Battle of Cold Harbor

The battle of Cold Harbor is a battle of the American Civil War which proceeded in Virginia from May 31st to June 12th 1864 and which opposed the armies of Grant and of Lee.

Introduction

Following the Battle of Spotsylvania at the time none the combatants could make the difference, the northerner general Grant tried to take side the army of Lee without however arriving there. Thus between on May 15th and on May 31st, there were many skirmishes and other secondary combat. However Lee was obliged to move back not to undergo of defeat, its army was lower of number. However it still did not have undergoes defeats cuisantes in this year 1864. Grant exasperated by these failures decided to go on a village in the middle of an important road junction which was called Cold Harbor. This place was not far from Gaine' S Mill where a battle in 1862 had proceeded.

Be a prelude to of the battle

Thus on May 31st, to take possession of the village of Cold Harbor, Grant sent the cavalry of Sheridan ahead. Newcomer with destination the northerner riders had to deliver combat vis-a-vis the riders Southerners directed by Fitzhugh Lee, the nephew of the Lee general. After a hard combat, the federal ones took possession of the village. The following day, the unionistic ones had to undergo against attack Southerner but the riders of Sheridan held good until the arrival of before guard of the army of Grant which drove out the rebels. It is finally in the night of 1st with the May 2nd that all two army was put in position. A face of 11 kilometers had been thus constituted of Topopotomy to the Chickahominy, moreover Grant had laid out in reserve one of the army corps of Butler. Thus the northerners had 109.000 men and the Southerners of 59.000 men, with little thing close these are same manpower that those of the Bataille of Wilderness; the two armies however bled with white had reconstituted their manpower and none them was ready to yield ground on the other what is an innovation in the American Civil War because until there, one of both army were folded up behind a river.

The plan of Grant

The plan of Grant was to take account of the frame of mind of its army as well as its physique, its men extrèmement were extrèmement tired after 4 weeks of engagements and of continuations and the side Southerner it was hardly better, Lee was in a advanced state of tiredness mental and it had been necessary to replace the general Ewell because the latter had fallen into a state from tiredness such as it was not more in a position to direct its men. It was Jubal Early which replaced it. The plan of Grant excluded all attempts from overflow by the left wing because if not it was likely to go empêtrer like had been made George McClellan two years before in the alluvial plains of Chickahominy. The northerner general was to also hold account owing to the fact that the men of twelve regiments of his army were going to finish their service in the army and that it was necessary thus that it gains a great victory enabling him to push back Lee to Richmond which profited from very good defenses and which consequently Grant was to subject to its counterpart of heavy losses. On its side Lee made very to avoid a decisive combat, it knew that if it lost heavily, confederated were likely to lose the war. All its facts plunged Grant in the embarrassment and this one ordered with its troops to launch the attack on May 3rd thinking that the Southerners were not any more in a position to fight. The attack were to be launched by 3 face and army corps located at the center on the left.

Course of the battle

Grant by thinking that the men of Lee were not in a position to fight made a serious error and it was that its men were far from being ready and motivated in fight. At the beginning of the attack, several artillery shootings struck the unionistic soldiers located in first line. The rebels fought in a complex defensive system: " Complex lines forts in zigzag inside other lines, of the lines protecting the side from other lines, of the lines designed in order to take in row the lines adversesdes fortifications inside and outside other fortifications. In spite of this defense system, several regiments of the 2nd body of Hancock managed to penetrate the defensive network before being highly expelled by its defenders about it. Everywhere on the face, the northerner offensive was a disaster, the federal ones on the basis of stone the wall of Marye' S Height' S with Fredericksburg lost in one day 7000 men whereas the secessionists lost of them hardly 1500. In front of the state of the operations, Grant cancelled the operations to come. The federal soldiers had just known what the European soldiers at the time of the First World War was going to undergo. In Cold Harbor as in Spotsylvania the network of trenches complicated the task of the attackers who essuyaient of terrible losses and the soldiers were traumatisés by what had just occurred: " the men test from now on a horror and a major terror with the idea to go back to the front" explain an officer.

Conclusion

Grant was thus constrained to set up a new plan the purpose of which was to drive out Lee of its positions. The army of Shenandoah ordered by David Hunter was to go up the valley of Chickahominy by the South to destroy the railways which make it possible to supply the federal army. But these operations do not enter the bosom of the battle of Cold Harbor which will remain as being the most terrible defeat of Grant which thus lost more than 13000 men whereas Lee lost hardly only 2000 men. Once again, Grant could not force the decision and did not even manage to push back its adversaries. For Lee that constituted a great victory, it succeeds in showing with its counterpart which its men were always ready to fight and once again it did not release a meter of ground.

Sources

James McPherson: the American Civil War , Lafont editions.

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