Battle of Cold Harbor The Battle of Cold Harbor was fought from May 31 to June 12 , 1864 ( with the most significant fighting occurring on June 3 ) . It was one of the final battles of Union Lt . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant ' s Overland Campaign during the American Civil War , and is remembered as one of American history ' s bloodiest , most lopsided battles . Thousands of Union soldiers were killed or wounded in a hopeless frontal assault against the fortified positions of Confederate Gen . Robert E . Lee ' s army . On May 31 , as Grant ' s army once again swung around the right flank of Lee ' s army , Union cavalry seized the crossroads of Old Cold Harbor , about 10 miles northeast of the Confederate capital of Richmond , Virginia , holding it against Confederate attacks until the Union infantry arrived . Both Grant and Lee , whose armies had suffered enormous casualties in the Overland Campaign , received reinforcements . On the evening of June 1 , the Union VI Corps and XVIII Corps arrived and assaulted the Confederate works to the west of the crossroads with some success . On June 2 , the remainder of both armies arrived and the Confederates built an elaborate series of fortifications 7 miles long . At dawn on June 3 , three Union corps attacked the Confederate works on the southern end of the line and were easily repulsed with heavy casualties . Attempts to assault on the northern end of the line and to resume the assaults on the southern were unsuccessful . Grant said of the battle in his memoirs , " I have always regretted that the last assault at Cold Harbor was ever made . . . . No advantage whatever was gained to compensate for the heavy loss we sustained . " The armies confronted each other on these lines until the night of June 12 , when Grant again advanced by his left flank , marching to the James River . It was an impressive defensive victory for Lee , but it was his last in the war . In the final stage , he alternated between digging into the trenches at Petersburg and fleeing westward across Virginia . Background . Grant ' s Overland Campaign was one of a series of simultaneous offensives the newly appointed general in chief launched against the Confederacy . By late May 1864 , only two of these continued to advance : Maj . Gen . William T . Sherman ' s Atlanta Campaign and the Overland Campaign , in which Grant accompanied and directly supervised the Army of the Potomac and its commander , Maj . Gen . George G . Meade . Grant ' s campaign objective was not the Confederate capital of Richmond , but the destruction of Lee ' s army . President Abraham Lincoln had long advocated this strategy for his generals , recognizing that the city would certainly fall after the loss of its principal defensive army . Grant ordered Meade , " Wherever Lee goes , there you will go also . " Although he hoped for a quick , decisive battle , Grant was prepared to fight a war of attrition . Both Union and Confederate casualties could be high , but the Union had greater resources to replace lost soldiers and equipment . On May 5 , after Grant ' s army crossed the Rapidan River and entered the Wilderness of Spotsylvania , it was attacked by Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia . Although Lee was outnumbered , about 60 , 000 to 100 , 000 , his men fought fiercely and the dense foliage provided a terrain advantage . After two days of fighting and almost 29 , 000 casualties , the results were inconclusive and neither army was able to obtain an advantage . Lee had stopped Grant , but had not turned him back ; Grant had not destroyed Lee ' s army . Under similar circumstances , previous Union commanders had chosen to withdraw behind the Rappahannock , but Grant instead ordered Meade to move around Lee ' s right flank and seize the important crossroads at Spotsylvania Court House to the southeast , hoping that by interposing his army between Lee and Richmond , he could lure the Confederates into another battle on a more favorable field . Elements of Lee ' s army beat the Union army to the critical crossroads of Spotsylvania Court House and began entrenching . Meade was dissatisfied with Maj . Gen . Philip Sheridan ' s Union cavalry ' s performance and released it from its reconnaissance and screening duties for the main body of the army to pursue and defeat the Confederate cavalry under Maj . Gen . J . E . B . Stuart . Sheridan ' s men mortally wounded Stuart in the tactically inconclusive Battle of Yellow Tavern ( May 11 ) and then continued their raid toward Richmond , leaving Grant and Meade without the " eyes and ears " of their cavalry . Near Spotsylvania Court House , fighting occurred on and off from May 8 through May 21 , as Grant tried various schemes to break the Confederate line . On May 8 , Union Maj . Gens . Gouverneur K . Warren and John Sedgwick unsuccessfully attempted to dislodge the Confederates under Maj . Gen . Richard H . Anderson from Laurel Hill , a position that was blocking them from Spotsylvania Court House . On May 10 , Grant ordered attacks across the Confederate line of earthworks , which by now extended over 4 miles ( 6 . 5 km ) , including a prominent salient known as the Mule Shoe . Although the Union troops failed again at Laurel Hill , an innovative assault attempt by Col . Emory Upton against the Mule Shoe showed promise . Grant used Upton ' s assault technique on a much larger scale on May 12 when he ordered the 15 , 000 men of Maj . Gen . Winfield S . Hancock ' s corps to assault the Mule Shoe . Hancock was initially successful , but the Confederate leadership rallied and repulsed his incursion . Attacks by Maj . Gen . Horatio G . Wright on the western edge of the Mule Shoe , which became known as the " Bloody Angle , " involved almost 24 hours of desperate hand - to - hand fighting , some of the most intense of the Civil War . Supporting attacks by Warren and by Maj . Gen . Ambrose Burnside were unsuccessful . In the end , the battle was tactically inconclusive , but with almost 32 , 000 casualties on both sides , it was the costliest battle of the campaign . Grant planned to end the stalemate by once again shifting around Lee ' s right flank to the southeast , toward Richmond . Grant ' s objective following Spotsylvania was the North Anna River , about south . He sent Hancock ' s Corps ahead of his army , hoping that Lee would attack it , luring him into the open . Lee did not take the bait and beat Grant to the North Anna . On May 23 , Warren ' s V Corps crossed the river at Jericho Mills , fighting off an attack by A . P . Hill ' s corps , while Hancock ' s II Corps captured the bridge on the Telegraph Road . Lee then devised an ingenious plan , which represented a significant potential threat to Grant : a five - mile ( 8 km ) line that formed an inverted " V " shape with its apex on the river at Ox Ford , the only defensible crossing in the area . By moving south of the river , Lee hoped that Grant would assume that he was retreating , leaving only a token force to prevent a crossing at Ox Ford . If Grant pursued , the pointed wedge of the inverted V would split his army and Lee could concentrate on interior lines to defeat one wing ; the other Union wing would have to cross the North Anna twice to support the attacked wing . Grant almost fell into Lee ' s trap . He assaulted the tip of the apex at Ox Ford and the right wing of the V , but Lee , who was incapacitated in his tent by diarrhea , could not coordinate the attack he planned to make , losing a golden opportunity . Grant finally realized the situation he faced with a divided army and ordered his men to stop advancing and to build earthworks of their own . However , the Union general remained optimistic . He was convinced that Lee had demonstrated the weakness of his army by not attacking when he had the upper hand . He wrote to the Army ' s chief of staff , Maj . Gen . Henry W . Halleck : " Lee ' s army is really whipped . . . . I may be mistaken but I feel that our success over Lee ' s army is already assured . " As he did after the Wilderness and Spotsylvania , Grant planned another wide swing around Lee ' s flank , marching east of the Pamunkey River to screen his movements from the Confederates . His army disengaged on May 27 and crossed the river . Lee moved his army swiftly in response , heading for Atlee ' s Station on the Virginia Central Railroad , a point only 9 miles north of Richmond . There , his men would be well - positioned behind a stream known as Totopotomoy Creek to defend against Grant if he moved against the railroads or Richmond . Lee was not certain of Grant ' s specific plans , however ; if Grant was not intending to cross the Pamunkey in force at Hanovertown , the Union army could outflank him and head directly to Richmond . Lee ordered cavalry under Maj . Gen . Wade Hampton to make a reconnaissance in force , break through the Union cavalry screen , and find the Union infantry . On May 28 , Hampton ' s troopers encountered Union cavalry under Brig . Gen . David McM . Gregg in the Battle of Haw ' s Shop . Fighting predominately dismounted and utilizing earthworks for protection , neither side achieved an advantage . The battle was inconclusive , but it was one of the bloodiest cavalry engagements of the war . Hampton held up the Union cavalry for seven hours , prevented it from achieving its reconnaissance objectives , and had provided valuable intelligence to Lee about the disposition of Grant ' s army . After Grant ' s infantry had crossed to the south bank of the Pamunkey , Lee saw an opportunity on May 30 to attack Warren ' s advancing V Corps with his Second Corps , now commanded by Lt . Gen . Jubal Early . Early ' s divisions under Maj . Gens . Robert E . Rodes and Stephen Dodson Ramseur drove the Union troops back in the Battle of Bethesda Church , but Ramseur ' s advance was stopped by a fierce stand of infantry and artillery fire . On that same day , a small cavalry engagement at Matadequin Creek ( the Battle of Old Church ) drove an outnumbered Confederate cavalry brigade to the crossroads of Old Cold Harbor , verifying to Lee that Grant intended to move toward that vital intersection beyond Lee ' s right flank , attempting to avoid another stalemate on the Totopotomoy Creek line . Lee received notice that reinforcements were heading Grant ' s way from Bermuda Hundred . The 16 , 000 men of Maj . Gen . William F . " Baldy " Smith ' s XVIII Corps were withdrawn from Maj . Gen . Benjamin Butler ' s Army of the James at Grant ' s request , and they were moving down the James River and up the York to the Pamunkey . If Smith moved due west from White House Landing to Old Cold Harbor , southeast of Bethesda Church and Grant ' s left flank , the extended Federal line would be too far south for the Confederate right to contain . Smith ' s men arrived at White House May 30 – 31 . One brigade was left behind on guard duty , but about 10 , 000 men arrived to join Grant ' s army about 3 p . m . on June 1 . Lee also received reinforcements . Confederate President Jefferson Davis directed Gen . P . G . T . Beauregard to send the division of Maj . Gen . Robert F . Hoke , over 7 , 000 men , from below the James River . ( The first troops of Hoke ' s division arrived at Old Cold Harbor on May 31 , but were unable to prevent the Union cavalry from seizing the intersection . ) With these additional troops , and by managing to replace many of his 20 , 000 casualties to that point in the campaign , Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia had 59 , 000 men to contend with Meade ' s and Grant ' s 108 , 000 . But the disparity in numbers was no longer what it had been — Grant ' s reinforcements were often raw recruits and heavy artillery troops , pulled from the defenses of Washington , D . C . , who were relatively inexperienced in infantry tactics , while most of Lee ' s had been veterans moved from inactive fronts , and who were soon entrenched in impressive fortifications . Opposing forces . Grant ' s Union forces totaled approximately 108 , 000 men . They consisted of the Army of the Potomac , under Maj . Gen . George G . Meade , and the XVIII Corps , on temporary assignment from the Army of the James . The six corps were : Lee ' s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia comprised about 59 , 000 men and was organized into four corps and two independent divisions : Location . The battle was fought in central Virginia , in what is now Mechanicsville , over the same ground as the Battle of Gaines ' s Mill during the Seven Days Battles of 1862 . Some accounts refer to the 1862 battle as the First Battle of Cold Harbor , and the 1864 battle as the Second Battle of Cold Harbor . Union soldiers were disturbed to discover skeletal remains from the first battle while entrenching . Cold Harbor was not a port city , despite its name . Rather , it described two rural crossroads named for the Cold Harbor Tavern ( owned by the Isaac Burnett family ) which provided shelter ( harbor ) but not hot meals . Old Cold Harbor stood two miles east of Gaines ' s Mill , and New Cold Harbor a mile southeast . Both were approximately northeast of Richmond , capital of the Confederacy . From these crossroads , the Union army was positioned to receive reinforcements sailing up the Pamunkey River , and could attack either the Confederate capital or its Army of Northern Virginia . Battle . May 31 . The cavalry forces that had fought at Old Church continued to face each other on May 31 . Lee sent a cavalry division under Maj . Gen . Fitzhugh Lee to reinforce Brig . Gen . Matthew Butler and secure the crossroads at Old Cold Harbor . As Union Brig . Gen . Alfred T . A . Torbert increased pressure on the Confederates , Robert E . Lee ordered Anderson ' s First Corps to shift right from Totopotomoy Creek to support the cavalry . The lead brigade of Hoke ' s division also reached the crossroads to join Butler and Fitzhugh Lee . At 4 p . m . Torbert and elements of Brig . Gen . David McM . Gregg ' s cavalry division drove the Confederates from the Old Cold Harbor crossroads and began to dig in . As more of Hoke ' s and Anderson ' s men streamed in , Union cavalry commander Maj . Gen . Philip Sheridan became concerned and ordered Torbert to pull back toward Old Church . Grant continued his interest in Old Cold Harbor as an avenue for Smith ' s arrival and ordered Wright ' s VI Corps to move in that direction from his right flank on Totopotomoy Creek . And he ordered Sheridan to return to the crossroads and secure it " at all hazards . " Torbert returned at 1 a . m . and was relieved to find that the Confederates had failed to notice his previous withdrawal . June 1 . Robert E . Lee ' s plan for June 1 was to use his newly concentrated infantry against the small cavalry forces at Old Cold Harbor . But his subordinates did not coordinate correctly . Anderson did not integrate Hoke ' s division with his attack plan and left him with the understanding that he was not to assault until the First Corps ' attack was well underway , because the Union defenders were disorganized as well . Wright ' s VI Corps had not moved out until after midnight and was on a march . Smith ' s XVIII Corps had mistakenly been sent to New Castle Ferry on the Pamunkey River , several miles away , and did not reach Old Cold Harbor in time to assist Torbert . Anderson led his attack with the brigade formerly commanded by veteran Brig . Gen . Joseph B . Kershaw , which was now under a less experienced South Carolina politician , Col . Lawrence M . Keitt . Keitt ' s men approached the entrenched cavalry of Brig . Gen . Wesley Merritt . Armed with seven - shot Spencer repeating carbines , Merritt ' s men delivered heavy fire , mortally wounding Keitt and destroying his brigade ' s cohesion . Hoke obeyed what he understood to be his orders and did not join in the attack , which was quickly called back by Anderson . By 9 a . m . Wright ' s lead elements arrived at the crossroads and began to extend and improve the entrenchments started by the cavalrymen . Although Grant had intended for Wright to attack immediately , his men were exhausted from their long march and they were unsure as to the strength of the enemy . Wright decided to wait until after Smith arrived , which occurred in the afternoon , and the XVIII Corps men began to entrench on the right of the VI Corps . The Union cavalrymen retired to the east . For the upcoming attack , Meade was concerned that the corps of Wright and Smith would not be sufficient , so he attempted to convince Warren to send reinforcements . He wrote to the V Corps commander , " Generals Wright and Smith will attack this evening . It is very desirable you should join this attack , unless in your judgment it is impracticable . " Warren decided to send the division of Brig . Gen . Henry H . Lockwood , which began to march at 6 p . m . , but no adequate reconnaissance of the road network had been conducted and Lockwood was not able to reach the impending battle in time to make a difference . Meade was also concerned about his left flank , which was not anchored on the Chickahominy and was potentially threatened by Fitzhugh Lee ' s cavalry . He ordered Phil Sheridan to send scouting parties into the area , but Sheridan resisted , telling Meade that it would be impossible to move his men before dark . At 6 : 30 p . m . the attack that Grant had ordered for the morning finally began . Both Wright ' s and Smith ' s corps moved forward . Wright ' s men made little progress south of the Mechanicsville Road , which connected New and Old Cold Harbor , recoiling from heavy fire . North of the road , Brig . Gen . Emory Upton ' s brigade of Brig . Gen . David A . Russell ' s division also encountered heavy fire from Brig . Gen . Thomas L . Clingman ' s brigade , " A sheet of flame , sudden as lightning , red as blood , and so near that it seemed to singe the men ' s faces . " Although Upton tried to rally his men forward , his brigade fell back to its starting point . To Upton ' s right , the brigade of Col . William S . Truex found a gap in the Confederate line , between the brigades of Clingman and Brig . Gen . William T . Wofford , through a swampy , brush - filled ravine . As Truex ' s men charged through the gap , Clingman swung two regiments around to face them , and Anderson sent in Brig . Gen . Eppa Hunton ' s brigade from his corps reserve . Truex became surrounded on three sides and was forced to withdraw , although his men brought back hundreds of Georgian prisoners with them . While action continued on the southern end of the battlefield , the three corps of Hancock , Burnside , and Warren were occupying a 5 - mile line that stretched southeast to Bethesda Church , facing the Confederates under A . P . Hill , Breckinridge , and Early . At the border between the IX and V Corps , the division of Maj . Gen . Thomas L . Crittenden , recently transferred from the West following his poor performance in the Battle of Chickamauga , occupied a doglegged position with an angle that was parallel to the Shady Grove Road , separated from the V Corps by a marsh known as Magnolia Swamp . Two divisions of Early ' s Corps — Maj . Gen . Robert E . Rodes on the left , Maj . Gen . John B . Gordon on the right — used this area as their avenue of approach for an attack that began at 7 p . m . Warren later described this attack as a " feeler " , and despite some initial successes , aided by the poor battle management of Crittenden , both Confederate probes were repulsed . At this same time , Warren ' s division under Lockwood had become lost wandering on unfamiliar farm roads . Despite having dispatched Lockwood explicitly , the V Corps commander wrote to Meade , " In some unaccountable way , [ Lockwood ] took his whole division , without my knowing it , away from the left of the line of battle , and turned up the dark 2 miles in my rear , and I have not yet got him back . All this time the firing should have guided him at least . He is too incompetent , and too high rank leaves us no subordinate place for him . I earnestly beg that he may at once be relieved of duty with this army . " Meade relieved Lockwood and replaced him with Brig . Gen . Samuel W . Crawford . By dark , the fighting had petered out on both ends of the line . The Union assault had cost it 2 , 200 casualties , versus about 1 , 800 for the Confederates , but some progress had been made . They almost broke the Confederate line , which was now pinned in place with Union entrenchments being dug only yards away . Several of the generals , including Upton and Meade , were furious at Grant for ordering an assault without proper reconnaissance . June 2 . Although the June 1 attacks had been unsuccessful , Meade believed that an attack early on June 2 could succeed if he was able to mass sufficient forces against an appropriate location . He and Grant decided to attack Lee ' s right flank . Anderson ' s men had been heavily engaged there on June 1 , and it seemed unlikely that they had found the time to build substantial defenses . And if the attack succeeded , Lee ' s right would be driven back into the Chickahominy River . Meade ordered Hancock ' s II Corps to shift southeast from Totopotomoy Creek and assume a position to the left of Wright ' s VI Corps . Once Hancock was in position , Meade would attack on his left from Old Cold Harbor with three Union corps in line , totaling 31 , 000 men : Hancock ' s II Corps , Wright ' s VI Corps , and Baldy Smith ' s XVIII Corps . Meade also ordered Warren and Burnside to attack Lee ' s left flank in the morning " at all hazards , " convinced that Lee was moving troops from his left to fortify his right . Hancock ' s men marched almost all night and arrived too worn - out for an immediate attack that morning . Grant agreed to let the men rest and postponed the attack until 5 p . m . , and then again until 4 : 30 a . m . on June 3 . But Grant and Meade did not give specific orders for the attack , leaving it up to the corps commanders to decide where they would hit the Confederate lines and how they would coordinate with each other . No senior commander had reconnoitered the enemy position . Baldy Smith wrote that he was " aghast at the reception of such an order , which proved conclusively the utter absence of any military plan . " He told his staff that the whole attack was , " simply an order to slaughter my best troops . " Robert E . Lee took advantage of the Union delays to bolster his defenses . When Hancock departed Totopotomoy Creek , Lee was free to shift Breckenridge ’ s division to his far right flank , where he would once again face Hancock . Breckinridge drove a small Union force off Turkey Hill , which dominated the southern part of the battlefield . Lee also moved troops from A . P . Hill ' s Third Corps , the divisions of Brig . Gens . William Mahone and Cadmus M . Wilcox , to support Breckinridge , and stationed cavalry under Fitzhugh Lee to guard the army ' s right flank . The result was a curving line on low ridges , long , with the left flank anchored on Totopotomoy Creek , the right on the Chickahominy River , making any flanking moves impossible . Lee ' s engineers used their time effectively and constructed the " most ingenious defensive configuration the war had yet witnessed . " Barricades of earth and logs were erected . Artillery was posted with converging fields of fire on every avenue of approach , and stakes were driven into the ground to aid gunners ' range estimates . A newspaper correspondent wrote that the works were , " Intricate , zig - zagged lines within lines , lines protecting flanks of lines , lines built to enfilade an opposing line , . . . [ It was ] a maze and labyrinth of works within works . " Heavy skirmish lines suppressed any ability of the Union to determine the strength or exact positions of the Confederate entrenchments . Although they did not know the details of their objectives , the Union soldiers who had survived the frontal assaults at Spotsylvania Court House seemed to be in no doubt as to what they would be up against in the morning . Grant ' s aide , Lt . Col . Horace Porter , wrote in his memoirs that he saw many men writing their names on papers that they pinned inside their uniforms , so their bodies could be identified . One blood - spattered diary from a Union soldier found after the battle included a final entry : " June 3 . Cold Harbor . I was killed . " On the northern end of the battlefield , Warren ' s V Corps linked up with Burnside ' s IX Corps near Bethesda Church . Early ' s Confederate Second Corps , on Lee ' s left flank , pushed forward and captured several of Warren ' s skirmishers . Light fighting occurred throughout the night , having little effect on the main battle to come . Burnside at one point was advised to attack Early ' s unprotected flank on Shady Grove Road , but he demurred . June 3 . At 4 : 30 a . m . on June 3 , the three Union corps began to advance through a thick ground fog . Massive fire from the Confederate lines quickly caused heavy casualties , and the survivors were pinned down . Although the results varied in different parts of the line , the overall repulse of the Union advance resulted in the most lopsided casualties since the assault on Marye ' s Heights at the Battle of Fredericksburg in 1862 . The most effective performance of the day was on the Union left flank , where Hancock ' s corps was able to break through a portion of Breckinridge ' s front line and drive those defenders out of their entrenchments in hand - to - hand fighting . Several hundred prisoners and four guns were captured . However , nearby Confederate artillery was brought to bear on the entrenchments , turning them into a death trap for the Federals . Breckinridge ' s reserves counterattacked these men from the division of Brig . Gen . Francis C . Barlow and drove them off . Hancock ' s other advanced division , under Brig . Gen . John Gibbon , became disordered in swampy ground and could not advance through the heavy Confederate fire , with two brigade commanders ( Cols . Peter A . Porter and H . Boyd McKeen ) lost as casualties . One of Gibbon ' s men , complaining of a lack of reconnaissance , wrote , " We felt it was murder , not war , or at best a very serious mistake had been made . " In the center , Wright ' s corps was pinned down by the heavy fire and made little effort to advance further , still recovering from their costly charge on June 1 . The normally aggressive Emory Upton felt that further movement by his division was " impracticable . " Confederate defenders in this part of the line were unaware that a serious assault had been made against their position . On the Union right , Smith ' s men advanced through unfavorable terrain and were channeled into two ravines . When they emerged in front of the Confederate line , rifle and artillery fire mowed them down . A Union officer wrote , " The men bent down as they pushed forward , as if trying , as they were , to breast a tempest , and the files of men went down like rows of blocks or bricks pushed over by striking against one another . " A Confederate described the carnage of double - canister artillery fire as " deadly , bloody work . " The artillery fire against Smith ' s corps was heavier than might have been expected because Warren ' s V Corps to his right was reluctant to advance and the Confederate gunners in Warren ' s sector concentrated on Smith ' s men instead . The only activity on the northern end of the field was by Burnside ' s IX Corps , facing Jubal Early . He launched a powerful assault at 6 a . m . that overran the Confederate skirmishers but mistakenly thought he had pierced the first line of earthworks and halted his corps to regroup before moving on , which he planned for that afternoon . At 7 a . m . Grant advised Meade to vigorously exploit any successful part of the assault . Meade ordered his three corps commanders on the left to assault at once , without regard to the movements of their neighboring corps . But all had had enough . Hancock advised against the move . Smith , calling a repetition of the attack a " wanton waste of life , " refused to advance again . Wright ' s men increased their rifle fire but stayed in place . By 12 : 30 p . m . Grant conceded that his army was done . He wrote to Meade , " The opinion of the corps commanders not being sanguine of success in case an assault is ordered , you may direct a suspension of further advance for the present . " Union soldiers still pinned down before the Confederate lines began entrenching , using cups and bayonets to dig , sometimes including bodies of dead comrades as part of their improvised earthworks . Meade inexplicably bragged to his wife the next day that he was in command for the assault . But his performance had been poor . Despite orders from Grant that the corps commanders were to examine the ground , their reconnaissance was lax and Meade failed to supervise them adequately , either before or during the attack . He was able to motivate only about 20 , 000 of his men to attack — the II Corps and parts of the XVIII and IX — failing to achieve the mass he knew he required to succeed . His men paid heavily for the poorly coordinated assault . Estimates of casualties that morning are from 3 , 000 to 7 , 000 on the Union side , no more than 1 , 500 on the Confederate . At 11 a . m . on June 3 , the Confederate postmaster general , John H . Reagan , arrived with a delegation from Richmond . He asked Robert E . Lee , " General , if the enemy breaks your line , what reserve have you ? " Lee provided an animated response : " Not a regiment , and that has been my condition ever since the fighting commenced on the Rappahannock . If I shorten my lines to provide a reserve , he will turn me ; if I weaken my lines to provide a reserve , he will break them . " June 4 – 12 . Grant and Meade launched no more attacks on the Confederate defenses at Cold Harbor . Although Grant wired Washington that he had " gained no decisive advantage " and that his " losses were not severe , " he wrote in his " Personal Memoirs " that he regretted for the rest of his life the decision to send in his men . The two opposing armies faced each other for nine days of trench warfare , in some places only yards apart . Sharpshooters worked continuously , killing many . Union artillery bombarded the Confederates with a battery of eight Coehorn mortars ; the Confederates responded by depressing the trail of a 24 - pound howitzer and lobbing shells over the Union positions . Although there were no more large - scale attacks , casualty figures for the entire battle were twice as large as from the June 3 assault alone . The trenches were hot , dusty , and miserable , but conditions were worse between the lines , where thousands of wounded Federal soldiers suffered horribly without food , water , or medical assistance . Grant was reluctant to ask for a formal truce that would allow him to recover his wounded because that would be an acknowledgment he had lost the battle . He and Lee traded notes across the lines from June 5 to June 7 without coming to an agreement , and when Grant formally requested a two - hour cessation of hostilities , it was too late for most of the unfortunate wounded , who were now bloated corpses . Grant was widely criticized in the Northern press for this lapse of judgment . On June 4 Grant tightened his lines by moving Burnside ' s corps behind Matadequin Creek as a reserve and moving Warren leftward to connect with Smith , shortening his lines about . On June 6 Early probed Burnside ' s new position but could not advance through the impassable swamps . Grant realized that , once again in the campaign , he was in a stalemate with Lee and additional assaults were not the answer . He planned three actions to make some headway . First , in the Shenandoah Valley , Maj . Gen . David Hunter was making progress against Confederate forces , and Grant hoped that by interdicting Lee ' s supplies , the Confederate general would be forced to dispatch reinforcements to the Valley . Second , on June 7 Grant dispatched his cavalry under Sheridan ( the divisions of Brig . Gens . David McM . Gregg and Wesley Merritt ) to destroy the Virginia Central Railroad near Charlottesville . Third , he planned a stealthy operation to withdraw from Lee ' s front and move across the James River . Lee reacted to the first two actions as Grant had hoped . He pulled Breckinridge ' s division from Cold Harbor and sent it toward Lynchburg to parry Hunter . By June 12 he followed this by assigning Jubal Early permanent command of the Second Corps and sending them to the Valley as well . And he sent two of his three cavalry divisions in pursuit of Sheridan , leading to the Battle of Trevilian Station . However , despite anticipating that Grant might shift across the James , Lee was taken by surprise when it occurred . On June 12 the Army of the Potomac finally disengaged to march southeast to cross the James and threaten Petersburg , a crucial rail junction south of Richmond . Aftermath . The Battle of Cold Harbor was the final victory won by Lee ' s army during the war ( part of his forces won the Battle of the Crater the following month , during the Siege of Petersburg , but this did not represent a general engagement between the armies ) , and its most decisive in terms of casualties . The Union army , in attempting the futile assault , lost 10 , 000 to 13 , 000 men over twelve days . The battle brought the toll in Union casualties since the beginning of May to a total of more than 52 , 000 , compared to 33 , 000 for Lee . Although the cost was horrible , Grant ' s larger army finished the campaign with lower relative casualties than Lee ' s . Estimates vary as to the casualties at Cold Harbor . The following table summarizes estimates from a variety of popular sources : Some authors ( Catton , Esposito , Foote , McPherson , Grimsley ) estimate the casualties for the major assault on June 3 and all agree on approximately 7 , 000 total Union casualties , 1 , 500 Confederate . Gordon Rhea , considered the preeminent modern historian of Grant ' s Overland campaign , has examined casualty lists in detail and has published a contrarian view in his 2002 book , " Cold Harbor " . For the morning assault on June 3 , he can account for only 3 , 500 to 4 , 000 Union killed , wounded , and missing , and estimates that for the entire day the Union suffered about 6 , 000 casualties , compared to Lee ' s 1 , 000 to 1 , 500 . Rhea noted that although this was a horrific loss , Grant ' s main attack on June 3 was dwarfed by Lee ' s daily losses at Antietam , Chancellorsville , and Pickett ' s Charge , and is comparable to Malvern Hill . The battle caused a rise in anti - war sentiment in the Northern states . Grant became known as the " fumbling butcher " for his poor decisions . It also lowered the morale of his remaining troops . But the campaign had served Grant ' s purpose — as ill - advised as his attack on Cold Harbor was , Lee had lost the initiative and was forced to devote his attention to the defense of Richmond and Petersburg . He beat Grant to Petersburg , barely , but spent the remainder of the war ( save its final week ) defending Richmond behind a fortified trench line . Although Southerners realized their situation was desperate , they hoped that Lee ' s stubborn ( and bloody ) resistance would have political repercussions by causing Abraham Lincoln to lose the 1864 presidential election to a more peace - friendly candidate . The taking of Atlanta in September dashed these hopes , and the end of the Confederacy was just a matter of time . Cold Harbor Tavern and Garthright House . During the battle , Burnett ' s tavern ( no longer standing ) was used as a hospital . Union soldiers carried away all items of value , except for a crystal compote bowl saved by Mrs . Burnett . The Garthright House was also used as a field hospital , the exterior preserved by the National Park Service . Battlefield preservation . In 2008 , the Civil War Trust placed the Cold Harbor battlefield on its Ten Most Endangered Battlefields list . Development pressure in the Richmond area is so great that only about of what was once at least a battlefield are currently preserved as part of the Richmond National Battlefield Park . Hanover County also maintains a small 50 acre park adjacent to the NPS ' s Cold Harbor holdings .