ECW Weekender: Totopotomoy Creek

It’s the 155th anniversary of the fighting along Totopotomoy Creek, which opened the action at Cold Harbor during Grants 1864 Overland Campaign. Richmond National Battlefield has administered the site since 2006, and it is definitely a gem worth visiting. Aside from the beautiful centerpiece of the property, Rural Plains, ancestral home to the Shelton family, the site boasts a two-mile walking tour with six stops that covers the position once occupied by Francis Barlow’s division of the Federal II Corps. The site also connects to Confederate earthworks, administered by a private foundation, on the far side of the creek itself.

ECW has written about Totopotomoy Creek on several occasions in the past, including a previous Weekender in 2014.

For a good summary of the action there, check out this 2014 post that excerpts from Dan Davis and Phill Greenwalt’s Hurricane from the Heavens: The Battle of Cold Harbor.

For the Sesquicentennial of the battle, I wrote this reflection 5 years ago today about my explorations of the battlefield.

Former Superintendent Dave Ruth spoke with me about his preservation work at the site in this 2018 interview.

You can read Richmond National Battlefield’s  summary of the battle here and you can read their info on the battlefield here. Kudos to the folks at Richmond National Battlefield for the work they do to make this such a great little site!