I cant remember when i first saw the picture, and i certainly did not know where cold harbor was at the time. Im sure i thought it was a port town somewhere in virginia. I may not remember in which book i first saw the photograph, but i know that immediately and lastingly linked the words cold harbor and death in my mind. In subsequent years, i came to read more about the events of the spring of 1864 that culminated at cold harbor, that deadly slog from the rapid ann to the james that saw the u. S. Suffer 50,000 casualties, in the confederacy, another 30,000plus, the bloodiest six weeks of the war. I learned of the thousands who fell in the Early Morning on june 3rd. And i do know that there are differing schools of thought about what that number was. I learned that ulysses s. Grant would harbor terrible regrets about his decisions at cold harbor to the very end of his days. And i learned that even in a war in which the military and the public had become accustomed to horribly long cas
Years after the war, that is filled with literary inventions. I suspect that is one of his many literary inventions. Its true that soldiers of the army of the potomac had done that before in earlier battles. This would be in november of 1863. But theres no evidence that it actually happened here at cold harbor. But everybody knew it was going to be a fierce and terrible day. 4 30 a. M. , the signal gun goes off, and this huge union monolith heaves forward. Or parts of it do. Thats the sad thing about the battle of cold harbor. Down on the lower end of the battlefield, general hancocks second corps punches forward. Across from them at one spot, they make a breakthrough in a salient in the federal line where general breckenridge is positioned. But lee has a lot of reserves. One myth is that lee did not have reserves, that his line was thin. Thats not true. Some parts of the confederate line this entire divisions behind them and that was the position on the lower end of the battlefield wh
The battlefields are quiet and even alluring today. It is the notion that the men who fought here believed in something truly worth suffering and dying for. That draws us to this place. For each of us has we leave from here this evening we depart with the sacred responsibility to remember those who fell here and to ponder each for ourselves how we can properly honor those sack river ices and the legacy of what happened here. To them we owe a great debt. Two years ago we concluded each of our sevenqru days battle commemorations with a solution to the soldiers. We will do so tonight. It is moving and deeply appropriate at this place and time. It is for them. Ladies and gentlemen, that ends our formal program tonight. I want to thank you all for being with us. It didnt end the commemoration of the 150thharbor. I believe the church has been so kind to display the 16 pages of upcoming events. Thank you again from making the switch from cold harbor to fa fairmont. Were so grateful for all th
Question. Of course, natchez does the same thing. But i have another question. In 1863, confederate troops went out of their way, in fact, arrived late at gettysburg, because theyre busy burning down Thaddeus Stephens house. Chasing free blacks all over pennsylvania and rounding them up. Is there anything equivalent in shermans march that says does his army target politicians house, do they march out of their way just to seek revenge against particular politicians and are they rounding up any white confederates and enslaving them . No, i wouldnt say they go out of their way, but sherman takes a particular delight, and he has a long passage about it in his memoirs about camping for a night in georgia, and freeing cobbs slaves. And the next one that comes in for a lot of destruction, the South Carolina poet simms. They destroy his house. I read a diary that soldiers were dismayed, because its one thing if they sort of trash the house, but they burn a lot of the books in simms library, an
Beneath to United States. The civil war did not permanently shatter you are nag nation. Yet it was a supreme test for a country that now stands in blessed unit, you are north and south. You are here together tonight here is evening we look back with learn from the greatest teacher anyone can have, history. Armed with an understanding of the time. Private maddux would like that. Thank you. [ applause ] the Overland Campaign was the largest and the bloodiest campaign of the entire civil war. Both armies lost half of their original fighting forces. The casualties were astounding. Astounding to soldiers, to generals, and to those left back home. Amid the staggering losses sustained at cold harbor and during the Overland Campaign, for every soldier killed, wounded or captures there was a family. Mother, brother, brother, sister, that also felt the loss on the fields of 1864 reverberated through communities across the north and south. The empty chairs at kitchen tables across the country and