BALL'S BLUFF.
There were but two events of importance during the long period of
inactivity in the autumn of 1861,--a disaster at Ball's Bluff and a
victory at Dranesville.
In October General Stone's division of the Army of the Potomac was at
Poolesville in Maryland. General Banks's division was at Darnestown,
between Poolesville and Washington. General McCall's division was at
a little hamlet called Lewinsville, on the turnpike leading from the
chain bridge to Leesburg, on the Virginia side. The main body of the
Rebels was at Centreville, but there was a brigade at Leesburg.
It is a beautiful and fertile country around that pleasant Virginia
town. West of the town are high hills, called the Catoctin Mountains.
If we were standing on their summits, and looking east, we should
see the town of Leesburg at our feet. It is a place of three or four
thousand inhabitants. There are several churches, a court-house, a
market-place, where, before the war, the farmers sold their wheat, and
corn, oats, and garden vegetables. Three miles east of the town we
behold the Potomac sparkling in the sunlight, its current divided by
Harrison's Island. The distance from the Virginia shore to the island
is about one hundred and eighty feet; from the island to the Maryland
shore it is six or seven hundred feet. The bank on the Virginia side
is steep, and seventy-five or eighty feet high, and is called Ball's
Bluff. A canal runs along the Maryland shore. Four miles below the
island is Edward's Ferry, and three miles east of it is Poolesville.
In October, General McClellan desired to make a movement which would
compel General Evans, commanding the Rebels at Leesburg, to leave the
place. He therefore directed General McCall to move up to Dranesville,
on the Leesburg turnpike. Such a movement would threaten to cut General
Evans off from Centreville. At the same time he sent word to General
Stone, that if he were to make a demonstration towards Leesburg it
might drive them away.
On Sunday night, at sundown, October 20th, General Stone ordered
Colonel Devens of the Massachusetts Fifteenth to send a squad of
men across the river, to see if there were any Rebels in and around
Leesburg.
Captain Philbrick, with twenty men of that regiment, crossed in three
small boats, hauled them upon the bank, went up the bluff by a winding
path, moved cautiously through the woods, also through a cornfield, and
went within a mile and a half of Leesburg, seeing no pickets, hearing
no alarm. But the men saw what they thought was an encampment. They
returned at midnight and reported to General Stone, who ordered Colonel
Devens to go over with about half of his regiment and hold the bluff.
The only means which General Stone had for crossing troops was one
flat-boat, an old ferry-boat, and three small boats.
Colonel Devens embarked his men on the boats about three o'clock in
the morning. The soldiers pushed them to the foot of the bluff, then
returned for other detachments. The men went up the path and formed in
line on the top of the bluff. By daybreak he had five companies on the
Virginia shore. He moved through the open field towards the encampment
which Captain Philbrick and his men had seen, as they thought, but
which proved to be only an opening in the woods. But just as the sun's
first rays were lighting the Catoctin hills he came upon the Rebel
pickets in the woods beyond the field. The pickets fired a few shots
and fled towards Leesburg, giving the alarm.
The town was soon in commotion. The drums beat, the Rebel troops then
rushed out of their tents and formed in line, and the people of the
town jumped from their breakfast-tables at the startling cry, "The
Yankees are coming!"
General Evans, the Rebel commander, the day before had moved to Goose
Creek to meet General McCall, if he should push beyond Dranesville. He
had the Eighth Virginia, the Thirteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth
Mississippi Regiments, and a squadron of cavalry and four pieces of
artillery.
Captain Duff, commanding a detachment of the Seventeenth Mississippi,
was left at Leesburg. As soon as Colonel Devens's advance was
discovered, he formed his men in the woods and sent word to General
Evans, who hastened with his whole brigade to the spot.
General Stone placed Colonel Baker, commanding the First California
Regiment, in command of the forces upon the Virginia side of the
river. Colonel Baker was a Senator from Oregon,--a noble man, an
eloquent orator, a patriot, and as brave as he was patriotic. During
the forenoon a portion of the Twentieth Massachusetts Regiment,
commanded by Colonel Lee, was sent over.
Just before twelve o'clock General Stone sent word to Colonel Baker
that the force of the enemy was supposed to be about four thousand.
Colonel Baker was in doubt whether to remain or whether to send over
more troops; but word came to him that the Rebels were advancing, and
he ordered over the Tammany Regiment of New York troops, commanded by
Colonel Cogswell, and Lieutenant-Colonel Wistar's California Regiment.
Colonel Baker went over about two o'clock in the afternoon. By constant
effort, he succeeded in getting about seventeen hundred men over during
the day, and three cannon,--two mountain howitzers and one rifled gun.
It was nearly three o'clock in the afternoon before General Evans began
the attack. He had captured a courier the day before, sent by General
McCall to General Meade, and from the despatches learned that General
McCall was only making a reconnaissance. This information led him to
bring all his forces back to Leesburg, and it also delayed his attack
until late in the afternoon.
Captain Duff, of the Seventeenth Mississippi, was reinforced first by
four companies of the Thirteenth and Eighteenth Mississippi, commanded
by Colonel Jennifer. About two o'clock the Eighth Virginia arrived from
Goose Creek, commanded by Colonel Huntoon. Other reinforcements were
near at hand.
"Drive the Yankees into the river!" was General Evans's order.
He had the advantage of position, being on higher ground than that
occupied by Colonel Baker. But he advanced very cautiously.
Colonel Baker formed his men on the eastern border of the field in the
edge of the woods. The Fifteenth Massachusetts was on the right,--next
there was a portion of the Twentieth Massachusetts, which had been
sent over, and then the California and Tammany regiments. The Rebels
began to fire at long range. Some of them climbed into the trees,--some
secreted themselves in the shocks of corn which were standing in the
field,--some crouched behind the fences and trees. Colonel Baker, to
save his men, ordered them to lie down.
Colonel Jennifer, commanding a Rebel regiment, with a party of
skirmishers, went round the north side of the field and came upon the
Fifteenth Massachusetts, but the men of that regiment fired so steadily
that the Rebels were forced to retire.
At the southwest corner of the field was a farm road, down which the
Rebels advanced. The howitzers and the cannon were placed in position
to rake that road, and the Rebels were compelled to leave it and form
in the woods.
It was apparent to Colonel Baker and all of his command at three
o'clock that the Rebels outnumbered them, but they prepared to make a
brave fight. The fire from both sides began to be more fierce and rapid.
At this time General Gorman had crossed the river at Edward's Ferry,
three miles below, with fifteen hundred men. General Evans, to prevent
a junction of the Union forces, moved his troops into a ravine, and
came upon the left flank of Colonel Baker's command.
"I want to find out what the Rebels are doing out there," said Colonel
Baker to Colonel Wistar, "and I want you to send out two companies."
Colonel Wistar sent out Captain Marco with one company, and went
himself with the other. About fifty yards in front of Colonel Wistar
was a hill, and behind this Evans was preparing to make a charge.
Suddenly the Eighth Virginia, who had been lying upon the ground,
sprang to their feet, and, without firing a shot, advanced upon Captain
Marco. His men, without waiting for orders, fired, and for fifteen
minutes there was a very hot time of it,--the two companies holding
their ground against the superior force. Captain Marco had deployed his
men as skirmishers, while the Virginians were in close rank, and so
destructive was the fire from Captain Marco's command, that the Rebel
lines gave way.
But it was at a fearful cost that the brave men held their ground so
long. During this time all their officers, and all their corporals and
sergeants but three, and two-thirds of the men, were killed or wounded!
They fell back at last under command of a sergeant, carrying with them
a lieutenant and fourteen men of the Eighth Virginia prisoners.
The Rebels having reformed their line, came down upon the left flank of
the California regiment. Colonel Wistar saw them in the ravine, faced
four of his companies to meet them, and gave them a volley which threw
them into confusion, and, after firing a few scattering shots, they
ran up the ravine, and disappeared behind the hill.
For an hour or more the firing was at long range, each party availing
themselves of the shelter of the woods. The men were ordered by Colonel
Baker to shield themselves as much as possible, but himself and the
other officers stood boldly out in the hottest fire.
"That is pretty close!" said Colonel Baker to Colonel Wistar, as a
bullet came between them. Soon another ball cut off a twig over Colonel
Baker's head.
"That fellow means _us_," he said, pointing to a Rebel in a distant
tree. "Boys, do you see him? Now some of you try him," he said to
company C, of Colonel Wistar's regiment. The soldiers singled out
the man, who soon tumbled from the tree. He repeatedly cautioned his
men about exposing themselves. He wanted to save them for the final
conflict, which he knew must come before long.
"Lie close, don't expose yourself," he said to a brave soldier who was
deliberately loading and firing.
"Colonel, you expose yourself, and why shouldn't I?"
"Ah! my son, when you get to be a United States senator and a colonel,
you will feel that you must not lie down in face of the 'enemy.'"
He knew that it would be asked if he was brave in the hour of battle.
It was his duty to expose himself, to show his men and all the world
that he was not afraid to meet the enemy, and was worthy of the
position he held.
[Illustration:
1 Union Troops.
2 Rebel Troops.
3 Road by which the Rebels advanced.]
One of the Mississippi regiments tried again to outflank Colonel
Baker's left. The Rebels came within fifty feet of the California
regiment; but the constant and steady fire given by that regiment again
forced them back. It was an unbroken roll of musketry through the
afternoon. The Union soldiers held their ground manfully, but their
ammunition was giving out. The men, as fast as their cartridge-boxes
became empty, helped themselves from the boxes of their fallen
comrades. They could not obtain reinforcements for want of boats,
although there were troops enough upon the Maryland shore to overwhelm
the enemy. The boats were old and leaky, and were used to carry the
wounded to the island. General Stone had taken no measures to obtain
other boats. He was at Edward's Ferry, within sight and sound of the
battle. He had fifteen hundred troops across the river at that point,
and he might have ordered their advance towards Leesburg. They could
have gained General Evans's rear, for there was no force to oppose
them. The troops stood idly upon the bank, wondering that they were not
ordered to march. So the brave men on the bluff, confronted by nearly
twice their number, were left to their fate.
"We can cut our way through to Edward's Ferry," said Colonel Devens.
"If I had two more such regiments as the Massachusetts Fifteenth, I
would cut my way to Leesburg," said Colonel Baker.
He went along the line encouraging the men to hold out to the last.
His cool bearing, and the glance of his eagle eye, inspired the
men and they compelled the Rebels again and again to fall back.
Lieutenant-Colonel Wistar was wounded, but refused to leave the field.
He remained with his men and kept a close watch upon the ravine and
the hillock at his left hand. He saw that General Evans was making
preparations for a desperate onset. He was gathering his troops in a
mass behind the hill.
"Drive the Yankees into the Potomac," said General Evans, again. He had
more than two thousand men.
"There is not a moment to lose. A heavy column is behind the hill and
they are getting ready to advance," said Colonel Wistar, hastening to
Colonel Baker.
Lieutenant Bramhall was ordered to open upon them with his rifled
gun. He brought it into position and fired a round or two, but two
of his cannoneers were instantly killed and five others wounded.
Colonel Baker, Colonel Wistar, and Colonel Cogswell used the rammer and
sponges, and aided in firing it till other cannoneers arrived. Colonel
Wistar was wounded again while serving the gun. They could not reach
the main body of Rebels behind the hill, but kept the others in check
with canister as often as they attempted to advance.
The force behind the hill suddenly came over it, yelling and whooping
like savages. Colonel Baker was in front of his men, urging them to
resist the impending shock. He was calm and collected, standing with
his face to the foe, his left hand in his bosom. A man sprang from the
Rebel ranks, ran up behind him, and with a self-cocking revolver fired
six bullets into him. Two soldiers in front of him fired at the same
time. One bullet tore open his side, another passed through his skull.
Without a murmur, a groan, or a sigh, he fell dead.
But as he fell, Captain Beirel of the California regiment leaped from
the ranks and blew out the fellow's brains with his pistol.
There was a fierce and terrible fight. The Californians rushed forward
to save the body of their beloved commander. They fell upon the enemy
with the fury of madmen. They thought not of life or death. They had no
fear. Each man was a host in himself. There was a close hand-to-hand
contest, bayonet-thrusts, desperate struggles, trials of strength. Men
fell, but rose again, bleeding, yet still fighting, driving home the
bayonet, pushing back the foe, clearing a space around the body of the
fallen hero, and bearing it from the field.
While this contest was going on, some one said, "Fall back to the
river." Some of the soldiers started upon the run.
"Stand your ground!" shouted Colonel Devens.
Some who had started for the river came back, but others kept on. The
line was broken, and it was too late to recover what had been lost.
They all ran to the bank of the river. Some halted on the edge of the
bluff and formed in line, to make another stand, but hundreds rushed
down the banks to the boats. They pushed off into the stream, but the
overloaded flat-boat was whirled under by the swift current, and the
soldiers were thrown into the water. Some sank instantly, others came
up and clutched at sticks, thrust their arms towards the light, and
with a wild, despairing cry went down. Some clung to floating planks,
and floated far down the river, gaining the shore at Edward's Ferry. A
few who could swim reached the island. All the while the Rebels from
the bank poured a murderous fire upon the struggling victims in the
water and upon the bank.
Lieutenant Bramhall ran his cannon down the bank into the river,
to save them from falling into the hands of the enemy. Some of the
officers and soldiers secreted themselves in the bushes till darkness
came on, then sprung into the river and swam to the island, and thus
escaped,--reaching it naked, chilled, exhausted, to shiver through
the long hours of a cold October night. Of the seventeen hundred who
crossed the Potomac, nearly one half were killed, wounded, or captured
by the enemy.
There was great rejoicing at Leesburg that night. The citizens who had
been so frightened in the morning when they heard that the Yankees were
coming, now illuminated their houses, and spread a feast for the Rebel
soldiers. When the Union prisoners arrived in the town, the men and
women called them hard names, shouted "Bull Run," "Yankee Invaders,"
but the men who had fought so bravely under such disadvantages were
too noble to take any notice of the insults. Indians seldom taunt
or insult their captives taken in war. Civilized nations everywhere
respect those whom the fortunes of war have placed in their hands;
but slavery uncivilizes men. It makes them intolerant, imperious,
and brutal, and hence the men and women of the South, who accepted
secession, who became traitors to their country, manifested a malignity
and fiendishness towards Union prisoners which has no parallel in the
history of civilized nations.
There was great rejoicing throughout the South. It gave the leaders and
fomenters of the rebellion arguments which they used to prove that the
Yankees were cowards, and would not fight, and that the North would
soon be a conquered nation.
It was a sad sight at Poolesville. Tidings of the disaster reached
the place during the evening. The wounded began to arrive. It was
heart-rending to hear their accounts of the scene at the river bank,
when the line gave way. Hundreds of soldiers came into the lines
naked, having thrown away everything to enable them to swim the river.
The night set in dark and stormy. After swimming the river, they
had crowded along the Maryland shore, through briers, thorns, and
thistles, stumbling over fallen trees and stones in the darkness, while
endeavoring to reach their encampments. Many were found in the woods in
the morning, having fallen through exhaustion.
Thus by the incompetency of those in command, a terrible disaster was
brought about. General McClellan and General Stone were both severely
censured by the people for this needless, inexcusable sacrifice. Grave
doubts were entertained in regard to the loyalty of General Stone, for
he permitted the wives of officers in the Rebel service to pass into
Maryland and return to Virginia, with packages and bundles, whenever
they pleased, and he ordered his pickets to heed any signals they might
see from the Rebels, and to receive any packages they might send, and
forward them to his quarters.[3]
[Footnote 3: Testimony before Committee of Congress.]
When these facts became known to the War Department, General Stone
was arrested and confined in Fort Warren in Boston Harbor, but he was
subsequently released, having no charges preferred against him.
Lieutenant Putnam of the Twentieth Massachusetts, who was so young
that he was called the "boy soldier," was mortally wounded in the
battle, was carried to Poolesville, where he died the next day. He
came of noble blood. His father was descended from the ancestor of old
General Putnam, who fought the French and Indians on the shores of Lake
Champlain, who did not stop to unyoke his oxen in the field, when he
heard of the affair at Lexington, and hastened to meet the enemy.
Rev. James Freeman Clarke, at his funeral said:--
"His mother's family has given to us statesmen, sages, patriots, poets,
scholars, orators, economists, philanthropists, and now gives us also a
hero and a martyr. His great grandfather, Judge Lowell, inserted in the
Bill of Rights, prefixed to the Constitution of this State, the clause
declaring that 'all men are born free and equal,' for the purpose, as
he avowed at the time, of abolishing slavery in Massachusetts, and he
was appointed by Washington, federal judge of the district.
"His grandfather was minister of this church, [West Church, Boston,]
honored and loved as few men have been, for more than half a century.
"Born in Boston in 1840, he was educated in Europe, where he went
when eleven years old, and where in France, Germany, and Italy he
showed that he possessed the ancestral faculty of mastering easily
all languages, and where he faithfully studied classic and Christian
antiquity and art. Under the best and most loving guidance, he read
with joy the vivid descriptions of Virgil, while looking down from
the hill of Posilippo, on the headland of Misenum, and the ruins of
Cumæ. He studied with diligence the remains of Etruscan art, of which,
perhaps, no American scholar, though he was so young, knew more.
"Thus accomplished, he returned to his native land, but, modest and
earnest, he made no display of his acquisitions, and very few knew
that he had acquired anything. When the war broke out, his conscience
and heart urged him to go to the service of his country. His strong
sense of duty overcame the reluctance of his parents, and they
consented. A presentiment that he should not return alive was very
strong in his mind and theirs, but he gave himself cheerfully, and
said, in entire strength of his purpose, that 'to die would be easy in
such a cause.' In the full conviction of immortality he added, 'What is
death, mother? it is nothing but a step in our life.'
"His fidelity to every duty gained him the respect of his superior
officers, and his generous, constant interest in his companions and
soldiers brought to him an unexampled affection. He realized fully that
this war must enlarge the area of freedom, if it was to attain its true
end,--and in one of his last letters he expressed the earnest prayer
that it might not cease till it opened the way for universal liberty.
These earnest opinions were connected with a feeling of the wrong done
to the African race and an interest in its improvement. He took with
him to the war as a body servant a colored lad named George Brown, who
repaid the kindness of Lieutenant Lowell by gratitude and faithful
service. George Brown followed his master across the Potomac into the
battle, nursed him in his tent, and tended his remains back to Boston.
Nor let the devoted courage of Lieutenant Henry Sturgis be forgotten,
who lifted his wounded friend and comrade from the ground, and carried
him on his back a long distance to the boat, and returned again into
the fight.
"Farewell, dear child, brave heart, soul of sweetness and fire! We
shall see no more that fair, candid brow, with its sunny hair, those
sincere eyes, that cheek flushed with the commingling roses of modesty
and courage! Go and join the noble group of devoted souls, our heroes
and saints! Go with Ellsworth, protomartyr of this great cause of
freedom. Go with Winthrop, poet and soldier, our Korner, with sword and
lyre. Go with the chivalric Lyon, bravest of the brave, leader of men.
Go with Baker, to whose utterance the united murmurs of Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans gave eloquent rhythm, and whose words flowed so early
into heroic action. Go with our noble Massachusetts boys, in whose
veins runs the best blood of the age!"
I saw Colonel Baker often as I rode through the army. He had a great
love for his soldiers. I had a long talk with him a few days before his
death. He felt keenly the humiliations which had come upon the nation
at Bull Run, but was confident that in the next battle the soldiers
would redeem their good name.
Colonel Baker was mourned for by the whole nation. Eloquent eulogies
were pronounced upon him in the Senate of the United States. It was on
the 11th of December, and President Lincoln was present to do honor to
the dead.
Senator McDougall spoke of his noble character, his great gifts, his
love of music and poetry. Many years before they were out together upon
the plains of the West riding at night, and Colonel Baker recited the
"Battle of Ivry" as if in anticipation of the hour when he was to stand
upon the battle-field:--
"The king has come to marshal us, in all his armor drest;
And he has bound a snow-white plume upon his gallant crest.
He looked upon his people, and a tear was in his eye;
He looked upon the traitors, and his glance was stern and high.
Right graciously he smiled on us, as ran from wing to wing,
Down all our line a deafening shout, 'God save our Lord the King!'
And if my standard-bearer fall, as fall full well he may,
For never saw I promise yet of such a bloody fray,
Press where ye see my white plume shines amid the ranks of war,
And be your oriflamme to-day the helmet of Navarre."
Senator Summer said of him:--
"He died with his face to the foe; and he died so instantly that he
passed without pain from the service of his country to the service of
his God, while with him was more than one gallant youth, the hope of
family and friends, sent forth by my own honored Commonwealth. It is
sweet and becoming to die for one's country. Such a death, sudden, but
not unprepared for, is the crown of the patriot soldier's life."