Cold Harbor Campaign - near Mechanicsville, VA - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

(Borrowed from ARCHWAY's many posts of other marker's in the area) The Battle of Gaines' Mill was part of the Seven Days Battles that took place in June & July, 1862. During this series of battles the Confederates, led by Gen. Robert E. Lee, went on the offensive in an effort to crush the Federal army camped outside Richmond and destroy northern morale for the war. The Confederate effort ended Union Gen. George B. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign, but Union forces made a successful retreat to the James River.

The Battle of Cold Harbor took place during Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign of 1864. This time the Confederates held a strong defensive position at Cold Harbor and repulsed the Union attack so violently that Grant later regretted ever giving the order to strike. Unlike McClellan, and despite the losses his army suffered, Grant did not retreat. Instead, he continued moving southeast towards Petersburg.

#28 Cold Harbor Campaign
Main Line of Anderson’s Left Wing
The Confederate earthworks here crossing this road were occupied May 31 – June 12, 1864, by the Left Division “Fields” of the First Corps. Then commanded by R.H. Anderson. Heavily attacked on June 3, this part of the line was held against repeated assaults.

About the Battlefield Markers (Source: National Park Service):

This is one in a series of 61 markers erected beginning in 1925 to identify the battlefields around Richmond. The tablets were the work of the Battlefield Markers Association, a group of historians committed to commemorating the Richmond battlefields. Most prominent among the association's members was Dr. Douglas Southall Freeman, the eminent biographer of George Washington and Robert E. Lee. The work of Dr. Freeman and the Association ultimately led to the purchase of battlefield lands and the establishment of Richmond National Battlefield Park in 1936.

Group that erected the marker: Battlefield Markers Association URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: [Web Link] Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary: 7761 Walnut Grove Road Mechanicsville, VA USA 23111

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