Cold Harbor Battlefield: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Richmond National Battlefield Park
Hanna J, Little K, Hayden S. 2022. Cold Harbor Battlefield: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Richmond National Battlefield Park. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 300093. National Park Service. NPS Northeast Regional Office, Boston, Massachusetts / CRIS-CL Database
The Cold Harbor Battlefield is in southeastern Hanover County, Virginia, between the Chickahominy River and Sandy Creek, approximately nine miles northeast of Richmond in the unincorporated town of Cold Harbor. The 439-acre battlefield is part of Richmond National Battlefield Park, which encompasses over 3,600 acres. The park commemorates thirteen American Civil War sites around Richmond, Virginia, which served as the capital of the Confederate States of America for most of the war. The park connects certain features within the city with defensive fortifications and battle sites around it. In addition to Cold Harbor Battlefield, the park’s sites include Totopotomoy Creek Battlefield, Beaver Dam Creek Battlefield, Chickahominy Bluff, Gaines’ Mill Battlefield, Chimborazo, Fort Harrison, Glendale Battlefield, Malvern Hill Battlefield, Drewry’s Bluff, and Parker’s Battery. The Battle of Cold Harbor was fought from May 31 to June 12, 1864, with the most significant fighting occurring on June 3. It was one of the final battles of Union Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant’s Overland Campaign, and is remembered as one of American history’s bloodiest, most lopsided battles. Thousands of Union soldiers were killed or wounded in a frontal assault against the fortified positions of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s army. The Cold Harbor Battlefield park unit today consists of 439 acres across five non-contiguous land tracts associated with the battle. Remnant earthen fortifications include innumerable hand-dug entrenchments, ramparts, and rifle pits on all parcels of the unit’s rolling meadows and wooded valleys. In most locations, the adjacent landscape retains a rural character through continued agricultural and low-density residential use or woodland. A brook named “Bloody Run” stretches between the Union and Confederate battle lines across the main Cold Harbor property before flowing into Powhite Creek and the wetlands of Gaines’ millpond to the west. The Garthright House, a two-story brick- and wood-clad structure built circa 1720, is located on the small Garthright House parcel sheltered by woods to the south and east with views north and west across open fields. A serpentine, paved tour road loops through the main Cold Harbor tract from the Cold Harbor Visitor Center at State Route 156/Cold Harbor Road. Modern pedestrian paths weave through the battlefield landscape, except for on the Turkey Hill and Fort Fletcher tracts, sporadically tracing the routes of wartime and post-war roads (identified on the existing conditions map).
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Hanna, Jennifer; Little, Kelsey; Hayden, Stuart
- Date of Issue
- 2022-09-27
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- NER , RICH
- Keywords
- 1884-1949, Agriculture, and War Vehicles), Archeology, Architecture, Battery, Battle for Richmond, Battle Site, Battles in The North and South, Colonial (1600-1730), Commemoration., Conservation, Creating Social Institutions and Movements, Developing the American Economy, Engineering, Expanding Science and Technology, Expressing Cultural Values, Farm (Plantation), Fletcher Redoubt, Forest, Fort Fletcher, Garthright House, Historic (Non-Aboriginal), Historic Preservation, Historic Preservation Movement, Historic Site, Historic Vernacular Landscape, Interpretive Landscape, Leisure-Passive (Park), Military, Military (Fortifications, Monument (Marker, Outdoor Recreation, Period Revivals (1870-1940), Plantation Agriculture, Plaque), Second Cold Harbor Battlefield, Shaping the Political Landscape, Single Family House, Social and Humanitarian Movements, Technology (Engineering and Invention), The Civil War, The Federal Government Enters the Movement, Transforming the Environment, Weapons, Wetland