So looking at the list of things that happened today, I see that on this date in 1864 "Ulysses S. Grant gives the Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee a victory when he pulls his Union troops from their positions at Cold Harbor, Virginia and moves south."
Umm. Wow. So much wrong here. Let's start with him "giving" them a victory on this date. Uh, no. I think he actually gave them a victory there when, you know, he charged their lines on June 3. In the space of (by some estimates) less than an hour, Union forces lost almost 7000 men. Now mind you, this was in the day of muzzle-loading muskets and cannons. No such thing as automatic weapons. The Union soldiers knew going in that they were going to get slaughtered, many of them giving their opinion on the attack by pinning slips of paper to their uniform with their name and unit on it, so that their body would be more easily identified. Some are even alleged to have added "killed at Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864" to the paper. Grant later expressed remorse for the attack, which he felt was his biggest mistake in the War (as it almost unquestionably was).
Of course, one could go even further, and suggest that he "gave" them the victory even before that, when his orders to attack on the morning of June 1 were not followed, as his subordinates felt that their men were too exhausted, or they couldn't get there in time, or they wanted time to conduct reconnaissance, or any number of other reasons, which seem plausible but which have to be overcome in wartime if victory is to be attained.
So no, Lee's victory was won long before June 12.
The next part is where the author says the victory came when he "pulls his Union troops from their positions at Cold Harbor". Now it's completely normal and conventional for people to think that retreat is a sign of defeat- for most of history, it was certainly understood to be so. The losing side would pull back after a battle, leaving their opponent in control of the battlefield, then ask for a truce to recover their dead. It was an admission of defeat.
However, Grant changed the rules of warfare in 1864, if they still needed changing. When he ordered the Union Army of The Potomac to cross the Rapidan River and go after Lee and his army, he did not intend to retreat- an action which he had some serious issues with, claiming in his memoirs that he would never retrace his steps if he got lost, but rather keep going and find another route. In the battle of The Wilderness a few weeks before Cold Harbor, he suffered, by any objective standard, a crushing defeat- comparable to the previous year's Battle of Chancellorsville, which was fought on much of the same ground. But while his predecessor, Joseph Hooker, immediately fell back after his defeat, Grant did not. He pulled his men out of line, and sent them south. The men immediately understood the significance- in his classic "The Twentieth Maine", Joseph J. Pullen gives a beautiful account of how the men reacted. I don't have it handy, but will quote from memory: "That little fellow, Grant. He hadn't won, but he was acting like a winner. In the Wilderness, he had taken them straight into Hell, and it looked like there would be more of it in the weeks ahead. But even Hell was hopeful if there was a manifest determination to come out on the other side." Until the marching men reached the crossroads where a staff officer pointed the columns south (to the cheers of the exhausted and battered men, I might add) Pullen tells us "there would be, the men expected, another retreat, another general, and the war going on its weary way forever." Pullen even explains that some of the soldiers- themselves wounded and exhausted- wept bitter tears. They had expected great things of Grant, but all he had given them so far was more blood and defeat, and they just wanted to win the war and go home.
And if events followed their usual pattern, after the army retreated across the river into camp and received the latest savior of the Union as commander, Lee would move out and march north, trying to win the elusive victory on Northern soil, which would lead to yet another battle, followed by a Southern retreat and another Union advance. Lather, rinse, repeat.
So while it was normal for the victorious army to stay on the field, it's by no means- in the modern era- a necessity. A general can certainly win a battle and immediately withdraw to make his next move. Further, a defeat in a specific battle can be a strategic victory, if it upsets the plans of the enemy. Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign is a solid example of this, as he continually fought, lost, and then maneuvered his force to threaten another place.
The campaign in the South during the American Revolution is another example. Nathaniel Greene, the American commander, described his campaign thus: "We fight, get beat, rise and fight again". Greene lost pretty much every battle, but by the time the campaign ended, he had driven the British out of every post they held, except a couple (admittedly major) cities. His "defeat" at Guilford Courthouse left his opponent, Lord Cornwallis, little choice except to move his army towards Virginia, where it ended up at Yorktown.
So there's another flaw in this description.
Finally, as we touched on in our PullenPetersburg, which was the key to the Rebel capital of Richmond. That the former city didn't fall immediately is once again due to hesitation on the part of Grant's subordinates, who failed to attack when they had overwhelming numbers. And thus it turned into the siege Lee rightfully feared.
So Cold Harbor, while absolutely a tactical disaster- and believe me, there is far more to say about it than I have written- was also a vital point in the War. It convinced Grant to stop with his frontal attacks, which weakened both armies horribly, though Lee suffered far worse, proportionally. It also pushed Lee into his Richmond defensive lines, which he could only hold onto, never having the ability to strike against his enemies. Cold Harbor was the last real victory for R.E. Lee and his army, and it was less than a year later that the war was brought to a final end, when Lee and his starved, bloodied, and dreadfully outnumbered remnants were brought to bay. He had lost the initiative, and been beaten and starved into submission.
Sorry for the lack of snark here, but I consider the whole post to be snarky, since I'm suggesting that somebody else wrote a bit which showed them to be far, far less knowledgeable than I.
Not that most people aren't, mind you.
Smartass enough for you now?
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