The Battle of Ball's Bluff - Cruise this weekend

[Jeff V]

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The Battle of Ball's Bluff

The Battle of Ball’s Bluff was fought on October 21, 1861 and was the result of a mistake.

The previous evening, Captain Chase Philbrick, Co. H, 15th Massachusetts, had led a small reconnaissance patrol across the river to determine whether Union troop movements earlier in the day had had any effect on Confederate forces in Leesburg. About a mile from Ball’s Bluff, Philbrick spotted what he thought was an enemy camp and hurried back across the river to report this to his commanding officer, Col. Charles Devens.

Colonel Devens passed this information to his division commander, Brig. Gen. Charles P. Stone, who saw it as an opportunity. He ordered Colonel Devens immediately to cross over half of his regiment and, as soon as it was light enough to see, proceed inland and raid the camp.

Shortly after dawn, Devens’ 300-man raiding party moved into position only to discover that there was no camp. In the uncertain moonlight, Captain Philbrick had been deceived by a row of trees, the drooping branches of which gave the appearance of tents. With nothing to raid, Colonel Devens decided to remain where he was and sent a messenger to General Stone asking for further instructions. It was this decision to stay, coming out of Captain Philbrick’s faulty report, which led to the battle. Though usually presented as a deliberate, pre-planned attempt by the Federals to take Leesburg, Ball’s Bluff in fact was an accident.

On hearing of the mistake about the tents, General Stone ordered Colonel Devens to reconnoiter closer to Leesburg. He sent Devens the rest of the 15th Massachusetts and gave command of this expanded reconnaissance to one of his brigade commanders, Col. Edward D. Baker. Colonel Baker, a close friend of President Lincoln, also was Senator Baker of Oregon and, later that day, would become the only U.S. Senator ever killed in battle.

Unknown either to Stone or Baker, Devens’ original raiding party had engaged pickets of the 17th Mississippi at 8:00 a.m. just as word was being given to General Stone that there was no camp to raid and all was quiet. About 10:00, while on his way to take command of the mission given to him by General Stone, Colonel Baker heard of the fighting and realized that this mission would be no mere reconnaissance.

Hurriedly and without first evaluating the situation, Baker began sending troops across the river. During the hours in which Union soldiers slowly were being shuttled to the Virginia side, Confederate commander Colonel Nathan “Shanks” Evans moved Southern troops to meet them. Colonel Devens’ men clashed twice more with that growing Confederate force. During a lull around 2:00 p.m., Devens pulled his men back to the bluff where he found Colonel Baker who only just had come across himself.

Though the opposing numbers were almost equal, Baker’s scratch force was bottled up at one end of the clearing atop the bluff. Mostly in the open, with their backs to the bluff and very little room to maneuver due to the rough and heavily-wooded ravines and ridges around the clearing, the Union soldiers effectively were trapped .

By then, the 15th Massachusetts had been joined by elements of the 20th Massachusetts, 1st California, and 42nd New York, along with three artillery pieces from New York and Rhode Island. Gradually coming up to face them were the 8th Virginia, the 17th and 18th Mississippi, and a company of the 13th Mississippi. Beginning about 2:30-3:00, the fighting became almost continuous and often hand-to-hand until shortly after dark. The two forces slugged it out in a confused melee that saw individual companies and battalions advance and retreat in see-saw fashion across the clearing that covered the ground between the current national cemetery and parking lot.

Colonel Baker was killed between 4:30 and 5:00 p.m. There are many stories about how he died but no firm historical consensus. Col. Milton Cogswell of the 42nd New York then took over a