On the following morning, we found that the enemy, under cover of darkness, had left our front; and we were moved to the right, and placed in position immediately at Cold Harbor, with our respective lines so near as to be able to converse with each other. We remained here in line of battle, under constant fire; happily, our immediate command had no serious casualties. Grant used every expedient to break through our lines, but he had so mercilessly slaughtered and cowed his men in his first charges at Cold Harbor, that his men refused to charge a second time. So determined was he to clean us up, at all hazards, that he remarked he would do so, "if it took him all summer." The sequel proved that he did not overestimate the time, but the process cost considerable bloodshed.
Stanton (Secretary of War) says, officially, that Grant's force, on the 1st of May, was over one hundred and twenty thousand men. Shortly afterwards, the 9th army corps was sent to him. This army, then aggregating over one hundred and forty thousand men, with a reserve to draw from of one hundred and thirty thousand more, in round numbers, was ruthlessly hurled against Lee's less than fifty thousand men. Lee had no reserve--the cradle and the grave had long since mustered, and our ports were closed to mercenary hirelings. Their own historians prove and show that their "butcher" slaughtered nearly one hundred thousand men in his "On to Richmond," from the wilds of the "Wilderness" to the desolated fields of Cold Harbor. In other words, he sacrificed about twice as many men as Lee had, in order to take a position he could have taken at first without firing a gun or losing a man.
On the 3d of June, Lieut. Frank A. Hanner, who had been for some weeks confined by disease in the hospital at Richmond, died. He served as private until April, 1862; at the reorganization of the twelve-months' troops, he was elected 2d Lieutenant; was promoted to Senior 2d, September 17th, 1862, and again on the 15th of October, 1863, to 1st Lieutenant. On the 1st of June, private Joel J. Thorn was appointed corporal.
The Army of the Potomac having now apparently had sufficient amusement on this portion of its constituted "all summer route," again adopted "Little Mc's" tactics, "sought water," and on the 12th of June began its march towards the historic James.