Final Stand
Civil War artillery was a splendid defensive weapon, particularly when the battlefield landscape offered the gunners open fields of fire. At Gaines’ Mill the woods plagued the Union artillery. Several gaps in the trees however, offered a direct line of sight toward the massing Confederate infantry 300 yards away. Along most of the line the Union gunners fired through or over the open woods.
During the battles climatic moments these Union gunners of the 5th Massachusetts Battery momentarily stopped their fire as retreating Union infantry poured out of the woods in front of you. When the advancing Confederates appeared the gunners blasted the Confederate infantry. The Southerners returned fire, leaving an astonishing carnage of dead horses and wounded artillerymen. The battery limbered up and moved to higher and safer ground behind you.
“…they rushed through the woods over the brook, now filled with dead bodies, closing their ranks as fast as our fire mowed them down….The woods were full of smoke, and the bullets buzzed round our heads like a swarm of angry bumblebees….My horse had a bullet in its flank and one sergeant’s horse lay dead on the ground.” Let. Charles A. Phillips 5th Massachusetts Battery
Marker can be reached from Watt House Road (Virginia Route 718) 0.7 miles south of Cold Harbor Road (Virginia Route 156).
Courtesy hmdb.org
