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As the Army of Northern Virginia gradually fell back in the direction of the
old battle-field of Games' Mill, or Cold Harbor, the battalion was daily under
fire, and a number of the men were wounded, but none seriously.

On the evening of the 2d of June General Lee had formed his line of battle
upon the historic field of two years before. It was here the First Maryland won
fame, and it was here that the Second was to prove itself a worthy successor of
the First. The battle fought in June, 1862, was one of the most desperate of the
war, and the one in June, 1864, was no less bloody, but in the latter the loss of the
enemy was appalling, whilst that of the Confederates was insignificant. In the
first the Confederates assumed the offensive, in the latter it was the Federals.
As a distinguished Southern officer said soon after the battle : " Cold Harbor
was not war; it was murder; " and was it a wonder, then, that Grant's troops,
after repeated repulses, in which they saw their comrades slain by thousands,
refused finally to renew the unequal contest ? The indomitable Grant well said
it was the only battle he ever fought that he regretted having made. In this, as in
all the battles that he fought with Grant, General Lee's superior genius was
apparent. From the time he crossed the Rapidan with an army so overwhelming
in numbers that a speedy termination of the war seemed imminent, Grant had
been foiled in his every attempt to march direct upon Richmond, and his repulses
had been repeated and bloody.

In this engagement the Second Maryland was assigned a position in reserve
some three hundred yards in rear of a salient held by Edgar's battalion of Echols'
Virginia Brigade of Breckinridge's Division.

It was midnight of the 2d of June when, after much countermarching, the
battalion halted and the men were ordered to lay upon their arms to await any
emergency. They were tired, for they had marched many weary miles in the past
few days, and the strain to which they had been subjected had been fearful. No
wonder, then, they slept soundly, and their awakening was rude and rather
unexpected. From where they lay wrapped in their blankets they were sheltered
somewhat from the direct fire of the enemy owing to a rise in the ground in their
front, but not so from a flank fire on their left, where a body of Federal troops
held a position on higher ground. Between the Second Maryland and the salient
held by Echols' troops was a dwelling and outhouses which somewhat obscured
their view of the salient, where eight pieces of artillery were in position. In the
rear of the Marylanders, some three or four hundred yards was Finnigan's Brigade
of Floridians, which had been engaged in throwing up a reserve line of works,
to be used in case any disaster should occur at the first.

It will thus be seen that the position assigned the Second Maryland was a
most responsible one, and one well calculated to put them to their mettle should
anything befall Echols. And that very same came to pass, and proved that