Robert Stiles, Four years under Marse Robert

[288] his long career of bloody fights — that Cold Harbor was the only battle he ever fought that he would not fight over again under the same circumstances? Is it not true that when first urged, as President, to remove a certain Democratic officeholder in California, and later, when urged to give a reason for his refusal, he replied that the man had been a standardbearer in the Army of the Potomac, and that he wouldallow something very unpleasant to happen to him-before he would remove the only man in his army who even attempted to obey his order to attack a second time at Cold Harbor? Is it not true that General Meade said the Confederacy came nearer to winning recognition at Cold Harbor than at any other period during the war? Is it not true that, after Grant's telegram, the Federal Cabinet resolved at least upon an armistice, and that Mr. Seward was selected to draft the necessary papers, and Mr. Swinton to prepare the public mind for the change? And finally, even if none of these things be true, exactly as propounded-yet is it not true, that Cold Harbor shocked and depressed the Federal Government and the Northern public more than any other single battle of the war?

A few words as to some of the prominent features, physical and otherwise, of fighting in “the lines,” as we began regularly to do in this campaign of 1864, particularly at Cold Harbor. Something of this is necessary to a proper understanding and appreciation of some of the incidents that occurred there. And first, as to “the works” of which I have so often spoken. What were they? I cannot answer in any other way one-half so well as by the following vivid quotation from my friend Willy Dame's “Reminiscences,” already mentioned and quoted. Says Mr. Dame:

Just here I take occasion to correct a very wrong impression about the field works the Army of Northern Virginia fought behind in this campaign. All the Federal writers who have written about these battles speak about our works as “formidable earthworks,” “powerful fortifications,” “impregnable lines ;” such works as no troops could be expected to take and any troops should be expected to hold.

Now about the parts of the line distant from us, I couldn't speak so certainly-though I am sure they were all very much the same-but