Cold Harbor • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments & Markers • The Armies
The trailside marker is along the mile long hiking trail in Hanover County Park. (see map below)
Text from the marker:
Digging In
By the time the armies reached Cold Harbor soldiers on both sides were adept at building earthworks. The trenches before you are typical of the works that stretched for nearly seven miles and defined the fighting here at Cold Harbor. Union general John Gibbon wrote, “A few hours were all that was necessary to render any position so strong by breastworks that the opposite party was unable to carry it and it became a recognized fact amongst the men themselves that when the enemy had occupied a position six or eight hours ahead of us, it was useless to attempt to take it.”
Location of the marker
The marker is on the one mile walking trail in Hanover County Park. (37°35’06.0″N 77°16’37.5″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.