The Battle of Totopotomoy Creek: Polegreen Church and the Prelude to Cold Harbor

In early summer 1864, the entire region of central Virginia was engulfed in the flames of war. As Grant’s Federal army pushed ever south, trading battles and bodies with Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, forces came to a head at the Battle of Totopotomoy Creek. Though overshadowed by the proceeding Battle of Cold Harbor, Totopotomoy Creek exemplified the bloody skirmishes of the entire Overland Campaign. Polegreen Church and its eighteenth-century hero Samuel Davies offer an example of the destruction the war brought to central Virginia. Join author Robert Bluford as he incorporates diaries, regimental histories and other primary sources to detail the heroism of famed Civil War participants Winfield Hancock, Jubal Early, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee and many more.