few miles above Washington, to Harper’s Ferry, were held by the Federal
and secession troops respectively. Great care was taken by the
Government to defend the north bank, in order to prevent the threatened
incursion of the enemy into Maryland, from whence, aided by the disunion
sympathizers of that State, they designed to make the long contemplated
attack upon the capital. Among the troops stationed on the Potomac,
extending from Great Falls to Edwards Ferry, was the division of General
Banks; from Edwards Ferry to Conrad’s Ferry, a division under General
Stone; while Colonels Lander, Geary, and others held the line thence to
Harper’s Ferry.
On the south side of the river, two strong positions were held by the
enemy—Dranesville and Leesburg. The latter is the terminus of the Loudon
and Hampshire railroad, about five miles from the Potomac, and opposite
Edwards Ferry. The Southern commanders having determined to abandon
their design of crossing the Potomac, had commenced the withdrawal of
their troops from various points towards Manassas.
General McClellan, anxious to ascertain whether any movement of the
forces at Leesburg and Dranesville had been made, directed General
McCall, on the 18th, to push a reconnoissance in force in the direction
of Dranesville. General McCall penetrated to that town, found that the
enemy had evacuated the place, and was informed that Leesburg had also
been abandoned.
While this reconnoissance was progressing, General McClellan informed
General Stone of the fact, and directed him to make careful observations
of the movements of the enemy, to ascertain what effect was produced by
the expedition of General McCall. He also suggested that a slight
demonstration on his own part might be successful in expediting their
removal.
In obedience to these orders, General Stone, on the 20th, made a feint
of crossing the river at Edwards Ferry, while four companies of the
Fifteenth Massachusetts were sent to Harrison’s Island, in the Potomac,
situated between Edwards and Conrad’s Ferries. At ten o’clock, P. M.,
Lieutenant Howe, Quartermaster of the Fifteenth Massachusetts, reported
that Lieutenant Philbrick had returned to the island from his
reconnoissance to Leesburg, and that he had been within one mile of that
place, discovering only a small encampment of thirty tents, and without
encountering any of the enemy—no pickets being out at any distance from
their camp.
The Federal forces in that vicinity were then posted as follows:—General
Stone, with General Gorman’s brigade, Seventh Michigan, two troops of
Van Alen cavalry, and the Putnam Rangers, at Edwards Ferry; five
companies of Massachusetts Volunteers, under Colonel Devens, at
Harrison’s Island; and Colonel Lee, with a battalion of the
Massachusetts Twentieth, a section of the Rhode Island battery, and the
Tammany regiment, were sent to Conrad’s Ferry. A section of Bunting’s
New York battery was planted at Edwards and a section of Rickett’s
battery at Conrad’s Ferry.
When the report of the scouts was received, orders were sent to Colonel
Devens to march four companies to the Virginia shore, from Harrison’s
Island, and under cover of the night, take up a position near the camp
referred to, and attack it at daybreak, drive out the enemy, pursue them
as far as prudent, and return to the island. Orders were also sent to
Colonel Baker, to march the First California regiment to Conrad’s Ferry,
to arrive there at sunrise, and to have the remainder of his brigade
ready to move at an early hour.
Lieutenant-Colonel Wood, of the Fifteenth Massachusetts, was also
ordered to move with a battalion to the river bank opposite Harrison’s
Island by daybreak. Two mounted howitzers in charge of Lieutenant
Trench, of Rickett’s battery, were ordered to the tow-path of the canal
opposite Harrison’s Island.
This disposition of the troops having been made for the commencement of
the movement, it was necessary to provide the means for their
transportation across the river, which is quite rapid at this point.
Edwards Ferry is below the island, which is about three miles in length,
and Conrad’s Ferry is a short distance beyond the upper end. The island
lies about a third of the distance from the Virginia shore, while a
swift current of three hundred yards separates it from the Maryland
banks, traversed by a tow-path of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal. The
Virginia bank opposite the island is steep, and is backed by a
precipitous bluff, varying in height from eighty to one hundred and
fifty feet, covered with brush, trees and undergrowth.
There was no adequate preparation to effect the passage of troops at
these points. The means were scanty either for reinforcement, or for
retreat, if that should become necessary. On the Maryland side of
Harrison’s Island were two scows, capable of carrying thirty persons
each, which could make two trips hourly, thus conveying one hundred and
twenty men. On the Virginia side was one scow and a small boat. At
Edwards Ferry there were two scows and a ship’s yawl. With these
insufficient means of transportation an attempt was made to land the
forces on the opposite shore.
The landings at both of the ferries are good, but stretching almost the
entire distance between them is the high and steep bank known as Ball’s
Bluff, where the crossing was attempted, and which has given its name to
this bloody struggle.
Passing along and up the steep and difficult way from the landing below
the bluff until it turns at the top, the road enters an open field of
some six acres, surrounded on all sides by a forest. In this field the
battle took place, the rebel forces being posted in the woods.
At daybreak, four companies of the Massachusetts Fifteenth, under
Colonel Devens, had reached the opposite shore, and after reconnoitering
had formed their line on Ball’s Bluff, on the edge of the cornfield.
While in this position they were attacked by a considerable body of the
enemy, with whom an irregular skirmish was kept up. Colonel Baker had
during the morning been transferred from Conrad’s Ferry to Harrison’s
Island, and appointed to the command. About noon the reinforcements
began to come up, consisting of three companies of the Massachusetts
Twentieth, six hundred of the California regiment, two companies of the
Tammany regiment, with two howitzers and one rifled gun, in charge of
Lieutenant Bramhall of the New York Ninth.
In the mean time the rebels, well informed of the difficulties of the
Federal position, and only awaiting the arrival of a larger number that
they might add to the magnitude of the victory which was within their
grasp at any moment, having engaged the Federals by a series of
irregular skirmishes during the earlier part of the day, concentrated
their forces on General Baker’s command at half-past two o’clock. With a
force of three thousand men they commenced a vigorous attack from the
woods on three sides of the Federal position. A portion of Colonel
Gorman’s command at Edwards Ferry crossed over, but from want of means
of transportation could not make either their numbers or presence of
effective service.
The real battle, however, commenced on the left. Baker threw the whole
responsibility of that wing upon Wistar. The latter did not like the
appearance of the adjacent wood region, and threw forward companies A
and D of his battalion to test them. Captains Markoe and Wade, the
former well ahead, accordingly advanced on their hazardous duty; passed
through the forest to the horn-like projection of the field, crossed it,
and had arrived within ten paces of the further thicket, when a
murderous fire blazed out upon them.
The poor fellows gallantly sprang through it upon their assailants, and
were in a moment fighting in the woods. Not half of this noble band ever
came back. The rebels, taking this as a signal for the commencement of
the action, now bestirred themselves in force, and fired a terrific
volley along their whole front. Only the sheeted flash showed itself
from those frowning forests; the foe still clung to cover; but the hail
of bullets rattled against the Union lines, and many brave souls were
sent into eternity by that first fiery revelation of the enemy’s
strength. The reply was instant and extended. In a second both ends of
the field were clouded with smoke, the day’s skirmishing was over, and
the contest that was to rage so hotly for an hour had commenced its
fury.
The battle on the part of the Federals was fought heroically, and in a
true sacrificial spirit. The enemy was in force in front; he began to
creep down the treacherous sides of the enclosure; his sharpshooters
climbed the trees everywhere, picking out the stateliest and most
gallant forms for the death they so unerringly dealt. The lines thus
received a scathing fire from the front, from above, and a cross-fire at
angles right and left. All they could do in reply was to aim steadily
and swiftly at the places whence the loudest yells and deadliest volleys
proceeded. But the men dropped everywhere, and were borne by dozens to
the gory skiffs below. On the right the Massachusetts men were more than
decimated by the regular, unavoidable shower of bullets. But against the
left, where Wistar commanded, the rebels, confident of their force and
the effect of their deadly fire in front, began to make venturesome
charges, each one repelled by the gallant fire of the Californians, but
each one getting nearer the Federal lines than the last. On the fourth
charge they actually flanked the left, and sprang forth, savage and
eager, from the thicket beyond the ravine. Down this they were about to
plunge. “Hold!” cried Wistar to his men; “not a man of you must fire;”
and he dashed at the piece of one; “wait till they reach the bottom of
the ravine; then we’ll have them.”
So they charged down the hill, only to meet the most effective volley
fired on the Union side during that day. When the smoke rose their front
ranks lay fallen in the hollow of the valley of death, and the rear had
broken and fled in disorder through the forest.
Lieutenant Bramhall had posted his gun near the centre of the line, and
opened fire to the best advantage possible. When he mounted the piece,
he had eight artillerists, three riders, a corporal and sergeant. In ten
minutes, five of these were shot down; in the end, all but two were
killed, wounded or missing. Lieutenant Bramhall himself was severely
wounded, but stood by his gun. Colonel Coggswell saw the necessity of
the case, informed Colonels Wistar and Lee, Adjutant Harvey (of Baker’s
brigade), and Stewart (of General Stone’s staff, present on the field);
and those five distinguished officers and determined men manned the
piece themselves. Coggswell and Harvey, understanding the business,
would load, while Lee and Wistar were giving orders to their commands,
and spurring them into the fight; then Wistar and Stewart would wheel
the gun forward to position; Coggswell would take aim and give the word
to Harvey, who held the percussion lanyard. In this way and by these men
a dozen of the twenty rounds used were fired, doing more effect than all
the musketry volleys. When the enemy was making his fifth charge on the
left, the cannon had just been loaded and was pointed at the woods in
front. Captain Beiral, of the Californians, who was with his company
supporting the piece, exclaimed to Coggswell,
“Look to the left! look to the left!”
Coggswell saw the dark column of the rebels sweeping across the spur of
the field, wheeled the terrible gun around, and discharged it square at
their centre. The shell opened a lane through the charging force, a
score or more falling never to fight again, and the column retreated
upon the main body behind.
But the end was fast approaching. The thinning Union forces were
assailed by four times their number. From every side death stormed
upon their unsheltered bodies. Half their line officers were wounded
or killed. The undaunted leaders were also falling. Ward,
Lieutenant-Colonel of the Fifteenth, had received a frightful wound;
Coggswell was shot through the wrist; Lee, Devens, Harvey and Stewart
were still fighting sadly and in vain; a ball shattered Wistar’s sword
arm—he dropped the weapon, picked it up with his left hand, and
General Baker himself restored it to the scabbard. The shouting enemy
began to break from the wood and through the smoke upon the confused
lines. The crisis had come. There was some hand-to-hand fighting; a
few of the gray-coats got entangled with the Federal forces, who took
a prisoner and passed him to the rear; the enemy took a dozen, and
made charge after charge. Just then a body of men appeared, pressing
down from the left. The General ordered the troops around him to stand
firm, and cried, “Who are those men?” “Confederate troops!” was the
reply; and they rushed almost within bayonet distance. One of them
drew a revolver, came close to Baker, and fired four balls at the
General, every one of which took effect, and a glorious soul fled
through their ghastly openings. Captain Beiral seized the slayer by
the throat, and blew out his brains—the hero and the traitor falling
within the same minute, and face to face. In a second the enemy
swarmed over the spot. “For God’s sake, boys,” cried Adjutant Harvey,
in his hot English way, “are you going to let them have the General’s
body!”
An angry howl was the answer, and a dozen charged, with set teeth and
bayonets fixed, upon the rebels, who recoiled from the shock, and
surrendered their priceless trophy. The body of this thrice heroic man
was passed down the bluff, and safely conveyed to the island. But now
the Union lines were hopelessly disordered. The rebels came through both
the field and woods in final force. Coggswell saw that the day was lost,
and that the desperate, impossible retreat had come. So he ordered his
scattered men to retire for embarkation, and the field was given up to
the foe.
Large numbers of the Union troops had anticipated the order to retreat;
for an hour the shore had been lined with stragglers and wearied men.
Still, the reinforcing business had not ceased from the island, and
during the fiercest of the action the two boats, which were bringing
away the dead and wounded, returned from each trip laden with the
residue of the Tammany and Massachusetts regiments. The life-boat proved
a death-boat, for it swamped, from some cause, while conveying to the
battle-field the last of the Tammany companies.
[Illustration:
DEATH OF COLONEL BAKER.
]
Down the hill they came, in every direction and without order, hotly
followed by the rebels to the very edge of the descent. Then the
pursuers paused, too cautious to meet the chance of volleys from
Harrison’s Island, but throwing a plunging fire upon the retiring
loyalists, and aiming ruthlessly at the hundreds trying to swim the
rapid river channel. The tumult and agony of that headlong descent, the
clamor and crowd along the shore, the rush into one wretched skiff,
already over-laden with wounded men, which forced it beneath the surface
and brought the horror of death by water upon men who had already so
fairly faced the battle-field are beyond description. Who can depict the
wild struggle with those turbid waters, and the desperate calmness with
which each wretched soldier went down at last? Who can tell of those
who, struck down by the fire from above, slipped in their own blood upon
the clayey river bank; of those who wasted too feeble strength in
swimming half way across the cruel stream; of the shouts for help where
no help came. A few, more fiercely courageous than the rest, dragged the
cannon to the edge of the hill and plunged them over, thus rendering
them useless to the enemy. The colonels who had fought so steadily still
refused to surrender, but guarded the retreat, so far as desperate
courage could do it, to the end. Led by Coggswell and Lee, several
organized companies charged up at their tormentors, once and again
returning dangerous volleys. They kept the enemy at bay till long after
nightfall closed upon the scene. All who could pass over to the island
had escaped, and midnight was close upon them before the two colonels
and the other field officers still on the shore saw that their duty was
accomplished, and surrendered themselves and the remnant of their
commands to the enemy.
A most painful scene transpired at the sinking of the launch, in which
were some sixty wounded men, and twenty or thirty members of the
California First. The launch had been safely taken half way across the
river, when, to their utter consternation, it was discovered that it was
leaking, and the water gradually, but surely, gaining upon them. The
wounded were lying at the bottom, suffering intolerably from their
various dislocations, wounds and injuries, and all soaking in water,
which at the very start was fully four inches deep. As the water grew
deeper and rose above the prostrate forms of the wounded, their comrades
lifted them into sitting postures that they might not be strangled by
the fast rising stream. But the groans and cries, screams and moanings
of the poor fellows who were thus tortured, were most distressing and
indescribable. Despite all that could be done, the fate of the launch,
and all that were in it, with the exception of a few expert swimmers,
was sealed; suddenly, and like a flash of lightning, the fragile craft
sunk, carrying with it at least fifty dying sufferers, and some twenty
or thirty others, who had trusted their lives to its treacherous hold.
The very skies were pitiless that evening. O the misery of the black,
tempestuous night, when the rain poured down upon that narrow island
where those who escaped the flood and field were bivouacked, huddled
together and bereft of their comrades-in-arms! Scores of the dead were
guarded by sullen watchers; the wounded were tended in every possible
shelter. The river swelled in a kind of savage triumph over the havoc it
had made, its current darkling and murmuring on the east and west, while
on the opposite shore lay their dead comrades, whose white faces the
rain beat in merciless fury, but all unfelt, and far more harmless than
it fell upon the living victims.
Next morning boat loads of dead and wounded were brought from the
battle-field under a flag of truce; and a dispatch had been published in
Washington stating that General Stone had successfully thrown his force
across the Potomac, and held his position secure against any hostile
force.
The statistics of this conflict show that the total number of Federal
troops that crossed the Virginia channel was about 1,853 officers and
men. Of these 653 belonged to the Massachusetts Fifteenth, 340 to the
Massachusetts Twentieth, about 360 to the Tammany regiment, and 570 to
the first battalion of the First California. The Massachusetts Fifteenth
lost in killed, wounded, and missing 322, including a lieutenant-colonel
(wounded), and 14 out of 28 line officers who crossed. The Massachusetts
Twentieth lost in all 159, including a colonel, major, surgeon, and
adjutant (prisoners), and 8 out of 17 line officers who crossed. The
Tammany companies lost 163, including a colonel, and 7 out of 12 line
officers who crossed. The Californians lost 300, including their colonel
(the general commanding), lieutenant-colonel (wounded), adjutant, and 15
line officers out of 17 who crossed. Total engaged in the fight, 1,853;
total losses, 953; field officers crossing, 11; returning uninjured, 3;
line officers crossing, 74; returning uninjured, 30.
The troops that were successful in reaching Harrison’s Island remained
there during the night of the 21st, and on the morning of the 22d were
all passed over in safety to the Maryland shore, no attempt being made
by the rebels to interfere with the movement. The condition of many of
the men was pitiful. Some of them in their encounters with the enemy,
and in struggling through the trees and thorny undergrowth, or plunging
down the rocky steep, having been almost stripped of clothing. In a
short time they were encamped in comfortable quarters, and the wounded
were provided for with the greatest care.
Large bodies of rebel troops had been brought up to Leesburg after the
battle, to defend that point, and to make an offensive movement, if
deemed expedient. About four thousand Federals, under the command of
General Stone, occupied the Virginia shore immediately opposite Edwards
Ferry, and were in imminent danger of attack from the now rapidly
increasing force of rebels threatening their front. Generals McClellan
and Banks, who had repaired to Edwards Ferry, on the Maryland shore, and
were ready to furnish large reinforcements in the event of a general
engagement, watched with anxiety the rebel movements on the opposite
side of the river. Becoming convinced that the means of transportation
were entirely inadequate to properly reinforce General Stone’s command,
the commander-in-chief ordered a withdrawal of all the Federal forces to
the Maryland shore, which was safely accomplished on the night of the
23d.
Colonel E. D. Baker, whose death will make this battle-field immortal,
was born in England, early left an orphan, and emigrated to this
country. Few men have had a more eventful career, and few men have done
so much to win the admiration of the people. He was, without question,
one of the ablest speakers in the country; when he addressed public
audiences he thrilled them with the electricity of his eloquence, and
kindled them by his earnestness as a storm of fire sweeps over the
prairie. For many years, whether at the bar, in the Congress of the
nation, or before wild wood caucuses; in speaking to citizens, jurors,
statesmen or soldiers; on the slope of the Atlantic, in the valley of
the Mississippi, at the head of legions in Mexico, before the miners of
California, or upon the banks of the Columbia, he held a place with the
best men and finest orators in the land.
At the age of nineteen he was admitted to the bar in the State of
Illinois. Subsequently he twice represented that State in the lower
house of Congress. In 1846 he resigned in order to lead the Fourth
Illinois regiment to Mexico. At Cerro Gordo, after the fall of General
Shields, as senior Colonel he took command of the brigade, and fought
through the desperate battle in a manner that drew an especial
compliment from General Twiggs.
Returning home, he was, after his recovery from a severe wound received
on the Rio Grande, again elected to Congress. Later in life he was
connected with the Panama railroad; still later, in 1852, he removed
with his family to Oregon, where he was elected United States Senator.
The struggle for the Union came, and he hastened to New York, where his
fiery eloquence stirred the heart of its people. When they rushed
impetuously to arms, he warned the country of the magnitude of the
struggle, and was foremost in support of the Government. He was not,
however, a speaker only, but a worker as well. In a little time he had
gathered about him an effective regiment. Men from all States rushed to
fill up the ranks. Refusing to resign his position in the Senate and be
promoted to a Major-Generalship, he retained his simple title of
Colonel, and died with no higher rank.
He was killed at the head of his brigade, and with his life’s blood
sealed the vow he had made to see America a free and united people or
die in the struggle. Courageous, upright, earnest, indomitable spirits
like his can never be forgotten; they are the jewels of a nation, which
brighten as they pass into eternity. In his own words, the words that
from his eloquent lips rung over the grave of Broderick, let us give him
to immortality.
“True friend and hero, hail and farewell!”
BATTLE AT CAMP WILD CAT, KY.
OCTOBER 21, 1861.