The Battle of Cold Harbor was one of the bloodiest military engagements of the American Civil War. It was fought on June 3rd, 1864, at Cold Harbor, Virginia, northeast of Richmond. It was part of the Overland Campaign that also included battles at the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House. The Battle of Cold Harbor began when the Union Army of the Potomac, which numbered about 110,000 men under General Ulysses S. Grant, attacked the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, about 60,000 men under General Robert E. Lee.
At dawn on June 3, Grant began a general advance against the entire Confederate line. More than 5000 Union soldiers were killed or wounded during the first hour of the attack. The battle ended the Union drive through the Virginia Wilderness. At Cold Harbor, Union losses totaled more than 7000 men, and Confederate losses were estimated at about 1500. Grant subsequently agreed with military critics that his losses at Cold Harbor were unjustified in terms of results achieved.
I believe that this is the battle in which Union men pinned their names to their uniforms so that their bodies could be identified and returned to loved ones in the North. It certainly earned Grant the name of Butcher - and not of Southern soldiers, but of his own.
