Cold Harbor's Place in History
The battle of Cold Harbor took place outside Mechanicsville, Virginia. It was not the end of a military campaign, it did not end the conflict in the east, and it certainly mimicked the results of previous battles. Unfortunately, there are hardly any memorials or monuments dedicated to such a sanguine encounter. Instead, the memory of Cold Harbor comes from veterans' writings and altered historians' views that characterized the battle from the number of Union casualties. Douglas Southall Freeman characterized the battle as Lee's last field victory. [1] However, how did this failed assault define the outcome of the battle? Other questions emerged as continuous fighting took place between both armies. How did this affect the casualties during the battle? When did the battle officially begin and end? How did people accept Cold Harbor as disastrous if the Union army was not defeated? However , the overarching question remains, “Why was Cold Harbor not a Conf...