The Sumac at Spotsy

For those of us who know a particular battlefield especially well, we all have our favorite off-the-beaten-path spots that otherwise go undiscovered or unappreciated by most visitors. That’s certainly the case for me at Spotsylvania.

My absolute favorite spot at Spotsy is off the beaten path because it’s hidden in time rather than space, and for most of the year, it remains hidden in plain sight. However, for a few brief weeks in autumn, the landscape turns crimson as the sumac changes color, and BOOM, it’s there.

The swale that cuts across the field in front of the tip of the Mule Shoe Salient is the most important topographical feature on that part of the battlefield (perhaps on the entire battlefield). When the Park Service keeps the brush knocked down, a visitor can see a beautiful panorama that allows one to easily envision the Federal assault from the north. That’s from left to right if you’re standing along the rubberized path from the parking lot near the wayside sign that talks about the swale.

When the Park Service does not keep the brush knocked down, the sumac grows thick on this part of the field. It spills down the swale and intermingles with the fast-growing scrubby oak and the tall field grasses, and it provides good ground cover for plenty of wild game. Deer can be lost right in the thick of it, right there next to you, and you might not ever see them unless you happen to spook one of them.

In the autumn, for those fleeting weeks, the sumac crimsons, and bright, bold color floods the field. Nearest the rubberized path, the sumac grows especially thick, which makes the color especially rich.

When I face that thickest patch of bright red, that puts the Bloody Angle just behind me and to the right a little. That Park Service keeps that part of the field well mowed. It’s a lively green in spring and summer, so long as there’s rain. By late summer and into fall, the grass starts browning, just as the field grasses do, just as the leaves soon will.

But I see all that red, that crimson, so bright, like fresh blood. I can’t help thinking about it. The landscape in front of the Bloody Angle turns red.

It’s beautiful.

Once upon a time, it wasn’t. This landscape turned red, in the rain and mud, was anything but beautiful, and a soldier couldn’t be faulted for wondering if the world could ever be beautiful again, let alone whether this place could be.

It can be, and it is, and that is why I love this spot at this time of year better than any other place or time on this battlefield. The sumac turns red and it is lovely. The effect of the color is sublime.

And I think those men would be glad it is so.