Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

To: mware
Despite its name, Cold Harbor was not a port city.

Wasn't cold, either. Not in June.

Cold Harbor has traditionally been held up as a Union bloodbath and an example of Grant's butcher tendencies. But recent research has uncovered quite a different picture. Gordon Rhea, who has done a four volume study on Grant's overland campaign, examined muster rolls regiment by regiment before and after the battle and has concluded that Union casualties were actually a fraction of the 13,000 that are usually quoted. He comes up with a figure of about 6,000 total casualties, and while that number is about 4 times the confederate losses it is still is considerably less than the 13,000 quoted. It is about the same number the confederates lost at Malvern Hill or Pickett's Charge.

73 posted on 07/05/2008 5:36:47 AM PDT by Non-Sequitur
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies ]


To: Non-Sequitur
IMO, one of the most scholarly documentaries of The Civil War was the one done by Ken Burns.

His use of primary documents, music, and photographs gave you a glimpse into a time gone by.

One of the most rememberable parts of it, was a photo taken from Cold Harbor, with the words of a journal found in the hand of a dead soldier.

"Today I died."

74 posted on 07/05/2008 5:50:57 AM PDT by mware (F-R-E-E, that spells free. Freerepublic.com baby)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson