Cold Habor

[bankerpapaw]

I am presently reading Shelby Foote's narrative of the
Civil War.
I knew the casualty rate for the Union army was high at Cold Harbor ,but I didn't know that they suffered 7000 casualties in 8 minutes. Even today with our modern
weapons systems, that would be a hard number of
casualties to grasp.

[cash]

Originally Posted by bankerpapaw

I am presently reading Shelby Foote's narrative of the
Civil War.
I knew the casualty rate for the Union army was high at Cold Harbor ,but I didn't know that they suffered 7000 casualties in 8 minutes. Even today with our modern
weapons systems, that would be a hard number of
casualties to grasp.

The 7,000 casualties in 8 minutes is a myth. There's no truth to it. Shelby's wrong again.

See Gordon C. Rhea's book on Cold Harbor. In fact, I recommend his whole series on the Overland Campaign--4 books.

As Rhea writes, "Union casualties have been grossly exaggerated and probably did not exceed 3,500. Commentators have suggested numbers ranging from 7,500 to well above 12,000, all supposedly incurred during a few terrible minutes after dawn. (In reality the assault sputtered on for about an hour, not the eight minutes some writers have claimed.) The 12,000 estimate in fact reflects the official tally of all casualties for the entire Cold Harbor campaign--12,788, to be exact--embracing the cavalry battles of May 31 and June 1, the 6th and 18th Corps attacks at Cold Harbor on June 1, the 5th and 9th Corps fights around Bethesda Church from June 1 forward, and casualties in all Union corps for the remainder of their stay at Cold Harbor and during their movement across the Chickahominy and James Rivers twoard Petersburg. The oft-quoted 7,500 figure derives from attempts by early postwar writers to estimate all Union losses for June 3, a day that included a great deal more fighting than just the grand assault." [Gordon C. Rhea, _Cold Harbor: Grant and Lee, May 26-June 3, 1864,_ p. 359.]

Rhea later writes, "All things considered, the grand charge at Cold Harbor on June 3 produced about 3,500 Union casualties." [Ibid., p. 362.] This was over an hour, not 8 minutes.

Shelby Foote was a great writer and had a great way of describing things, but you cannot count on him for accuracy.

Regards,
Cash

[william42]

Thanks Cash for clarifying that. Bankerpaw, I have been going around for years under the same impression that you were under, ie: 7000 casualties in 8 minutes, that I got from Foote's book. I read his 3 vol. trilogy and thoroughly enjoyed it. There are probably a few errors now and then,(he wrote them in the 50's) but I still learned a lot and felt like I had made a dent in the enormous historical event that was the US Civil War.



Terry

[gary]

Bruce Catton was the first to point out that the 7,000 casualties was a myth. I believe Gordon Rhea acknowledges this in his own work.

[bankerpapaw]

Terry, I'm like you. I enjoyed reading Shelby Foote's
narratives, error and all.

[5fish]

HEY!

I can put in a good word for some Florida boys. The Confederate line was breached at Cold Harbor but remnants of Perry" Florida boys" now lead by Brigadier Finegan filled the breached and turned back those boys in blue.

"Hey!" for my Florida Brigade!!