16,000 men of Maj. Gen. William F. "Baldy" Smith's XVIII Corps were withdrawn from Butler's Army of the James at Grant's request and they were moving down the James River and up the York to the Pamunkey. If Smith moved due west from White House Landing to Cold Harbor, 3 miles southeast of Bethesda Church and Grant's left flank, the extended Federal line would be too far south for the Confederate right to contain it. Lee sent his cavalry under Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee to secure the crossroads at Cold Harbor. On May 31 Hancock's II Corps again crossed Totopotomoy Creek, but found that the Confederate defense line stood well behind the actual creek bed. Grant realized that the strength of the Confederate position meant another stalemate was at hand. He began shifting his army southward toward Cold Harbor on the night of May 31. Battlefield preservation Richmond National Battlefield Park owns and maintains acres from the Shelton House to the banks of Totopotomoy Creek, the area in which the II Corps attacked on May 30 and May 31. The site opened to the public on September 10, 2011. The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities owns with extensive earthworks around Bethesda Church. The Civil War Trust (a division of the American Battlefield Trust) and its partners have acquired and preserved of the battlefield. Notes References Eicher, David J. The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. . Furgurson, Ernest B. Not War but Murder: Cold Harbor 1864. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000. . Grimsley, Mark. And Keep Moving On: The Virginia Campaign, May–June 1864. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002. . Kennedy, Frances H., ed. The Civil War Battlefield Guide. 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1998. . Jaynes, Gregory, and the Editors of Time-Life Books. The Killing Ground: Wilderness to Cold Harbor. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1986. . King, Curtis S., William Glenn Robertson, and Steven E. Clay. Staff Ride Handbook for the Overland Campaign, Virginia, 4 May to 15 June 1864: A Study in Operational-Level Command. Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute Press, 2006. . Rhea, Gordon C. The Battle of Cold Harbor. National Park Service Civil War series. Fort Washington, PA: U.S. National Park Service and Eastern National, 2001. . Rhea, Gordon C. Cold Harbor: Grant and Lee, May 26 – June 3, 1864. Baton Rouge: