Cold Harbor National Cemetery, located in Mechanicsville, Virginia, is the final resting place for approximately 2,100 veterans, the majority of whom were soldiers who died during the bloody Civil War battles of the summer of 1864.  Located in Hanover County, about ten miles northeast of Richmond, the cemetery is a part of the Cold Harbor Battlefield.  Adjacent portions of the battlefield are part of the Richmond National Battlefield Park.  The cemetery features three monuments to fallen Union soldiers and an 1871 superintendent’s lodge that was designed by U.S. Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs.

After a series of fierce battles during the Overland Campaign at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna, and Totopotomoy Creek in May 1864, both Union General Ulysses S. Grant and Confederate General Robert E. Lee recognized the strategic importance of Cold Harbor, a crossroads between Richmond and the Chickahominy River, named for a local tavern.  After skirmishing on May 31 and June 1, Grant planned an assault on the Confederate lines for June 2, but his men were exhausted, forcing him to postpone the engagement.  This gave Lee’s men time to fortify their defensive trenches and allowed additional reinforcements to arrive. 

When the Union charge finally began before dawn on June 3, the Confederates, though outnumbered 100,000 to 60,000, were able to hold their positions, cutting down Union troops until “the dead covered more than five acres of ground about as thickly as they could be laid.”  The battle became Lee’s last major victory and one of Grant’s greatest regrets.  Recounting the battle's failed assault, Grant wrote in his memoirs, "At Cold Harbor no advantage whatever was gained to compensate for the heavy loss we sustained."  The Union suffered over 12,000 casualties, while the Confederates suffered only 4,000.

To accommodate the massive number of Union soldiers who died in the area, Cold Harbor National Cemetery was established in 1866.  The first burials in the cemetery were reinterments of Union soldiers from across a 22-square mile area, including the battlefields of Cold Harbor, Gaines’ Mill, Savage’s Station, and Mechanicsville.  More than 1,300 burials are unknown, including two large burial mounds at the north end of the cemetery containing the remains of 889 unknown soldiers.  The cemetery closed to new interments in 1970.

The Pennsylvania Monument Courtesy of the Department of Veterans Affairs, National Cemetery Administration, History Program

The square-shaped, 1.4-acre cemetery has four sections.  Marked by iron gates and accessible only to pedestrians, the main entrance is along the cemetery’s southern edge. Built according to the Quartermaster Corps standardized plan, the Second Empire style superintendent’s lodge that Meigs designed circa 1870 is near the main entrance.  A four-foot tall brick wall encloses the grounds.

There are three large monuments in the modest-size cemetery. The Pennsylvania Monument, erected in 1909 by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, honors the state’s volunteer soldiers who died at the Battle of Cold Harbor.  A soldier standing at parade rest is atop the 30 foot-tall granite shaft, which architect J. Henry Brown designed.  The base of the shaft lists the regiments that participated in the battle.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, erected in 1877 by the Federal Government, is a marble sarcophagus that memorializes the 889 unknown Union soldiers interred in two large group burials at the cemetery.  A monument to the 8th New York Artillery Regiment, erected in 1909 by the state of New York, consists of an 11 foot-tall granite block with a bronze dedication tablet affixed to the front.

Cold Harbor National Cemetery is the final resting place for a recipient of the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration, given for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.”