Battle of Spotsylvania • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments & Markers • The Armies
The monument to the Union Maryland Brigade is on the Laurel Hill trail a short distance from Pritchett Road on the far west side of the Spotsylvania battlefield. It is a short distance from the Fight for the Fences wayside marker.
The Maryland Brigade at Laurel Hill
On May 8, 1864, Union Colonel Andrew W. Dennison’s brigade of four Maryland regiments charged across the open fields west of the Brock Road in the opening move of what would become the Battle of Spotsylvania. The northerners were trying to reach the strategic crossroads at Spotsylvania Court House just a mile and a half farther down Brock Road to to get around Lee’s army as it tried to block the path to Richmond.
But Lee’s hard-marching Confederates won the race. Confederate infantry and artillery concealed in the woods shattered the Federal attack. Colonel Charles E. Phelps led his 7th Maryland Volunteers in the charge and fell wounded near this spot. It was the Union highwater mark in the opening of the Battle at Spotsylvania.
Forty years later Phelps, now Judge Phelps of the Maryland Court of Appeals, erected this granite monument to commemorate his state’s sacrifice.
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5th Corps, 2nd Division, 3rd Brigade |  |
Text from the front of the monument:
Maryland
Brigade
Text from the right side of the monument:
Nearest Approach
on this front
7th Md. Inf.
Text from the left side of the monument:
8th May 1864
First Assault On
The Defenses of
Spotsylvania.
Text from the rear of the monument:
2nd Div. 5th Corps
U.S.A.
“Never mind cannon
Never mind bullets
Press on and clear
this road.”
The Maryland Brigade was under the command of Colonel Andrew W. Dennison (wounded on 5/8). It consisted of the:
1st Maryland Infantry Regiment under Major Benjamin H. Schley
4th Maryland Infantry Regiment under Colonel Richard N. Bowerman
7th Maryland Infantry Regiment under Colonel Charles E. Phelps (captured on 5/8)
8th Maryland Infantry Regiment under Lt. Colonel John G. Johannes
(links go to regimental histories at CivilWarintheEast.com)
Map and directions to the Maryland Brigade monument (USA)
The monument is on the Laurel Hill Trail, a mile-long loop trail that begins at the park entrance at the corner of Brock Road and Grant Drive. The monument can also be reached from Pritchett Road. (38°12’42.5″N 77°36’55.8″W)
(return to the Laurel Hill Trail page)
(return to the main Battle of Spotsylvania Auto Tour page)