Scars of Conflict
Twelve days of combat transformed this once pastoral landscape. With every shift of a line of battle, the soldiers dug new works. Reserve troops dug too, well behind the front lines. By battle’s end, earthworks gouged the landscape in every direction, many times without apparent order.
The earthworks in front of you are typical of the hundreds of pits that remain on the Cold Harbor battlefield. We do not know who built them, or even why; perhaps they sheltered the cannoneers of the battery above you. One thing is certain: these mounds symbolize the arrival of a new, futuristic style of warfare. The days of open-field combat were over.
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
