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May 31 - June 12, 1864 In the overland campaign of 1864, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant with the Army of the Potomac battled General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia for six weeks across central Virginia. At the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna and Totopotomoy Creek, Lee repeatedly stalled, but failed to stop, Grant's southward progress toward Richmond. The next logical military objective for Grant was the crossroads styled by locals Old Cold Harbor.
MAY 31,1864
After sparring along the Totopotomoy northeast of Richmond,
Grant ordered Major General Philip Sheridan's cavalry to move
south and capture the crossroads at Old Cold Harbor. Arriving
near the intersection, the Union force ran into Major General
Fitzhugh Lee's Confederate horsemen.
A sharp contest ensued, soon joined by Confederate infantry
under Brigadier General Thomas Clingman of Major General Robert
Hoke's division. After a short battle, Union cavalry drove the
Confederates beyond the crossroads. The Rebels then started
digging new positions a half mile to the southwest.
JUNE 1
Lee wished to retake Old Cold Harbor and sent Major General
Joseph Kershaw's division to join Hoke in a morning assault. The
effort was short and uncoordinated. Hoke failed to press the
attack and Sheridan's troopers, armed with Spencer repeating
carbines, easily repulsed the assault.
Grant, encouraged by this success, ordered up reinforcements and
planned his own attack for later the same day. If the Union
frontal assault broke through the Confederate defenses, it would
place the Union army between Lee and Richmond. After a hot and
dusty night march, Major General Horatio Wright's VI Corps
arrived and relieved Sheridan's cavalry, but Grant had to delay
the attack Major General William Smith's XVIII Corps, Army of
the James, marching in the wrong direction under out-of-date
orders, had to retrace its route and arrived late in the
afternoon.
The Union attack finally began at 5 p.m. Finding a fifty yard
gap between Hoke's and Kershaw's divisions, Wright's veterans
poured through, capturing part of the Confederate lines. A
southern counterattack however, sealed off the break and ended
the day's fighting. Confederate infantry strengthened their
lines that night and waited for the battle to begin next morning.
JUNE 2
Disappointed by the failed attack Grant planned another advance
for 5 a.m. on June 2. He ordered Major General Winfield
Hancock's II Corps to march to the left of the VI Corps.
Exhausted by a brutal night march over narrow, dusty roads, the
II Corps did not arrive until 6:30 a.m. Grant postponed the
attack until 5 p.m. Later that day, he approved a postponement
until 4:30 a.m. of June 3 because of the spent condition of
Hancock's men.
The Union delays gave Lee precious hours, time he used to
strengthen his defenses. The Confederates had built simple
trenches by daybreak of June 2. Under Lee's personal
supervision, these works were expanded and strengthened
throughout the day. By nightfall the Confederates occupied an
interlocking series of trenches with overlapping fields of fire.
Reinforcements under Major General John Breckinridge and
Lieutenant General Ambrose Hill arrived and fortified the
Confederate right. Lee was ready.
JUNE 3
At 4:30 on the morning of June 3 almost 50,000 Federal troops in
the II, VI and XVIII Corps launched a massive assault. The
Confederate position, now well entrenched, proved too strong for
the Union troops. In less than an hour, thousands of Federal
soldiers lay dead and dying between the lines. Pinned down by a
tremendous volume of Confederate infantry and artillery fire,
Grant's men could neither advance nor retreat. With cups,
plates, and bayonets, they dug makeshift trenches. Later, when
darkness fell, these trenches were joined and improved.
JUNE 4-12
The great attack at Cold Harbor was over. Hundreds of wounded
Federal soldiers remained on the battlefield for four days as
Grant and Lee negotiated a cease-fire. Few survived the ordeal.
From June 4 to June 12 both armies fortified their positions and
settled into siege warfare. The days were filled with minor
attacks, artillery duels and sniping. With the Union defeat at
Cold Harbor, Grant changed his overall strategy and abandoned
further direct moves against Richmond. On the night of June 12
Union forces withdrew and marched south towards the James River.
During the two week period along the Totopotomoy and at Cold
Harbor, the Federal army lost 12,000 killed, wounded, missing
and captured while the Confederates suffered almost 4,000
casualties.
Grant's next target was Petersburg and the railroads that
provided needed supplies to the Confederate army. Cold Harbor
proved to be Lee's last major field victory and changed the
course of the war from one of maneuver to one of entrenchment.
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