It was well known to both armies that this battle would decide Grant's last chance to get between Lee and Richmond, and preparations were made the next day for a decisive battle on the morrow. The Federals were reënforced during the night of June 2d by Hancock's and Burnside's corps. The Confederates, being on the defensive, had orders from General Lee to rest on their arms and be ready to receive a fierce assault which he was anticipating from the Federals. It goes without saying that the Confederate soldiers under such orders on this particular night, and on account of the apparent danger of their position, did not close their eyes in sleep. The Federals were faced by Ewell's, A. P. Hill's and Longstreet's corps, the latter being under the command of Anderson, as Longstreet was severely wounded in the Battle of the Wilderness.
Both armies lay very close to each other, and Lee's position was exceptionally strong, as it must be approached through swampy ground, and his batteries were set in position to give both a front and an enfilading fire. Yet Grant determined to make a general attack on the Confederate lines, and passed word to his corps commanders to make ready to execute the same at about five o'clock on the morning of June 3d.
This order was carried out, and they had marshaled their soldiers in large numbers into lines ten columns deep, and at the appointed hour began with a determined step to move toward the Confederate entrenchments. The silence of the early morning was broken by the Confederate batteries and their musketry that raked the open country over which the Federals were advancing, which made the same appear as a fiery furnace. The columns of blue were swept by this fierce fire, which mowed them down in great numbers. They succeeded in crossing into the Confederate entrenchments in a few places and engaged in hand-to-hand combat, but the Confederates had orders to hold their position at all hazards, and the Federal leaders soon found it was impossible to stand the raking fire from the Confederate batteries and ordered a retreat, and in doing so they took with them a few hundred prisoners. Thus the field was left in the possession of the Confederates.
This battle is said to have lasted but twenty minutes, and during this short time Grant lost 10,000 men. This is said to be the greatest loss in the shortest time during the entire war.
With this battle ended the series of battles beginning with that of the Wilderness, all having been fought within a month, and nothing like it has yet been known to warfare.
Grant's entire loss in all these engagements in killed, wounded and missing was about 55,000 men, and that of the Confederates much less. If Lee's loss had been equal to that of Grant's, his army would have been almost annihilated.
DEDICATING THE NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG
The soldiers, either living or dead, who stood in the dense columns of blue and marched across that shell swept field toward the Confederate entrenchments, and those who stood in the Confederate ranks and successfully repulsed that awful onslaught of the Federals on that bright June morning at Cold Harbor, for these reasons are possessed of a rich heritage which their posterity should be proud to receive.