Misery in the Trenches trailside marker

Cold Harbor • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments & Markers • The Armies

The “Misery in the Trenches” trailside marker is along the mile long hiking trail in Hanover County Park. (see map below)

Misery in the Trenches trailside marker in Hanover County Park on the Cold Harbor battlefield

Text from the marker:

Misery in the Trenches

The earthworks before you were home to Union soldiers for nearly two weeks during the fighting at Cold Harbor. One Federal officer described the suffering that these troops endured living and working in the trenches:

“The work of intrenching could only be done at night. The fire of sharp-shooters was incessant, and no man upon all that line could stand erect and live an instant. This condition of things continued for twelve days and nights: Sharp-shooters’ fire from both sides went on all day; all night the zig-zags and parallels nearer to the enemy’s works were being constructed. In none of its marches by day or night did that army suffer more than during those twelve days.”

Location of the marker

The marker is on the one mile walking trail in Hanover County Park. (37°35’18.3″N 77°16’38.5″W) The park is on the south side of Cold Harbor Road (Virginia Route 156) about 650 feet east of the National Cemetery and next to Gathright House.