Cold Harbor is, I think, the only battle I ever fought that I would
not fight over again under the circumstances. I have always regretted
that the last assault at Cold Harbor was ever made.--_General U. S.
Grant in his "Memoirs."_
According to Grant's well-made plans of march, the various corps of the
Army of the Potomac set out from the banks of the North Anna on the night
of May 26, 1864, at the times and by the routes assigned to them. Early on
the morning of May 27th Lee set his force in motion by the Telegraph road
and such others as were available, across the Little and South Anna rivers
toward Ashland and Atlee's Station on the Virginia Central Railroad.
Thus the armies were stretched like two live wires along the swampy
bottom-lands of eastern Virginia, and as they came in contact, here and
there along the line, there were the inevitable sputterings of flame and
considerable destruction wrought. The advance Federal infantry crossed the
Pamunkey, after the cavalry, at Hanoverstown, early on May 28th. The
Second Corps was close behind the Sixth; the Fifth was over by noon, while
the Ninth, now an integral portion of the Army of the Potomac, passed the
river by midnight.
On the 31st General Sheridan reached Cold Harbor, which Meade had ordered
him to hold at all hazards. This place, probably named after the old home
of some English settler, was not a town but the meeting-place of several
roads of great strategic importance to the Federal army. They led not only
toward Richmond by the way of the upper Chickahominy bridges, but in the
direction of White House Landing, on the Pamunkey River.
Both Lee and Meade had received reënforcements--the former by
Breckinridge, and the scattered forces in western Virginia, and by Pickett
and Hoke from North Carolina. From Bermuda Hundred where General Butler
was "bottled up"--to use a phrase which Grant employed and afterward
regretted--General W. F. Smith was ordered to bring the Eighteenth Corps
of the Army of the James to the assistance of Meade, since Butler could
defend his position perfectly well with a small force, and could make no
headway against Beauregard with a large one. Grant had now nearly one
hundred and fourteen thousand troops and Lee about eighty thousand.
Sheridan's appearance at Cold Harbor was resented in vain by Fitzhugh Lee,
and the next morning, June 1st, the Sixth Corps arrived, followed by
General Smith and ten thousand men of the Eighteenth, who had hastened
from the landing-place at White House. These took position on the right of
the Sixth, and the Federal line was promptly faced by Longstreet's corps,
a part of A. P. Hill's, and the divisions of Hoke and Breckinridge. At six
o'clock in the afternoon Wright and Smith advanced to the attack, which
Hoke and Kershaw received with courage and determination. The Confederate
line was broken in several places, but before night checked the struggle
the Southerners had in some degree regained their position. The short
contest was a severe one for the Federal side. Wright lost about twelve
hundred men and Smith one thousand.
The following day the final dispositions were made for the mighty struggle
that would decide Grant's last chance to interpose between Lee and
Richmond. Hancock and the Second Corps arrived at Cold Harbor and took
position on the left of General Wright. Burnside, with the Ninth Corps,
was placed near Bethesda Church on the road to Mechanicsville, while
Warren, with the Fifth, came to his left and connected with Smith's right.
Sheridan was sent to hold the lower Chickahominy bridges and to cover the
road to White House, which was now the base of supplies. On the Southern
side Ewell's corps, now commanded by General Early, faced Burnside's and
Warren's. Longstreet's corps, still under Anderson, was opposite Wright
and Smith, while A. P. Hill, on the extreme right, confronted Hancock.
There was sharp fighting during the entire day, but Early did not succeed
in getting upon the Federal right flank, as he attempted to do.
Both armies lay very close to each other and were well entrenched. Lee was
naturally strong on his right, and his left was difficult of access, since
it must be approached through wooded swamps. Well-placed batteries made
artillery fire from front and both flanks possible, but Grant decided to
attack the whole Confederate front, and word was sent to the corps
commanders to assault at half-past four the following morning.
The hot sultry weather of the preceding days had brought much suffering.
The movement of troops and wagons raised clouds of dust which settled down
upon the sweltering men and beasts. But five o'clock on the afternoon of
June 2d brought the grateful rain, and this continued during the night,
giving great relief to the exhausted troops.
At the hour designated the Federal lines moved promptly from their shallow
rifle-pits toward the Confederate works. The main assault was made by the
Second, Sixth, and Eighteenth corps. With determined and firm step they
started to cross the space between the opposing entrenchments. The silence
of the dawning summer morning was broken by the screams of musket-ball and
canister and shell. That move of the Federal battle-line opened the fiery
furnace across the intervening space, which was, in the next instant, a
Vesuvius, pouring tons and tons of steel and lead into the moving human
mass. From front, from right and left, artillery crashed and swept the
field, musketry and grape hewed and mangled and mowed down the line of
blue as it moved on its approach.
Meade issued orders for the suspension of all further offensive
operations.
A word remains to be said as to fortunes of Burnside's and Warren's
forces, which were on the Federal right. Generals Potter and Willcox of
the Ninth Corps made a quick capture of Early's advanced rifle-pits and
were waiting for the order to advance on his main entrenchments, when the
order of suspension arrived. Early fell upon him later in the day but was
repulsed. Warren, on the left of Burnside, drove Rodes' division back and
repulsed Gordon's brigade, which had attacked him. The commander of the
Fifth Corps reported that his line was too extended for further operations
and Birney's division was sent from the Second Corps to his left. But by
the time this got into position the battle of Cold Harbor was practically
over.
The losses to the Federal army in this battle and the engagements which
preceded it were over seventeen thousand, while the Confederate loss did
not exceed one-fifth of that number. Grant had failed in his plan to
destroy Lee north of the James River, and saw that he must now cross it.
Thirty days had passed in the campaign since the Wilderness and the grand
total in losses to Grant's army in killed, wounded, and missing was
54,929. The losses in Lee's army were never accurately given, but they
were very much less in proportion to the numerical strength of the two
armies. If Grant had inflicted punishment upon his foe equal to that
suffered by the Federal forces, Lee's army would have been practically
annihilated.
The Federal general-in-chief had decided to secure Petersburg and confront
Lee once more. General Gillmore was sent by Butler, with cavalry and
infantry, on June 10th to make the capture, but was unsuccessful.
Thereupon General Smith and the Eighteenth Corps were despatched to White
House Landing to go forward by water and reach Petersburg before Lee had
time to reënforce it.
[Illustration: READY FOR THE ADVANCE THAT LEE DROVE BACK