Object Details
- Description
- Physical Description
- Wooden tree stump.
- Specific History
- Until May 12, 1864, this shattered stump was a large oak tree in a rolling meadow just outside Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia. That morning, 1,200 entrenched Confederates, the front line of General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, awaited the assault of 5,000 Union troops from the Second Corps of the Army of the Potomac. Twenty hours later, the once-peaceful meadow had acquired a new name, the Bloody Angle. The same fury of rifle bullets that cut down 2,000 combatants tore away all but twenty-two inches of the tree's trunk. Several of the conical minie balls (bullets) are still deeply embedded in the wood. Unusual objects of war, such as this tree stump, come to symbolize the horror and heroism of a great battle. Originally presented to the U.S. Army's Ordnance Museum by Brevet Major General Nelson A. Miles, the stump was transferred to the Smithsonian in 1888.
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
- associated date
- 1864-05
- Credit Line
- War Department
- Physical Description
- wood (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 60 in x 18 in x 18 in; 152.4 cm x 45.72 cm x 45.72 cm
- Object Name
- tree trunk
