<P> The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House , sometimes more simply referred to as the Battle of Spotsylvania ( or the 19th - century spelling Spottsylvania ) , was the second major battle in Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant 's 1864 Overland Campaign of the American Civil War . Following the bloody but inconclusive Battle of the Wilderness , Grant 's army disengaged from Confederate General Robert E. Lee 's army and moved to the southeast , attempting to lure Lee into battle under more favorable conditions . Elements of Lee 's army beat the Union army to the critical crossroads of Spotsylvania Court House , Virginia , and began entrenching . Fighting occurred on and off from May 8 through May 21 , 1864 , as Grant tried various schemes to break the Confederate line . In the end , the battle was tactically inconclusive , but with almost 32,000 casualties on both sides , it was the costliest battle of the campaign . </P>
<P> The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House , sometimes more simply referred to as the Battle of Spotsylvania ( or the 19th - century spelling Spottsylvania ) , was the second major battle in Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant 's 1864 Overland Campaign of the American Civil War . Following the bloody but inconclusive Battle of the Wilderness , Grant 's army disengaged from Confederate General Robert E. Lee 's army and moved to the southeast , attempting to lure Lee into battle under more favorable conditions . Elements of Lee 's army beat the Union army to the critical crossroads of Spotsylvania Court House , Virginia , and began entrenching . Fighting occurred on and off from May 8 through May 21 , 1864 , as Grant tried various schemes to break the Confederate line . In the end , the battle was tactically inconclusive , but with almost 32,000 casualties on both sides , it was the costliest battle of the campaign . </P>
when did the battle of spotsylvania start and end
when did the battle of spotsylvania start and end
May 8 through May 21 , 1864
May 8 through May 21 , 1864