Retreat from Cold Harbor
History Daily
History Daily
4.4 • 2.5K Ratings
🗓️ 12 June 2025
⏱️ 19 minutes
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Summary
June 12, 1864. Union soldiers retreat in the dead of night to bring the Battle of Cold Harbor to a conclusion, ending one of the bloodiest encounters of the American Civil War.
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Transcript
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| 0:20.4 | Music It's June 1st, 1864 in Hanover County, Virginia during the fourth year of the American Civil War. |
| 0:33.1 | 19-year-old Confederate private, Green W. Hodge creeps through the thick woods on the lookout for Union soldiers. |
| 0:39.4 | As he glances left and right, a bullet ricochets off the tree next to him, |
| 0:44.5 | splintering the wood. |
| 0:46.1 | Hodge ducks down beside the nearest trunk and makes himself as small as possible, |
| 0:50.4 | all too aware how close he just came to being hit. |
| 0:53.9 | Yesterday, Union soldiers targeted a strategically |
| 0:56.5 | important crossroads in Virginia, known locally as Cold Harbor. Private Hodges' regiment was |
| 1:02.0 | instructed to keep the attackers at bay until reinforcements arrived, but the vastly outnumbered |
| 1:06.9 | Confederates were pushed back into the woods. There they began digging new defensive |
| 1:11.3 | positions, and now, while his compatriots continue to fortify these defenses, Private Green has been |
| 1:17.1 | sent to patrol the woods. Judging by how close that gunshot was, the enemy isn't far away. |
| 1:23.2 | Private Hodge checks his weapon and scans all around. He can't see the enemy. |
| 1:28.1 | But 30 feet away through the trees, |
| 1:30.3 | he can just make out his fellow Confederates, |
| 1:32.6 | barricaded behind a hastily built wall of mud. |
| 1:35.7 | After one last check around him, he makes a run for it. |
| 1:38.9 | But he isn't fast enough, |
... |
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