muzzle. Smoke rolls across the landscape. Imagine a case shot bursting over the heads of charging Union soldiers. Or canister exploding in their faces as they close the distance to the Confederate trenches. If we close our eyes, we can see into the past and hear the exploding shells, the zip of lead balls fired from a thousand rifled muskets, the dull thump of rounds striking home on poor, unsuspecting soldiers.

But to imagine the horrors of past battlefields, we must visit them. We must stand where soldiers fought, where our ancestors fought. As I watched the Stafford Light Artillery with my wife and youngest son, I could hear the ghosts of Spotsylvania Courthouse calling to me. I could see my great-great grandfather standing in the trenches with the 14th North Carolina Infantry Regiment. I could see the past and the sacrifices made on both sides. I could understand the roar of battle just a bit more.

Preserve their memories by protecting battlefield land today. We are the last generation capable of securing these sacred Civil War Sites. Let us not fail.