incompetency, there is no grade in the
army to which I do not aspire."

Later referring to the same battle, he adds:

"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 re