“On that day [at Cold Harbor] we had a murderous engagement.  I say murderous, because we were recklessly ordered to assault the enemy’s entrenchments knowing neither their strength nor position. * * * I am very sorry to add that I have seen but little generalship during the campaign.  Some of our corps commanders are not fit to be corporals.  Lazy and indifferent they will not even ride along their lines, yet without hesitancy they will order us to attack the enemy, no matter what their position or numbers.”

As the assault on Cold Harbor was a general one, it follows of course that it must have been ordered by someone higher in authority than either Smith of the Eighteenth or Upton of the Sixth Corps.

It was doubtless in allusion to this and to similar instances that the veracious and outspoken Humphreys, at that time Meade’s Chief of Staff, and afterwards the peerless commander of the Second Army Corps, wrote: 

“The incessant movements day and night for so long a period, the constant close contact with the enemy during all that time, the almost daily assaults upon intrenchments having entanglements in front and defended by artillery and musketry in front and flank, exhausted both officers and men.”

Although all the orders which brought about this unfortunate condition of affairs must have passed through Humphreys himself, it is obvious that they could not have originated with him, but must have come from higher authority.

If the imperturbable and painstaking Smith, fresh from the triumphs and confidences of Chattanooga, should have lost his patience under these distressing circumstances, and declared to General Grant, frankly and fearlessly as he did as was clearly his duty, that “there had been a fearful slaughter at Cold Harbor,” surely it should not have been brought up against him later as one of the reasons for relieving him from the command of the troops of the Department of the James, to which he had been assigned after this criticism had been made.  If in the same interview Grant acknowledged, as it is credibly stated he did, “that there had been a butchery at Cold Harbor, but that he had said nothing about it, because it could do no good,” his remembrance of the circumstance to the prejudice of Smith, must be regarded as an afterthought which had its origin in some cause not yet fully explained.

It is altogether likely that Smith’s criticism was repeated to others less entitled to speak than himself and that it was exaggerated into a direct attack upon both Meade and Grant, which could not be passed over lightly.  Be this as it may, it must be apparent that it was fully justified as a mere matter of military criticism and quite independent of both Smith and Upton, it was generally approved both by the army and the country at large.

It was shortly after the assault in question, while I was commanding a division of cavalry, that I visited Grant’s headquarters.  During the conversation which followed the Lieutenant General asked me:  “What is the matter with this army?” To which I replied: