CHAPTER XXXVI.

THE BATTLE OF COLD HARBOR.—THE MOVEMENT TO THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE JAMES.

On the 23d, Sheridan, on the cavalry expedition we have already spoken of, had reached White House, and on the 25th rejoined the army of the Potomac, and that same night was sent down the Pamunkey, and on the 27th, by noon, had seized the ferry crossing at Hanovertown, fifteen miles from Richmond, and thrown a pontoon bridge across. On this day and the next, the 28th of May, the army crossed the river, the Fifth and Ninth Corps at Hanover Ferry, and the Second and Sixth at Huntley's Ford, above. On Sunday, the 29th, the Union army was across the river and three miles beyond it, and continued the advance next day, with Hancock in the centre, Warren on the left, and Wright on the right. The flanks and rear were protected by cavalry, and at two P. M. the cavalry pickets on our left, which were advancing on the Cold Harbor road, were driven in, and, Warren was attacked in force about five. As soon as it was known that the enemy had been met, an attack was ordered along the line; but the orders were received too late, except by Hancock, who carried the enemy's advanced line, but found the main position too strong to be carried. It was

evident that the enemy was here in force, and in a strong position covering the advance to the Chickahominy, and that to drive him away in order to force our advance would cost another battle.

To cover the Chickahominy, and prevent our advance upon Richmond, Lee had taken up a position parallel to our front, exending on his left from Hanover Courthouse to Bottom's Bridge on his right; and it being evident that to attempt to force a passage directly in front would be attended with the severe loss incident to a desperate battle, Grant resolved to attempt a passage by his left, at Cold Harbor, a spot which, as it was the point of convergence for the roads leading both to Richmond and to White House, our base of supplies, was as important for us to gain as it was necessary for the enemy to guard. On the afternoon of the 31st, this place had been secured by Sheridan with a force of cavalry, after a spirited contest, and the same night the Sixth Corps was directed to the same place. They arrived in time, on the afternoon of June 1, to support Sheridan, who was hard pressed by the enemy, the importance of the place having become so evident that strong efforts had been made to recapture it. The result of the contest here, which was quite severe, costing us the loss of some two thousand men, was that we held Cold Harbor, and thus protected our base of supplies at White House.

Finding that Butler's force was useless at Bermuda Hundred, Grant had ordered him to send all the troops he could spare to join the army of the Potomac; and accordingly, on the 29th of May, a column of sixteen thousand men embarked on transports, and, passing

down the James, ascended the York and the Pamunkey, and disembarked the next day at White House. Owing to some error in the orders received by General W. F. Smith, their commander, it was not until the afternoon of the 1st of June that the column reached Cold Harbor, and took up its position on the right of the Sixth Corps, ready to coöperate in the battle which was im

minent.

The headquarters of the Union army was established at Cold Harbor, which is simply a locality, designating the convergence of the roads at this point, and is quite inland, with the Chickahominy running behind, and near Gaines's Mills, the place where McClellan fought the first of his battles in his retrograde movement over the Peninsula, though in the present action the positions of the armies were reversed, Grant holding the position the Confederate army held then.

Lee's army was admirably posted for defence, on this side of the Chickahominy, with its front obstructed by marshes and thickets; while the right of the Union army rested on Tolopotomy Creek, and its left across the Despatch Station road, making a line of about six miles, Hancock occupying the left, Warren and Burnside the right, the Sixth Corps and Smith's command the centre. The order was a general assault along the whole line, at half past four in the morning.

At the appointed hour, in the dim gray of the early morning, the line advanced, and the lingering darkness was lit up with the lurid gleams of battle. There was a rush, a bitter struggle, a rapid interchange of deadly fire, and the army became conscious that the task was more than it could do. Hancock, on the left, carried,

with severe loss, the first line of the enemy's defence, but his corps was in turn forced back, and intrenching themselves in a wonderfully short space of time, kept their ground in advance of where they started, and about one to two hundred feet from the enemy.

This was the result along the whole line; the assault was everywhere repulsed; the men everywhere showed themselves brave to rashness; but the most that could be done was to take a position more or less close to the enemy's line, according to the varying nature of the ground, and holding the positions thus taken against the enemy, who in his turn tried by assault to drive us from them, and at half past one all offensive operations were stopped. The loss was very severe, and in this respect, as the attacking party, we suffered much more severely than the enemy, having lost about seven thousand five hundred men, all told. Again, it was found impossible to drive the opposing army away, or to break through its opposition; and again Grant determined to flank the position, and, by passing round Lee's right, lay siege to the southern defences of Richmond. During the next few days the armies remained substantially as they were, our position being strengthened by intrenchments, and the lines being so close that the sharpshooters, on both sides, could pick off the men and officers at work in the trenches.

Meanwhile Sheridan was sent with the cavalry to destroy the Virginia Central Railroad thoroughly, to join Hunter, and then return to the army of the Potomac, all railroad communication between Richmond and the Shenandoah Valley and Lynchburg being thus destroyed. The first part of this programme was suc

cessfully accomplished. Moving rapidly up the railroad, destroying it as he went, he encountered the enemy's cavalry, under Wade Hampton, at Trevillian Station, on the 11th of June, and defeated them severely. The next day, continuing, he met Hampton again about five miles from Gordonsville, in an intrenched position, and also reënforced with infantry. Our first assault was repulsed, and night coming on, Sheridan, finding his supplies giving out, and hearing nothing of Hunter, who, it will be remembered, was withdrawing over the mountains, he himself withdrew to White House, which he reached on the 19th, at an opportune moment for driving away the enemy's cavalry, who were preparing to attack this place. Here his orders were to break up the depot of supplies, and escort the garrison to the James, which he did, keeping off the enemy and repelling his attacks, and on the 25th of June reached the James, and, crossing it, joined the army of the Potomac.

The next move was to transfer the army to the south side of the James, and approach Richmond from this quarter. The overland route had been tried - tried with persistence and vigor; but it had been found impossible to cut through or to destroy the opposing army. At every advance Lee had been able to meet the army of the Potomac, and with the advantage of position in his favor. The loss had been enormous in this month of battles. From the Wilderness to Cold Harbor, the aggregate, all told, amounts to about sixty thousand men, killed, wounded, and missing. The record looks ghastly, but the work was to be done. War is at best a ghastly butchery, a "stupendous imbecil