The war was in such a crisis moment—especially for the South—that Lee did not wish the Federals to see any of his lines. Lee, therefore, rebuffed all attempts to converse with Grant over a truce to remove the wounded and bury the dead. As a result, thousands of wounded men lay between the federal and Confederate lines, sometimes screaming with pain. Some observers claimed that the five days following the Battle of Cold Harbor represented the worst—most horrific—time of the whole war.