Nevertheless the lion still at bay was great and terrible to strike.
It was barely two weeks after Spottsylvania when Lee took up a strong
position at Cold Harbor, and Grant, confident in his numbers and powerful
artillery, attacked straightaway at dawn.
Harry was in front during that half-hour, the most terrible ever seen on
the American continent, when Northern brigade after brigade charged to
certain death. Lee's men, behind their earthworks, swept the field with
a fire in which nothing could live. The charging columns fairly melted
away before them and when the half-hour was over more than twelve
thousand men in blue lay upon the red field.
Grant himself was appalled, and the North, which had begun to anticipate
a quick and victorious end of the war, concealed its disappointment as
best it could, and prepared for another campaign.
Grant and Lee, facing each other, went into trenches along the lines
of Cold Harbor, and the hopes of the young Southern soldiers after the
victory there rose anew. But Harry was not too sanguine, although he
kept his thoughts to himself.
The officers of the Invincibles had recovered from their wounds, and
Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St.
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