I have struggled with describing Cold Harbor from the moment I visited there. It was one of the earliest battles I had read about and I was drawn to it from early on, but somehow I had the events there all twisted up in my mind. For one thing, I was so caught up in the description of the final charge, with its terrible casualties, that in my mind Cold Harbor was a one day battle.
Cold Harbor was not a one day battle, terrible as the last charge was, the real horror was the flat, wide open nature of the place. Men cowered in the dirt day after day unable to rise up even a little bit for fear of sharpshooters ranging the opposing lines with high powered rifles sporting excellent scopes. Soldiers scurried like rats, hiding during the day, daring only to come out at night, if at all.
Even the rear areas were subject to the sharpshooters sights. For two full weeks everyone wallowed in the dirt with no clear cut result. A Union break though was plugged before it could achieve any real result. Lee could only stand on the defense by this point so the situation seemed fine enough for the South but for the Union something had to be done, leading to the fateful last charge. Much has been written about it, something like 5,000 men died in just a few minutes time. It was a mistake and everyone knew it.
Realizing he was stalemated Grant looked at his map again, thinking possibly of another flanking move, he realized that all his maneuvering had shifted his army around until their left flank was south. If the Army of the Potomac could move quickly they could beeline into Petersburg before Lee knew what had happened. It almost worked.
In 1950, a box of long-forgotten letters, written from 1859 -1865, was discovered in the attic of the home of Frank Wicksʼ grandparents, John S. Wicks and Sadie Pringle Wicks, in South Fork, Pennsylvania. The younger Frank Wicks fashioned these letters into a play called Soldier, Come Home and he has given me permission to use sections from the original letters on this site.
Philip Pringle served from July 1863 on in:
Co. E. 102nd Pennsylvania Regiment
First Brigade, 2nd Division
6th Corps
Army of the Potomac
In these excerpts it is easy to see the terrible conditions of the soldiers discovering the horrors of trench warfare. Both sides had been learning how to build and hold trenches almost from the beginning of the war, at Spotsylvania Court House the learning came to fruition to be implemented fully for the first time here, at Cold Harbor.
The hopelessness expressed by Philip Pringle in his letter to his wife was the direct result of the trenches, the rifled musket and mini ball that made fast loading possible. They all took a terrible toll on anyone who stuck his head up on the battlefield. By this point in the war it was the Union soldier who would have to stick his head up and run into the face of heavy, accurate fire, the Confederates only need keep their heads down and wait. You can see the dawning realization of what that meant in Philip’s writings. At Cold Harbor Union soldiers had taken to writing their names on scraps of paper and pinning them to the backs of their uniforms so their bodies could identified later and their families informed of their fate.
2 entries from Philip Pringle's diary. Provied by Frank Wicks Author of: Soldier, Come Home
Thursday, June 2, 1864
The weather fine and we are at Cold Harbor and there was one of our men killed and our sergeant wounded badly. We built rifle pits close to enemy works. We are lying in our rifle pits. We moved about one mile north and then we was put on pickets. We have one man killed and two wounded badly. We are in a dangerous place. The bullets are flying thick and close. We was out in front all night.
Friday, June 3,1864
The weather cloudy and some little rain. We made a charge on the Rebel rifle pits. Such firing I never heard and the bullets flew as thick as hail. All we lost the Colonel and Major of our Regiment and 12 or 15 men in killed and wounded. Ra--, my mess mate is wounded and some 3 or 4 of our old Company. And the bullets are flying fast.
A letter from Philip to Mary his wife. Provied by Frank Wicks Author of: Soldier, Come Home
Cold Harbor, Va.
June 5, /64
Dear Wife,
I take my pen today to inform you that I am well and I hope these few lines will find you in good health. Mary I was in some very hard places. We made a charge up on the Rebel rifle pits and went through an awful shower of bullets. We drove them out and we lost our colonel and major in wounded. We lost 12 or 15 men. One of my messmates was wounded and some 2 or 3 fell by my side or in front of me. We have been under fire for four days, continual fire of rifle and shell. Some of the ground was covered with dead and a great many wounded. We are 10 mile from Richmond and we will have some very hard fighting for a time. I was out in front all day yesterday and last night on picket. There was a continual fire high up at us. Some of the balls came very close to me and threw sand in my face and eyes and shells burst so close to me that they made me almost deaf. At the present moment the balls are flying very close by us. I seen some of the 55 Regt. The one Wm. George is in. They was badly cut up. Almost half of them - most all were officers - killed and wounded. I tried to find out about William George and Camerons, but I could not find anything our of them. Mary you must not fret any about me. If I fall the Lord will be done and God only knows if I ever will come home again. Live a good Christian life and pray that we may meet again if not in this world that we may meet in Heaven. We have been fighting about four days past and will be sore some days to come. We are nowhere safe here in this place. Mary, Mr. Brady and his brother were both killed. The one husband that was in camp Reynolds the time you was there to see me. Mrs. George’s sister husband. We lost a good many of our men and of one company. I must close for this time. Give my best wishes to all my friends. I am in a hurry and must close.
No more but remain yours as ever.
P. W. Pringle
Co. E. 102 Regt. Pa.
First Brigade, 2nd DivisionWashington, D. C.