COLD HARBOR CODA

In early June 1864, Brig. Gen. James H. Wilson was a rising star in the Army of the Potomac’s Cavalry Corps—“a brilliant man intellectually, highly educated, and thoroughly companionable,” remembered former Assistant Secretary of War Charles Dana, who nevertheless was quick to concede that Wilson was also “often imperious and outspoken, to the extent that he fully alienated as many people as he attracted.” The brash 26-year-old West Pointer from Illinois had to learn rapidly that spring. When he assumed command of the 3rd Cavalry Division, he had no experience leading large bodies of men in the field. On May 5, his division was at the fore of the Union army’s advance into the Wilderness, opening the Overland Campaign, and—to put it bluntly—he bungled the job, as his troopers were thrashed by a single brigade of Army of Northern Virginia cavalry. Wilson’s setback left his army with no cavalry screen as it advanced into the Wilderness’ snarled, second-growth forest and the unprepared Federals ran into Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell’s Corps in Saunders Field—igniting the Battle of the Wilderness, a three-day conflagration that produced nearly 30,000 total casualties on both sides. Fortunately for the Federals, Wilson’s performance improved noticeably as the Overland Campaign progressed.

When Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant decided in late May to shift the Army of the Potomac’s base of operations away from Ox Ford on the North Anna River, Wilson’s division acted largely as an independent command. Guarding the army’s left flank, isolated and far from the rest of the Cavalry Corps, Wilson’s troopers fought protracted dismounted slugfests with Confederate cavalry at Hanover Courthouse on May 31 and Ashland on June 1, then spent June 2 on the march after learning the army’s main body had moved to Cold Harbor.

Wilson was to cross Totopotomoy Creek and make contact with