The Battle of Cold Harbor, now full-fledged trench warfare, continues in Virginia near Richmond. Battle clashes have been replaced with occasional shots from sharpshooters and the whine and explosion of lobbed artillery shells. Heat, dust and a lack of water, food and medical care in the trenches bodes ill for the soldiers in this new…
In the pre-morning duskness at 4:30 a.m., Union forces begin today’s assault on Confederate troops in the ongoing Battle of Cold Harbor near Richmond, Virginia. Although the federals breach the heavily defended rebel lines in a few places, the day does not turn out well for the Union. In close fighting, often hand-to-hand combat, the…
Today the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House begins, the second battle of the long Wilderness Campaign in which Union General Ulysses S. Grant, with the long term goal of capturing nearby Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital, attempts to outmaneuver and wear down Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Having fought Grant to…