The casualties were astounding, a stouinstounding to soldiers, generals and those left back home. Amidst the staggering losses at cole harbor, for every soldier killed, wounded or captured, there was a family. Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons, daughters that also felt the loss. The loss of the men that fell at cole harbor in the spring of 1864 reverb rasreverberated thr kmunlts a communities across the north and south. The battlegrounds left indelible kbag impacts on the living left behind. So, too, were the believes of the men who fought that bloody spring. Indeed, in spite of so many lost lives, those believes and ideas about nation, government and home became even more deeply enslie enshrined in the hearts and minds of those left to fight on tonight to reflect upon and learn from today. Writing soon after the war with a perspective on hindsight. Sally putnam came to believe that in its own unique way, cole harbor had been a landmark event in the 1866 Campaign Across Central
To a pleasant day agenda. Its called political correctness. Its nonsense. You cannot alter the past. You can only learn from it. And believe me, history is the best teacher any of you will ever have. So we have to look back to see where were going, and there is no other guide. So today we look back at the wilderness. We look back with all with reverence and installation. What those men in the north and south gave we all share. We must treasure those sacrifices always as being among our richest possessions. May god continue to bless this land we all call our home. Thank you. [ applause ] [ applause ] the incredible violence of 1864 reflected the immense stakes, and the men in both armies recognized that connection. Before 1864, soldiers might have been under fire for eight hours during an entire year. During the overland campaign, they were sometimes under fire for eight hours or more in a single day. On may 12th, 1864, walter battle of the fourth North Carolina fought just a few hundre
Men ever went into battle. We fight for the principles of free government, and for the existence of a nation whose institutions are the hope of the downtrodden people of every land. Our success in this Campaign Must ensure the integrity of the United States by the final overthrow of the rebel down. Success will give a new life to our country, and a new faith to the stability of free government to the world. It will also determine the next presidency as certainly as if the votes were counted. But if we fail in this campaign, that failure will be the greatest disaster in modern history. Upon general grant there now concentrates the deepest interest with which the world ever watched the actions of a single soldier. He is the foremost man in the greatest contest of the age. When the nation and the world wanted to know how the civil war was going, they looked to virginia. That spring, robert e. Lee and his army showed clearly as the confederacies greatest hope. Ulysses s. Grant had come eas
Nevertheless, while other Union Commanders were failing, grant had climbed steadily up the military ladder with resounding victories, stretching from fort henry in 1862, through vicksburg to Missionary Ridge in 1863. He was clearly the norths man of the hour. When lincoln ordered an east early in 1864 to take command of all federal forces. The somewhere near 500,000 combat ready soldiers grant would have authority over the largest post any american officer had ever led. The new Lieutenant General wasted little time in making his strategic intentions known. In the past, grant asserted, union armies had quote, acted independently and without concept like a bulky team of mules, no two pulling to the. And this allowed confederates to shift men from one sector to the other to meet the most pressing danger. Union generals seemed content to maneuver. But that was not the road to victory, grant announced. The north had far superior numbers, and materiel. It was time to switch games. To stop pl
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