The New Student's Reference Work/Cold Harbor

Cold Harbor, a village in Virginia, nine miles northeast of Richmond, where a bloody battle was fought, June 3, 1864, between the Federal army under Grant and the Confederate army under Lee. Lee held a strong position, having his entire line covered with earthworks. In the early morning the Federal line advanced in a grand assault on the Confederate works. They were obliged to pass over a naked plain covered by the Confederate guns. Bravely and swiftly they advanced, only, however, to be swept down by the enemy’s fire. In less than an hour after the first volley was fired 6,000 Union soldiers lay on the ground dead or wounded, and the assault failed. The attack was not renewed, and at night Lee, in turn, assaulted the Federal lines, but was repulsed.