June 3, 1864 Friday
The rain ceased and dawn approached. A sudden crash of cheers and the drumming of musket fire signaled the attack by Grant, Meade, and the Army of the Potomac. With Richmond scarcely beyond the horizon, Grant hoped a surprise shift in tactics would split, possibly crush, Lee’s army. The Army of Northern Virginia was lined up behind strong fortifications from the Chickahominy River on the south to the swamps along the Totopotomoy River on the north. Disposition of units was mixed, but basically A.P. Hill’s corps was on the right, Anderson’s in the center, and Early’s on the left. Grant planned to use the three corps of Hancock, Wright, and Smith, on the left and center, for the main assault. Warren and Burnside to the north would join in later.
At 4:30 A.M. the blow came. For both sides it was a crisis, but for the Confederates it was crucial; a serious breakthrough by Grant might end the war in Virginia. Listing units and their movements is of little import. For this was a smashing, headlong attempt to ram through regardless of cost. Immediately the cost was great, As the three Federal corps made some early gains, Confederate guns and infantry enfiladed various units; the issue was determined in an incredibly short time. Just how long that ferocious storm lasted is disputed, as is the number of fallen assailants. But it failed, and Grant later regretted that it was ever made. It was a great victory for Lee – if the stemming of a tide by a human wall can be called victory – and was his last major triumph in all out battle (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cold_Harbor and
http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/cold-harbor.html ). Nevertheless, Richmond and his army were still in danger.
Federal killed and wounded for the June 3 assault may be put at around 7000 in well under an hour, with perhaps 5000 more for June 1-2. Confederate losses June 3 were probably under 1500. The North utilized perhaps 50,000 out of around 117,000 present for duty; the South about half of the less than 60,000 available. Around noon Grant called off his entire attack; the day was spent strengthening lines and caring for the casualties of the futile assault of Cold Harbor, though countless wounded went unsuccored. To the north, on the fringes of the main battle, Federal cavalry were beaten off at Haw’s Shop and near Via’s House.
Charles Francis Adams, Jr while he had great faith in Grant, wrote that the army “has literally marched in blood and agony from the Rapidan to the James.” Eight miles away in Richmond the people listened to the sounds of the struggle.
Federal cavalry entered Acworth, Georgia pushing out a few Confederate vedettes. Johnston realized that with Sherman’s main force moving off north of New Hope Church, the Confederates could no longer hold their position in the New Hope area and must once more respond to a Federal move.
Federal Brig Gen W.W. Averell’s cavalry set out from Bunger’s Mills in Greenbrier County, West Virginia to aid Hunter’s main effort in the Shenandoah Valley aimed at Lynchburg. Skirmishes occurred at Searcy, Arkansas and Neosho, Missouri. A three-day Union scout moved from Sedalia to the Blackwater Creek, Missouri.
A Confederate boat expedition of some 130 officers and men under the command of Lieutenant Thomas P. Pelot, CSN, surprised and captured U.S.S. Water Witch, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Austin Pendergrast, in an early morning raid off Ossabaw Island, Georgia. In pitch darkness at 2 o'clock in the morning, Pelot silently guided his party to the anchored blockaders' and was within 50 yards of her when discovered. Before the Union sailors could man their stations, the Confederates had boarded Water Witch and a wild hand-to-hand melee ensued. "The fight," Rear Admiral Dahlgren recorded in his diary after learning of the incident, "was hard, but brief." Though the Southerners overwhelmed the defenders, Pelot and five others were killed and 17 were wounded in taking the prize.
President Lincoln approved an act of Congress calling for a national currency secured by pledges of government bonds and establishing a Bureau of Currency with an office of Comptroller of the Treasury. This act replaced a similar act of Feb 25, 1863. President Lincoln wrote a New York political gathering, “My previous high estimate of Gen. Grant has been maintained and heightened by what has occurred in the remarkable campaign he is now conducting….”