open field toward a rebel battery, with rebel bullets and canister flying like hail and men falling, killed and wounded all about him. and finally ordered to fall on our faces so that the storm could pass over us. and then be oblige to lie in that position until being covered by the darkness of night so we could get away. and march through the night without a chance to get supper. so weak he could scarcely walk. to see him lie down in the dirt, and if stopping for a few minutes, so exhausted as to fall asleep. my dear daughter, your father my 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. my name is david ruth. i'm the superintendent of

richmond national battlefield park. i'd like to take just a moment to introduce to you all tonight, our participants in this even's program. dr. james i. robertson, paul levengood, david adams, a close personal friend and steward of a large portion of the cold harbor battlefield. our readers, ashley and michael, 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 foot steps of union and confederate armies across the north anna and the pom onky rivers, to potmy creek, bethesda church and near here at the cold

harbor across roads. tonight, we will pause to ponder the significance of these stories and what they meant to the veterans of both armies and generations of americans who came after. as we do that, we need to acknowledge the hard work of so many who joined with us in remembering and commemorating this unforgettable part of our shared history. from its own commemorative events at north anna to supporting our events here, hanover county has been a real strong partner with us, helped us with buses and helped us with many of the logistics and we thank the board of supervisors and the county for their assistance. we couldn't have done this without the assistance of fairmont church. this evening is a perfect example of this partnership. their parking lot provided perfect places for our shuttles

to have the tours emanate from. so without fairmont church, this certainly could not have happened. our commemoration of the battle of top on themy creek wouldn't have been possible without the work of our newest partner, the rural plains foundation a friends group is working hard to expand a professional of the rural plains unit. kathryn patterson is here this evening, if you can just raise your hand. there she is, over to my left. thank you, kathryn, for being with us tonight. provided support that helped us conduct and publicize these commemorative programs. we're pleased with the virginiaal historical society working with us to set the stage for 1864 commemorations. seems like a month ago now, but thank you, paul, for your strong partnership with the national park service. and i also must say that i can

stand up here tonight and provide some great words that some of my staff has helped me write, but none of this could have happened without the staff of richmond national battlefield park. and i lost some nights worrying about the logistics, but they lost a lot of nights putting together the programs over the past week. i'd like if you could just stand real quick, if you don't mind -- no matter what division you're 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 foot steps of the 18th

and second corps, and as depleted as they are, they're here tonight to support this final program. so as the superintendent of this park, i couldn't be more impressed by this staff and proud. so 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 battlefields association. their preservation work will ensure that these places will remain available to teach and inspire our children, grandchildren, and generations to come. indeed, these places, this land, and the history it contains, are the reasons that we are here. 150 years ago, hanover county, virginia, became one of the bloodiest leaps on the continent, for more than two weeks, tens of thousands of

americans fought one another here, struggled to survive here, and died here. farms were transformed into battlefields. few communities suffered like hanover, and the war gave it an enduring identity. when the armies departed, families like the garthrights, the baez, the watts, and the adams, the mcgees and the burnets, were left to deal with the human wreckage left behind, they also faced the immense struggle of regaining their livelihoods that the war nearly destroyed. in the previous programs, we told the civilian story left by written accounts from the participants. tonight is different. our first speaker david adams is a life-long resident of cold harbor and is proud to represent the fifth generation of the adams family to live on the battlefield. he's here to talk about what it's like to be so closely connected to the land, a most

famous place. through the hospitality of the adams' family, david and his mother, mary beth who is with us tonight, the park was able to take folks along the footpath of the second corps attack on june 3rd. we thank you for the hospitality you've always shown us, particularly this morning when we were there bright and early. thank you all. david? [ applause ] >> before david gets started, i did want to mention that it's very appropriate that he's sitting next to dr. robertson. he's a tech graduate himself, holds a master's degree in government from the university of richmond and uses those credentials to teach young people since 1979, where he taught at richmond community high school. much of the current staff of the battlefield, i already mentioned, had the good fortune of knowing both david, mary beth, his mother, and david's father edwin, who very good naturedly and with great

patience welcomed many inquisitive park service historians to his farm over the years, graciously allowing our groups, eager to see this historic group, the right to step on this historic land. in the park service, we talk about stewardship, we try to take care of our sites, all national treasures. the adams family has treated their portion of the battlefield with respect and gentleness. they are great stewards and we are extremely grateful for that. again, thank you, david, for being with us this evening. [ applause ] >> good evening. i wish to thank dave ruth, superintendent of the richmond national battlefield park, for extending the invitation to speak on this 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. had a very young family for his age. made a living raising wheat, corn, and vegetables. i am his great, great grandson. i grew up and was raised and worked 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 corn fields, if

adequate rain has fallen and for years, cattle grazing across pastures. but this exact same place also bore enormous violence. i am so very honored to represent a connection with the civilian population of that long ago time. 150 years. 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 in the confederacy. they saw the war as an invasion by high-handed government. but others saw it differently. they were southern unionists. such southerners likely felt that dissolving the union would

end in tragedy. these differences were present in the cold harbor community. it was a civil war through and through. by grandfather was born on the farm and worked it all his life. he shared an account given to him by his father 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 grandfather, plowing was done walking behind a mule. by my father's boyhood, a tractor-drawn plow would also inevitably latch on to war material. sometimes a rainfall would have the same effect. revealing lead bullets, shell and cannonball fragments. occasionally a bayonet, occasionally a rifle, and occasionally, portions of human bone. rust and decay marked how long they had left in the spot they fell that june day. for years, picking a lead bullet off the ground was pretty common

place. we never gave its background a second thought. holding a war relic never really conveys 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 of my grandfather's father's farm on june 3rd, 1864? we know that enormous damage occurred on his place from the battle of gains 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 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 and duty, and cold harbor was about those things. this youthful image of mine, however, included men falling neatly in lines, 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 our farm 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 this battlefield park is the opportunity to collaborate with other historical institutions, to work in tandem towards shared goals to strengthen the story of the old dominion and how it is told. one of those colleagues is dr. paul levengood.

he's president and ceo of the virginia historical society. a position he's held for six years. paul is a native of pennsylvania, like myself, with degrees from davidson college and from rice university where he earned his doctorate in history. his many accomplishments, serving as editor of the virginia magazine of history and biography. work on the editorial advisory board of the encyclopedia virginia and publication of a book entitled virginia, catalyst of commerce for four centuries, published in 2007. that was the official commemorative project of the virginia chamber of commerce. ball is married, has three children is continues to steer the virginia historical society into the 21st century with a steady and imaginative hand. one of our staff has remarked to me that he has been to every state historical society in the south except for florida, not

sure why, and that none can approach the virginia historical society for quality, efficiency, and usefulness. so paul, we appreciate all that you do. we're assembled here between the lines this evening, if we were in fact at cold harbor. as a group, at this place, that witnessed countless hundreds of untold personal tragedies, no doubt some of us, if we were actually on the battlefield tonight, would be sitting or standing on the very spot where a corpse may have lay 150 years ago tonight. for the survivors, it was too soon to extract broad meaning or context from their ordeal. paul is here tonight to reflect on that topic, how cold harbor came to be remembered. [ applause ] >> thank you very much, dave. and good evening, everyone.

now, in stand-up comedy, the role i am playing right now is what you would call the middle. in other words, i'm serving as a bridge from the opener, who gets the crowd going, and in this case, gets the crowd moved, to the headliner, and that's the one that everyone came to see. so i think you'll agree, we had a 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. so as i middle here, i hope i can keep your attention for a few moments. and i promise that unlike a comedy show, there will be no ventriloquism or jokes about airline food. when superintendent dave ruth called and asked me to say a few words about this event, which marks a century and a half since the battle of cold harbor, i asked, why me?

after all, i'm a 20th century historian by training. my war took place 70 years ago, not 150. however, dave said something kind about my presence adding to the event and i certainly appreciated that. but between us, he's my sometime doubles tennis partner, and it's in his best interest to keep>=9 ego stroked. but i do appreciate his confidence in bringing me here. now i'll admit that when i was thinking about this evening, it caused me a few sleepless nights, so i'm glad you had sleepless nights and i did too. afterall, what can i add that bud, or gordon ray, or a host of other experts has not already said about the battle itself? this isn't my era, obviously. my ability to add something to our understanding is limited. but once i realized that i really wasn't expected to become an expert on this battle, in a month's time, i gained some

measure of peace. so instead, i decided to embrace my non-expert role and take what is a more impressionistic look at the meaning and memory, or lack thereof, of the vicious and in many ways, fruitless battle of cold harbor. so i'll begin by asking you a question rhetorically. what is it that sticks in our collective memory about the battle of cold harbor? well, for many, if not most of us, if we're pressed to come up with only one thing that characterizes this engagement, it might simply be this. death. this is not gettysburg or shiloh, or even the seven days. here we don't think of gallant charges, tactical successes, or feats of individual bravery. we think of death. we think of the two waves of u.s. troops who launched

themselves, uselessly against deeply entrenched confederates and were mown down in staggering numbers. we think of the four days in which the wounded moaned and screamed for help in mow man's land as they died, parched, in pain, afraid. and we think of that photograph. do you know the photograph i mean? in the photograph, a litter sits on the ground. addressing the camera, with a steely gaze. in the background, four more men are stooped at their labors. these five are the living actors in this scene. but they are not the actors who draw our attention, who make this john rakey photograph one of the most haunting and macabre of the civil war. no, what draws our attention is not the living. it is the dead.

how can we not look in this photograph, into the hollow, staring eye sockets of the five skulls that confront us? we're 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, disembodied mass of bone, clothing, and equipment, composed of parts of who knows how many human bodies. in almost a codea of death, we last notice of what looks like the remains of a leg dangling, jarringly from the litter. boot still attached. the photograph sears into the brain. at least it did to mine. i can't remember when i first saw the picture, and i certainly did not know where cold harbor was at the time. i'm sure i thought it was a port town somewhere in virginia. i may not remember in which book i first saw the photograph, but

i know that it immediately and lastingly linked the words cold harbor and death in my mind. in subsequent years, i came to read more about the events of the spring of 1864 that culminated at cold harbor, that deadly slog from the rap dan to the james that saw the u.s. suffer 50,000 casualties, in the confederacy, another 30,000-plus, the bloodiest six weeks of the war. i learned of the thousands who fell in the early morning on june 3rd. i know there are differing schools of thought about what that number was. i learned that grant would harbor terrible regrets about his decisions at cold harbor to the very end of his days. and a learned that even in a war in which the military and the public had become accustomed to horribly long casualty lists,

cold harbor stood out for his bloodyness. as i sought to find an angle for these remarks, by searching my mind on the battle of cold harbor, a book came to mind. it's called "the war of the world," a provocative work by neil ferguson. his premise is that the 20th century, with its two global conflicts and a series of more than a dozen others, that each caused more than a million deaths, was the most violent and deadly in human history. in quite convincing fashion, ferguson lays out evidence that helps explain why this was so. now ferguson's book makes no mention of the american civil war at all. in fact, it does not pay much attention to events in the 19th century united states, period. i suppose that i may simply be trying to connect a time period in the 19th century to one that

i know better in the 20th century. but the more i 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 the modern era. here at cold harbor, as 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 war could be. brutal, industrial, blood-letting, that measured progress not in miles gained, but in inches. and not in winning a given spot of land, but in inflicting more damage on your opponent than you yourself absorbed. in a word, attrition.

i think you can make a real case that something fundamental changed -- [ inaudible ] -- in some ways, modern war and how humans view the process of killing one another emerged out of those trees in the early morning hours of june 3rd, 1864. now, this past weekend, i attended, along with bud and maybe several others of you, the latest in the virginia ses qui centennial excellent set of annual conferences. this year's focus was on the civil war in a global context. it was very interesting to hear about the international perceptions of the fighting that convulsed this nation. in one session, the presenter observing that with few exceptions, europe viewed the events of the u.s. civil war as

an abor haitian and learned few lessons from it. as it turns out, that ignorance proved very costly. i'm struck the fighting at cold harbor took place almost exactly 50 years before the outbreak of world war i in europe. with advances in weaponry, the front assault on entrenched positions in world war i became far more lethal, lethal on an almost unimaginable scale. it's always tempting to take a thesis and ride it to exaggerated and unsupportable extremes. it would be foolish to suggest that if the british and french militaries, or the german for that matter, had taken the terrible example of cold harbor to heart, that human kind would have been spared the horror of the saum or the marn. however, i can't help but wonder, whether that tactical

thinking would have changed if they had consulted one of the view survivors of the second connecticut heavy artillery. or confederate brigadier general evander law who famously described what he saw as not war, it was murder. would they had repeated the mistakes we saw here among the pines of cold harbor? would the course of the first world war and perhaps by extension, the course of the 20th century been different? would that generation of potential european leaders who perished in the muddy trenches of france and belgium have been able to check the continent's slide into totalitarianism and genocide? i'm trained to resist speculation. we know that what if games are imprecise and dangerous. but i have to say, in this case, i don't really care. if there was a chance that the example of cold harbor, the

memory of cold harbor, might have prevented far more awful events, half a century, or even 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 entrenchments. we immediately think of field fortifications, of mile after mile of heaped-up earth snaking across the hanover county countryside. life in the trenches was a miserable existence, with its mud, filth, broiling heat and ever-present danger. but the soldiers of both armies appreciated those barriers of dirt. to better protect their own

lives in a deadly environment. and 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, it is fun for them. they lounge about with the accoutrements on and their gun close at hand, laughing and talking until someone passes it up or down the line, look out, boys, here they come! every man springs to his place and waits until the enemy gets close up, when the rear rank fires by volley. then the front rank. after which each one fires soon as he can reload. some load for others to shoot. each working rapidly, but calmly until the enemy are repulsed. >> some survivors, the union attacks at cold harbor wrote letters home, often mixing

patriotism with anger, sorrow, and hope. that odd compound, perhaps reflects what the cumulative effect of constant campaigning and heavy losses could do to the mind, and the heart of a soldier. joseph barlo of the 23rd massachusetts, in a june 6 al t letter to his wife is a classic example. the 23rd has lost a large number of men and officers. i am writing to heart-rending cries, but it cannot be helped. though many has fallen and more must before we can take richmond, we are now within ten miles of the rebel sodom. i can only thank god they have been spared yet. been spared yet. ñ i may it soon be over. the weather has been awfully hot and the dust enough to kill any man, let alone the fighting. but 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 them to >> it's now my great honor to introduce our keynote speaker. more than 40 years ago, i began my career as a seasonal historian at the chancellorsville battlefield. one afternoon in 1973, a group stopped by the visitors center and the leader hopped out of a bus and 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, that this is the famous civil war historian bud robertson from virginia tech. well, i knew the rest of the story, because as they say, because i had read and reread

his book the stonewall brigade before i arrived that summer. i also had the good fortune of attending virginia tech and 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's spent mentoring young historians, both in academic and public history is immeasurable. i'll share a quick story. he's also an excellent and serious editor. he would generously mark up manuscripts, transforming them from white to red pencils. his graduate students found buying christmas presents for him was easy. a box of red pencils and he always put them to good use. for 44 years, dr. robertson was the distinguished professor of history at virginia tech.

and i must ask, how many in this church congregation today attended his classes of civil war history over the years. that's wonderful. i was with the good fortune to attend many of his lectures. i was always amazed in that mcbride auditorium, for those virginia tech alumni seated here, that hundreds would fill that auditorium to overflowing, with students from every department, athletes, scientists, architects, mathematicians, all spell-bound in the way dr. robertson made history come alive. in my opinion, there were more teachers like him in the public school system, we would not question why students don't understand or care about american history. [ applause ]

>> today, dr. robertson serves as a key member of the virginia commemorate virginia's participation in the civil war. under his leader3rs.l and guidance, the commission has been successful beyond all imagination. i'm honored to present to you, dr. james i. robertson jr. [ applause ] >> thank you. thank you very much. i would say david was one of my better students and i do remember that. i think the worst student i ever had was a football player who drifted into that course that i taught. and he did not take the mid term exam. and on the final, he failed it flatly. so i gave him an f on the course. he came to see me and he said, dr. robertson, i don't believe i

deserve an f in this course. and i said i don't either, but that's as low as the system goes. [ laughter ] i wanted to thank david and the park service for the humbling invitation to give the keynote on this important anniversary. one of the first axioms you learn in graduate school is simple. any nation that forgets its past has no future. and i'm grateful to you for coming out this evening to remember a point in american history that cannot and must not ever be forgotten, june 3rd, 1864. the civil war became more sophisticated, more advanced, and hence bloodier, as the war years passed.

by 1864, seasoned soldiers using rifles and well built earth works, supported by suitable and well-placed artillery, simply could not be dislodged. by any sort of final attack. the fact became indelible, early in june in pine thickets and open ground only eight miles from richmond. -- the 148th pennsylvania would later declare the assault at cold harbor was an attempt by sheer and furious fighting, to force the advantage, which march and maneuver had missed. it failed at 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 command of all union military forces. he personally was friendly and

approachable. but he always seemed to have what one observer called a peculiar aloofness. he liked to be alone and comfortable with his thoughts, and his cigars. on may 4th, grant unleashed that campaign that would destroy the southern confederacy. union military forces would strike whenever they could, with all the strength they had. federals would keep attacking until confederate resistance collapsed. it was a simple and elementary ñ 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 undertaken the same strategy and had met defeat. grant regarded a battle loss as

merely a momentary setback. if bested, he intended to reassemble and attack again. and again. and put another way, in may h 1864, the union army stopped playing chess and switched over to checkers. both armies blaired copiously that month. grant took a pounding on a two day fight in the wilderness. the union general ignored the feet. so began a deadly game of fight, flank, and fight and flank and fight again. mile by mile, grant kept pushing. 50 miles and starting days after the start, the two armies were

approaching the checkered army level an unproedictable string. behind it was richmond himself less than a week's march away gravitated to a place called cold harbor. there was not a stream within miles. it was nothing more than an intersection between country roads. by june it was obvious that the escalating skirmishes were reaching a point where full-scale battle was imminent. grant's resolve was as solid as ever. ho however his opponent was not in good health having taken a toll

on robert e. lee. he had suffered a broken hand, a sprained wrist, rheumatism and the previous year, a massive heart attack of which there was no treatment cure or medication. as he inspected his lines in the opening of june lee was not a trapped traveler. he didn't have the strength to ride a horse. ho nevertheless lee's soldiers had become champion diggers. in other days they had one to two days as was the case at harbor. they created not one line of defense but two or three. they took advantage of ubish

swell or gully. his lines zigzagged all enough high enough to make an ideal killing front in top. the uni simply put grant left the strategic details and i leave them to chief grant. preparations for so they for the union made a thoroughly uncoordinated advance. in addition the federal front bowed out slightly so that advancing unions would expose f flanks to heavy rare.

lee was place was 7 mile nrj aby june troops more endreched at at in hi, campaign. billy banks nie all of these things. on thursday night amid june the 2nd. one of grant's officer brigade. the officer moved closer. receiptor an soldier he wrote the best but their dead bodies

might be recognized and their fate made to the tamlies ba. general alexander noted the strength of both armies is being put against each other more so than ever before or ever hereafter. on this day everything was go right for lee. lee had little to do with the conduct of his traps. they approved to be accomplish killers as they were engineered. with uncoordinated union budle started to remanufacture.

this was no acting. simultaneous attacks were supposed to be at three points with columns of troops six to eight deep yet concentrated and intense confed raet fire broke the salting rhymes to pieces. one division broke out line to avoid a swamp that was on nobody's am. hundred of fill it the cross fire. an observer stated that the columns of attacking federals were charaded much as a sharpener gliens a pencil.

on both sides woor told that the angel of death is hovering above or head. before the start, the bottle assumed the characteristics of a the result was always the same. his ransing comadds moved fore as if they were marching in the face of a hailstorm like rows offing. for the 15th alabama, was

aturkey shoot th. alabama colonel wrote bluntly i could see dust popping out of a man's clothing. in two minutes, not a federal stand soldier. at 6:00 a.m., before the sun cleared the tree ntps. figting continued here and there because the two armies were so close to each other. they could not go.

o the exact figures can never be known but grant suffered about 7 tur ,000 casualties. at least half of the killed and unions fighting, equal to and came in the short period. cold harbor was an oence idefea.

one observer declared never before and never again in the civil war was 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 in number. thirdly, there was no general capable of executing it. meanwhi meanwhile glen puffed on significant cars and was they about the future lee gave pursuit.

by mid june, at cold harbor, opening clearings and scars of battle lay silent. cold harbor now belonged to history. the battle was lee's greatest triumph and his worst defeat. he admitted it in the last nine months of his life when he was frantically writing his memoirs. nothing was gained for the compensation of the heavy loss susta sustained. in all of the civil war, no attack has been broken up as

quickly or easily as the confederates. it was also robert e. lee's final major victory. cold harbor was the complex to the campaign. never before had armies fought like they did beginning if may. for a solid month they had not been out of contact. evident share long the lines there have been actions. in four weeks, average 2,000 a day. even brigged as had melted away.

a month's fighting produced neverly 60,000 union casualties grant ensiekted 32 losses . grant had lesser man power in the north. lee could not replenish his other thinning lengths. at cold harbor lee won only time. even victory was becoming too expensive for the army of northern virginia. min ument has should cover this ground elsewhere is absent. preserving is difficult because the degree to make money in the

present the exceed gravity we have in the past. national scemetery, some 670 stones can, they graduate mentor often told private madox in the last assaults at cold harbor. his regiment was shot to pieces. his this puman was going across the field. he saw private madux lying on his back dying. he bent over and in ant is paegs of the young volunteer passing

along some kind of words being convey his family something back home. instead he asked is it a hours? is it a hours. yes, my son. my day is ours, we won victory. then whiefate madux says then i am willing it die the. bye. >> each offered the greatest treasure he had life, and thousands of them gave that supreme offering and the words in clearings at cold harbor. we do not have to be an

intellectual or even educated to under totality of what they beneath to united states. the civil war did not permanently shatter you are nag nation. yet it was a supreme test for a country that now stands in blessed unit, you are north and south. you are here together tonight here is evening we look back with learn from the greatest teacher anyone can have, history. armed with an understanding of the time. private maddux would like that.

thank you. [ applause ] the overland campaign was the largest and the bloodiest campaign of the entire civil war. both armies lost half of their original fighting forces. the casualties were astounding. astounding to soldiers, to generals, and to those left back home. amid the staggering losses sustained at cold harbor and during the overland campaign, for every soldier killed, wounded or captures there was a family. mother, brother, brother, sister, that also felt the loss

on the fields of 1864 reverberated through communities across the north and south. the empty chairs at kitchen tables across the country and to gaps in the battle lines and camps let impacts on the living left behind. so too did the ideas and believes for which thousands died during that bloody spring perhaps enlight of the loss of so many lives and with the destruction of six weeks of heavy battle, those beliefs about nation, government, and home game even more enshrined in the hearts and minds left to right. with that we come to reflect upon and learn from today.

>> writing soon war, sally putman came to believe that in its own unique way it its a landmark in the campaign in virginia. the battle of cold harbor removed the generalization of general lee's army and ended the attempt to take richmond from the north side. the barefooted ragged il fed army which had been under fire for more than a month had achieved a sus session of victories unparalleled in the history of modern warfare. the most striking feature in the commander of the federal army

see seems to be quiet determination and indominatable perseverance and energy. under similar disappointment another would have had his courage to shaken that he would have promised to undergo something. his losses in men were unparalleled in the whole history of the struggle but his perseverance was undisturbed. >> that quiet determination of grant so evident to a nau

noncombatant as defeat was decisive at cold harbor, the rank and file regained eed rene energy of tenacity and purpose. adams wrote that the army had literally marched in blood and agony to the james. all of this fighting has been unsuccessful fighting, hard, brutal, barren pounding yet we have a great fighter in grant. he takes hold of his work having confident in himself and not the least bit afraid of his adversary. one can see that grant believes in incessant fighting and marching as producing necessary results not only on his own rl army but the