THE GREAT GAME BETWEEN GRANT AND LEE.
Maneuvering and fighting in the rain, mud, and thickets--Virginian
conditions of warfare--Within eight miles of Richmond--The battle of
Cold Harbor--The tremendous losses of the campaign--The charge of
butchery against Grant considered in the light of statistics--What
it cost in life and blood to take Richmond.
By the afternoon of May 17th the weather was splendid, and the roads
were rapidly becoming dry, even where the mud was worst. Grant
determined to engage Lee, and orders for a decisive movement of the army
were issued, to be executed during the night. At first he proposed an
attack upon the enemy's right, but changed the plan. Instead of
attacking there, Hancock and Wright made a night march back to our right
flank, and attacked at daylight upon the same lines where Hancock made
his successful assault on the 12th. They succeeded in pressing close to
the enemy's lines, and for a time were confident that at last they had
struck the lair of the enemy, but an impassable abatis stopped them. One
division of Hancock's corps attempted in vain to charge through this
obstacle, and held the ground before it for an hour or more under a
galling fire of canister. The difficulty of storming the enemy's
intrenched camp on that side being evidently of the most extreme
character, and both corps having artfully but unsuccessfully sought for
a weak point where they might break through, Grant, at nine o'clock,
ordered the attack to cease. The attempt was a failure. Lee was not to
be ousted; and Grant, convinced of it, issued orders for another
movement which he had had in contemplation for several days, but which
he did not wish to try till after a last attempt to get the enemy out of
his stronghold. This was nothing less than to slip away from Lee and
march on toward Richmond again.
The new order directed that Hancock's corps should march by night from
its present position southeast as far toward Richmond on the line of the
Fredericksburg road as he could go, fighting his way if necessary.
Warren was to follow, and, if Lee did not come out and attack when our
army was thus weakened, Wright and Burnside also were to march
southward.
This movement was begun on the night of the 20th. By the night of the
21st Hancock was across the Mattapony River at Milford. Warren had
crossed the same river at Guiney's Station, the point to which Grant had
moved his headquarters. By the morning of the 22d Wright and Burnside
were up in safety, and the forward movement was continued. We were now
in a fine, clear country, good to move in and fight in, and the advance
of the 22d was most successful. By night our army lay in an east and
west line along the Mattapony River, holding the crossings. On the right
was Wright; close to him at the left, Warren; in the center, Burnside;
on the left, Hancock. Our headquarters were at New Bethel Church. Our
talk that night was that in all probability we should meet the enemy on
the North Anna, a day's march to the south of our position.
The operations of the next day were much embarrassed by our ignorance of
the road and the entire incorrectness of our maps; nevertheless, by one
o'clock in the afternoon our right wing, under Warren, reached the North
Anna. The stream there was about one hundred and fifty feet wide, with
bluff banks from fifty to seventy-five feet high. Wright followed after
Warren. As soon as Warren reached Jericho Mills he pushed his
sharpshooters across the stream, which was easily fordable at that
place, following them with a compact body of infantry. A Confederate
regiment posted to watch the crossing at once gave way, leaving a single
prisoner in our hands. From this man Warren learned that another of the
enemy's divisions was drawn up to receive him near by. Under the orders
of General Grant, he promptly threw across the pontoon bridge, over
which he rapidly moved his artillery, at the same time urging forward
his infantry by the ford as well as by the bridge; and by five o'clock
he had transported his entire command, and had taken up a position of
great strength. Here he rapidly commenced intrenching himself.
Grant had by this time moved his headquarters up to Mount Carmel Church,
some four miles from Jericho Mills. About six o'clock we knew from the
firing that Warren had been attacked. I never heard more rapid or
heavier firing, either of artillery or musketry. It was not until about
half past ten that evening that we knew surely how the fight had gone;
then a dispatch from Warren announced that he had triumphantly repulsed
the enemy, and made considerable captures of prisoners.
About the same time that Warren was fighting for his position at Jericho
Mills, Hancock advanced on our left. By a vigorous charge of two
brigades of Birney's division, the enemy was driven over the North Anna
River. The next morning Hancock crossed over. That same morning, May
24th, we found that, as a result of the operations of the previous day,
we had about one thousand prisoners. They were more discouraged than any
set of prisoners I ever saw before. Lee had deceived them, they said,
and they declared that his army would not fight again except behind
breastworks.
The general opinion of every prominent officer in the army on the
morning of the 24th was that the enemy had fallen back, either to take
up a position beyond the South Anna or to go to Richmond, but by noon
the next day we knew this was a mistake. All through the day of the 24th
Lee blocked our southward march. The opinion prevailed that the enemy's
position was held by a rear guard only, but the obstinacy of their
skirmishers was regarded as very remarkable. About dark Hancock made an
attack, breaking into the Confederate line of works, taking some
prisoners, and satisfying himself that a whole corps was before him.
Soon afterward the division of Gibbon was attacked, but it beat back the
assault handsomely without any considerable loss. Just before dark
Crittenden--the same Crittenden who was at Chickamauga--was also
suddenly attacked, and one of his brigades damaged. No fighting of any
moment took place on the morning of the 25th, but the enemy showed such
strength as to leave no doubt that Lee's whole army was present. His
intrenchments were in the form of the letter V. He showed artillery on
both faces. By the morning of the 25th Grant was sure that Lee was
before him and strongly intrenched. He soon determined on a new move.
This was to withdraw his whole army as quickly as possible, and, before
Lee discovered his intention, to move it southeast, across the Pamunkey,
and perhaps on across the Chickahominy and the James, if he could not
meanwhile get Lee out of his earthworks.
The orders for the new move were received with the best spirit by the
army, in spite of the fact that the men were much jaded. Indeed, one of
the most important results of the campaign thus far was the entire
change which had taken place in the feelings of the armies. The
Confederates had lost all confidence, and were already morally defeated.
Our army had learned to believe that it was sure of ultimate victory.
Even our officers had ceased to regard Lee as an invincible military
genius. On the part of the enemy this change was evinced not only by
their not attacking, even when circumstances seemed to invite it, but by
the unanimous statements of prisoners taken from them.
The morning after we began to move from our position on the North Anna I
was so confident that I wrote Mr. Stanton, "Rely upon it, the end is
near as well as sure."
It was on the night of the 26th that our army was withdrawn from the
North Anna, without loss or disturbance, and by the evening of the 27th
Grant had his headquarters ten miles from Hanovertown, and his whole
army was well up toward the crossing. We had no news of Lee's movements
that day, though we heard that there was a force of the enemy at Hanover
Courthouse. Grant himself was very doubtful that day of our getting
across the Hanover Ferry; he told me that we might be obliged to go
farther to the southeast to get over. On the morning of the 27th
Sheridan and his cavalry seized the ferry, laying bridges, and, after
crossing, advancing well beyond. Everything went on finely that night
and during the 28th, the troops passing our headquarters in great
numbers and very rapidly. By noon of the 28th the movement of the army
across the Pamunkey was complete, with the exception of Burnside, who
did not arrive until midnight. The movement had been executed with
admirable celerity and success. The new position was one of great
strength, our lines extending from the Pamunkey to Totopotomoy Creek.
Wright was on the Pamunkey, Hancock on his left, and Warren on the
Totopotomoy. The orders for that day were to let the men rest, though
both officers and men were in high spirits at the successful execution
of this long and difficult flank movement.
We were now south of the Pamunkey, and occupying a very strong position,
but we did not know yet where Lee was. A general reconnoissance was at
once ordered, and the enemy was found in force south of the Totopotomoy
Creek; by the 30th there was no doubt that Lee's whole army, now
re-enforced by thirteen thousand men, was close at hand and strongly
intrenched again. Grant said he would fight here if there was a fair
chance, but he declared emphatically he would not run his head against
heavy works.
Our line began to push forward on the 30th. All the afternoon of that
day at headquarters, which were now at Hawes's Shop, we heard the noise
of fighting. First Warren on the left, who had reached a point only
about seven miles and a half from Richmond, had a short, sharp, and
decisive engagement with Early; and later an active conflict raged for
some time with our right on the Totopotomoy. We were successful all
along the line. The next day, the 31st, we pushed ahead until our lines
lay from Bethesda Church, on the east, to the railroad, on the west.
Desultory firing was constantly heard, but there was no very active
fighting that day until about five o'clock in the afternoon, when
Sheridan's cavalry, by hard work, drove out the enemy and secured Cold
Harbor, which was at that moment of vast importance to us strategically.
It was determined to make a fight here before the enemy could intrench.
Wright was at once ordered to have his whole force on the ground by
daylight on the 1st of June, to support Sheridan and take the offensive.
"Baldy" Smith, of Butler's army, who had landed at White House on the
31st with twelve thousand five hundred men, was ordered to the aid of
Wright and Sheridan. But there was an error in Smith's orders, and
Wright's march was so long that his corps did not get up to Cold Harbor
until the afternoon of the 1st. Meanwhile Sheridan's cavalry had
repulsed two attacks by two brigades of Kershaw's infantry.
It was not until six o'clock in the afternoon that we at headquarters at
Bethesda Church heard the cannon which indicated that an attack had at
last been made by Wright and Smith. From the sounds of artillery and
musketry, we judged the fight was furious. Rickett's division broke
through the rebel lines between Hoke and Kershaw, capturing five hundred
prisoners, and forcing the enemy to take up a new position farther back.
Smith's troops effected lodgments close up to the Confederate
intrenchments. Our losses this day were twenty-two hundred men in these
two corps. Warren was slightly engaged. Altogether they had done very
well, but meanwhile Lee was again concentrated and intrenched in our
front.
Hancock was ordered to move during the night, and his advance arrived at
Cold Harbor about daylight. When I got up in the morning--I was then at
Bethesda Church--his rear was marching past our headquarters. In
conjunction with Wright and Smith, he was to fall upon Lee's right that
day. Warren and Burnside were also ordered in as soon as they heard that
the three corps on our left had begun battle. There was no battle that
day, however. Hancock's men were so tired with their forced march of
nearly twelve miles, and the heat and dust were so oppressive, that
General Grant ordered the attack to be postponed until half past four
o'clock the next morning.
So the battle Grant sought did not come until June 3d--that of Cold
Harbor. On the morning of the 3d our line lay with the right at Bethesda
Church, the left extending to the Chickahominy. Hancock commanded the
left; next to him was Wright, with his corps drawn up in three lines;
next, Smith, with the Eighteenth Corps in two lines; next, Warren, who
had his whole command in a single line, the distance he covered being
fully three miles. With this thin order of battle he was necessarily
unable to make any effective assault. Burnside held the extreme right.
Hancock, Wright, and Smith were to make the main attacks at daybreak.
Promptly at the hour they dashed out toward the rebel lines, under a
fearful fire of musketry and a cross fire of artillery. The losses were
great, but we gained advantages here and there. The entire charge
consumed hardly more than an hour. Barlow, of Hancock's corps, drove
through a very strong line, and at five o'clock reported that he had
taken intrenchments with guns and colors, but he could not stay there.
An interior breastwork commanded the one he had carried, and his men had
to withdraw, leaving behind them the captured cannon, and bringing out a
single Confederate standard and two hundred and twenty prisoners as
tokens of their brief success. Wright and Smith succeeded in carrying
the first line of rifle-pits, but could get no farther to the front. All
our forces held ground close up to the enemy. At some points they were
intrenched within a hundred feet of the rebel breastworks. Burnside, on
the right, captured some rifle-pits. Later he was attacked by Early, who
was roughly handled and repulsed. Warren was active, and repulsed a
vigorous attack by Gordon.
Thus by noon we had fully developed the Confederate lines, and Grant
could see what was necessary in order to get through them. Hancock
reported that in his front it could not be done. Wright was decidedly of
the opinion that a lodgment could be made in his front, but it would be
difficult to make much by it unless Hancock and Smith could also
advance. Smith thought he could carry the works before him, but was not
sanguine. Burnside also thought he could get through, but Warren, who
was nearest him, did not seem to share his opinion. In this state of
things, at half past one o'clock, General Grant ordered the attack to be
suspended. He had told Meade as early as seven in the morning to suspend
the movement if it became evident that success was impossible.
This was the battle of Cold Harbor, which has been exaggerated into one
of the bloodiest disasters of history, a reckless, useless waste of
human life. It was nothing of the kind. The outlook warranted the
effort. The breaking of Lee's lines meant his destruction and the
collapse of the rebellion. Sheridan took the same chances at Five Forks
ten months later, and won; so did Wright, Humphreys, Gibbon, and others
at Petersburg. They broke through far stronger lines than those at Cold
Harbor, and Lee fled in the night toward Appomattox. So it would have
been at Cold Harbor if Grant had won, and who would have thought of the
losses?
While we lay at Cold Harbor, as when we had been at Spottsylvania, the
principal topic of conversation was the losses of the army. The
discussion has never ceased. There are still many persons who bitterly
accuse Grant of butchery in this campaign. As a matter of fact, Grant
lost fewer men in his successful effort to take Richmond and end the war
than his predecessors lost in making the same attempt and failing. An
official table, showing the aggregate of the losses sustained by the
armies of McDowell, McClellan, Pope, Burnside, Hooker, Meade, Butler,
and Ord, in the effort to capture the Confederate capital, is appended:
_Comparative Statement of the Losses sustained in Action by the Army
of Northeastern Virginia, the Army of the Potomac, and the Army of
Virginia, under Command of Generals McDowell, McClellan, Pope,
Burnside, Hooker, and Meade, from May 24, 1861, to May 4, 1864, and
the Army of the Potomac (Meade) and the Army of the James (Butler
and Ord), constituting the Armies operating against Richmond under
General Grant, from May 5, 1864, to April 9, 1865_:
----------------------------+-------+--------+--------+----------
| | |Captured|.
|Killed.|Wounded.| or |Aggregate.
| | |missing.|
----------------------------+-------+--------+------- +----------
Losses from May 24, 1861, | | | |
to May 4, 1864: | | | |
| | | |
McDowell, May 24 | | | |
to August 19, 1861 | 493| 1,176| 1,342| 3,011
| | | |
McClellan, August 20, 1861, | | | |
to April 4, 1862 | 80| 268| 815| 1,163
| | | |
McClellan, April 5 | | | |
to August 8, 1862 | 3,263| 13,868| 7,317| 24,448
| | | |
Pope, June 26 | | | |
to September 2, 1862 | 2,065| 9,908| 4,982| 16,955
| | | |
McClellan, September 3 | | | |
to November 14, 1862 | 2,716| 11,979| 13,882| 28,577
| | | |
Burnside, November 15, 1862,| | | |
to January 25, 1863 | 1,296| 9,642| 2,276| 13,214
| | | |
Hooker, January 26 | | | |
to June 27 | 1,955| 11,160| 11,912| 25,027
| | | |
Meade, June 28, 1863, | | | |
to May 4 1864 | 3,877| 18,078| 9,575| 31,530
+-------+--------+--------+----------
Total | 15,745| 76,079| 52,101| 143,925
| | | |
| | | |
Grant's losses from May 5, | | | |
1864, to April 9, 1865: | | | |
| | | |
| | | |
May 5 to June 24, | | | |
1864--Army of the | | | |
Potomac, from the | | | |
Rapidan to the James | 7,621| 38,339| 8,966| 54,926
| | | |
May 5 to June 14--Army of | | | |
the James, south of | | | |
James River | 634| 3,903| 1,678| 6,215
| | | |
June 15 to July 31--Army | | | |
of the Potomac and Army | | | |
of the James | 2,928| 13,743| 6,265| 22,936
| | | |
August 1 to December | | | |
31--Army of the Potomac | | | |
and Army of the James | 2,172| 11,138| 11,311| 24,621
| | | |
| | | |
January 1 to April 9, | | | |
1865--Army of the | | | |
Potomac and Army of | | | |
the James and | | | |
Sheridan's cavalry | 1,784| 10,625| 3,283| 15,692
+-------+--------+--------+----------
Total | 15,139| 77,748 | 31,503| 124,390
| | | |
SUMMARY: | | | |
Armies of McDowell, | | | |
McClellan, Pope, Burnside,| | | |
Hooker, and Meade | 15,745| 76,079| 52,101| 143,925
Armies under Grant | 15,139| 77,748| 31,503| 124,390
+-------+--------+--------+----------
Grand aggregate | 30,884| 153,827| 83,604| 268,315
| | | |
Aggregate of losses from | | | |
May 24, 1861, to May 4, | | | |
1864 | | | | 143,925
Aggregate of losses from | | | |
May 4, 1864, to April 9, | | | |
1865 | | | | 124,390
| | | +----------
Difference in Grant's favor | | | | 19,535
----------------------------+-------+--------+--------+----------
This table shows exactly what Richmond cost us from May 24, 1861, when
McDowell crossed the Potomac into Virginia, to Lee's surrender at
Appomattox; and it proves that Grant in eleven months secured the prize
with less loss than his predecessors suffered in failing to win it
during a struggle of three years.