Battle of Cold Harbor
Heavy artillery was the sound early this morning, at 4:30 A.M. on June 3, 1864, near Cold Harbor, Virginia. Rebel defenders, well protected in their trenches, held their fire until the Union soldiers were within lethal range. Fifty thousand blue uniformed soldiers left their trenches and advanced toward the Confederate entrenchments. When the Federal troops approached the line of fire the Confederate soldiers moved down the front ranks with volleys of rifle and canister fire. The Union soldiers were dropping like flies.
"That dreadful storm of lead and iron seemed more like a volcanic blast than a battle," recalled a Union captain. A soldier described it as "a boiling cauldron from the incessant pattering of shot which raised the dirt in geysers and spitting sands."
The courage of the Union soldiers left the Confederates amazed, yet appalled at the death their murderous volleys were causing. Confederate General Evander Law, shocked at the......
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