The Battle of Ball's Bluff, October 21, 1861

James N.

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Part I - Union Probe Across the Potomac
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Union cannonade across the Potomac in advance of the crossing by troops of Brig. Gen. Charles P. Stone's division.

In the months immediately following the defeat in the first pitched battle of the Civil War along Bull Run, Union commander Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan was faced with the problem of taking his newly reorganized and re-energized Army of the Potomac back across that river in the face of uncertain Confederate numbers and dispositions. In October, however, he received indirect encouragement from the contraction of enemy forces around the capital back to the vicinity of Centerville and Manassas Junction. Another Rebel force was known to be around Leesburg, and "Little Mac" needed to know if it too had pulled back from the river.

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The area of Maryland across from Leesburg was under the command of a career officer, Brig. Gen. Charles P. Stone, who was ordered to reconnoiter in order to find out. Another force had proceeded upriver on the Virginia shore as far as Dranesville, so Stone sent a small force across Edwards' Ferry and another in boats to narrow Harrison's Island which split the Potomac into two channels. The site was crowned on both the Maryland and Virginia sides by bluffs towering as much as a hundred feet above the river as seen above in a photo looking due east from the Virginia side into Maryland.

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These two maps show the area the resulting battle was fought in from slightly different perspectives: the one at left from Battles and Leaders is oriented with north at the top; the one at right reverses that orientation, incorrectly pointing to the left as north. The troops of both sides entered the fray gradually - only near the end were all present as shown here. At first only about 300 men of the 15th Mass. Regt. under their Colonel Charles Devens, a Boston lawyer and militia officer, crossed to Ball's Bluff the night of Oct. 20 - 21, which they ascended by means of a cow path to the top. They advanced in the moonlight but stopped when they found what they believed to be an abandoned Confederate camp which later proved nothing more than an illusion. Devens fell back to the bluff and sent word of his findings to Stone who never crossed the river himself; instead, he ordered forward additional troops from another regiment and the remainder of the Massachusetts 15th.

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The following morning the enlarged Federal force, now over 600 strong, advanced to within a mile of Leesburg, where they encountered a small Confederate force of perhaps 400. Uncertain of the number of Confederates in the area, Devens prudently withdrew back to Ball's Bluff taking position in the area above and occupying a space about 600' X 800' covering ten acres or so. The Confederates just as cautiously followed, but unfortunately for the Federals they had more help on the way.

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Above left-to-right: Col. Charles Devens, commanding the 15th Massachusetts; Col. Edward D. Baker who arrived to take overall command of the battle; and Brig. Gen. Charles P. Stone who became the scapegoat for the debacle that ensued. Though only a colonel, Baker, who was also serving as U.S. senator from the new state of Oregon, was commanding one of Stone's brigades and so crossed the river with the regiment he had originally led and one which he had organized himself in Philadelphia as the 71st Pennsylvania but that bore the confusing denomination 1st California in honor of Baker's first place of residence in the west. Baker was also a close personal friend of President Lincoln who named one of his sons in his honor. He had led a volunteer regiment during the Mexican War, but unfortunately it was one that had seen no actual combat.

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The tiny bridgehead atop Ball's Bluff was becoming crowded with Union troops and even three pieces of artillery which had laboriously been hauled up from the river along the cow path. They were divided, a section of mountain howitzers on the right flank and a larger gun on the left. Their fire kept Confederate skirmishers at bay until the ammunition began to give out and gunners fall under accurate fire of sharpshooters, some up in the trees.

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Mountain howitzers were small large-caliber guns designed for ease of transport, either on mule-back or on small so-called prairie carriages like those shown here on display in the Ball's Bluff Regional Park. This made it possible for them to be man-handled up steep Ball's Bluff, though it's likely precious time and energy was wasted by doing so. Their essential drawback was that although they theoretically packed the same "punch" as a 12-lb. Napoleon, their reduced size called for reduced powder charges, therefore shortening their range considerably. Also, their equally smaller ammunition boxes carried fewer rounds of ammunition than those of larger guns.

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The third Union cannon as seen in the replica pictured below was a hybrid known as a James Rifle which was actually only a conversion of an earlier six-pounder smoothbore which had been bored out and rifled to accept the 14-lb. James projectile. This larger gun required dis-assembly in order that its components could be carried to the top of the bluff, requiring additional largely wasted effort; supposedly it fired only a half-dozen or so shots during the engagement before being put out of commission.

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Confederate strength was growing slowly; they remained outnumbered but their opponents didn't know it. So far they had a screen of dismounted cavalry in the thick woods to the north of the Federal position but only one regiment of infantry and no artillery. The monument below commemorates the 8th Virginia Regiment led by Col. Eppa Hunton who later became a brigadier general commanding a brigade in the division of George E. Pickett. The regiment went on to serve throughout the war, notably in Richard Garnett's Brigade at Gettysburg. The 8th Va. was joined by two additional regiments from Mississippi; Col. Jesse Burks unwisely ordered his 18th Miss. in a charge on the Federals only to be killed in the process, following which a lull settled over the field as additional troops arrived on both sides.

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Next, Part II - Confederate attack and Union rout.
 
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Part II - Confederate Attack and Ensuing Union Rout
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Attacking Confederates fight hand-to-hand with defending Federals over the body of Col. Edward Baker.

By mid-afternoon when Col. Baker arrived to take command around 2 pm the Federal position had deteriorated considerably though no real battle had yet taken place. The problem was that the space they occupied was too small for the number of men - now at full brigade strength of approximately 1700 or four regiments plus their three guns - to properly deploy. Although they held the vaunted military central position in which an enemy was forced to attack from all sides, they were also subject to a concentric fire that made it hard for the attackers to miss hitting a target! Also, and most fatally, they had their backs to a sheer drop of 100 feet or more to the river below.

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Baker arrived cheerful and full of misplaced optimism, calling out to the only regimental colonel with Regular Army experience who he saw approaching at the head of yet another regiment, the largely-Irish 42d New York or Tamanny Regiment, "One blast upon your bugle horn is worth a thousand men!", a quote from Sir Walter Scott. Unfortunately it would take more than notes from a bugle to save the rapidly deteriorating situation, for only a short time later Baker himself was killed by a bullet through the head while strolling unconcernedly in front of his lines; a struggle ensued for possession of the body which was later successfully spirited across the river. A memorial stone resembling a tombstone now stands on the approximate spot where he fell.

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Above left-to-right: Col. Eppa Hunton, commanding the 8th Virginia; Col. Winfield Scott Featherston, commanding the 17th Mississippi; and Brig. Gen. Nathan G. "Shanks" Evans, brigade and overall Confederate commander in the area. Like his Union counterpart Stone, Evans never reached the field, instead remaining at Fort Evans near Leesburg from which he tried to keep in touch with events as they developed here and also at Edwards Ferry. He was seen drinking heavily and steadily throughout the engagement, an unfortunate habit for which he was court-martialed and though acquitted, he was eventually dismissed from the army in 1863.

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Fortunately for the Confederates their mission was relatively simple: contain and harass the outnumbering Federals until enough reinforcements arrived to achieve parity. This required little in the way of cooperation and they were successful in waiting it out until about 4 pm and the arrival of more Mississippi troops. Sensing their desperate plight following Baker's fall, the Federals attempted a breakout to the south or their left but it was too uncoordinated and feeble to achieve much. The marker above looks out from the Union position across the field to the woods from which the Confederate attack came around 6 pm led by Col. Winfield S. Featherston of the 17th Miss. shouting, "Charge, Mississippians, charge! Drive them into the Potomac or eternity!"

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Despite suffering a few losses like that of color-bearer Clinton Hatcher of the 8th Virginia above, the Confederates pressed forward; what happened next is best told by eyewitness Randolph A. Shotwell:

"A kind of shiver ran through the huddled mass upon the brow of the cliff; it gave way, rushed a few steps; then, in one wild panic-stricken herd, rolled, leaped, tumbled over the precipice. Screams of pain and terror filled the air. Men seemed suddenly bereft of reason, they leaped over the bluff with muskets still in their clutch, threw themselves into the river without divesting themselves of their heavy accouterments, hence went to the bottom like lead. Others sprang down upon the heads and bayonets of those below... The side of the bluff was worn smooth by the number sliding down."

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The now-peaceful shore of the Potomac seen below was a scene of utter pandemonium as soldiers from intermingled units swamped the few small boats that had tediously ferried them across only a few hours before. A larger one full of wounded was sunk and many of the wounded drowned. Bodies turned up as far away as Washington thirty miles downriver and even as far as George Washington's estate Mount Vernon. The victorious Confederates continued to pour fire into the struggling mass as long as there was light. Out of the force of some 1700 there were nearly a thousand killed, wounded, or captured to a Confederate loss of 36 killed, 117 wounded, and two missing.

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Later in the war such a relatively small affair would've been quickly forgotten or perhaps have passed entirely unnoticed, but in October, 1861, following other disasters at Manassas, Big Bethel, and Wilson's Creek there was a hue and cry from Congress. In early December, the powerful and far-reaching Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War was created under the chairmanship of Radical Republican Ben Wade of Ohio. The aim of the group was ostensibly to cut down on waste and fraud in the prosecution of the war; but in reality Wade and his associates conducted a witch-hunt against those, especially Democrats like McClellan, who they considered "soft" on the war and emancipation. General Stone became the first and most visible of their victims, largely blamed for failing to support the popular Baker and even his death. Stone was called to testify and subsequently arrested and removed from command; he remained incarcerated without charges for several months and was never restored to a command, the scapegoat for the debacle at Ball's Bluff.

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Eventually, fifty-four bodies of slain Federals were gathered into the tiny Ball's Bluff National Cemetery, one of the smallest in the nation; only a single soldier was identified. His grave stands at the center of the circular group below.

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The cemetery stands near where Col. Baker fell, but his body was shipped back to his home in California for burial.

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Thanks for this James. Great for us who live on the other side of the pond and would never get to see places like this.
Thanks, James N. This battlefield has been on my bucket list for a while.

My pleasure; glad you enjoyed my efforts, as I did visiting this site which I hadn't seen in almost twenty years. The Ball's Bluff Regional Park adjoining the cemetery has been developed since my first visit and made the trip very worthwhile!
 
Thanks as always. Was eagerly awaiting the 2nd post when the pandemonium ensued.

Though it may be tasteless and w/ little tact (I am who I am), I always think of this dubbed GI JOE PSA when someone mentions Balls Bluff.

 
Great thread. I honestly knew little about that battle.
 
Grandfather said that his father, a Pennsylvanian, was in the "Zouaves". A slightly garbled account is that his unit was all shot up & there were no records of his service there. He did keep the Currier & Ives "Death of Colonel Baker" which used to confuse me. Until I noted that about three of the federal troops were wearing red blouses, which I assume was C&I way of identifying them as Zouaves. He also kept Prison Life in Richmond, by a Ball's Bluff Prisoner Lt. Willian C. Harris of Col Bakers California Regiment (Libby Prison). I suppose that's where some of G-Grandfather's surviving associates went.

Great Grandfather said he wasn't mad at anybody, so he always shot in the air. One time he did not, and saw a man fall. When he related this one tear would fall.

Anybody have specific comments on Pennsylvania-recruited Zouaves in this battle?
 
The most prominent Confederate casualty was Colonel Erasmus R. Burt, commander of the 18th Mississippi Infantry. Burt was a prominent physician and politician and played a role in the education of the deaf in Mississippi. He was struck in the hip during an attack on Baker's lines and died five days later on October 26. The photo was taken from wiki site and listed as in the public domain. His body was sent back to Mississippi and buried in Jackson.

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