From the Richmond Enquirer, Tuesday, 7/15/1862, p. 1
Cold Harbour,
in Hanover, Va.
To the Editors of
the Enquirer:
Gentlemen, The article in your paper of last Saturday, in
relation to the name of the place where a battle was fought on the 27th
of June, is entirely wrong. It is COLD Harbour, and not COAL Harbor. With COAL
it has no connection. By the first name it is recognized in the precinct
elections for the county, and has the same designation in the maps of Virginia.
As our ancestors were fond of bringing the names of places from the old to the
new country, there can be no doubt that it was called after Cold Harbour, a
village in Surry, a few miles from London, near Leith Hill, and not far from
Epsom. In Murray's Handbook of the county of Surry, there is this passage: -
"After climbing Cold Harbor Hill and rounding the fir
plantations which crown it, famous for their undergrowth of
whortleberries," &c. That part of the county of Hanover in which Cold
Harbor is situated abounds in pine trees and whortleberries. The late John
Randolph, of Roanoke, was in the habit of saying the prospect from Leith Hill
was the finest in England. I trust Cold Harbor will not, in history, be
defrauded of its true name by the indistinct articulation of the good people of
the county of Hanover.
W.
July 14th, 1862
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