>> i begin with a word of invitation. father in heaven, we, to this place tonight not to celebrate war, but to celebrate sacrifice, loyalty, bravery, and the things that have happened in our history to make as the great nation we are today. lessons ofn from the history. may we not repeat the lessons that divide us, but may we repeat those lessons that make

us strong. tonight, dear lord, i thank you for the national parks service and their hard work in bringing this event to our community, our state, and our nation. do in this place this evening, and we humbly ask, dear father, that you bless our nation in jesus' name. amen. >> on may 4, 1864, the union army of the potomac crossed the rapid and river -- rappadan river and crossed into the wilderness. errors andd national other soldier favors that stirred men's souls with optimism and hope. none could know, but the final campaign of the war had begun.

by the end of may, the armies had crossed many rivers. the bloody battles of the wilderness, spotsylvania the river, had pushed human daring and suffering to the extreme. but the soldiers valiantly fought on. soon after the fight on the river, u.s. assistant secretary of for charles dana hoped to transfer the lingering soldier'' optimism to the war have an weary northern homefront. to boost morale and garner support to continue the war proclaimed, proudly the rebels have lost all confidence and are already morally defeated. this army has learned to believe it is sure of victory. even our officers have ceased to lee as anave -- invincible genius. they are not attacking even when

invited, but from the unanimous statement of prisoners taken from them, rely upon it -- the end is near. late may, the washington republican and the philadelphia bulletin also reported, lee has commenced a hasty retreat, pursued with real vigor by grant. stops to fight today, we show here next of a grand conflict for the city of richmond. left davis and his cabinet richmond some days ago. there is little doubt that richmond, by this time, is pretty well cleaned out of its nothing leftnd is but a fortress. >> the union army arrived within eight miles of richmond. the dust caked soldiers on the front lines, who had endured a month of hard marching,

bloodletting, and death that again around the virginia crossroads known as cold harbor. the unrelenting hammering of lee's army continued on this day, 150 years ago. ordered. assault was it was unmatched for its sheer brutality. following the assault at cold kuhn wrotevate david to his daughter from the trenches. no words that i write can give you an idea of it. how would you like to see your father lying in a ditch behind a bank of earth all day, with rubble bullets flying over his head, so that his life was in danger if he should raise on his feet, without a chance to get anything to eat? then, running across an open field toward a rubble battery, canisters falling like hail, and fallingling -- men

dead. then being obliged to lie in position until the darkness of night so we could get away, and start on a forced march in the night without any chance to get any supper. dirt, him lie down in the so exhausted as to fall asleep. father daughter, your may be lying dead on the field of battle, and you may not know it. and so it was for the soldiers, north and south. >> thank you for joining us this evening. i am the superintendent of richmond national battlefield park.

i would like to take just a moment to introduce to you all our participant in tonight's program. first, our honored guest. david adams, a close personal friend, who i'm happy to say, and steward of a large portion of the coal harbour battlefield, our readers, and i want to send a special thanks to our chorus from the lee davis high school. thank you all very much for being with us in this program tonight. [applause] for the last week and a half, many of you have followed in the footsteps of union and confederate soldiers. across the north ana, hawe's and nearhesda church, here at the cold harbor crossroad. we will pause to see the significance of the stores and what it means and generations -- what it meant to the armies

and generations of americans who came after. as we do that, we need to a cknowledge the hard work that so many who joined with us in remembering and commemorating this unforgettable part of our shared history. from its own commemorative events to supporting events here, hanover county has been a real strong partner and helped us with many of the logistics and we sang the supervisors and the county administrator for their assistance and we cannot have done this without the support of fairmont church. this evening is a perfect example of that partnership which we would had in a place several weeks ago, when we knew rain might be a possibility. their shuttles provided perfect -- their parking lot provided perfect places for our shuttles to have the tours emanate from. without the church, this could not have happened. our commemoration of the battle topatameeomy creek --

creek would not be possible from our newest partner, the planes foundation. a group to expand the profile of the rural plains. our chairman and president is here. if you could raise your hand, there she is. over to my left. thank you for being with us. the supreme leadership under jack to provide support to conduct and publicize these commemorative programs. once again, we are pleased with the virginia historical society working together to provide programs with gary gallagher to set the stage for 1864 commemoration. it seemed like a month ago. thank you for your strong partnership with the national park service. i also must say that i can stand up here tonight and provide some great words that some of my staff have really helped me write, but none of this could've happened without of the staff. the staff of richmond national

battlefield park. i lost some nights worrying about the logistics of lost nights putting together the program. if you can stand right quick if you do not mind, no matter what division you are in. [applause] and volunteers, please. [applause] these folks, many of them were at the church parking lot this morning at 3:30 a.m. and met the tours and followed in the footsteps, as depleted as -- the footsteps of the 18th and second corps. and as depleted as they are, they are here tonight to support this final program.

as the superintendent of the park, i cannot be more impressed by this staff and proud. thank you all so very much. [applause] and finally, parts of this battlefield would not be available to tell their stories were it not for the work of the civil war trust and the richmond battlefield association. their preservation work will ensure that in these places remain available to teach and inspire our children, grandchildren, and generations to come. indeed, these places, this land and store it contains is the -- the story it contains are the reasons we are here. 150 years ago, hanover county , virginia became one of the bloodiest landscapes on the continent. for more than two weeks, americans fought one another and struggled to survive and died here. forms were transformed into

battlefields. communities suffered like hanover and the war gave it an enduring identity. when the army's department, theamilies like the watts, adamses, the burnetts were left to deal with the human wreckage left behind and they phrase it -- left behind. and struggle of gaining their livelihood that the war nearly took. we told the civilian story through accounts. tonight is different. our first speaker, david adams , is a lifelong resident of cold harbor, and is proud to represent the fifth generation of the adams family to live on the battlefield. he is here to talk about what it is like to be so closely connected to the land as community of such a famous place. i must add it through the hospitality of the adams family, david and his mother, she is here on the front row, the park was able to take folks along the footpath of the second corps attack on june 3.

we thank you so much for all the hospitality you always show us , particularly this morning. thank you all. david? [applause] before david gets started, i didn't want to mention that it is very appropriate that he is sitting next to david robertson. he uses his credentials to teach young people since 1979 where he taught at richmond community high school. much of the current staff had the good fortune of knowing both david, mary beth, and david's father who very good-naturedly and with great patience welcomed many inquisitive historians to his farm. often graciously allowing our groups, eager to see the ground, the right to

step on this historic land. the park service, we talk a lot about stewardship. we try to take care of our sites, all national treasures. the adams family through many generations have treated their portion of the battlefield with great respect and gentleness. they have been ideal stewards, and we are extremely grateful. david, thank you for being with us this evening. [applause] >> good evening. i wish to thank dave, superintendent of the richmond national battlefield park, for extending the invitation to speak on the significant occasion in the life of our country. it is indeed an enormous honor to have the opportunity to share this time with dr. robertson and mr. levengood. dave, i thank you.

in 1864, joseph adams owned a farm about a mile south of new cold harbor. he was 48 years old. he had a very young family for his age. made a living raising wheat and corn and vegetables. i am his great great grandson. i grew up and was raised on the same farm. today, i continue to live on it. it is a place filled with the beauty of wheat rolling in waves with the wind. emerald green cornfields when adequate rain has fallen. and for years, cattle grazing. this same place held enormous violence.

i am so very honored to represent a connection with the civilian population of that long-ago time, 150 years ago. this is very meaningful to me. we all know how the war divided the country. it divided families. it divided cold harbor. most cold harbor residents certainly supported secession and the confederacy. they saw the war as an invasion by high-handed government. others saw it differently. they were southern unionists. such as southerners likely felt that the dissolving the union would end in tragedy. these differences were present in a cold harbor community. it was a civil war through and through. my grandfather was born on a farm and worked it all his life.

he shared an account given to him by his father, a horseman -- of horsemen returning to cold harbor years after the battle. war veterans. the image that was most dominant in the account was that some of the returning men were emotional. and so we wonder what had they seen at cold harbor? what had they experienced at cold harbor? what did they remember about cold harbor? why were some weeping? over time, war relics would be unearthed by the adams plow.

through my grandfather's youth, like his father, and his father, plowing was done walking behind a mule. my father's boyhood, a tractor-drawn plow would inevitably latch on to war materials. sometimes a rainfall would have the same effect, revealing lead bullets, cannonball fragments. occasionally a bayonet, occasionally a rifle and occasionally a human bone. rust and decay marked how long ago they had left in the spot they fell that june day. for years, picking a lead bullet off the ground was pretty commonplace. we never gave his background a second thought. holding a war relic never really conveyed anything close to what happened here. how easy to ignore that a lead

bullet dropped a century and a half ago may have passed through a man. did it take his life? if it did so, how long did it take him to die? and what if my grandfather's grandfather's farm on june 3, 1864? we know that enormous damage happened on his place from the battle of gaines mill. only two junes before. his house had been a union field hospital. in june 1864, the two armies had returned again, having survived and witnessed the carnage of war once. what dread must have filled his mind and heart? hell on earth wasn't coming -- was coming again to cold

harbor. as a boy, who always loved history, living on a farm that had been a battlefield always invoked a romantic image of war. it was always an image confined to heroism and valor in to do and judy -- and valor and duty. and cold harbor was about those things. this youthful image of mine included men falling neatly in a line, dead to the ground. and wounds that could be easily patched up. it would be much later before i would comprehend as my father and grandfather did that on our -- that our form also produced immense suffering, untold agony, and cruelty. but it also produced a genuine devotion to what those americans

of 150 years ago thought was right. thank you for your time and i appreciate it very much. [applause] >> one of the pleasures of being superintendent of being -- of this battlefield park is collaborating with other historical places, to work in tandem to strengthen the story of the old dominion and how it is told. one of those colleagues, dr. paul levengood. he is president of the virginia historical society. a position he has held for six years. he is a native of pennsylvania like myself.

with degrees from davidson college in rice university where he earned his doctorate in history. his many scholastic accomplishments include managing editor of the magazine and publication of a book entitled "virginia, catalyst of commerce for 4 centuries." published in 2007. that volume was the official quadra centennial -- project of thel virginia chamber of commerce. paul is married and has three children and continues to stir the virginia historical society into the 21st century. one of our staff and some by you may all have imagine what it is has remarked he has been throughout every state of the south except florida and none can approach the virginia historical society for quality, ease efficiency, and usefulness. paul, we appreciate all that you do. we are assembled between the lines.

if we were at cold harbor them a group their witness untold personal tragedies, no doubt some of us if we were on the battlefield tonight would be sitting or standing on the very spot where a corpse it may have laid. 150 years ago tonight. for the survivors, it was too soon to extract a broad meaning or context rum the ordeal. -- from their ordeal. paul is here to reflect on that topic. how cold harbor came to be remembered. [applause] >> thank you very much and good evening, everyone. now in his standup comedy, the role i am playing right now is what you would call the middle. in other words, i am a bridge from the opener who gets the crowd going and in this case,

gets the crowd moved, to the headliner. that is the one everybody came to see. i think you will agree we had an wonderful opener in mr. adams. that was very moving. and my role now is to efficiently get you to our friend, the incomparable bud robertson. who is obviously the main attraction this evening. as i middle here, i hope i can keep your attention for a few moments and i promise on like a comedy show, there will be no then took with him -- there will or jokestriloquism about airline food. when superintendent dave called and asked me to say a few words which marks a century and a half of the battle of cold harbor, i asked him, why me? my war took place 70 years ago, not 150. dave said something kind about my adding to the event and i

appreciated that. but between us, he is my sometimes doubles tennis player and it isn't his best interest -- is in his interest to keep my ego stroked. i do appreciate him bringing me here. i will admit when i was thinking about this in evening it cost me a few sleepless nights. so i am glad, dave, you had sleepless nights, and i did two. -- too. after all, what can i add that bud or earlier this week, gordon or other experts have not already said about the battle itself? this is not in my era. my ability to add it to the understanding is limited. once i realized i was not expected to become an expert on the battle in a month's time, i gained measure of peace. instead i decided to embrace my nonexpert role and take what is a more impressionistic look into memory or lack there of of the vicious and in many ways fruitless battle of cold harbor.

i will begin by asking you a question, rhetorically. what is it that sticks in our collective memory about the battle of cold harbor? for many, if not most of us, we are pressed to come up with one thing that characterize the engagement, it might simply be this -- death. this is not gettysburg or shiloh. or even the seven days. here we do not think of gallant charges, tactical successes or feats of individual bravery. we think of death. we think of the 2 waves of u.s. troops who launched themselves uselessly against the plea entrenched confederates, and were mowed down in staggering numbers. we think of the four days in which the wounded moaned for

help in no man's land as they died, parched, in pain, afraid. and we think of that photograph, you know the photograph i mean? in the photograph, its bearer -- a litter sits on the ground. its bearer kneels behind it looking at the camera with a steely grays. -- steely gaze. in the background, for more men are stooped at their labors. these are the living actors in the scene. they are not the actors to draw our attention, which make this photograph of one the most haunting and macabre of the war. what draws our attention is not the living, it is the dead. how can we not look into the hollow, staring eye sockets that -- of the five skulls that confront us? we are riveted to them as the

very representation of death. only by tearing our eyes away from the skulls can we begin to make out the rest of the scene. the horrifying mass of bones, clothing, and equipment composed of how -- of who knows how many human bodies. in almost a coda of death, we notice the remains of a leg, dangling, from the litter. the boot still attached. the photograph sears into the brain. at least it did into mine. i cannot remember when i first saw the picture. and i certainly did not know where cold harbor was at the time. i am sure i thought it was a port town somewhere in virginia. a may not remember in which a book i first saw the photograph but i know immediately and linked to the words cold harbor and death.

in subsequent years, i read more about events of spring of 1864 that culminated. the deadly slog from the thatdan to the james saw the u.s. suffer 50,000. -- 50,000 casualties, the bloodiest six weeks of the war. i learned of the thousands who fail in the morning and i do know there were different schools of thought about what that number was. i learned that ulysses as the grant would have terrible -- ulysses s grant would have terrible regret. the military and public had become accustomed to for a blue long casualty lists. cold harbor stood out for its itsdy mess and pointlessness. as i sought to find an angle for these remarks by searching my mind of what i knew, a book i

read several years ago came to mind. it is called "the war of the world" and it is provocative by the equally provocative british historian neil ferguson. its premise is that the 20th century where the two global conflicts and a series of more than a dozen others image cost more than one million deaths was the most violent and deadly as -- and deadly in human history. in quite convincing fashion, ferguson lays down evidence to explain why it is so. ferguson's books makes no a mention of the american civil war at all. it does not pay much attention to the 19th century united states, period. i may be trying to connect the time period in the 19th century to one i know better, the 20th century. the more i've thought about it, the more it struck me that the carnage here helped set the stage for the almost ceaseless fighting that would cost tens of millions of lives in the 20th century.

not just in the terrible numbers of casualties. the very nature of fighting here also seemed to portend the way we would fight in a modern era. here at cold harbor, the culmination of the meat grinder that was the overland campaign. humanity was afforded a glimpse of the future. a glimpse and a warning. a warning of what the war could be. brutal, industrial, bloodletting. that measure progress in inches. -- that measured progress not in miles gained, but in inches, and not in winning a given spot of land, but inflicting more damage to your opponent then you yourself absorbed. in a word -- attrition. i think you can make a real case that something fundamental here on this plot of land, the small crossroad less than 10 miles from richmond.

in fact, i would ask you to consider in some ways that modern war and how humans view the killing of one each other emerged out of the trees and the early morning hours of june 3. this past weekend i attended along with bud and maybe several others the latest of the american civil war commission's set of conferences. this year's focus was on the civil war in a global context. it was very interesting to hear about the international perception of the fighting. in one session, the presenter observed europe viewed the events of the u.s. civil war as an aberration and learned a few lessons of military or

otherwise. as it turns out, that favors proved very costly. i am struck that the fighting at cold harbor took place 50 years from the outbreak of world war i in europe. with advances in weaponry, frontal assault on entrenched positions we see here at cold harbor, in world war i it became far more lethal, lethal on an almost unimaginable scale. it is always tempting to take a thesis and write to exaggerate unsupportable extremes. it would've been foolish to say if the british or germans had taken the terrible example of cold harbor to heart humankind would've been spared the horror. -- the horrors of the somme. however, you cannot help but wonder whether that's a tactical thinking would have changed if hague or others had consulted one of the few survivors of the second artillery or confederate

brigadier is grander law -- evander law, who famously described what he saw as not war -- it was murder. would they have repeated the mistakes we saw here? would the course of the world war had been different? we all know that what if games are imprecise and dangerous. was there a chance to stop the slide into genocide? as a historian, i am trying to avoid speculation. in this case, i do not care. if there was a chance that the terrible example of cold harbor, the memory may have prevented more awful events half a century or a century later, it seems worth a moment of reflection and a touch of regret. don't you think? thank you very much. [applause]

>> today, the name cold harbor inevitably conjures up images of entrenchment. we think of field fortification, mile after mile of steeped up -- of heaped up earth's making across the hanover county countryside. life in the trenches was a miserable existence with mud, filth, broiling heat, and ever-present danger. the soldiers of both armies appreciated those barriers. to better protect their own lives in a deadly environment. as one georgia soldier explained, fighting on the defensive from behind those fortifications had its advantages.

this campaign is the first in which our troops have had the privilege of fighting behind protection of any kind, and it is fun for them. they lounge about with accoutrements on and their guns close at hand, laughing and talking until somebody passes up or down the line, "here they come." every man springs into action. -- every man springs to his place until the enemy gets close up. the rear rank fires a volley. then the front rank. after which each one fires. some load for others to shoot. each working rapidly but calmly until the enemy are repulsed. >> some survivors of the attack at cold harbor were slightly dazed. often mixing patriotism with anger. sorrow. hope. that odd compound reflects the of constantffect

campaigning and heavy losses, and what it does to the minds and hearts of soldiers. in a letter, a classic example. the 23rd has lost a large number of men and officers. i am writing all of the time to heart-rending cries, but it cannot be helped. many have fallen. more must before we take richmond. we are now within 10 miles of the rebel sodom. i can only thank god i've been spared yet. this is a bloody struggle in m -- and may soon be over soon. the dust is enough to kill any man, let alone the fighting. now, it has begun to rain, thank god. oh if those men at home had only one spark of feeling for the poor soldiers, they would rush

to arms and help to and this war. -- to end this war. >> it is my great honor to introduce our keynote speaker. for more than 40 years, i began my career as a seasonal historian at the chancellorsville battlefield. one afternoon, in 1973, a group stopped by the visitor's center and the leader began to tell the untimely death of stonewall jackson, and brought nearly everybody in the group to tears. i asked the fellow standing next to me, who is this guy? i was told with great reverence this is the great historian, bud robertson. from virginia tech. i knew the rest of the story because i had read and reread his book "the stonewall brigade" before i arrived at chancellorsville. i also had the good fortune of attending virginia tech. over the years, dr. robertson has been an incredible inspiration to me and many others interested in civil war

history. the books he has written cover an entire shelf. but the time he has spent mentoring young historians both academic and public history is immeasurable. i was share a quick story. dr. robertson is an excellent editor. he would generously markup manuscripts, transforming them from white to almost entirely red pages with his red pencil. his graduate school found of buying christmas presents for him was easy, buying a box of red pencils were easy any put them to good use. for 44 years, dr. robson was the -- dr. robertson was the alumni distinguished professor of history. i must ask, how many in this church today attended his classes over the years? that is wonderful.

i was fortunate to have attended many of his lectures. i was always amazed. in that mcbride auditorium, for those virginia tech alumni seated here, hundreds would fill the auditorium to overflowing with students from every department including athletes, scientists, architects -- all spellbound in the way dr. robertson made history, live. history, in my -- made history come alive. in my opinion, if there were more teachers like the dr. robertson and the school system, we would not question why students do not understand or care about american history. [laughter] today, dr. robson serves as a key member of the commission that was established to plan and commemorate the 150th anniversary of virginia and the civil war.

under his leadership, the commission has been successful beyond all imagination. i am honored to present dr. james robertson, jr. [applause] >> thank you. thank you very much. i would say david was one of my better students, and i do remember. i think the worst student i ever had was a football player that i taught, and he did not take the midterm exam. on the final he failed it flatly so i gave him an f. he came to me and said i do not believe i deserve an f in this course. and i said, i do not either, but that is as low as the system

goes. [laughter] i want to thank david and the park service for the humbling invitation to give the keynote on this important anniversary. one of the first actions you learn in graduate school is simple -- any nation that forgets its past has no future. and i am grateful to you coming out this evening to remember a point in american history that cannot and must not ever be forgotten. june 3, 1864. the civil war became a more -- more sophisticated, more advanced, and hence bloodier, as the war years passed. by 1864, soldiers using rifles and well-built earthworks, supported by suitable and well-placed artillery simply could not be dislodged by any

sort of frontal attack. it became indelible early in june pine thickets, eight miles from richmond. sylvaniaof the 148 and -- pennsylvania would later declare, "the assault at cold harbor was an attempt by fear and furious fighting to for the -- to force the advantage which march and maneuver had missed. it failed with a cost of life matched by no other 60 minutes in the four years of that war." it was in the civil war's third year that general ulysses grant assumed control. but he always had an aloofness.

he liked to be alone and comfortable with his thoughts and his cigars. on may 4, he unleashed the campaign that would destroy the southern confederacy. union military forces would go strike whenever they could, with all the strength they had. federals would keep attacking until confederate resistance collapsed. this was a simple plan, but it had never been tried before by a union commander. grant made his headquarters with the army of the potomac. his attention would be totally on robert e lee's forces. other generals had overtaken the same strategy and met defeat. grant regarded a battle loss as merely a momentary setback. bested, he intended to reassemble and attack again

and again and again until lee's outnumber army was forced to play the sort of game they could not win. put another way, in may 1864, the union army stopped playing chess and switched over to checkers. both armies bled hopelessly that -- bled copiously that month. grant took a pounding on a two-day fight in the wilderness. the union general ignored the movements togan turn the southerners away from richmond. so began a game of flank and fight and flank and fight again. mile by mile, grant kept pushing. 50 miles and 30 days after the start, the armies were approaching the river. whosepredictable stream banks depended on when last it had rained. the hind it was richmond itself,

less than a day's march away. bloodied hosts gravitated toward a place of cold harbor. soldiers found it more a bake oven than cold. cold harbor was a little more than a dusty intersection of two country roads. as may turned into june it was obvious to both sides that the escalating skirmishes were reaching a point of a full scale battle. grant's resolve was as strong as ever. however, his opponent was not in good health. overlooked throughout the last few years was the fact that the war had taken a heavy toll on robert e lee, then 57. he has suffered already in the war a broken hand a sprained wrist, rheumatism, in the previous year, a massive heart

attack for which there was no treatment or cure or medication. these sapped lee's strength. as he inspected his lines at the opening of june, lee was not a top traveler. he was in a civilian carriage. he did not have the strength to ride a horse. nevertheless, lee's soldiers had become champion engineers and at some point, they had but hours to construct earthworks and sometimes one to two days. as with the case at cold harbor. what do they created was not one line of defense but two and in some cases three lines. lee took advantage of every swell and gully. one the most brilliant engineers. his lines is exact on low hills and ridges.

none of them high enough to look frightening. all of them high enough to make an ideal killing ground. the union army failed to make adequate reconnaissance at cold harbor. put, grant left the strategic details to george meade, and george meade left the details to grant. preparations were spotty. the union core would deliver the assaults but each will left on its own, leaving uncoordinated. in addition, it bowed out slightly so advancing units would follow diverging paths. and thus expose their flanks to heavy fire. a union colonel asserted afterwards that the assault would have shamed the cadet in his first year at west point. lee's line was seven miles long , extending northwest to creek.st from topotomoy

by june 2, lee's troops were more entrenched than at any point in the overland campaign. the yanks knew all of those things. that thursday night, june 2, the drizzle of rain, one of lee's -- one of grant's staff officers came across a brigade, the battle scarred second corps. the men seemed to be making repairs to well-worn uniforms. the officer moved closer. to his shock, soldiers were writing their names and addresses on slips of paper and to the back of their shirts so their dead bodies may be recognized and their fates known to their families. in the predawn darkness, it was

still raining lightly. survivors of spotsylvania saw a similarity. a confederate general noted that the strength of both armies was to put forth against each other at once more completely than ever before or ever hear after. -- hereafter. on this day, everything would go right for lee. cooperation among subordinate commanders was all that he could have wished. with thelittle to do conduct of his troops. they proved to be as accomplished killers as they were skillful engineers. sometime around 5:00 a.m., fits and starts were delayed. the uncoordinated union battle started to move. this was no parade ground spectacle, such as at fredericksburg and gettysburg. the terrain, vegetation, and ers pushedthe southern

formations out of lines. simultaneous attacks were supposedly to be at three point with columns. yet concentrated, broke the assault and lines before they could make contact with opponents. the battle quickly disintegrated into dozens of small onslaughts with regiments acting alone. one division broke out of line swamp thatsong -- was on nobody's map. those who survive the night never forgotten what they experienced. an observer stated that the narrow columns of attacking federals were shredded "much as a sharpened pencil." the surgeon wrote on all sides, booming cannon and rattling small arms tell us that the angel of death was hovering just

over our head. when the north carolina brigades explained, the musket ran down down our lines from left to right like they keys of a piano. joined in the wild music of the hour. from the start, the battle assumed the characteristics of a slaughter. nobody knows how many times union columns attacked. the result was always the same. advancing comrades leaned forward as if they were marching into a hailstorm and they felled like rows of blocks striking one another. for the 15th alabama, those men -- it was a turkey shoot. those men were following as soon as theyfiring as fast could, because lines of soldiers behind the front line were reloading weapons and handing them forward at a steady pace.

a colonel quoted "i can see dust out of a man's clothing wear a ball would strike him." in two minutes, not a soldier was standing. cold harbor cannot be called ash -- could not be called a battle. it was simply a butchery. had:00 a.m., before the sun cleared the tree tops, the grand attack had ended in disastrous failure. grant called a halt to the entire operation. yet fighting continued here in there because of the two armies were so close each other and -- they could not let go. grants said our loss was not heavy. nor do i suppose the enemy to have lost heavily. that is one of the most inaccurate reports in civil war history. exact figures can never be known but grant suffered about 7000 casualties.

five times the losses in lee's army. at least half of the union army killed or wounded fail in the first hour. number wise, grant's losses in that one hour were equal to, and came in the same short time, as pickett's charge at gettysburg. from any perspective, the attack at cold harbor was a ghastly mistake. not to grant, however. cold harbor was a momentary setback in his ongoing offensive against lee. the union general several refused to admit defeat or even request a truce to bury him to and retrievead anead his wounded. 4 days past -- passed and the numbers became less wounded and more dead. one said that not every in the civil war were so many wounded

soldiers left so long to suffer in plain sight of their comrades , the enemy, and the buzzards. lee's army was too thin to do a counter attack. further, there simply was no general capable of executing it. meanwhile, grant puffed on his sticks, andtled on thought about the future, with that abstracted look on his face. confederates reported that grant had abandoned the cold harbor line and was likely moving toward the james river to cross over. lee gave pursuit. by mid-june, at cold harbor, the pine thickets, open clearings, and indelible scars of battle lay silent. cold harbor now belonged to history.

the battle was lee's greatest worst defeat. the union commander finally admitted that fact in the last nine months of his life when he frantically was writing his memoirs. grant said i always regretted the assault at cold harbor was ever made. no advantage whatever was gained to compensate for the heavy laws -- loss we sustained. what happened on june 3, 1864 was a wild chain of doomed charges, most of which were smashed in the 10-15 minutes and none which lasted over half an hour. in all of the civil war, no attack has been broken up as quickly or as easily as this one by the confederates. alexander termed it our last and

perhaps our highest tide. it was also robert e lee's final major victory. cold harbor was the climax to grant's overland campaign. never before had they followed -- had armies fought like they did beginning in may. for a solid month, they had not been out of contact. every day, there had been action. in four weeks, union losses were averaging 2000 a day. generals were dead and others wounded. regiments, even brigades, had melted away. soldiers on both sides, bone tired, dirty. oblivious to the stench of rotting horses and man in the humid springtime that swept over virginia. a month's fighting had produced a near 60,000 union casualties. roughly 2 of every 4 soldiers. grant had 32,000 losses.

-- had inflicted 32,000 losses on lee. after cold harbor, unions still outnumbered confederates by a 2:1 margin. grant had a reservoir of manpower. at cold harbor, lee won only time. even victory was the coming too expensive for the army of northern virginia. monuments that should cover these grounds as quickly as they do elsewhere are absent. preserving as much of the battlefield as possible is difficult because the greed to make money exceeds the gratitude we should have for the past. in the national cemetery here, 1986 union graves, 670 stones

contain the names of the soldiers. belong to1300 graves the family called "unknown." my graduate mentor often told the story of private maddux. they young federal soldier was in one of the last assaults at cold harbor. his regiment was shot to pieces. as his wounded colonel was struggling across the field, he heard a beckoning call and looked over and saw private maddux lying on the ground with a gaping wound in his body. obviously dying. to theonel tottered soldier and bent over in anticipation of the young volunteer passing final words to be conveyed to his family back home. instead, private maddux asked is the day ours? is the day ours?

the officer could not bring himself to admit the truth so he lied. yes, my son, he said, we have won the victory. the officer could not bring himself to admit the truth so he lied. yes, my son, he said, we have won the victory. the private said i am willing to die and he didn't die. -- and he did die and he lives nearby and the cemetery. this battlefield stands so generations can come here and see here and perhaps feel here what brave men did on behalf of our country. the greatest treasure he had, life. thousands of them gave the supreme offering. at cold harbor. we do not have to be an intellectual or even educated to understand the totality of what they bequeath to us. the civil war did not shatter our nation, rather it was a supreme test of endurance for a young, struggling country that now stands and blessed unity.

we look back, armed with an understanding of the past. we can look forward the common pride and renewed hope to the years yet to come. maddux would have liked that. [applause]

>> the campaign was the largest and luckiest of the civil war. the casualties were astounding. astounding to soldiers, generals, and to those left back home. losshe staggering sustained, for every soldier killed, wounded, were captured, there was a family, a mother, father, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, that also directly felt that loss, the loss of the fields ofn the virginia in spring of 1864, reverberated through communities across the north and south. the empty chairs, and the gaps

in the battle lines and the camps left indelible impact on the living left behind. the ideas and believes, for which so many thousands of men fought and died during that bloody spring. in spite of and perhaps even in light of the loss of so many lives, and the widespread destruction wrought by six weeks of heavy battle, those police and ideas about nation, government, and home became even more deeply enshrined in the hearts and minds of those left to fight on. we come here tonight to reflect upon and learn from today.

>> writing soon after the war with the perspective afforded by time, she wrote about the overland campaign in central virginia. she wrote -- the battle of cold harbor forever removed the impression of general lee's army. the barefooted, ragged, ill fed rebel army which had been on fire -- under fire for more than a month had obtained as exception of victories unparalleled in the history of modern warfare. however, putnam also noted the resolution of the union army and its leader, saying the most striking feature in this distinguished commander of the federal army seems to be quiet determination and indomitable

perseverance and energy. under such disappointment another would've had his courage show shaken -- so shaken, -- he had received from the battle of the wilderness to that of cold harbor repeated and powerful repulses. his loss of men was unparalleled. but his perseverance was undisturbed. >> the quiet determination of ulysses grant echoed loudly through the fighting men of the union army. when defeat was decisive, as it was at cold harbor, the rank and file gained renewed energy recognizing grant's tenacity and purpose.

the effect on the men was perfectly explained by a federal officer named adams. he wrote that the army of the potomac had literally marched in blood and agony. all of this fighting had been unsuccessful fighting. and yet, we have a great fighter in grants. he takes hold as one having confidence in himself and not having the least fear of his adversary. he is bold and takes risks, thus inspiring confidence in his army. one can see that grant believes in an incessant fighting and marching as producing necessary

results. not only on his own army, but the enemy. if his army is exhausted and needs rest, it is not only likely that the enemy, with the smaller numbers, is even more so, and so the moment of greater exhaustion that comes that of the greatest effort. >> the battlefields are quiet and even alluring today. it is the notion that the men who fought here believed in something truly worth suffering and dying for that brings us to this place. and for each of us, as we leave here this evening, we depart with the sacred responsibility to remember those who fell here, and consider how we can properly honor the sacrifices and the legacy of what happened here. to them, we owe a great debt. two years ago, we concluded each of our seven days battle commemorations with taps, which we called a salute to these soldiers. we will do so again tonight. it is moving. it is deeply appropriate at this place and at this time. it is for them. ♪

>> ladies and gentlemen, that ends our formal program tonight. i want to thank you for being with us. it does not end the commemoration of cold harbor. a few more programs are to occur. i believe that the church has been so kind as to display our 15 pages of color pages for

these programs. thank you again for making the switch from cold harbor to fairmont and we are so -- fairmount, and we're so grateful to you folks on the church. thank you very much. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] >> you are watching american history tv. all weekend, every weekend. on c-span three. to join the conversation, like us on facebook. >> now you can keep in touch with current events from the nation's capital on c-span radio. call to hear congressional "washington today's

journal" program. this into a recap of the day's events and you can hear the audio of the five sunday public affairs programs beginning sundays at noon eastern. 8, 8, 8, 8.6, >> the presidential library museum hosted multiple events to mark the 70th anniversary of the june 6, 1944 d-day invasion of nazi occupied france. coming up next, stories of those who worked in the war effort at the home front during world war ii. aboutof soldiers talk writing letters to enlisted men abroad, how schools engaged in the war, and their members of andl harbor, d-day, president roosevelt. this program is 40 minutes.