Ten Facts About Battle of Ball's Bluff-- Part 8: Who Was to Blame?

Fact 8:  Both Stone and McClellan blamed  Col. Edward Baker  for the tremendous loss.

When called before the Joint Committee, Charles Stone testified that he had given Edward Baker the responsibility to decide whether to send more troops across the river or to withdraw the ones already there.  By sending reinforcements, Stone argued, "Colonel Baker chose to bring battle."

General McClellan agreed.  After hearing  Stone's version of the events, McClellan publicly exonerated Stone from any blame and published in an army circular that "the disaster was caused by errors committed by the immediate commander [Baker]."

Although Stone and McClellan both  testified that Baker was the cause of the defeat, Stone remained the popular scapegoat for the failure.  When Stone was called to appear before the Joint Committee, they laid the blame  on him.  Stone was the friend of McClellan, a known Democrat, and his word amounted to little for the abolitionist Radical Republicans who dominated the committee.

They accused Stone of disloyalty to the Union, and Stone was arrested on February 8, 1862,  on the orders of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.  He was taken to Fort Lafayette, a prison designated for known Confederate  sympathizers, where he was held in solitary confinement without trial.

With no charges filed against him, Stone was released after six months, and Stanton ordered him demoted to colonel. and kept out of field work.  In 1864, Stone resigned from  the army.

--Old Secesh

10 Facts Battle of Ball's Bluff-- Part 4: The Famed California Regiment Wasn't Actually from California

#5:  Ball's Bluff was the first major battle of the famed California Regiment.

Funded by Californians,  the 1st California Regiment was part of an effort to keep California in the Union by encouraging California men from across the United States to enlist in the regiment.  The regiment, however, was Californian in name only; not only was it led by  Colonel Baker, a senator from Oregon, but the regiment was raised primarily in Philadelphia, resulting in a regiment where the majority of the men were native Pennsylvanians.

After Baker's death, the regiment was renamed the  71st Pennsylvania Volunteers, and went on to see action at  Antietam, Fredericksburg and Gettysburg, where they participated in the famous repulse of Pickett's Charge at the Bloody Angle.

Old Secesh

Ten Facts Battle of Ball's Bluff-- Part 3: A Big Defeat and Loss of Col. Baker

Eventually, the Confederates under Evans forced the Union forces off the bluff and into the Potomac River.  Here again, a shortage of boats took a toll on the Union forces.  Those who did not surrender would have to swim across the river and many drowned in the attempt.

The shocking disparity of casualties made the Union defeat all the more resounding.  The Federal Army suffered over 1,000 casualties while the Confederates less than 160.

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FACT #4:  The only sitting Member of Congress to be killed in battle died at Ball's Bluff.

Senator Edward  Dickinson Baker of Oregon and a close personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, became  a colonel when he was chosen to lead the California Regiment in May 1861.  He was assigned to  Brig. Gen. Stone's division stationed on the Potomac River.

On the morning of October 21, 1861,  Baker learned of Devin's raiding party into what they thought was a rebel camp and went to Stone to be briefed.  Stone, not yet knowing about the skirmish, ordered Baker to Ball's Bluff to take command of the reconnaissance and to evaluate whether to send in more troops or withdraw.

When Baker learned about the skirmish, he ordered all available troops forward and crossed the river to Ball's Bluff himself in midafternoon.  About 4 pm, he was struck simultaneously in the heart and brain by four bullets and died instantly.

--Old Secesh

Battle of Ball's Bluff-- Part 4: The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War

The Battle of Ball's Bluff led to the creation of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, the bane of many a Union officer.  (I can't help but chuckle thinking about the story of Benjamin Butler appearing before the committee after the mess at Fort Fisher.  Supposedly he was in the middle of testifying that the fort could not be taken when news of its fall reached Washington, D.C.)

Both Brigadier General Charles P. Stone and McClelland blamed Col. Edward Baker for the tremendous loss.  But the committee, made up of members of the U.S. Congress were not about to place the blame on one of their own.

So, the committee went after Stone and had him arrested and confined for six months.  In the end, this ruined Stone's military career..

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**   A good question was brought up by one of the people in attendance and that was "Was the California Brigade made up of mostly men from California?"

Answer:  The California Brigade was kind of a misnomer as very few were from California.  Some had been out to California and returned.  Most of the men were from Philadelphia and New York City.

**  West Point grads had problems commanding such large numbers of troops as were now in uniform for the war.  Before that, most had never commanded more than a company or regiment at most.

**  Stone engineered the base of the Statue of Liberty.

--Old Secesh