Recollections of the Civil War With the Leaders at Washington and in the Field in the Sixties

31 May – 12 June 1864

Battle of Cold Harbor

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.

In camp at Cold Harbor--Grant's opinion of Lee--Trouble with newspaper correspondents--Moving south of the James River--The great pontoon bridge--The fighting of the colored troops--Failure to take Petersburg at first attack--Lee loses Grant and Beauregard finds him--Beauregard's service to the Confederacy.

CHAPTER XIV.

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.

CHAPTER XIV.

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?