the army of the potomac attacked first in the battle of cold harbor.
who attacked first in the battle of cold harbor?
the army of the potomac
the battle was fought in central virginia, in what is now mechanicsville, over the same ground as the battle of gaines's mill during the seven days battles of 1862. some accounts refer to the 1862 battle as the first battle of cold harbor, and the 1864 battle as the second battle of cold harbor. union soldiers were disturbed to discover skeletal remains from the first battle while entrenching. cold harbor was not a port city, despite its name. rather, it described two rural crossroads named for the cold harbor tavern (owned by the isaac burnett family) which provided shelter (harbor) but not hot meals. old cold harbor stood two miles east of gaines's mill, and new cold harbor a mile southeast. both were approximately northeast of richmond, capital of the confederacy. from these crossroads, the union army was positioned to receive reinforcements sailing up the pamunkey river, and could attack either the confederate capital or its army of northern virginia.
battle of cold harbor
cold harbor national cemetery was established in 1866 on the site of the battle of cold harbor, an american civil war engagement. interments were collected from a area, taken from the battlefields and field hospital sites of cold harbor, mechanicsville (beaver dam creek), gaines's mill, and savage's station. the land was appropriated in april 1865 during the first post-war search and re-burial operations conducted on local area battlefields, but not fully purchased until the cemetery was officially established the following year. another search for buried and unburied remains occurred in 1867 and yielded over 1,000 full and partial skeletons that had been missed the previous year. due to space limitations at cold harbor these remains, of which only a handful were identified, were re-interred in the larger richmond national cemetery.
cold harbor national cemetery