In May-June 1864, the climactic Battle of Cold Harbor was fought as part of Union General Ulysses S. Grant’s Overland Campaign against Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.
It resulted in a devastating Union defeat, with over 7,000 casualties in just 30 minutes on June 3rd. Despite this, the Battle of Cold Harbor was an important milestone that significantly impacted the final year of the American Civil War.
Read on to discover the significance of the Battle of Harbour.
1. Ulysses S. Grant’s Overland Campaign Stalls
In the spring of 1864, Union General Ulysses S. Grant launched a major offensive against Confederate forces in Virginia known as the Overland Campaign.
His primary objective was to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond by defeating Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Grant had several key goals:
- Engage and destroy Lee’s army through a series of battles
- Cut off supply lines and rail communications to Richmond
- Lay siege to the city and force its surrender
The campaign kicked off in early May with brutal battles in the Wilderness and at Spotsylvania Court House. Despite staggering losses, Grant continued his relentless push:
- Over 17,000 Union casualties at the Wilderness
- 18,000 more losses at Spotsylvania
- But Lee’s forces took a toll as well, suffering around 25,000 total casualties
Though his army was battered, Grant remained determined. He was convinced that Lee’s troops were severely depleted and demoralized. Grant believed one final, decisive blow could break through the Confederate defenses.
This conviction led him to order an all-out offensive targeting the crossroads of Cold Harbor, just 10 miles from Richmond. Grant massed his forces to launch a massive frontal assault against Lee’s well-entrenched positions along the Chickahominy River. He hoped this bold attack would punch through and open the door to capturing the Confederate capital once and for all.
2. The Disastrous Assault of June 3
While the battle stretched over several days, it’s the disastrous Union assault on June 3rd that remains etched in history as a turning point in the bloody Overland Campaign.
A Dawn of Desperation
The Union assault began at the crack of dawn, around 4:30 am on June 3rd.
The hope was to catch the Confederates off guard, but delays in communication and troop movements squandered that element of surprise. The disjointed advance saw different Union corps attacking at staggered times throughout the morning.
This lack of coordination gave the Confederates a significant advantage. They were able to shift troops to meet each threat, maximizing the effectiveness of their entrenched defenses.
A Slaughter Unfolds
Lee’s army had spent the precious days following initial skirmishes not in idleness, but in a frenzy of fortification.
The Army of Northern Virginia veterans spent spent these precious moments transforming their position into a deadly labyrinth. They constructed earthworks, eight to ten feet high, topped with sharpened logs for added defense. Trenches, dug in front of the earthworks, provided additional cover and a vantage point for deadly rifle fire.
Behind these formidable defenses, Confederate soldiers awaited the inevitable Union assault.
The open fields they the Union soldiers had anticipated charging across would now become a killing zone.
As they emerged from the tree line, the Confederate rifle fire erupted. Bullets ripped through the ranks, felling men in droves. The carefully planned Union formations dissolved into chaos.
The ground, churned to mud by the relentless bombardment, became a treacherous obstacle course littered with the dead and wounded.
For those who managed to reach the Confederate earthworks, they found themselves staring up at an insurmountable wall of sharpened logs and a hail of point-blank musket fire. The few who reached the Confederate lines were met with a brutal hand-to-hand struggle, a desperate fight for survival quickly overwhelmed by the sheer weight of Confederate numbers.
A Battlefield of Carnage
The Battle of Cold Harbor stands as one of the deadliest and most horrific engagements of the Civil War. The sheer scale of death and suffering inflicted in such a short span was staggering:
Estimates suggest Union casualties:
- Up to 13,000 killed, wounded and missing
While Confederate losses were lower but still severe:
- Around 5,000 casualties
The vast majority of these losses, especially on the Union side, occurred within the first few hours of the ill-fated assault on June 3rd. The battlefield rapidly became a grisly tableau of death and human misery:
- Thousands of bodies littered the grounds, torn apart by shell and shot
- Injured soldiers cried out in agony, lying in thick pools of blood
- Many died lingering deaths from horrific wounds or exposure to the relentless Virginia summer sun
Medical facilities were completely overwhelmed by the deluge of casualties. Supplies of basic treatment like bandages, splints and opium quickly ran out. Medics and surgeons could offer little more than:
- Rudimentary first aid for the critically wounded
- Hasty amputations without anesthesia
- Ineffectual comfort care as men expired
Accounts describe gruesome sights of severed limbs, bodies with their bowels protruding, and the piercing screams of soldiers begging for water or mercy from their unimaginable agonies. For every soldier who died instantly, many more lingered for agonizing days before succumbing to their wounds or disease from the insanitary conditions.
The scale of death at Cold Harbor truly shocked even veteran soldiers. It came to epitomize the brutal, industrialized slaughter of the Civil War in a way few other battles could match.
A General’s Dilemma and the Shattered Morale of Men
By midday, General Grant recognized the futility of further attacks. He ordered a halt to the assault. This decision, however, came at a heavy cost.
The failed assault had a devastating impact on Union morale. Soldiers who had bravely charged into the face of fire were left grappling with the senseless loss of their comrades. The battlefield transformed into a grim reminder of the war’s brutality.
3. Robert E. Lee’s Last Great Victory of the Civil War
For Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, the Battle of Cold Harbor represented their final, shining victory before the long siege of Petersburg and ultimate surrender in 1865.
Despite being vastly outnumbered nearly 2-to-1 by General Ulysses S. Grant’s forces, Lee’s brilliant defensive tactics and troop placements enabled him to inflict an overwhelming defeat on the Union attackers.
Stalling General Ulysses S. Grant’s Advance to Richmond
Most crucially, the Confederate victory at Cold Harbor prevented Grant from achieving his main operational objective – the capture of Richmond. The Confederate capital lay just 10 miles away from the bloody battlefields.
The devastating battle with over 13,000 Union casualties made it impossible for Grant to renew his offensive against Lee’s army. His battered forces were simply too depleted to risk another head-on attack toward Richmond.
The battle forced Grant to revise his entire strategy.
Instead of pressing on to Richmond, he would instead shift his armies to attack and lay siege to the rail hub of Petersburg – cutting off the Confederate capital’s supply lines. More on that below.
While not a total strategic victory, Cold Harbor represented Lee’s defiant last attempt to halt the Union drive into the very heart of the Confederate cause. It was the twilight of the legendary general’s most significant battlefield triumph of 1864.
4. Impact on the War’s Final Year
The shocking failure and massive casualties of Grant’s assault at Cold Harbor had profound and far-reaching impacts that would shape the final year of the Civil War.
For the battered Union forces, the defeat was a staggering moral and psychological blow after weeks of grisly fighting in the Overland Campaign.
In the North, public support for continuing the bloody conflict plummeted in the wake of Cold Harbor.
Newspaper accounts vividly depicted the senseless slaughter and gruesome scenes of carnage. This ignited fierce criticism of Grant’s tactics and calls for peace negotiations from anti-war factions.
Within the Union ranks, thousands of veteran soldiers’ enlistments expired in the summer of 1864. These soldiers were reluctant to continue fighting after witnessing the slaughter at Cold Harbor. Whole regiments had to be disbanded after being chewed to pieces in battles like Cold Harbor. Morale sank while desertions spiked.
Most significantly, Grant was forced to abandon his offensives against Richmond after the disaster at Cold Harbor.
The tactical mastermind behind the Union victories at Vicksburg lost his momentum and aggressive posture against Lee’s defiant army. Grant ceased his efforts to directly attack the Confederate capital.
The Siege of Petersburg
Instead of battering his forces fruitlessly against Lee’s entrenched positions, Grant altered his strategy in the wake of Cold Harbor. He ordered the Army of the Potomac to swing south and lay siege to the vital rail hub of Petersburg – cutting off Richmond’s supply lines and communication with the Deep South.
This change of plans achieved its desired effect of bottling up Lee’s forces in static siege lines around Richmond and Petersburg.
However, it also enabled the Confederates to prolong their defense of the capital for another grueling year:
- The siege of Petersburg stretched from June 1864 to April 1865
- Lee’s outnumbered army deftly repelled every Union offensive to break the siege
- Only when supplies were finally exhausted did Lee abandon Richmond
By repulsing Grant at Cold Harbor, Lee and the Confederacy bought nearly a year’s more time to cling to their capital. But the siege also drained the South’s limited resources and manpower – setting the stage for eventual, inevitable surrender.
So while a tactical victory for Lee’s forces, Cold Harbor’s true impact was in sapping Union fighting strength and national will. This forced Grant’s shift to the attritional Petersburg campaign.
The result was hugely bloody stalemate – extending the Civil War by a year but allowing the sheer weight of the Union’s superior numbers to grind down Confederate resistance.
5. Final Thoughts on the Battle of Cold Harbor
While it was an overwhelming defeat for the Union, the Battle of Cold Harbor’s importance in shaping the final year of the Civil War cannot be overstated.
The massive casualties, failure to break through Lee’s lines, and Grant’s subsequent change in strategy profoundly impacted the conflict’s final months.
Had Grant been able to punch through at Cold Harbor, he may have been able to capture Richmond – potentially ending the war in 1864.
Instead, the battle stalled his Overland Campaign and led to the grueling siege lines around Petersburg and Richmond that dragged on for nearly a year.
So despite being a tactical disaster, Cold Harbor was a critical turning point that forced Grant to revise his approach against Lee. This pivot ultimately enabled the Union war effort to grind down Confederate resistance – setting the stage for final victory in 1865.
Cold Harbor was undoubtedly one of the most important battles in securing Confederate surrender and reuniting the nation.
Cold Harbour: Frequently Asked Questions
1. How many Union soldiers died in the Battle of Cold Harbor?
Around 7,000 Union soldiers were killed or fatally wounded in the disastrous assault on June 3rd alone. Total Union casualties were over 13,000.
2. What regiments fought in the Battle of Cold Harbor?
Union
Grant’s Union forces totaled approximately 108,000 men.
- Army of the Potomac, under Maj. Gen. George Meade; and
- The XVIII Corps, on temporary assignment from the Army of the James.
The Corps included:
- II Corps, under Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock.
- V Corps, under Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren.
- VI Corps, under Brig. Gen. Horatio Wright.
- IX Corps, under Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside.
- Cavalry Corps, under Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan.
- XVIII Corps, under Maj. Gen. William F. “Baldy” Smith.
Confederate
Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia comprised about 59,000 men
- First Corps, under Lt. Gen. Richard H. Anderson.
- Second Corps, under Lt. Gen. Jubal Early.
- Third Corps, under Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill.
- Cavalry Corps.
- Breckinridge’s Division, commanded by Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge.
- Hoke’s Division, commanded by Maj. Gen. Robert F. Hoke.
3. How many days did Cold Harbor last?
The Battle of Cold Harbor lasted 12 days in total from May 31 to June 12, 1864, though the key bloodshed occurred on June 3rd.
4. Who were the important people in Cold Harbor?
The opposing army commanders were Ulysses S. Grant for the Union and Robert E. Lee for the Confederates.
5. Who ordered the all-out assault at Cold Harbor?
Union General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant ordered the massive frontal assault against Lee’s entrenched positions on June 3rd, 1864.
6. What were the causes of the Battle of Cold Harbor?
Cold Harbor was prompted by Grant’s Overland Campaign aimed at capturing Richmond by defeating Lee’s army. After battles in the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, Grant hoped to break through at Cold Harbor.
Further Reading
If you enjoyed this article, you may be interested to read more about the American Civil War events, such as battles in Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina or more general American history.
