On May 11, 1864, Henry Keiser was promoted to sergeant a day after his friend Sergeant James Ferree was killed in an assault on the Confederate earthworks at Spotsylvania Court House.
On May 12, Sergeant Keiser and the men of Company G, 96th Pennsylvania were again thrown against the impressive Confederate defenses at Spotsylvania. They fought close to the infamous “Bloody Angle.”
From Keiser’s remarkable war-time diary:
Thursday, May 12, 1864. At day dawn we marched a short distance to the rear and were told that we were to be on reserved, but we were soon convinced to the contrary, for in a short time we were marched a short distance to the left to help the 2nd Corps, which had charged the Rebels Works, at three this morning, taking part of the breast works and a large number of prisoners.
We went in our right in a thick wood, and run into a line of Rebels and received a heavy volley at close range. We had orders to lie down close.
The Regiment was somewhat in disorder, but soon rallied again and moved a short distance to the left where we forced the Rebel rifle pits, only about twenty yards away, which position we held all day, until we were relieved at four this afternoon.
We rained a continual shower of lead over the pits – so that the Rebels did not have much chance to rise and fire at us…
J.J. Miller of Hamburg was wounded in the head and Daniel Strasser in the hand. John Perkey of Hamburg is either killed or taken prisoner.
The rain fairly poured down this forenoon but we kept up the fire, and we were covered with mud from head to post. This is called the slaughter pen, or bloody angle.
Today a captain and twelve of his men jumped up in all the fire and ran into our lines (our boys not firing on them) us they passed by me the Captain said ‘They were covered with blood and mud.’ After being relieved we went a short distance to the rear and stopped until after dark when we marched to the right of the line.
At ten this evening we halted in a thick pine woods, not far from where we had made the charge on the 10th. Here we rested for the night.
I fired one hundred and sixty rounds at the ‘Angle’ today. My right arm being almost useless tonight from the re-bound of my rifle.
Keiser survived the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House and the remainder of the Civil War, though he had a close brush with death in October 1864 at the Battle of Cedar Creek.
Read more about Henry Keiser and the Civil War
Podcast – Killed at Spotsylvania Court House: A Pennsylvania Family’s Story
Meet Henry Keiser – A soldier who kept a diary for nearly every day of the Civil War
Corporal Keiser’s Christmas in the camp of the 96th Pennsylvania
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