Cold Harbor Crossroads

Cold Harbor Crossroads. Cold Harbor Tavern. , Since the mid-eighteenth century, travelers through this crossroads found respite at a tavern that once stood to your immediate front. Tradition holds that "cold harbor" refers to a place where travelers could find rest and obtain a cold drink but not a hot meal. Along with providing accommodations, the tavern also served as a grocery store and polling place. By the outbreak of the American Civil War the Burnett family operated a hotel in the building. The Burnetts also farmed the fields south of the tavern, approximately 150 acres. The original tavern survived into the twentieth century before it was consumed by fire., In July 2021, the American Battlefield Trust, a non-profit dedicated to preserving battlefields from the American Revolution, the War of 18 12, and the Civil War, along with its partners acquired the Cold Harbor Tavern site. Since its founding in 1987, the American Battlefield Trust has preserved more than 55,000 acres of historic battlefield land in 25 states. As you walk this now peaceful ground, take time to contemplate and remember the ordinary Americans who performed extraordinary deeds and their vital role in our country's story., Along with restoring the landscape to its Civil War appearance, the Trust has developed digital interactions to bring the site back to life, including a narrated, animated recreation of the tavern and its surroundings, as well as an augmented reality structure that can be "placed" on the landscape., (captions) , Timothy O'Sullivan, a protegé of photographer Mathew Brady, captured this image, facing northeast, of the tavern in June 1864. Soldiers can be seem milling about the tavern. All images courtesy of the Library of Congress, Artist Edwin Forbes sketched this drawing depicting activity around the Cold Harbor Tavern., This photograph, taken a short distance behind the tavern, depicts the commander the Army of the Potomac's Second Corps, Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock (seated) and his three division commanders (left to right) Gens. Francis Barlow, David Birney and John Gibbon., Scan for Digital Version of the Cold Harbor Tavern