A Well Preserved Union Artillery Position
You are standing in front of a Union artillery battery, located on a commanding hill about 400 yards behind the front lines. From here Union officers watched for activity along the Confederate lines, and opened fire with a barrage of shells whenever they spotted a target. Southern cannoneers responded, but their projectiles either ripped into the ground in front of the Union guns, or passed harmlessly overhead.
Rarely during this two week battle were the guns silent. Constant shelling tested the nerves of the soldiers, prompting one to remark “you would have thought that the whole world had let loose its ‘dogs of war’.”
Marker can be reached from Cold Harbor Road (State Highway 156) 0.2 miles east of Boatswain Lane, on the right when traveling east.
Courtesy hmdb.org
