![]() ![]() Whatever the reasoning, at approximately 4:30 a.m., with a light rain falling, the blue-clad infantry scrambled out of their earthworks and entered the open field. Historians have debated what prompted Grant to launch the frontal assault that morning. The exhibition of tailoring seemed rather peculiar at such a moment, but upon closer examination it was found that the men were calmly writing their names and home addresses on slips of paper, and pinning them on the backs of their coats, so that their dead bodies might be recognized upon the field, and their fate known to their families at home.”īoth armies were well entrenched by June 3, 1864, having spent the previous several days building elaborate earthworks. "As I came near one of the regiments which was making preparations for the next morning’s assault, I noticed that many of the soldiers had taken off their coats, and seemed to be engaged in sewing up rents in them. His own former staff officer, Horace Porter, did not help the cause when he wrote, some 30 years later, the following sensational story: Richmond National Battlefield Park, Mechanicsville, Va.įor this attack, Grant became known as The Butcher. The battle now joined on the Tidewater Peninsula, near the location of the Seven Days' Campaign approximately two years earlier, has come to greatly shape the memory of Grant's military career.įighting at Cold Harbor lasted 13 days, yet one charge on one day is sometimes used as a summation of Grant's entire career, a process solidified by the memoir, penned near the end of his life: "I have always regretted that the very last assault at Cold Harbor was ever made," he wrote, "No advantage whatever was gained to compensate for the heavy loss we sustained."Ĭold Harbor Battlefield at night. From the Union lines, one could practically see the spires of the churches of Richmond, the Confederate capital, with a field glass. A month into the campaign, his forces depleted by some 50,000 cumulative casualties, Grant stood on the banks of the Pamunkey River. When stymied there, Grant sidestepped again. After further contemplation and probing, Grant again headed south, around Lee's right flank toward the North Anna River. On May 12, Grant unleashed the Union H Corps against a salient in the Confederate lines initially dubbed the "Mule Shoe," but after more than 18 hours of intense combat, now known to history as the "bloody Angle."īut the Ohioan was not foiled. Lee beat him to the area, however, and erected extensive earthworks. His first destination was the pivotal crossroads at Spotsylvania Court House. Since that first encounter, which resulted in two days of bloodletting in the tangled growth, Grant had initiated a campaign of forward movement, sidestepping around Lee's right flank. ![]() In the first days of May 1864, now a month prior, the Civil War's two principal armies had locked horns in battle west of Fredericksburg, Va., in a second-growth forest simply called the Wilderness. Beyond his line of sight, behind immense earthworks, lay his antagonist, the formidable Confederate Army of Northern Virginiaunder Gen. In his immediate view sprawled the powerful Union Army of the Potomac, with an independent corps, the XVIII, borrowed from the Army of the James, attached to the command. Ulysses Simpson Grant - "U.S." to the media, but jokingly, "Sam" to his friends - peered into the horizon. Grant at his headquarters, Cold Harbor, Va.Ĭigar clenched between his teeth, flies buzzing about him as he watched the still-smoldering campfire, a middle-age man with a scrubby beard and tanned face, his uniform stained with sweat and grime stands in front of his tent. Out of 13 days of fighting, it is one charge on one day that came to characterize the memory of Ulysses Grant’s generalship and cling to him, like a leech, all the way to the highest office in the land -the presidency. Two words that conjure images of brutality and futility. Saved Land Browse Interactive Map View active campaignsĬold Harbor.Send Students on School Field Trips to Battlefields – Your Gift Tripled!.Preserve 128 Sacred Acres at Antietam and Shepherdstown.For Sale: Three Battlefield Tracts Spanning Three Wars.An Unparalleled Preservation Opportunity at Gettysburg Battlefield.Phase Three of Gaines’ Mill-Cold Harbor Saved Forever Campaign.Save 42 Historic Acres at the Battle of Chancellorsville.Virtual Tours View All See Antietam now!.National Teacher Institute July 13 - 16, 2023 Learn More.USS Constitution In 4 Minutes Watch Video. ![]()
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