June 3, 1864
Lieut. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, USA, loses about 7,000 men in less than an hour trying two frontal assaults on the entrenched Confederate lines at Cold Harbor. Grant, refusing defeat, does not negotiate a truce until June 7th to send rescue parties to help the wounded on the battlefield, resulting in further loss of life. Within the last month of the Army of the Potomac’s advance, estimates of 50,000 Union and 32,000 Confederate casualties haunt the two armies; the Confederates, however, have no resources for new recruits to fill the dwindling ranks.
Cavalry action at Haw’s Shop, VA, part of the Cold Harbor attack.
Skirmish near Via’s House, VA, during the Campaign from the Rapidan to the James River, VA.
Brig. Gen. William W. Averell’s, USA, Cavalry command sets out from Bunger’s Mills, Greenbrier County, WV, to join up with Maj. Gen. David Hunter, USA, on his way to Lynchburg.
Note: All “Today In The Petersburg Campaign” blog entries are used with permission from Ronald A. Mosocco’s Chronological Tracking of the American Civil War per the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion. Order the book HERE.
Copyright © 1993, 1994 by Ronald A. Mosocco
Mentions of This Date at The Siege of Petersburg Online:
- George S. Gove Letter: June 10, 1864
- NP: June 15, 1864 Raleigh Confederate: Cold Harbor, 28th N. C. Regt., June 9
- NP: June 16, 1864 Richmond Examiner: Casualties of the Hampden VA Artillery
- NP: June 21, 1864 Raleigh Confederate: 4th NC Casualties, May 30 and June 2-3
- LT: November 6, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- Petersburg Medals of Honor: A Message Delivered Under Difficulty
- DI: June 1864 John D. Vautier (88th PA) Diary Entries
- NP: July 24, 1864 Sunday Mercury (New York): 170th NY from Spotsylvania to Jersualem Plank Road
- CLARK NC: 44th North Carolina at the Siege of Petersburg
- NP: July 1, 1864 The Bedford Inquirer: 184th PA at Cold Harbor and Second Petersburg, May 18-June 22, 1864
- NP: December 9, 1864 The Bedford Inquirer: 55th PA at Bermuda Hundred, Second Petersburg and Chaffin’s Farm, May-November, 1864
- ORN Series 1, Vol. X: Correspondence of Rear-Admiral S. P. Lee and Major General Benjamin F. Butler Regarding Obstructions for James River May 11-June 7, 1864
- NP: February 18, 1925 Potsdam NY Courier and Freeman: Orlando P. Benson Diary, 92nd NY, Part 2