The Battle Opens
Cold Harbor Battlefield Park Walking Trail
By mid-afternoon on June 1, 1864, Ulysses S. Grant massed 45,000 Federals near Old Cold Harbor, 800 yards east of here. At 5:00 p.m. he ordered an attack, hoping to split Lee’s army into two parts. Six veteran New Jersey regiments under Colonel William H. Penrose crossed this ground and passed the nearby Garthright House. At first a “death-dealing artillery fire” raked the Federals, then blasts of Confederate musketry. The Federal attack stalled after an advance of more than a half mile. Penrose’s men quickly started digging a line of works 400 yards in front of you; for the remainder of the battle that would be the Union front line.
Killed in this bloody attack was Sergeant-Major A. Vorhes Wyckoff of the 15th New Jersey. Shot through the head, he died the next morning and was buried in the yard of the Garthright house. Today he rests across the road in the Cold Harbor National Cemetery.
Marker can be reached from Cold Harbor Road (Virginia Route 156) 0.2 miles east of Boatswain Lane, on the right when traveling east.
Courtesy hmdb.org
