The Crossroads at Cold Harbor

[CMWinkler]

The Crossroads at Cold Harbor
Disunion follows the Civil War as it unfolded.

By late spring 1864, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was relentlessly pursuing his advance on the Confederate capital at Richmond, Va. With his recent appointment as commander of the Union armies, Grant had brought a new approach to the war – one of absolute and brutal attrition. Knowing that he could replace as many men as he lost, even as the rebel army suffered from a desperate shortage of manpower, he had bulldozed his way across Virginia in what was named the Overland Campaign, throwing tens of thousands of men against the Confederate wall.

At the end of May, after the bloody but inconclusive confrontations of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, the two armies came together at an obscure crossroads just a few miles outside Richmond. Described as nothing more than "a wide spot in a lonely, dusty road," it had been named Cold Harbor – after a run-down shelter that supposedly offered travelers a place to sleep but no hot meals.

For the rest:
http://news.gnom.es/news/the-crossroads-at-cold-harbor

 

[Carronade]

Once again ignoring the fact that every battle in the Overland campaign including Cold Harbor started with Grant trying to maneuver around Lee's army and force him to fight on favorable terms. I guess Grant the butcher makes a better myth. As one of our other Cold Harbor posts noted, on that occasion the federals very nearly beat the Confederates to the key ground. "nearly" seems to be much of the story of the campaign.