Thanks Richard: First things First: We all know that the book "Cold Mountain" was fiction, a novel.

However; "The Battle of the Crater" was an actual and historical event, in which thousands of Union and Confederate troops were killed.

In my opinion; if an historical event is portrayed, it should attempt to be accurate. "D" Day wouldn't be dismissed, nor would "Dunkirk", nor "Gettysburg", "Shiloh" or "Fredericksburg".

According to the "Encyclopedia" version, the Union lost 5,300 men, "about half of them were from Ferrero's Division, to which (the men) many of the Confederates offered no quarter."

If this is correct, then my estimate of more than five hundred massacred is under by 2000 or more, of the actual number of men killed.
Lloyd