The Trial of Robert E. Lee

After the Battle of Gettysburg, the Army of Northern Virginia was battered, but not broken. General Robert E. Lee rallied his troops for a return to Virginia, fighting a series of brilliant rear-guard actions while being relentlessly pursued by the Federal Army of the Potomac, commanded by General George Gordon Meade and his superior, General Ulysses S. Grant. Ultimately, the Army of Northern Virginia found itself under siege in the Virginia city of Petersburg. Repeated assaults by the Army of the Potomac resulted in Lee's forces nearly being encircled. In a bold move, Lee was determined to break the siege, and strike towards the West, in an effort to join forces with the Army of Tennessee. Unfortunately for him, Lee's forces were cut off near Appomattox Courthouse. In an effort to stop the bloodshed, and end the war, Lee surrendered to Grant at that place, directing his men to relinquish their arms, and once again become faithful citizens of the United States. During Lee's retreat into Virginia, a bloody battle took place at the crossroads of Cold Harbor, VA, the second such fight to take place at that location during the Civil War. At one point in the battle, as a testament to the tenacity of Lee's troops and the sheer determination of the Federal forces pursuing them, the Confederate forces at one point inflicted as many as seven thousand casualties in one twenty-minute period on the Federal army. Still, the Federals and the Confederates did not give up the fight. This book tells the story of what might have happened had the Confederate commanders elected to halt the fighting, and stop the needless slaughter, at this point in the war. During the first week of June1864, the Federal Army, under their new commander, Ulysses S. Grant, suffered horrendous casualties at a small place called Cold Harbor, just north of the Chickahominy River in Virginia. Instead of pulling back to regroup and reassemble his army, as previous Federal commanders had when casualties became too great, the losses enraged Grant. He bypassed the commander of the Army of the Potomac, General George Gordon Meade, and took command himself, gathering his corps commanders and directing them to mass their troops and throw every available man, including clerks and teamsters, directly at the center of the Confederate line. This portion of the line was held by Major General George E. Pickett, still bitter and stinging from the ill-fated charge at Gettysburg nearly a year earlier. As he watched the approach of the mass of Federal Blue, he was heard to say, "I'll not sacrifice my boys again."