Cold Harbor, Virginia
June 1-12, 1864
At Cold Harbor--a crossroads located ten miles east of Richmond--59,000 Confederates faced 109,000 Federals as Lt. Gen. U.S. Grant continued his unrelenting effort to destroy Gen. Robt. E. Lee's army and capture the Confederate capitol (see map.) On May 31, Phil Sheridan’s cavalry seized Cold Harbor after an intense fight with Fitzhugh Lee (nephew of General R. E. Lee). Early on June 1, relying heavily on their repeating carbines and shallow entrenchments, Sheridan’s troopers threw back an attack by Confederate infantry. Confederate reinforcements arrived from Richmond and from the Totopotomoy Creek lines. That night, two Union corps reached Cold Harbor and assaulted the Confederate works with some success. By June 2, both armies were on the field, forming on a seven-mile front that extended from Bethesda Church to the Chickahominy River. Grant knew it would be difficult and costly to break through Lee's defenses at Cold Harbor, but the gamble seemed preferable to his other options (continued repositioning in an effort to circle around Lee, or settle into a long siege). If he could break through at Cold Harbor he might end the war in Virginia. At dawn on June 3, three corps of Grant's army assaulted Confederate trenches along the Bethesda Church-Cold Harbor line and were slaughtered at all points. By early afternoon, having lost 7,000 men in one day (3,500 in less than one hour during the last assault), Grant called off further efforts. (Total Union casualties at Cold Harbor were nearly 12,000; the Confederates lost 2,500.) In his memoirs Grant commented, "I have always regretted that the last assault at Cold Harbor was ever made.... no advantage whatever was gained to compensate for the heavy loss we sustained." The armies confronted each other on these lines until the night of June 12, when Grant again advanced by his left flank, marching to the James River. On June 14, the 2nd Corps was ferried across the river at Wilcox’s Landing by transports. On June 15, the rest of the army began crossing on a 2,200-foot long pontoon bridge at Weyanoke. Abandoning the well-defended approaches to Richmond, Grant sought to shift his army quickly south of the river to threaten Petersburg.
© 2004 David C. Hanson, Virginia Western Community College
