Cold Harbor Crossroads

War reached Cold Harbor in the spring of 1862 as the Union Army of the Potomac marched through and camped there in late May during Gen. George McClellan's drive on Richmond. At the end of June, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee launched an offensive to stop McClellan, striking at Mechanicsville and forcing Federal troops under Gen. Fitz John Porter to withdraw to high ground overlooking Boatswain's Creek. Lee attacked again on June 27 in the battle known as Gaines' Mill, named for a nearby gristmill owned by Dr. William Gaines. Throughout the day, Confederate infantry advanced from Cold Harbor across open fields in repeated assaults against Porter. The crossroads lay within the Confederate lines of Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's wing, and Gen. Robert Rodes' Alabamans at one point sheltered among the tavern buildings from long-range Union artillery fire while waiting to enter the battle. South of the tavern, Confederate Capt. John Pelham unlimbered a single artillery piece to support the infantry assaults. At dusk, the Confederates finally broke the Union line, ending the Battle of Gaines' Mill. The fighting cost both sides a combined 15,500 casualties. Jackson observed and directed his attacks at Gaines' Mill from the Cold Harbor crossroads, and he and cavalry commander Gen. James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart spent the night of June 27–28 at the intersection. More than 30,000 Confederate soldiers took part in the final assault at Gaines' Mill, making it the largest attack of the Civil War.

Virginia · United States