Scars of Conflict

Twelve days of combat transformed this once pastoral landscape. With every shift of a line of battle, soldiers dug new works, and reserve troops dug as well behind the front lines. By battle’s end, earthworks gouged the landscape in every direction, often without apparent order. The earthworks here are typical of the hundreds of pits that remain on the Cold Harbor battlefield. It is not known who built them or even why; perhaps they sheltered the cannoneers of the battery above. These mounds symbolize the arrival of a new, futuristic style of warfare, as the days of open-field combat were over.

Highland Springs, Virginia · United States