Misery In The Trenches
The earthworks before you were home to Union soldiers for nearly two weeks during the fighting at Cold Harbor. One Federal officer described the suffering that these troops endured living and working in the trenches:
“The work of intrenching could only be done at night. The fire of sharp-shooters was incessant, and no man upon all that line could stand erect and live an instant. This condition of things continued for twelve days and nights: Sharp-shooters’ fire from both sides went on all day; all night the zig-zags and parallels nearer to the enemy’s works were being constructed. In none of its marches by day or night did that army suffer more than during those twelve days.”
Marker can be reached from Cold Harbor Road (State Highway 156) near Boatswain Lane, on the right when traveling east.
Courtesy hmdb.org
