Cold Harbor • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments & Markers • The Armies
“The Bloody Eighth” wayside marker is along the mile long hiking trail in Hanover County Park. (see map below) The monument to the 8th New York Heavy Artillery in the National Cemetery lists the names of all of the men who were killed or mortally wounded in the attack.
Text from the marker:
Cold Harbor Battlefield Park Walking Trail
Hanover County Parks and Recreation
The Bloody Eighth
The 8th New York Heavy Artillery joined the Army of the Potomac midway through the Overland Campaign in an effort to offset the Federal casualties suffered at the battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania. The regiment of 1,600 men, still fresh from serving in the defenses of Baltimore and now fighting as infantry, had seen only limited action before Cold Harbor.
Starting from this vicinity on the morning of June 3, 1864, the 8th New York attacked the Confederate earthworks located 500 yards in front of you as part of Grant’s assault to break Lee’s lines. The 8th New York sustained the highest loss of any regiment at Cold Harbor suffering 505 casualties, with the vast majority falling within 30 minutes. A veteran of the regiment later commented on the disastrous assault: “The army seemed to melt away like a frost in the July sun.”
The New York State Monuments Commission erected a monument to the 8th New York Heavy Artillery in 1909. It can be found in the Cold Harbor National Cemetery.
From the caption to the photo:
Colonel Peter A. Porter commanded the 8th New York Heavy Artillery at Cold Harbor. Major General John Gibbon reported, “The gallant Colonel Porter…fell only a few yards from the enemy’s works, surrounded by the dead of his regiment, which although new to the work, fought like veterans.”
Location of the marker
The marker is on the one mile walking trail in Hanover County Park. (37°35’06.2″N 77°16’38.2″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.