- Joined
- Feb 23, 2013
- Location
- East Texas
Part I - Union Probe Across the Potomac
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Next, Part II - Confederate attack and Union rout.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Next, Part II - Confederate attack and Union rout.
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