Battle of Spotsylvania • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments & Markers • The Armies
The monument to McGowan’s South Carolina Brigade is at the Bloody Angle of the Mule Shoe, Stop 3 on the Spotsylvania Battlefield Auto Tour.
About the Monument
The granite monument stands around eight feet high. It is inscribed on the front with the regiments of the brigade and their commanding officers and on the rear with the brief story of their 18 hour fight at the Bloody Angle. The front is etched with the crescent moon and palmetto tree of the state flag.
The monument was designed by Lee Dorn, a member of Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 40 in Greenwood, S.C., and created by Charles Wilson of Wilson Memorials in Laurens, S.C. It was erected in 2009.
The monument’s $30,000 cost was all privately funded, including $1,000 each from the Sons of Confederate Veterans of South Carolina State Division and Wal-Mart.
About McGowan’s Brigade at Spotsylvania
McGowan’s brigade fought in every battle of the Army of Northern Virginia from the Seven Days until Appomattox. By May of 1864 it was reduced to a quarter of its original strength, but the men who were left were tested veterans who would not run away.
A third of these men were killed or wounded at the Mule Shoe including General McGowan, who was shot in the arm as he initially led his brigade into the fight that morning, his fourth wound of the war.
Samuel McGowan was a lawyer, politician and Mexican War veteran from Laurens, South Carolina. McGowan had been colonel of the 14th South Carolina until he was promoted to brigadier general in January of 1863. He survived the war despite his four wounds and was regarded as one of the best brigade commanders in the Army of Northern Virginia.
From the front of the monument:
1861 Deo Vindice 1865
South
Carolina
McGowan’s Brigade
Brig. Gen. Samuel McGowan
1st S.C. Infantry
Col. Comillus W. McCreary
Orr’s Rifles
Lt. Col. George McD. Miller
12th S.C. Infantry
Maj. Thomas F. Clyburne
13th S.C. Infantry
Col. Benjamin T. Brockman
14th S.C. Infantry
Col. Joseph N. Brown
From the back of the monument:
CSA
“The Bloody Angle”
In the rainy gloom of May 12, 1864, Brigadier
General Samuel McGowan’s brigade of South
Carolinians battled their way into the disputed
earthworks here, near the apex of the Muleshoe
Salient. For eighteen hours the 1,300 South
Carolinians defended these works against
relentless attacks by thousands of Federals,
sometimes engaging in hand-to-hand fighting.
By battle’s end, 451 men of the brigade were
killed, wounded, or missing. The slight angle in
the works they defended would forever be
known as the Bloody Angle.
To the brave and heroic men of
McGowan’s Brigade
this monument is dedicated
Erected by the State of South Carolina and the
Brig. Gen. Samuel McGowan Camp 40
Sons of Confederate Veterans of
Laurens County, South Carolina, 2009
The trail at the Bloody Angle in front of the monument to McGowan’s Brigade (at left) The Confederate trenches run along the right side of the photo paralleling the trail and, in the distance, the road.
See more on the history of the:
1st South Carolina Rifle Regiment
12th South Carolina Infantry Regiment
13th South Carolina Infantry Regiment
14th South Carolina Infantry Regiment
(go to the main Tour Stop 3 page)
(go to the main Battle of Spotsylvania Auto Tour page)