Garthright House - Mechanicsville VA
Posted by: 
Don.Morfe
N 37° 35.302 W 077° 16.711
18S E 298825 N 4162585
The Garthright House stood in the path of charging troops at two battles: Gaines’ Mill in 1862 and Cold Harbor in 1864. The house belonged to Miles Garthright, a Confederate soldier.
Waymark Code: WM134QA
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 09/15/2020
Views: 0
Garthright House-Richmond National Battlefield-"We charged across the open field under a murdrous storm of balls & canister shot...& soon gained complet[e] possesion of all the buildings....We soon fortified as best we could the aproaches to the house by barrells & farming tools & held the position...."
June 1, 1864, diary of John F.L. Hartwell, 121st New York infantry
The Garthright House stood in the path of charging troops at two battles: Gaines’ Mill in 1862 and Cold Harbor in 1864. The house belonged to Miles Garthright, a Confederate soldier whose cavalry unit saw action around Cold Harbor early in the battle. Portions of the building might have been 100 years old by the time of the Civil War. The nearby enclosed brick cemetery dates from the middle of the 1700s, if not earlier.
Union surgeons used the house as a field hospital in June 1864. Mrs. Garthright took refuge in the basement, where “with fear and trembling” she watched as blood dripped through the cracks in the floor and into the cellar. At least 97 soldiers died from their wounds here and received temporary burial in the front yard. Two years later the Cold Harbor National Cemetery opened across the road and work crews reburied all of the Union dead there.
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