Gen Lee and his army continue to be
pushed by Grant and the Union army towards the James.
After the battle in the Wilderness, Grant and Meade's advance on
Richmond was stalled at Spotsylvania Court House on May 8. Gen. Lee,
having gotten there before Grant was able to set up defensive positions
forcing the Federals to attack, which they would do at great cost.
The two week battle that ensued was a series of desperate and
bloody fights along the Spotsylvania front.
No ground was gained by Grant, who suffered heavy losses and for
Gen. Lee, who was able to hold Grant long enough to know Grants next
move, held his ground until it became clear that Grant would move his
army away from Spotsylvania and make another attempt to get around Gen.
Lee and threaten Richmond. The fighting was heavy and costly. The hardest would be the Union attack against our works along
an angled set of entrenchments know as the “Bloody Angle” by those
who witnessed the savage fight that early dawn of May 12 and 13, which
resulted in capture of nearly a division of Gen. Lee's army and came
near to cutting Gen. Lee’s army in half. Confederate counterattacks
plugged the gaps, and fighting continued unabated for nearly 20 hours in
what may well have been the most ferociously sustained combat witnessed
in this war. As the battle between Grant and Lee raged at Spotsylvania
Court House, the Union cavalry corps under Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan
embarked on a cavalry raid against Richmond. After disrupting Lee's road
and rail communications, Sheridan's cavalry expedition would find battle
with Gen. Stuart at Yellow Tavern on May 11. Our outnumbered Confederate
Cavalry was defeated, and Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart mortally wounded.
When Gen. Lee received the report, he said he could scarcely
think of Gen. Stuart without weeping.
Sheridan would be seen to continue south to threaten the
Richmond defenses before joining Federal Gen. Butler's command at
Bermuda Hundred. After a halt and apparent rest for his Yankee troopers,
Sheridan rejoined Grant and the Army of the Potomac on May 25 for the
march to the southeast and the crossing of the Pamunkey.
All the while the Federal Cavalry was on the move, Gen. Lee made
attempt to turn the Union right flank and launched an attack at Harris
Farm on May 19, but was beaten back with severe casualties. Union
casualties were as well costly with generals Sedgwick and Rice killed in
the fury. Confederate generals Johnson and Steuart were captured, Daniel
and Perrin mortally wounded. On May 21, the fight was over and Grant
disengaged. With a heavy
cost for both armies, and our own Gen. Stuart killed, Grant continued
his advance on Richmond and would meet Gen Lee again at Cold Harbor
where Gen. Lee was in wait. On
May 31, Sheridan's cavalry seized the vital crossroads of Old Cold
Harbor. Early on June 1, in shallow entrenchments, Sheridan's troopers
threw back an attack by Confederate infantry. Confederate reinforcements
had arrived from Richmond and from the Totopotomoy Creek lines and Gen.
Lee ordered the boys to dig in for the attack he knew was to come.
Gen. Lee was correct in predicting an attack.
It would come late on June 1, the Union VI and XVIII Corps
reached Cold Harbor and assaulted the still being constructed works Gen.
Lee had ordered earlier with some success. By June 2, both armies were
on the field, forming on a seven-mile front that extended from Bethesda
Church to the Chickahominy River.
At 4:30 on the dawn of June 3, near Cold Harbor, 50,000 soldiers
from three Union corps climbed out of their trenches and advanced in a
two mile long line through the early morning mist toward our
entrenchments, now quite formidable, ahead of them. Our works bristled
with rifles held by our determined soldiers, bayonets fixed on every
musket and cannon loaded with gunners at the ready for the approach of
the blue clad soldiers coming towards them. Our confident soldiers, as
they watched the Federals slowly coming through the mist that hung low,
could scarcely believe the folly of the Union commanders in sending
their men to such obvious slaughter.
In lines they came toward our works as if with one motion.
Our boys held their fire until the Yankees were within lethal
range and then with a mighty roar of fire, shot down the Federal front
ranks with volleys of rifle and canister fire.
Entire Yankee brigades disappeared.
On that June dawn, the identified Federal II and XVIII Corps,
followed later by the IX Corps, assaulted along the Bethesda Church and
Cold Harbor line and were destroyed at all points. It was a glorious day
for Gen. Lee, but a painful day as well as our boys, some lifting their
hats in salute to their fallen foe, some too shocked to speak as they
looked out above their works at this days business.
For those Union dead in front of our works were either very brave
or very foolish. Never has
such slaughter been seen in such a short time.
The Union assault lasted a scant twenty to thirty minutes and
when it ended, thousands of blue clad attackers lay dead and dieing on
the field within yards of our works, massacred with for no reason other
than they were ordered into death.
What man is this Grant that would extinguish whole armies of his
own with no purpose or gain? One of our officers was heard to say as he witnessed the
carnage, “This is not war, but murder”.
The armies confronted each other on these lines until the night
of June 12, when Grant again, began to move his army out of their works
and continue the advance by his flanking maneuver around Gen. Lee,
marching to the James River. On June 14, the Federal II Corps was
ferried across the river at Wilcox's Landing by transports. On June 15,
the rest of the army began crossing on a long pontoon bridge laid at
Weyanoke. Grant appears to be abandoning the well defended approaches to
Richmond, and to be shifting his army south of the James River to
threaten possibly Petersburg. Gen.
Lee has begun to move his army in that general direction post haste in
order to get in Grants front if Petersburg is to be Grants next point of
battle.
Tom
R. Grandy
Daily
Richmond Examiner