Military
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At Cold Harbor, the grim fighting cost some 13,000 Federals and nearly 5,0000 Confederates killed, wounded, or captured. Southern morale soared after the battle, while Grant’s men were embittered by the lopsided defeat. One Union officer called it “a murderous engagement” because “we were recklessly ordered to assault the enemy’s entrenchments.” Yet the gallantry of the Union soldiers at Cold Harbor testified to their commitment, as one Northerner said, “This is a pretty hard way of living, but then if it will put down this wicked rebellion I am willing to live this way all summer.” On June 12, 1864, Grant vacated the Cold Harbor trenches and outflanked Lee by moving to Petersburg, pinning the Confederates to the Petersburg and Richmond defense, a situation Lee had feared when he predicted that “it will be a mere question of time.”
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