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 Opportunity at Cold Harbor
The men of the Union Eighteenth Corps troops formed into line near the Old Cold Harbor crossroads on June 3, 1864. In front of them, their gray-clad adversaries had erected a substantial network of earthworks, a deadly precursor to the trench warfare of the next century. These boys in blue were now being called upon to assault those works. As they waited for the order to advance, they were subjected to intense artillery fire; 800 of them became casualties in the first few minutes of an attack Gen. Ulysses S. Grant would later regret.
The Civil War Trust is now working to preserve a six-acre portion of the Cold Harbor battlefield--the very ground where the men of the Eighteenth Corps formed for their assault on June 3, 1864. This is truly blood-soaked ground and its fate hangs in the balance. With all of the development pressures now facing the battlefields around Richmond, it is imperative that we act quickly to save this important piece of the American story for future generations. | ||
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