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Troop Movements at the Battle of Cold Harbor

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Troop Movements at the Battle of Cold Harbor R \ o H r n o i $ ) MS? RICH ¡.b'ixp; CR&IB&Ljo^qcj TROOP MOVEMENTS AT TSE BATTLE OF COLD HARBOR 3U1 ll 5 W < t UN I MC l_U IN ri. 1/ L . A « » ! _ LINE OF RESISTANCE. CLINICIAN'S AND WOFFORD'S BRIGADES ARE FORCED TO fall B a c k . TRUEX WOUNDED, WALL IN COMMAND. f l n a t i o n a l ] P A R K ► S E R W IC t NEW COLD HARbOR \ Introduction The Richmond Civil War Centennial Committee presents this folio of maps as its contribution to the Centennial of the Battle of Cold Harbor. The Cold Harbor Campaign began on 31 May 1864, and lasted until 13 June. But the fiercest fighting took place 1 June to 3 June. The Army of the Potomac now under General Grant (110,000) men and the Army of Northern Vir­ ginia under General Lee (5 8,000 men), had opposed each other in many battles for nearly three years. This engagement was the beginning of the end for the Confederacy, and the last in which the Army of Northern Virginia fought its adversary to a standstill. It was one of the few great engagements in which Lee had no reserves. He had put every man in his army into action. In the bitterly cold winter of 1863-64, the two armies faced each other along a line running generally westwardly from Fredericksburg to Gordonsville on either side of the Rapidan River. In March 1864, General Ulysses S. Grant was put in charge of the Union forces and proceeded southwardly. In May he crossed the Rapidan and w as, in the Battle of the W ilderness, abruptly turned in direction. Thereafter Grant always extended his left in an attempt to turn the right flank of Lee. From the Wilderness Grant went to Spotsylvania Court House, where he was again met by Lee, from there to the North Anna River [ Battle of North Anna] , then down the river and across the Pamunkey River at Hanovertown. Grant continued to extend his left, keeping in touch with navigable water with its advantages of transportation and mobility. Upon crossing the Pamunkey, he pushed southwardly to the important crossroads at Cold Harbor, where two years previously McClellan and Lee fought the Battle of Gaines' Mill [27 June 1862], about eight miles northeast from Richmond. Lee's advance cavalry reached Cold Harbor only a few minutes ahead of Grant's. The battle lines were formed, and for the fourth time in 30 days Grant attacked, continuing his campaign of attri­ tion. Again he was prepared to take fearful losses. These maps show troop movements from 31 May to 13 June, when Grant successfully withdrew his whole army from the front lines and crossed the James River. The maps themselves tell the story of Cold Harbor. Unlike the "decisive" battles of Vicksburg, Gettysburg, or Nashville, Cold Harbor did not end a campaign. But it saved Richmond for the Confederacy for almost another year. And indeed, Cold Harbor was one of the most sanguinary battles of the war. The two major armies faced each other on a relatively narrow front; in one small sector of that front, some 7,000 Union soldiers fell within 30 min­ utes . The Richmond Civil War Centennial Committee has based these contemporary interpretive maps on an original set prepared by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior, and thanks the National Park Service for making the master maps available to u s. We express our appreciation to Richmond's City Manager, Horace H. Edwards, and to Director of Public Works Robert S. Hopson for their approval of this undertaking; and we particularly wish to commend the work of the staff of the Division of Preliminary En­ gineering, Department of Public Works, City of Richmond, who delineated the maps in this folio: Chester Gratz William S. Pregnall Mrs. Lela R. Pizzuto William W. Stillwagon Library of Congress catalog card MAP 6 4 15 Official Publication #21 Richmond Civil War Centennial Committee Richmond, Virginia 50164 1964 1M HAROAWAx'i ARTY. R n*^ UAMMN F liU t« C H A w foto'l D W I5 1 M , HAVIM& *BR\»6B TMJJR J l * . OLD CWURCM LEGE.ND osotR fet» Uo m C Fo r L H O T L L UNJ l O AJ CONFC DERM E. W lU iO K 1) DIVI-SlON T U N iT A U 'S 5TATIOKI „° F2 PR£ 5 4 6 * FORWARD AMD t *OL(* IM RO U TI T O COLD UAHOftR a« mV EiTA&LliWt-» ITS LWt4 NtAF. o 01 Aoy ftRoul CWURcH a T « CeNFCOMATC W IM T W M K ^ s * CORPS WM/16 V &Au3,At>0, a R fi^ 4 * -S *1V (SION, CAMOtD, B ^ w ron 'i FAAM , OMC MICE OAtT O F OCD COMKCH. AT 6 P . R . DIVISION D *w ie * M e m c s c a r p * AMD MAHCWt «3« o ld COLO RARfeoR EARLY »loe-SU P* ReDtV Division BRIGADE- g|| Tb Twe l Cf t t o r l l t h e a x r l e f t ftV AMOMiOw’i MARCW TO T« RE G1MEWT ijt ¿¿¿a RI6 MT. B A T T A L I O N 4 4 C A V A L R . V B A». 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