A Dreadful Harvest wayside marker

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

The ‘A Dreadful Harvest’ wayside marker is along the mile long hiking trail in Hanover County Park. (see map below)

The 'A Dreadful Harvest' wayside marker is in Hanover County Park on the Cold Harbor battlefield.

Text from the marker:

Cold Harbor Battlefield Park Walking Trail
Hanover County Parks and Recreation

A Dreadful Harvest

The grim drama at Cold Harbor cost some 13,000 Federals and nearly 5,0000 Confederates killed, wounded, or captured. Southern morale soared after the battle, while Grant’s men were embittered by the lopsided defeat. One Union officer wrote that it was “a murderous engagement” because “we were recklessly ordered to assault the enemy’s entrenchments.”

The gallantry of the Union soldiers at Cold Harbor is a powerful testament to their commitment. “This is a pretty hard way of living,” admitted one Northerner, “but then if it will put down this wicked rebellion I am willing to live this way all summer.”

Vacating the Cold Harbor trenches on June 12, 1864, Grant out-flanked Lee by moving to Petersburg, pinning the Confederates to the Petersburg and Richmond defense. Lee had feared such a situation, predicting that “it will be a mere question of time.

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.