Cold Harbor • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments & Markers • The Armies
The armies that fought at Cold Harbor had seen great changes in the four weeks since the Overland Campaign had started. In one month 36,000 Union and 23,000 Confederate soldiers were missing from the ranks, either dead, wounded or captured.
Thanks to replacements and reinforcements the overall numbers of both armies were little changed. Lee had perhaps a couple thousand less at Cold Harbor than at the Wilderness, while Grant actually had gained. But the men Grant lost were experienced veterans, the backbone of the army that had gone through three long years of fighting. Too often their replacements were raw recruits or inexperienced rear area troops. And Lee’s losses were literally irreplacable.
The rest of the war would be a battle of attrition. It was a relentless grinding down from which both armies would suffer. But Lee knew only one army had the resourcs to survive.
The Army of Northern Virginia (see organization)
The armies had lost brains as well as muscle. Of Lee’s four corps commanders on May 1, only A.P. Hill was still with the army. James Longstreet had fallen gravely wounded to friendly fire in the Wilderness, Richard Ewell had worked himself almost to death until ordered to take medical leave. J.E.B. Stuart, who would rather die than be whipped, had done both at Yellow Tavern.
Most of Richard Anderson’s Confederate division had been captured or killed at the Muleshoe. The proud regiments of the Stonewall Brigade and the Lousiaiana Brigades were still on the roster, but precious few men remained in them. William Terry commanded three brigades that had been consolidated into one, fourteen Virginia regiments reduced to moderate sized companies. And it was not the only patched-together brigade in Lee’s army.
Lee had found a few reinforcements. Pickett’s Division, which had been detached to the defences of Richmond and North Carolina after its fatefull day at Gettysburg, rejoined the First Corps. Robert Hoke had brought a division from the Carolinas. And John Breckinridge’s victory at New Market in the Shenandoah let him bring his small division to join Lee for a short time.
Army of the Potomac (see organization)
Grant’s army had also lost many leaders. The beloved John Sedgwick had fallen at the head of his corps at Spotsylvania, the senior Union officer killed in the Civil War. James Wadsworth and Alexander Hays, both heroes at Gettysburg, had been killed or mortally wounded. They were joined by a long list of veteran field officers.
Grant, too, found reinforcements. A corps from Butler’s Army of the James joined Grant’s left flank. The oversized heavy artillery regiments that had been stationed in the Washington defences were rounded up and thrown into the fight as infantry. Their outdated tactics and training led to appalling casualties.