✦ History

Part of American Civil War

Battle of Cold Harbor

May 31 – June 12, 1864 · Cold Harbor, Virginia

Result Confederate victory

One of the final battles of Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign, fought near Cold Harbor, Virginia: thousands of Union soldiers were killed or wounded in a hopeless frontal assault against the fortified positions of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's army. Remembered as one of American history's bloodiest, most lopsided battles.

On the map Contemporaries

Union

Confederacy

United States
Confederate States of America
Ulysses S. Grant George Meade
Robert E. Lee

Strength and losses

Strength
108,000–117,000108,000, 63,797, 100,000
Casualties
12,73813,000
Killed
1,8451,900, 1,844
Wounded
9,0779,100, 9,077
Missing
1,8161,800, 1,816
Strength
59,000–62,00062,000, 41,499, 60,000
Casualties
5,2872,500
Killed
788400
Wounded
3,3761,300
Missing
1,123

Units

Army of the James Benjamin Franklin Butler Major general · 1864–1865 XVIII Corps (Union army) William Farrar Smith Major general · 1864 Army of the Potomac Union total 108,000-117,000 includes XVIII Corps, so no army-level Union figure recorded George Meade Major general · 1863–1865 Cavalry Corps (Union Army) Philip Henry Sheridan Major general · 1864 II Corps (Union Army) Winfield Scott Hancock Major general · 1864 Irish Brigade (Union Army) IX Corps (Union Army) Ambrose Burnside Major general · 1864 V Corps (Union Army) Gouverneur Kemble Warren Major general · 1864–1865
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Iron Brigade VI Corps (Union Army) Horatio Gouverneur Wright Major general · 1864 14th Infantry Regiment (United States) 1st Maine Cavalry Regiment 1st Massachusetts Cavalry Regiment 4th Infantry Regiment (United States) 87th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment
Army of Northern Virginia Strength c. 59,000–62,000 Robert E. Lee General · 1862–1865 Cavalry Corps, Army of Northern Virginia Vacant: Stuart dead May 12, 1864; Hampton not yet appointed First Corps, Army of Northern Virginia Richard Herron Anderson Lieutenant general · 1864 Pickett's Division George Pickett Major general · 1862–1865 Second Corps, Army of Northern Virginia Jubal Early Lieutenant general · 1864 Third Corps, Army of Northern Virginia A. P. Hill Lieutenant general · 1863–1865 24th Virginia Infantry Regiment 25th Virginia Infantry Regiment
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31st Virginia Infantry Regiment 44th North Carolina Infantry Regiment

Related events 1 degree away • 2 degrees away

 
Battle of New Market
 
Battle of Cold Harbor
 
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Also involved 1