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

U.S. Presidents with Confederate Ties-- Part 4: John Tyler's Children

John Tyler was busy having children of his own and, plenty of them.  His first wife died during his administration in September 1842, and he remarried a woman thirty years his junior in 1844.  In all, he fathered 15 children in his life, some at the age of 70.

One of his sons was  an assistant secretary of war for the Confederacy.  Another was the register of the Confederate Treasury.  At least three other sons served in the Confederate Army.

From Find a Grave

Robert Tyler--  Register of Treasury

John Tyler, Jr.  Colonel in Confederate Army and Assistant Secretary of War

Tazewell Tyler served as a Confederate surgeon

David Gardiner Tyler was a private in the Confederate Army

--Old Secesh

Fort Wool in Chesapeake Bay-- Part 3: An Association With U.S. Presidents

Continued from December 30, 2020.

Fort Wool has a little-known association with U.S. presidents.

President Andrew Jackson, broken-hearted after the death of his wife and in ill-health, came to Fort Wool in the late 1820s and 1830s and, in effect, made the fort into his "White House."  He built a hut on the island and spent time watching ships pass by.

He even made key policy decisions from there.  Ironically, his Secretary of War, John C. Calhoun, had become the president's arch rival at this time, by threatening to pull South Carolina out of the Union.  This was a move that Jackson effectively squelched, at least for the time being.

In the mid-1840s, President  John Tyler took sanctuary on the island after the death of his first wife.

President Abraham Lincoln also visited the island.

--Old Secesh

Jacob "Howling Wilderness" Smith-- Part 6: Appointments Revoked, Legal Problems and a Court Martial

Jacob Smith then wrote a letter to the secretary of  war painting himself as a gullible dupe, explaining the recruiting ploy in detail and saying the only thing he was guilty of was using other people's money for his own profit.  All of his creditors, though, had been repaid and no recruits had not received their bounties.

But, unfortunately, all of the witnesses to his story were either dead or had left the country.  Also, he had destroyed or lost all of his bank accounts for the period in question.

The secretary of war did not buy Smith's story and Smith's temporary  appointment as judge advocate was revoked.

There were other Smith-related problems throughout the rest of the century, including a run-in with a colonel and several legal problems with creditors.  He was court martialed in  in 1885 "for conduct unbecoming an officer" for deeds done at the "Mint Saloon" in Texas.

Then came the Spanish-American War and occupation of the Philippines.  For this story go to my May Cooter's History Thing blog.

Quite a Character.  --Old Secesh

Jacob "Howling Wilderness" Smith-- Part 5: Judge Advocate Joseph Holt Gets Involved

At the time of his father-in-law's bankruptcy case, Jacob Smith had been given  a temporary judge advocate  assignment with the army that he hoped he could turn into a permanent position.  One of the parties in the bankruptcy case informed Joseph Holt, Judge Advocate of the U.S. Army, about Smith's bounty brokerage scheme and he began checking into  it.

Smith wrote a letter to Holt attempting to cast the scheme in a sympathetic light.  He said he had been in seven engagements and wounded at the Battle of Shiloh, wrapping himself in the flag.

Furthermore, he stated that he was "one who took  upon himself all the odium that the rebels and conservatives of Louisville, Kentucky, heaped upon him, by being the first officer, to my knowledge, who commenced  mustering into service the colored man in Kentucky during the year 1863."  Smith went on to say that he had scoured the  prisons, jails and workhouses to find recruits.  His only aim was to serve God and his country properly.

He did admit to speculating, but said that others had made three times as much money as he had and that he had not defrauded anyone.

Holt did not accept Smith's story and submitted papers to the Secretary of War with recommendations that it be turned over to the United States Senate Committee on Military Affairs.who had the authority to confirm the permanent judge advocate position that Smith sought.

The Secretary of War at the time was either Edwin M. Stanton, John M. Schofield or John A. Rawlins as the article didn't give a date for this.

Find out what happened in the next post.

Imagine Smith As A Judge Advocate With This Record.  --Old Secesh

General John McAllister Schofield

John Schofield was born September 29, 1831.

While a major and Chief of Staff for General Nathaniel Lyons at the Battle of Wilson's Creek close to Springfield, Missouri, he received a Congressional Medal of Honor for leading a regiment against the Confederates. However, he did not receive it until 1892. A total of five Union soldiers received the MOH at Wilson's Creek which is also called the Battle of oak Hills and sometimes referred to as the Bull Run of the West.

As a general, he took part in the Atlanta Campaign with General Sherman, then, as commander of the Army of the Ohio, seriously damaged Hood's Army of the Tennessee at the Battle of Franklin, and took part in the victory at Nashville.

He then moved his corps by rail and water to fort Fisher, NC, in 17 days. He led the Union forces in the campaign against Wilmington, NC, occupying it on February 22, 1865. He then joined Sherman at Goldsboro, NC.

After the war, he was interim Secretary of War when President Johnson was able to remove nemesis Edwin M. Stanton from that post. He served until John Rawlings could be confirmed.

As stated yesterday, General Schofield went to Hawaii and determined that Pearl Harbor would make a strategic harbor for the navy. Then, in1908, Schofield Barracks Army Base was established and named in his honor,

From 1876 to 1881, Schofield was Superintendent of the US Military Academy at West Point. From 1888 to 1895 he was commanding general of the US Army. Even today, cadets have to memorize a long quotation by him.

He diedMarch 4, 1906 in St. Augustine, Florida, and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

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