June 7,
1864
Battle
of Cold Harbor
Virginia
May
31-June 12, 1864
Day 7: At last, a truce is called
between the two armies in order that burial teams may go out to bury the
stench-ridden corpses from the last several days of fighting. By this time, of course, most of the wounded
who had lain there for four days were dead.
Northern newspapers will criticize Grant heavily for not making the
truce sooner, but they are unaware that it was mostly Lee’s reticence that
prevented an earlier truce.
 |
| Burying the dead at Cold Harbor, a year later |
William P. Derby, of the 27th Massachusetts
Infantry, describes part of what he saw:
Four days of sun and rain, with
the severe heat of summer, had passed over our slain, and the air was laden
with insufferable putrescence. We breathed it in every breath, tasted it in the
food we ate and water we drank. What seemed intolerable to us, was doubly so to
the enemy, from their nearness to the dead, and from the fact that the
prevailing winds, wafting over the field, carried the fumes directly to them.
The granting of the truce was a necessity rather than a virtue.
The ground was strewn with
bloated and discolored forms, every feature so distorted that recognition from
this source was impossible. . . . Now and then some poor wounded one was found,
in all the horrors of a living death. For four long days and nights they had
remained upon that field, with ghastly wounds, without food, water or care, and
surrounded by remains exuding a stifling stench. Who can depict the terrible
sufferings of those long, long hours of horror . . . ? Nature gave but few the
endurance to bridge such an awful chasm, so that the work was chiefly with the
dead.
Long trenches were dug, in
which they were laid, side by side, with such winding-sheets as their blankets
afforded. . . . The utmost haste failed to entomb the immense mass of our
slain, before a signal-gun gave notice that the “truce had expired.” At the
next gun the dogs of war would be let loose upon any remaining on the field,
and hence our burial party hastily retired. A few moments later we were again
engaged in the deadly fray. Those comrades participating in the burial were so
overcome by the stench as to be unfit for duty for several days.
---Of the unauthorized meetings between soldiers of the two
sides, Major Theodore Lyman, a staff officer serving with Gen. Meade, recounts
this incident:
Some extraordinary scenes
occurred during the armistice. Round one grave, where ten men were laid, there
was a great crowd of both sides. The Rebels were anxious to know who would be
next President. “Wall,” said one of our men, “I am in favor of Old Abe.” “He’s
a damned Abolitionist!” promptly exclaimed a grey-back. Upon which our man hit
his adversary between the eyes, and a general fisticuff ensued, only stopped by
officers rushing in.
---Gen. Grant, seeing that Gen. Hunter and Crook, now
combined in the Shenandoah Valley, has the potential to cross the Blue Ridge and
capture Charlottesville, thus threatening Lee’s rear, decides on a comprehensive
strategic shift. He send Sheridan with
two divisions of cavalry westward to strike at Charlottesville and the railroads
that supply Lee’s army. He also plans to
shift the Army of the Potomac southward, from his left flank, to end run Lee’s
men. Lee’s response is predictable:
first, he pulls Breckinridge’s division off the lines and sends him post-haste
to the Valley to stem the Union tide there; he also sends two divisions of
cavalry to chase Sheridan and keep him busy.
