Cold Harbor • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments & Markers • The Armies
The “Bayonets Are For Digging” trailside marker is the tenth marker on the Cold Harbor primary walking trail.
The view looks past the marker down a covered way that connected the main Confederate defensive line to low ground beneath the ridge.
Text from the marker:
Bayonets Are For Digging
This covered-way, constructed after June 3, connected the main Confederate line behind you to the low ground in front. A South Carolinian stationed near here recalled:
To guard against the shells that were continually dropping in our midst or outside of our works, the soldiers began burrowing like rabbits in rear of our earthworks and building covered-ways from their breastwork to the ground below. In a few days men could go the length of a regiment without being exposed in the least, crawling along the tunnels all dug with bayonets, knives, and a few worn-out shovels.
Location of the marker
This is the tenth marker on the Cold Harbor primary walking trail. It is about 400 feet from the previous marker, “Waters Ran Red”.