Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective
November Issue:
Population Bomb? The Debate over Indian Population
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of Union attacks. On the morning of May 12, two Federal corps charged from the woods opposite a vulnerable section of the Confederate line known as the "Mule Shoe Salient." Thanks in part to a thick fog and wet Confederate powder, the initial Union advance overwhelmed the Southerners. Confederate reinforcements counterattacked, and for the next 20 hours the men in this sector engaged in the most intense hand-to-hand combat of the war. This desperate fighting at what came to be called the "Bloody Angle" earned Lee enough time to build new earthworks, which he defended until Grant abandoned the field on May 21.