Existing comment:
Read's Batallion
These cannon mark the approximate position of a four-gun battery belonging to the Richmond Fayette Artillery, part of Major J.P.W. Read's Battalion that held strategic points along the Confederate main line. The battery supported General Alfred H. Colquitt's Georgia brigade on June 1, 1864, and took part in the repulse of a Union attack that evening.
On the morning of June 3, Read's gunners were again called to action. They directed an intense and accurate fire toward the advancing Federal infantry -- part of General U.S. Grant's all-out assault against Lee's lines.
"few men fell until we reached within [eighty yards] of the enemy's first line, when they opened upon us with canister [and] grape hurling it into our faces and mowing down our lines as wheat falls before the reaper."
-- Lt. Eli Nichols, 8th New York Heavy Artillery
"It was a country generally flat, with many small clearings, & thin woods, & scattered pines. No long ranges, but favorable to cross fires & smooth bore richochet firing–& I put in position every gun I had."
-- Brig. Gen. E. Porter Alexander, Chief of Artillery, First Corps
Major John Postell Williamson Read, formerly Chief of Police for Savannah, Georgia, commanded nearly 400 officers and men and 16 guns at Cold Harbor. The unit suffered only seven casualties. |