Grant's withdrawal from Cold Harbor.
By the 15th of June
General Grant had perfected his arrangements to withdraw from
Lee's front at Cold Harbor.
On that day he successfully and skillfully accomplished his purpose, and crossed to the south bank of the
James without molestation from his adversary, which he greatly feared.
Well might
General Grant say in after years: ‘Cold Harbor is, I think, the only battle I ever fought that I would not fight over again under the circumstances.’
While
Grant was crossing the
James on the 14th and 15th of June,
Smith's corps assaulted the outer defenses of
Petersburg and carried them for a considerable distance, as they were feebly manned,
Beauregard not having yet been able to concentrate any considerable force at that point, and
Lee was on his way from Cold Harbor, which place he left immediately upon the withdrawal of
Grant well knowing his next objective point.
On the 18th
Lee arrived, and the assaults upon his line made that day by
Hancock were repulsed with great loss to the assailants.
After these preliminary engagements to a siege both armies began entrenching in all directions, and it at once became evident that the lines then held by the
Confederates would be stubbornly defended for a long while to come.
Extracts from the diary of a private in the First Maryland Battalion will give the reader a fair idea of what happened within the
Confederate lines during the many weary months that followed.
