Wilderness & Spotsylvania Anniversaries

2025 Spotsylvania Anniversary Saturday, May 17, 2025 Spotsylvania Battlefield, Bloody Angle, tour stop #3 This year's Overland Anniversary programs will be centered around the Bloody Angle at the Spotsylvania Battlefield. By mid-May, fighting at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House was almost over. But the struggle which started at the Battle of the Wilderness on May 5 was only just beginning. Join park staff and living historians at the Bloody Angle on May 17 to walk the ground where thousands of lives were changed forever. Pop-up Visitor Contact Station 10 am-4 pm Drop-in activity tent Park staff will be onsite at the Bloody Angle, tour stop #3 on the Spotsylvania Battlefield from 10 am-4 pm on Saturday, May 17, 2025. Drop by the activity tent to talk with us about the battle and why this space is still important over 160 years later. Bloody Angle Tour 2 pm-3 pm Guided walk Meet at the Bloody Angle, tour stop #3 on the Spotsylvania Battlefield and join a ranger on this guided tour around the landscape that forever changed the lives of those who fought there. (Walk will cover about 0.5 miles and take approximately 60 minutes.) About the Overland Campaign In the spring of 1864, the American Civil War entered its third year with no end in sight. The United States had fully embraced a policy of emancipation, but it was unclear what, exactly, freedom meant. An upcoming US election pressured Lincoln to demonstrate progress in the war and gave Confederates hope that a different US president might accept the Confederacy. The US Army had a new commander, General Ulysses S. Grant. Beginning with the Battle of the Wilderness, the US and Confederate armies clashed again and again throughout May and June 1864. The constant fighting resulted in the US Army advancing slowly against Confederate forces, but came with a steep cost in casualties. The Overland Campaign tested the both the endurance of soldiers to continue fighting and the will of the public to continue supporting the war. The future of American democracy was at stake, but the outcome of the war was undetermined. What kind of nation would emerge from this violence? The events that played out in Virginia in 1864 had a lasting impact beyond the Civil War and the Fredericksburg area. Visit Richmond National Battlefield Park and Petersburg National Battlefield to continue the Overland Campaign story.