June 3, 1864—162 years ago today—marked the final day of the battle of Cold Harbor and the one that saw the most significant fighting, as Grant’s Union forces repeatedly and unsuccessfully attempted to break through heavily fortified Confederate lines. The Union suffered heavy casualties over several days of combat that totaled nearly 13,000 killed, wounded, captured, and missing. Among the 1,845 killed in action was Private George W. Gould, an ordinary soldier from Leicester, Massachusetts, who fell on June 3^rd during one of the waves of fierce assaults made by the 25^th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, giving up his life to save the Union and end human chattel slavery.

Battlefield marker oriented towards the field at Cold Harbor where Pvt. George W. Gould was killed on June 3, 1864. Stan Prager visited this hallowed ground on May 6, 2026 & took this photo.

This website was created ten years ago to honor the sacrifice of George W. Gould, hosting his previously unpublished letters and championing his role as a common soldier who along with so many thousands of others during four years of Civil War gave up everything so that the United States would endure as one nation, and that slavery, the central cause of secession and war, would be forever abolished.

Flag placed on the grave of George W. Gould in Paxton, MA for Memorial Day 2026

Fittingly, I visited Cold Harbor for the first time just weeks ago, and I looked out over the now quiet fields where the battle once raged and where Private Gould lost his life. I was welcomed by NPS ranger Mike Gorman, who could not have been more gracious. He shared a wealth of information about the battle while clearly projecting his pride in his role helping to preserve this sacred ground. I was at Cold Harbor with a larger tour group, so I could not get as deep in the weeds as I hoped, retracing the steps George Gould took as he stared into eternity, but I do hope to return again soon for a private tour and a closer look.

Gazing towards the field at Cold Harbor where Pvt. George W. Gould was killed on June 3, 1864. Stan Prager took this photograph during his visit on May 6, 2026.

Still, on the  day of my visit, I felt myself profoundly moved as I stood on the battlefield not far from where Private Gould breathed his last. His was likely a dreadful ending. The commissary sergeant’s letter to Gould’s mother reporting his death notes that “The enclosed diary was in his breast pocket & it tells where the ball hit him.” The diary is lost, but some might interpret that sentence as an indication that the diary itself manifested physical signs of “where the ball hit him.” I would like to believe that, for that would mean he made a quick end, but I think it is more probable that he was mortally wounded and instead lay there some time after and recorded in his diary “where the ball hit him.” In that case, it is awful to imagine how long he may have remained on the field suffering before he expired. We have no way of knowing that, but we do know that in the aftermath of the battle, Lee was adamant that the wounded could not be tended to until a white flag was offered, as was customary at the time. A horrific four days passed before Grant swallowed his pride and agreed to be the first to fly that white flag to allow a brief truce to retrieve the injured, but by then almost all were dead of their wounds, dehydration, and extreme heat. I would add that I believe the date that appears on the letter to George’s mother—June 4th—was a polite lie born out of kindness, since it would have been impossible for his body to be retrieved until many days later.

On the last day of his life, Private George W. Gould’s saw action with Brigadier General George J. Stannard’s “Star Brigade”—1st Brigade, 2nd  Division, XVIII Corps—with 4 regiments comprised of just 600 men that included the Massachusetts 25th formed up in a double column of 4 stacked lines—rather than deploying in a traditional, extended skirmish line—a relatively recently devised battlefield tactic designed to punch through Confederate works with a compact assault column that at Cold Harbor on June 3, 1864 resulted in shattering losses inflicted by heavy artillery and infantry fire from entrenched forces that could not be dislodged. The 25th Massachusetts suffered a staggering 69% casualty toll that day: 215 men fell out of 310 on the field and 74 of those died, including Private Gould—among the highest percentage casualty rates of any single regiment in a single battle during the war!

Grant was pilloried by the public for the casualties that day, and he himself later voiced regret over the failed final assaults, but while Lee suffered fewer losses, he was unable to replace them, so the Army of Northern Virginia was left weakened. In the grand scheme of things, the Battle of Cold Harbor was just one piece of Grant’s Overland Campaign, and while the stalemate there stymied his momentum, Grant’s strategy would eventually win the war. As we honor Private George W. Gould, we likewise honor every soldier who made the ultimate sacrifice for this righteous cause.

Remains of Union war dead at Cold Harbor

Flag placed on the grave of Pvt. George W. Gould for Memorial Day 2026

In 2016—ten Memorial Days ago—I launched the Resurrecting Lost Voices website to honor Private George W. Gould, an ordinary soldier from Leicester, Massachusetts who went on sacrifice it all at just thirty-one years old on the Cold Harbor battlefield in 1864, one of hundreds of thousands of others who gave their lives to save the Union and end human chattel slavery.

I had had the good fortune to come across a collection of his previously unpublished letters through the courtesy of then-grad student Morgan Kolakowski Zhang, and while digitizing and transcribing these was moved by the eloquence and intellectual sophistication of this otherwise unremarkable farm boy from Western Mass who left his young wife Mira and three little girls to go off and fight for the Union with the 25^th Massachusetts Volunteers. Tragically, his wife died of typhoid fever while he was deployed many hundreds of miles from home, and his young children sent to stay with in-laws he did not much care for.

He writes home surprisingly articulate letters about his religious convictions, his patriotism, and his grief at the loss of Mira: “It is now about three weeks since she died and I can’t realize that I shall see her no more but if I should live to get home and see the vacant chair and the three little motherless children I shall then realize my great loss.” When the time comes, George agonizes over reenlistment but finally goes ahead, likely motivated not only by patriotism but by the month-long furlough home to see his family, as well as the reenlistment bonus that would go a long way towards caring for the children. When he returns to the front, there is one letter full of foreboding, and then the final correspondence I have is not from George but from his commissary sergeant, delivering the sad news to his mother that he was killed in action. George was dead; the three little girls now orphans.

George began his service at a training camp in New Bern, North Carolina, and ended it in the dirt at Cold Harbor, Virginia. I first read his letters shortly after I returned from visiting the extant trenches at New Bern from the battle that handed that geography over to the Union. Fittingly, I visited Cold Harbor for the first time just weeks ago. I cried the very first time I read that letter reporting his death. There are times I still choke up when considering his loss of Mira.

Laminate tag I attach to flags and wreaths to encourage those who pass by to read his story.

Historian Stan Prager, visiting the grave for Memorial Day 2026.

George’s story is, of course, only one tiny tale in a grand constellation of other stories by many hundreds of  thousands of others, but viewing the life and death through the lens of a single soldier who was there personalizes it, and better helps you understand the Civil War experience, more than 160 years after Appomattox.

Once I read George’s letters, I set out to learn more about him. I located his grave, studied his service records, probed his genealogy, and even came across a plaque commemorating his death along with others from his hometown. I decided to honor him further by adopting his gravesite, visiting it several times a year to place flags on it and, in December, laying a wreath there for “Wreaths Across America.”  I have always felt that in honoring him so, I can likewise honor all those who died for our country.

Memorial Day was originally Decoration Day, established in 1868 to decorate the graves of fallen Civil War soldiers. Therefore, I thought it fitting to launch this website on Memorial Day 2016 and—a decade later—to take a moment on Memorial Day 2026 to offer another huzzah to Private George W. Gould!

Grave of George W. Gould, Memorial Day 2016, at launch of this website

I had the honor to be invited to deliver a presentation on Leicester resident Private George W. Gould to the Leicester Historical Commission and the Friends of Swan Tavern on May 21, 2026 at the historic Swan Tavern-Leicester Historical Museum. The beautiful Swan Tavern, Leicester’s oldest surviving structure which dates back to 1768 and serves as home to the historical commission, proved an ideal setting for presenting to a large an enthusiastic audience of attendees, who asked great questions and offered several positive suggestions for the continuing work on the George W. Gould project. Special thanks to Joe Lennerton, Chair of the Leicester Historical Commission, for putting this event together, and I want to express my gratitude to everyone who attended and participated. And Huzzah to Pvt. George W. Gold!

If you would like to donate to a great cause for the ongoing preservation efforts of Swan Tavern, as well as to further historical research and celebrate local history, you may contact the commission here: Leicester Historical Commission

This is a close-up of Pvt. George W Gould’s death notice in the Worcester Daily Spy, July 13, 1864. This edition contains the complete list of casualties of the 25th Volunteer Infantry from the Cold Harbor engagement that ended on July 3rd, the day Pvt. Gould was killed in action. Note that the abbreviation “do” is short for ditto.

Here is a copy of the entire page of that day’s paper, which includes the full casualty list. This is page 2 of that day’s paper, which also features other news on the course of the war. Click on thumbnail below to access the PDF:

Western Mass News TV launched a new video podcast series for their streaming app, and the very first episode of “We the People Extra” celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States was this 20 minute panel discussion with Stan Prager about the George W. Gould story. It includes the original broadcast of the “We the People” episode previously aired, and the panel discussion begins around 5:15. Overall, I was very pleased with the way it turned out and honored that they invited me to launch the series. The episode is here:

On January 21, 2026, I was honored to be invited to present “Resurrecting Lost Voices: The George W. Gould Story … Adventures in Digital Archiving”  via zoom  to the Phil Kearny Civil War Roundtable of Northern New Jersey.

They were a great audience, and I had a terrific time speaking to them. They also did a really nice write-up on my work with the ongoing Gould project, which is featured on the front page of the latest edition of their regimental bulletin (below) 

Honoring Pvt. George W. Gould … For Wreaths Across America 2025, I made the long drive again to Paxton MA to lay a wreath on the grave of my adopted Civil War soldier, Pvt. George W. Gould of the 25th Mass. Vol. Infantry, who sacrificed his life at Cold Harbor in 1864 to save the Union & end human chattel slavery. At the same time, I seek to honor all those who died for our country. There’s a tag on the wreath that tells his story & a QR code link to this website that I created to honor him

I was honored to be invited to present at the event “Our Roots, Our Voices,” a celebration of American History, on Saturday November 8th at 9:30AM in South Hadley MA. Fittingly for the theme of the event, my topic was Resurrecting Lost Voices, the George W. Gould story.

This is an in-progress excerpt from my presentation:

This is the flyer describing the event:

This is the handout I created and distributed at the event:

Resurrecting Lost Voices Handout

As part of their “We the People” series celebrating the 250th birthday of the United States, news anchor Chris Pisano of Western Mass News TV interviewed Stan Prager about the George W. Gould project and the creation of this website honoring him. The segment aired on WMN on September 26, 2025. This is an enhanced version of the video, with corrections to minor errors from the original broadcast:

This video is the original as it was first broadcast:

A link to the story at Western Mass News is here: How One Western Mass Man Honors the Legacy of a Civil War Soldier

Special thanks to Patrick McKeon, a local historian and member of the Leicester Historical Commission, who contributed to this story. I remain extremely grateful to Patrick for his ongoing help and support with this project.

On my Memorial Day visit to Paxton today to honor my adopted Civil War soldier, Pvt. George W. Gould, killed at Cold Harbor in 1864 to save the Union and end human chattel slavery, we first observed the Memorial Day parade and dedication, and George W. Gould’s name was read aloud among the honored dead. Afterwards, I placed a flag on Pvt. Gould’s grave just as the American Legion paid respects with a gun salute and taps. It was very moving. Watch the video for more.

Memorial Day 2025