A Corporal in Company A, 151st New York Infantry

On the morning of June 3rd 1864 at the Battle Of Cold Harbor the overall commander of the Union Army, General Ulysses S Grant, made a fateful decision to make a frontal attack on the strong fortified positions of the Confederate Army under the command of General Robert E Lee. It would be a decision that, in later life, would always haunt Grant. The attack he ordered on this particular day led to huge and avoidable casualties for the Union army. He would later write in his memoirs:

“I have always regretted that the last assault at Cold Harbor was ever made. At Cold Harbor no advantage whatever was gained to compensate for the heavy loss we sustained” 

At 4:30am on that morning in June 1864 a thick ground fog enveloped the Union soldiers as they lined up to make that fateful attack. In company A of the 151st New York Infantry Regiment stood Corporal Thomas Flattery, born in New York into a family that had emigrated from Banagher in County Offaly, and now ready to lead a section of the men under his command. Only a few minutes into the attack on the Confederate positions a withering fire was pouring down on the Union soldiers and massive casualties were being sustained. The Union commanders were initially ordered by Grant to regroup and launch more attacks on any perceived weak section of the Confederate lines but after further consultations with his officers Grant conceded, at around midday on June the 3rd, that the attacks had been a failure.

“The opinion of the corps commanders not being sanguine of success in case an assault is ordered, you may direct a suspension of further advance for the present.” – General Ulysses S Grant (3rd June 1864)

The fighting that morning had inflicted, in some estimates, up to 7,000 casualties on the Union Army alone. The dead and dying would remain on the field over the next 3 days as Grant and Lee became bogged down in a disagreement over the protocol involved in collecting the bodies. Those extra days no doubt led to many more men dying on the battlefield of Cold Harbor. As a later account by a Union officer stated:

“after extraordinary delays an armistice was concluded… It was very acceptable for burying the dead; but the wounded were mostly dead too, by this time, having been there since the 3d.”

Corporal Thomas Flattery was one of those casualties on that early morning in June of 1864. On researching his regiment we find mention made of his fate in the book “Chronicles of the 151st Regiment”. It confirms that Thomas was wounded on that morning. We can only hope for his sake that he did not lay on the field of battle for too long hoping in vain to be collected and brought to safety. Thomas Flattery did not survive his wounds and is buried in Cold Harbor National Cemetery in a simple grave marked with a white stone. His is just one headstone among a sea of headstones which is proof of the horrible slaughter that took place that day.

Cold Harbor National Cemetery – National Cemetery Administration

After Cold Harbor the criticism of Grant and his tactics intensified in the North with many pointing to the horrifying number of casualties. Even high ranking members of the military were voicing their distaste for this new type of warfare. The Union Navy Secretary of the time was Gideon Welles and he wrote in his diary:

“We have had severe slaughter. Brave men have been killed and maimed most fearfully but Grant persists. Losing five men to Lee’s one, some have begun calling Grant “The Butcher.”

The Summer of 1864 would continue to be a difficult period for the Union cause and in particular for Republican President Abraham Lincoln. 1864 was an election year and as things stood, due to the anti war sentiment now prevalent in the Northern media, it was increasingly looking likely the Democratic Party candidate would gain a victory. That candidate was none other than former overall commander of the Union forces, George McClellan. Lincoln had relieved McClellan of his command in November of 1862 as he had become impatient with McClellan’s procrastinations and demands for more and more men. To Lincoln it seemed that McClellan was not the “man of action” needed to challenge the enemy. On the other hand Ulysses S Grant had already proved himself to be a serious man of action and was Lincolns choice to replace McClellan. “This man will fight” said Lincoln when he was proposing to appoint Grant. The Irony now, no doubt not lost on Lincoln, that willingness to fight and engage the Confederate Army was looking likely to mean that Abraham Lincoln would not be elected to a second term.

As history now shows, the war would soon turn in the Union Army’s favor and by election day in November of 1864 the Northern people and importantly, the Northern Army, were firmly behind Abraham Lincoln. He would win the election in a landslide which was an outcome looking extremely unlikely in June of 1864 after the debacle at The Battle Of Cold Harbor.

Thomas Flattery was only 24 years of age when he died. He had given his young life to preserving the United States Of America but sadly died in an assault that in the words of the man who had ordered it should never have taken place.

For more information on the life and army service of this soldier please go to his dedicated page on americasoffalyheroes.com – Thomas Flattery

Another Offaly Soldier to be killed at Cold Harbor was William Patrick Kelley from Tullamore

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