Attacking the High Ground

Totopotomy Creek separated the armies here between May 29 and 31, 1864. Twice the men of the Union 2nd Corps, Barlow's Division, charged down this slope in hopes of crossing the deep morass and seizing the opposite heights. Darkness halted the first assault on May 30 after partial success. The next day, heavier Confederate fire from rifle pits met the attackers, the men fell like sheep, and the attack stalled. To the right and left, however, other Federal commands established permanent toeholds on the Confederate side of the creek, and these troops shifted south toward Cold Harbor on June 1. In his diary entry for May 31, Lieutenant Robert Robertson wrote that as he went down the slope he was struck by a bullet and knew no more until he recovered and found himself lying on the ground while his faithful horse stood over him and licked his face, and he thought he was dying as the blue sky and green woods and field looked half so beautiful as then.

Mechanicsville, Virginia · United States