Battle of Cold Harbor Overview: Civil War Richmond

hey welcome everybody gary edelman american battlefield trusted man do we have a lot to talk about here i don't even know where to start in any case first of all uh this is our hope that because we're in this virtual world because we had to cancel or postpone our conferences that maybe this could be some poor substitute um for you all who don't get to come out to the battlefield who might be craving the battlefield for some of you it might make you a little bit more upset like oh i can now i can see it and i can't quite go so either way this is what we can do now so uh we hope you enjoy uh our video journey we've already shot video at mount carmel church or carmel church um then down a couple places at north anna um and then we went over uh to uh haw's shop and now here we are at cold harbor and before we talk about any of that let me just say we are on land standing on land right now that you the members of the trust and supporters have helped us preserve you might remember not long ago that 50 acres were at issue and you're looking a lot of this acreage now and then another 30 acres behind the camera or so that was slated to become a sports plex that's ball fields that scores if not more than 100 parking spaces you're talking about the tall nighttime lights and a complete grading of this ground and you can see that there is actual undulations here an actual topography that is specific to the battle um you rallied like uh like you always do but in this case particularly well we worked with the county we work with local citizens and worked with our members quickly raised the funds and now this ground this ground that could already be under construction or could be open as a sportsplex is now preserved forever and you'll see a sign of that effect around here before very long right beyond our land which you can see is off in the distance you can see a sort of yellow or taupe or bone or singapore sunset saffron colored little house there and that happens to sit at the location for which this area is named and this is of course cold harbor so to straighten through all this this place is very well known and it's incredible how little known it is we've got old cold harbor we've got new cold harbor maybe you've got first battle of cold harbor second battle of cold harbor big cold harbor little cool arbor and to break make all this hopefully make sense let's bring on bobby crick uh nps historian at the richmond national battlefield park take it away sir all right first order of business is to get oriented on the ground and then we can talk about how the armies got here quickly and tell you why this place is so important gary pointed out with multiple adjectives the building that's standing at the site of the old cold harbor tavern the old cold harbor crossroads that is slightly northwest so the camera is looking just a little bit west of due north right now and that tavern site sits at the historic intersection where five roads came together in 1864 when the armies were here and those five roads still come together looks like the center of a cobweb if you've never been on the ground in person go to google earth or google maps or something and look down on that historic crossroads with those five roads radiating out in all four directions that's what's on the horizon there next to the taupe covered built colored building so that's old cold harbor new cold harbor was also a tavern about one mile to the west not visible on the camera but a mile to the west each of the cold harbor taverns was a local landmark before the civil war the old cold harbor tavern not only being older was also more substantial it was a grocery store it was a farmhouse it was a voting precinct it was a jack of all trades really a community center almost for the eastern end of hanover county and suddenly in 1862 and then again in 1864 it became very prominent because of the role of the armies here in the battle of gaines's mill in 1862 or sometimes called first cold harbor and then the larger second battle of cold harbor in may and june of 1864. so by the time the armies arrived here and became familiar again with old cold harbor on may the 31st of 1864 they had done quite a few things since they'd left the north anna we talked at our stop at haw's shop about the cavalry battle there and the intelligence gathering that was so important once grant understood the configuration the contours of these dispositions behind todapotomy creek grant pushed his own army up to the north side of that creek lee blocking the direct road to richmond from behind the tottepotamy and the armies glared at each other on may 28 29 30 31 a little bit of june the first without fighting any major battle certainly plenty of skirmishing hundreds of casualties in those ill-defined affairs but grant found no opening on tottepotamy creek to hurl his army in a main attack lee lacked the strength and the talented subordinates at that point to do anything himself aggressively and so they waited and they waited and on may the 31st grant sent his cavalry again his horsemen under phil sheridan to secure the next major body or the next major network of roads to the south of tottopotomy creek and that inevitably took sheridan's cavalry to that historic intersection at old cold harbor and it should be emphasized that possession of that crossroads did not get grant into richmond it's not the direct road to richmond richmond's about nine miles to the left of the camera to the southwest of the crossroads plenty of confederates between the crossroads in richmond the significance was that with an army that was being reinforced was going to exceed a hundred thousand men again by the first of june grant needed access to all of the roads all the logistical infrastructure that helped his army stay in business securing that road network and taking control of old cold harbor gave him the toe hold that he wanted and needed but it wasn't easy on may the 31st of 1864 sheridan's cavalry pushing in on two roads from the east from the right of the camera swept toward the old cold harbor crossroads there's a stand-up battle with fitzhugh lee's cavalry division confederates called up some infantry but they didn't really have much infantry in the vicinity yet the armies were still moving southward from todapotomy creek down through bethesda church in the upper end of what would become the cold harbor battlefield and so what little confederate infantry there was here was too little too late and sheridan seized that intersection on the twilight minutes of may the 31st of 1864 and settled in and about the middle of the night decided he wasn't strong enough to hold it sheridan was not noted for being timid lacking self-confidence but in this case he felt he didn't have the strength should confederate infantry show up and so he abandoned the old cold harbor crossroads and started moving back east having won the battle but not kept the crossroads and on his way back east he received a message from grant saying in essence congratulations on capturing the crossroads i'm glad you have it and sheridan said uh-oh and turned around and went back and took over the crossroads a second time and was there at dawn on june the first just in time for the confederates to launch the first big attack of the battle of cold harbor a cold harbor can be the chronology of it can be configured in a bunch of different ways i often think of it as may 30 to june 12 of 1864. it doesn't really matter but by june the first it was definitely cold harbor not only here but everywhere else that the armies were fighting and lee had determined to seize that intersection and drive the yankee cavalry away and he sent infantry to do it kershaw's division of the first corps and the attack was ill-coordinated ill-managed ill-conceived and a disaster and sheridan's cavalry fighting in these fields but particularly to the north and west of the intersection fighting dismounted behind barricades just shot up the confederate infantry and won the battle of old cold harbor crossroads on june the first after that the fighting moved about a mile to the west and the old cold harbor crossroads became the biggest landmark just behind the union lines union soldiers in the second core or the sixth core or the eighteenth core who were shot at cold harbor if any of you had a relative shot at cold harbor in those three core they would have been evacuated right through that crossroads on their way to white house landing at the pa monkey river field hospitals sprang up all around the intersection headquarters buildings were headquarters encampments clear nearest one was the second core of winfield scott hancock he had his headquarters just east of the tavern and when the big assault that cold harbor happened here which we'll talk about later not at this stop but on june the third hancock watched his second core form up in these fields and hurl itself from east to west against the confederate entrenchments about half a mile to our west hancock watched the battle from these fields uh and watched as his second corps lost 3 000 men killed and wounded in one hour at cold harbor the heaviest bloodletting of a battle that's famous for that so this has a lot of significance on may 31 on june 1 on june 3 and also was a factor in the 1862 battle of gaines's mill won't go into those details today but it's one of these places that you encounter around cold harbor frequently where you're sort of a two-for-one effect where you're preserved land and it pertains to two significant battles not just one think about this with several hundred parking spaces on it in light of what you know happened here and we have something to be proud of and to celebrate gary and thank you bobby you know we can't do this not only without you but without our friends at the richmond battlefield association um and with the great partners we have in so many places as well and not to mention our best partner of all the national park service and this is by the way i think we've saved something like 230 acres um to add to the park holdings um here at cold harbor uh that pales in comparison to the need here i mean look at this right now when bobby was just describing the second core attack you can still see it it's still largely open um you know we have a lot more work to do here keep in mind we've already helped to preserve 3 400 acres at these overland campaign campaign sites you're talking about a good amount at wilderness very small holdings in spotsylvania a very well preserved place overall um a huge amount at north anna a massive amount of trevillian station and then we're talking about a good amount of acreage at todapotomy and cold harbor but a long way to go so this is hallowed ground in every way it can be the soldiers marched here you've got union and confederate soldiers fighting here all americans then you've got them fighting here again you've got hospitals you've got burials and it's all well documented so it's a pleasure to come here and stand here on land that you helped us preserve and we'll pick up on another place at the cold harbor battlefield of all of the things people think with cold harbor it was only a 30 minute battle it was one grand attack everybody put their name and pinned it to their coats you know a lot of the things people know about cold harbor just aren't true or they're partially untrue there's some sort of a misunderstanding or myth associated with it except one thing and that is the strength of the defense is here and how great it is to come here to be able to see it to trace the lines of the opposing forces to be able to see them and here we're standing not far from the visitor center in fact if chris will uh you know sort of pan over you can see kind of in the direction of where we were before you're looking out toward the attack of the second core on june 3rd remember we have fighting near the cold harbor crossroads on june 1st and then we have a massive attack with the second core the sixth core not as many attackers should have and the 18th core over here that's the big attack everyone talks about but it wasn't just in one area nor was it the only attack and nor was it the only attack that grant probably ever regretted um you know let's not get into that here but here we are at trenches that were built between the two fight two battles so we're talking about june 2nd the confederates would have started to throw up some sort of earthworks here and you can see they dig it out of here put it up there and then you have a trench over there eventually before long there would be lots of improvements they would make room for their artillery they would put officer sort of huts out there they might put advanced lines out that way they might put traverses in so that if an enemy came and started shooting down their trench they could face them from behind an earthwork here then maybe imagine revetments of log keeping the earth in maybe imagine a headlog here or there too where you can keep your head safe while you're shooting over it maybe even a firing step to get up there so it's endless that you could do chris white behind the camera said 24 hours give the confederates they can put up some sort of earthworks in 48 hours they can make them impressive in 72 hours they can make them impregnable and so they would be and if you go here to the cold harbor battlefield and go down just a little bit further you can see when they're in succession first line second line third line support in the back and it's one of the greatest things about walking this battlefield before i sign off here i just want to see if we can look down this way because they just go on for miles and miles some of which are on private property many of which are preserved on national park service property then you can just see them forever stand in here and contemplate then read the accounts use the american battlefield trust overland campaign battle app and you might get a better feeling a little bit about this battlefield about this battle and about american history chosen a picturesque spot to wrap up today's filming about fighting at cold harbor just to the right front of the camera here is the garth right house i'll tell you a little bit about that in a moment and over my shoulder in the in the distance you can see the enormous american flag flying and the brick wall there and that's the cold harbor national cemetery which was built in 1866 say a few words about that too in just a moment but we have some unfinished business about the armies at cold harbor the last video we shot was in the confederate entrenchments where gary edelman was talking about how they were built why they were built how they were effective the role that those entrenchments played in drubbing general grant and the army of the potomac in the big all-out assault on june 3rd of 1864 that big attack actually occurred at three separate places wasn't one big tidal wave across a seven mile front but rather attacked incrementally which is another reason why it failed and the confederates from behind those big entrenchments had a little difficulty in most places in repulsing the attacks but then the next nine days involved tremendously stressful trench warfare it's near the middle of the summer sun beating down relentlessly on everybody the lines were anywhere between 40 and 200 yards apart union and confederate and for nine days the soldiers baked and broiled in those entrenchments battling with sanitation problems water rain sunshine everything many men many said that they would prefer to fight rather than spend nine days in the entrenchments the entrenchments that you saw in the last video were so big because the confederates had nine days to perfect them but you should view those as very typical of what existed and still exists up and down the lines at cold harbor starting about june 5 or june 6 general grant realized he had no future at cold harbor that he had done his best it wasn't good enough in this case that direct assaults were just going to be fruitless and bloody and so he bent his energies toward scheming to move his army across the james river the last great barrier in his path and move his army toward petersburg the back door to richmond and so between about june 5 and june 12 he simply bought time a willowed away time here while his engineers conceived a movement by which the army would disengage march cross country secretly approach the james river have a pontoon bridge almost half a mile in length in place and hopefully sneak to the outskirts of richmond before the confederates could do anything about it now the fact that there was no big battle between june 3 and june 12 is a little bit unfortunate because that nine day period always gets telescoped into a few sentences kind of like i'm doing right here but if you ever visit the cold harbor battlefield there's much to be learned and much to be depressed about when you study the the trench warfare that characterized cold harbor between the third and the twelfth and so on the morning of the 13th when lee's army woke up up and down that long line they found that the entrenchments were empty the grants army had tiptoed away in the night and the story of the march to the james river and grant uh stealing a march some people say to petersburg is a whole separate story but it also marks a sharp book end to the end of the overland campaign when grant's army crossed that fabulous military bridge down at flower do hundred into uh south of the james river essentially ended the overland campaign and the five bloody weeks from the wilderness to cold harbor and when we visit battlefields we like finding places that have connections that we can understand whether they're gruesome or not and the garth wright house is a perfect place for that this is a historic building the brick portion of it is thought to date from approximately 1720 believe it or not it's about 300 years old the records don't survive and so we can do no more than speculate the wooden the frame portion of it probably dates from the early 1800s and when the civil war began this was the home of miles garth wright and his growing family miles enlisted in the 24th virginia cavalry and was in lee's army for most of the war not present when the armies came through here in 1862 or 1864 but his wife was in the house both times and there is some pretty good evidence not just the usual oral history but some pretty good written evidence that mrs garth wright spent at least one of the two battles in the basement while the hospital was commandeered excuse me the house was commandeered as a field hospital and we have good documentation on that when the armies first arrived at cold harbor grants men skirmished their way through the yard there was actually active fighting here in the yard emery upton's brigade against confederate skirmishers this was too close to the front lines to be a full-time permanent hospital but it was definitely a sixth core aid station on june 1 june 2 june 3 probably a little bit beyond that and the reason we know that well mrs garth right cowered in the basement and blood dripped through the floorboards onto her men were dying upstairs and were buried all around the yard and we know that because in 1866 when the national cemetery was established the federal government bought the property across the way and began collecting union dead from the cold harbor battlefield and removing them to that new better location and there's a particularly graphic view of union dead from the cold harbor battlefield and there's a whole series of them that bring home the human cost much better than someone talking can do when they established that national cemetery in 1866 they dug up just fewer than 100 union dead from the yard of the garth wright house men who died here primarily sixth core soldiers shot on june 1 and june 3 and those men had the shortest trip of all they were here from 1864 to 1866 buried in the yard and then in 1866 they went a couple hundred yards across the road to the new cold harbor national cemetery the vast majority of the men over there are unknowns many of them buried in mass graves but on a future visit the house which is not open to the public but the grounds are and the cemetery especially excellent to encapsulate the meaning of cold harbor and bring you some human emotion to the story and wrap up your visit to one of the country's most familiar battlefields cold harbor gary you have some things to add yes thank you bobby and and this is what it's all about right i mean we we buy dirt we educate the public try to educate the public or help educate the public about america's formative conflicts not just the civil war the revolutionary war the war of 1812 and all of the context around it so that maybe we can grab grasp a better understanding and i can't think of another time where it'd be better to make sure we are you know sort of spreading that message so many of you watching um are already fans of battlefields take your family to a battlefield maybe you're already fans of our stuff my guess is that many of you already know about our animated maps which by the way take our whole civil war our whole revolutionary war animated map and show it to your kids or grandkids i mean they're less than 30 minutes someone less than 20 minutes and do that but also yourselves even our members we find might know that we have animated maps they might know about our four-minute videos they might not know about our new battlefield you videos where we you know answer simple civil war questions or history questions or uh american early america questions in a simple uh video of 90 seconds or so share those um with the other people in your lives and if if they're not big military people we have a newsletter and e-newsletter called the nature of history sign up for that sign up for head tilting history where we tell stories that aren't just sort of militarily based that might be more about civilians in the home front and other things that might make your head tilt and think a little bit about it we don't care how you get into history as long as you somehow are into it and try to spread that message among um you know your children or grandchildren or the people around you sharing that on social media is a great way to do it so thank you for watching our series of videos we still have more to show you but we're going to wrap things up for our overland campaign again where you have helped us to preserve more than 3 200 acres of hallowed ground at most of the main actions during that campaign thanks to you thanks to bobby crick for all of his uh uh work today and thanks to chris white behind the camera the unsung hero who set all this up and thank you all for supporting battlefield preservation you

Channel: American Battlefield Trust

Views: 20,656

Rating: 4.9740262 out of 5

Keywords: American Battlefield Trust, Civil War Trust, Battle of Cold Harbor, Cold Harbor Tour, Cold Harbor Richmond Tour, Bobby Krick, Civil War Richmond Tour

Id: 0BUR9RbYdOA

Length: 22min 24sec (1344 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 30 2020