Episode 3 of 5

Death of John Sedgwick

Name: Death of John Sedgwick
Start: 1864-05-09
Location: Spotsylvania Court House

When: May 9, 1864
Where: Spotsylvania Court House
Part of: Overland Campaign opens: Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Sedgwick's death, Yellow Tavern and Ware Bottom Church

Union Major General John Sedgwick was killed by a long-range shot on May 9, 1864.

Sedgwick died at the beginning of the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House on May 9, 1864. He was killed by a long-range shot from a Whitworth sharpshooter and is remembered for the remark: "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."

Sources

John Sedgwick Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-06

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.