In the first line of the trilogy, a book called Mr. Lincoln’s
Army, he described the seemingly quite but ultimately tremulous fall of 1861 as “an
era of suspicion.” As I was preparing this lecture I thought a lot about that. He describes
in Mr. Lincoln’s Army what he means by that. He says, “It was a Civil War, a war not between
men of two nations but between men of two beliefs, two philosophies, and two ways of
considering human society. The opposing beliefs were not sharply defined and clear so that
no man could mistake which camp he belonged in. On the contrary, there were a dozen gradations
of belief leading from one to the other, and a man might belong in one camp on one issue
and in the other camp on the other issue and the very word “loyalty” might mean loyalty
to a flag, to a cause, or to a belief in some particular social and political theory.
Treason might mean disloyalty to any of these. As I am preparing this lecture
I thought a lot about this quote, loyalty, and the word treason and what those might
have meant in the year of 1861. They were particularly important to General Charles
P. Stone. We will begin with him. In the middle of the night, 8th of February 1862, first
winter of the American Civil War Charles Stone, 37 years old, a native of Massachusetts and
a Brigadier general of volunteers is arrested in front of his headquarters in Washington,
D.C. For Charles Stone that arrest was shocking and to a degree unanticipated and embarrassing
because the man arresting him was a good friend of his. A man by the name of George Sikes,
who will go on to command the 5th Corp. here at the Battle of Gettysburg. Neither Stone
nor Sikes knew why the arrest was happening. Only that it had been ordered by George McCullum
and that Stone was to be sent to Fort Lafayette in New York harbor. Which is this lonely stone
and brick island fortress normally reserved for secessionists. The next morning before
he is carted off to Fort Lafayette, Stone writes to the General of the Army of the Potomac. To find out why he has been arrested. He would write, “I had supposed there was some strange misunderstanding, which all
connected with the government and army would be happy to have cleared up.” Yet, Stone
received no answer. That night he is boarded on the night train, from
Washington D.C to New York City. In Philadelphia there is a mix up with the train tickets and
Stone ends up having to pay his own way to prison. Which is a further embarrassment to
him. 24 hours after his is arrested he finds himself in solitary confinement at Fort Lafayette
deprived of his money, his personal belongings, and his freedom. Denied the reason for his
arrest and more importantly he was denied his honor and sense of being a loyal solider
for the government. You could argue that no man in 1861 or very few anyways had been more
loyal to the government than Stone. West Point graduate, he served in the Mexican War where he heard two
brevets for gallantry. He resigned from the Army in 1856 but during the secession crises
he is one of the first to rejoin the cause of the Union. He is commissioned to brigadier
General on January 2, 1861 by Winfield Scott. It would be Charles Stone who oversaw the
defense of the Capitol in 1861 when the nation is panicked over the safety of Washington
D.C. It would be Charles Stone who oversaw the security of Lincoln’s Inauguration.
Few soldiers had demonstrated their loyalty to the Union more than Charles Stone, the
man in solitary confinement. Now, February of 1862 Stone is considered to be a trader
and our question is the same one that Stone had. How did this come about? Why was this
happening? Why was Stone’s loyalty to the government called to question? Our answer
can be found in a small battle, 25 miles from D.C on the VA side of the Potomac near Leesburg
and Loudon county VA. Named for the 150 foot high wooden bluff much of the fighting happened, the Battle of Balls Bluff, fought
on the October 21, 1861. When compared to other battles from 1862 – 1865 this was
a relatively small affair. Soldiers outside of Petersburg in 1864 probably wouldn’t
have even commented on it, it was so small. It was an evenly matched battle. Both sides
brought about 1,700 men each to the fight. It was like Gettysburg not a planned or intended.
It was brought on by misinformation and waged without a clear purpose. It ended with a disaster
for the Union that in least in the minds of the American people, Congress, the press, and Lincoln administration rivaled the disaster after Bull Run and the Union defeat there. The casualties
at Ball’s Bluff are absurdly lopsided. Union suffered about 85% about 900 men wounded, killed,
missing, injured, captured. The Confederates suffered about 150 casualties. While the battle
was short in duration while it was overall small in size. When we look at the battle
through the lens of 1861 the battle rivaled some of the human costs some of the biggest
battles of the American Revolution. The of the War of 1812, the Mexican American War. So what is small to us today was big to the people in 1861.
The real importance of the battle doesn’t have to do with the human costs rather how this
one battle would reverberate. How it would change the way the Armies of the United States would wage the civil war. I think for Stone drew into a better definition what it meant to be a loyal General
during the American Civil war. I think it told Stone and the other commanders of the
Army of the Potomac that it was not enough to be loyal of the U.S you had to be the right
kind of loyal. You had to be willing to prosecute the war in the right kind of way. The way that would ultimately be shaped and influenced by the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. The Battle of Ball’s
Bluff has it’s origin in the aftermath of the battle of Bull Run, fought July 21, 1861.
Three months to the day before Balls Bluff. As we know Bull Run is a disaster for the
Union Army that fought there. It was not long after that Major General George B. McClellan
would take command of Union forces outside of Washington D.C. He had won a couple small battles in Western Virginia and rose to prominence very quickly. In the late summer early fall
of 1861 he goes to work trying to transform the soldiers into the Union army. Ultimately
he will create one of the greatest forces on the continent and would name it the Army
of the Potomac. By 1861 McClellan had an army of about 100,000 men well organized but untried in the heat of battle. These men had been organized in 11 different divisions posted in front of Washington D.C
and along the length of the Potomac River. The winding line in the center of the slide is
the Potomac river everything North is MD and everything South is VA. McClellan and his army were opposed
by 40,000 men commanded by Joseph E. Johnston. In typical McClellan fashion he thinks the
army he is opposed is far larger than his own. Johnston had debated going on the offensive
after Bull Run but his army is disorganized after the victory and he realizes he is outnumbered.
He ends up settling near Centerville and by mid-October his command is debating going into winter
quarters. To the northwest Johnston had positioned a single brigade near Leesburg, Louden County, commanded by Colonel Evans he had the responsibility of guarding not only the road network at Leesburg
but also for the river crossings on the upper Potomac: Point of Rocks, Edwards Ferry, and a number of others. His men are mostly Mississippians 13th, 17th, 18th, and also the 8th Virginia commanded by Eppa Hunton. Small Calvary force a few pieces of artillery. All totaled about
3,000 men under his command. Evans was a South Carolinian a West Point graduate one of the hero of the
battle of Bull Run as far as the Confederates are concerned. He was nicknamed Shanks
because of his wirey knuck knee legs. He was what we would call today a high functioning
alcoholic. He was fawn of whiskey but he could be a formidable adversary. Which
was certainly the case in 1861. For McClellan the Confederate force at Leesburg was particularly
problematic. As long as those forces on the Upper Potomac were contested theoretically
the Confederates could use them to launch across the river. If that happens in front
of Leesburg that is the right flank of McClellans line. McClellan is concerned if that happens
his positioned could be unhinged. Likewise, if the Union army controlled those they could
launch an offensive into norther VA. The point is those fordes are important to both sides. To guard
that important sector of his line McClellan turned to Charles Stone. McClellan at the point had
unbounded faith in Stone. McClellan would later write “he was a charming amutable
man honest brave a good soldier though occasionally carried away by his chivalrous ideas.” McClellan
made Stone a division commander and trusted him with about 6,500 men known as the Corps
of Observation. They were stationed around Poolesville, MD and they would pick at the Potomac, keeping a watchful eye on Confederates on the other side of the river. His assignment was an unenviable one. All his men under him were new at battle. Virtually,
every single Union Solider at Balls Bluff it will be their first time in combat. When they fire their weapon it will be the first time in anger. When they see a wounded soldier they are seeing blood for the first time. Another challenged for Stone was the fact his command was located entirely in the state of Maryland, a Union and slave state. A state with dividing conflicting sympathies. Runaway slaves would enter his lines occasionally seeking
shelter and protection of Union Army. Stone was admit that by law the slaves had to be
returned to their masters. Now a lot of the men under Stone's command were New Englander and while not all were abolitionist many didn’t like playing the role of slave catcher.
This leads to a problematic relationship between Stone and some of the men under his command.
When some of the Massachusetts soldiers continue to protect slaves he issued a general warning them to not encourage others to escape. He was strict displinary and ill-suited to work with volunteers. He
prided himself that even though he was from Massachusetts he escaped untainted by abolitionists.
He was kind of like McClellan conservative a war democrat but not interested in conducting
hard war policy against the confederates. He is not about a war that would free slaves
but about a war that would preserve the union. All of these things will come back to bite
him. Through September and into October the opposing pickets occasionally exchanged fire but more
likely than not they established an informal truces swapping tobacco and newspapers. For
a time it was truly all quiet on the Potomac. That was in the opinion of many in Washington D.C the
exact problem. McClellan created a huge army and was hesitant to use it. Lincoln, Congress,
the American people demanded action. McClellan is now under immense political pressure to use the
army he forged but he still believes they are outnumbered by 3 times. Conviction that
is wrong but in McClellan that is what he is getting from his intelligence and is feeding
into his preconceived notions about things. There are untested army that is very much
true. By mid-October McClellan sense an opportunity he gets word that perhaps the Confederate force in Leesburg ,under Evans, has moved or been reduced. Perhaps these conderates are falling back all together. If this was true
Union could take the city without firing a shot. That fits with McClellan’s warfare,
a ware heavily focused on maneuver and seize. A kind of warfare not focused on pitch battles.
McClellan will send one of his division, the division of George McCall of the Pennsylvania Reserves. Located essentially where the CIA building is today in Langley, VA. He orders them to head to Drainsville which is halfway from Washington, D.C and Leesburg. He is hoping this pressure will cause Evans to fall back aiding his way to take Leesburg or
offer his topographical engineers to map that stretch of Northern VA that hadn't been well mapped yet. This is not ended to be an extended stay. His orders were to head to Drainsville, make his maps, get a feel of what is going on in Leesburg but then return to Langley the next day. This is again not an extended thing. In reality, Evans had moved
for a brief period but rather than recall when McClellan started to move Evans was very
much still in the city. Rather than retreating what Evans does is move his command to face McCall putting himself between McClellan and the town. The morning of October 20 the Union
signal station at Sugarloaf Mountain not far outside of Fredrick. They report to McClellan
that the Confederates abonded Leesburg they have pulled back they can’t see them anymore. Now the reason for that we know, Evans moved to confront McClellan but he doesn’t know
that the fog of war has settled over the Potomac and now McClellan is in a position to do what
happens all the time he has to make a decision based on a lack of information. That morning
McClellan telegraphed Stone at Stone's headquarters in Poolesville. McClellan will tell Stone that
McCall was at Drainesville and to keep a clear eye on Leesburg and perhaps a slight
demonstration on your part would have the effect to move them. What I want you to do
for one second is put yourself in Stone's shoes both McClellan and Lee gave there subordinates, in this case Stone, an order lacking in specifics. What does this slight demonstration mean to Stone? He has to flush that out for himself. Ultimately he decides to make a move on Edwards Ferry. Very important river crossing that’s where he will make his slight demonstration he will
bombard the other shore and send a couple companies across but other than that that’s
all he is gong to do. Father up stream on an island, called Harrison's Island, is the 15th Massachutes and they are picketing the river. Stone will order Colonel Devens of the 15th Massachusetts to order a scouting operation. Have
men cross river and check out what’s going on in Leesburg. There is Harrisons Island.
That job falls to Chase Philbrick. He has 20 men in his Company H and is part of the 15th Massachusetts. He will be the one to conduct his scouting operation. The men under him
will face what every union soldier that fights at Balls Bluff is going to face and that is
to get across he river. That will take a long time the Potomac is high there, the current swift, and
you can only cross by boat. By the time his men have gotten across its dark and night
has settled over the battlefield. He is going to cross the river, go up a step wooden bluff that rises 150 feet through river, he is going to use a small cart path to do it. From there
he is going to go into the woods. He going to get to a field that reaches to the edge
of Leesburg. Now remember it is dark these men are rookies this is there first time into the Confederate
country side. You can just image these men they're nervous, it's dark out, they are on the Confederate side of the river. Every sound and shadow must have must have just hung ominously over this group of 20 men as they pushed inwards. Philbrick is going to get to the edge of the woods pushes his way
to the edge he looks across the field and he sees 30 Confederate tents through the darkness. Now he has to decide what to do and he falls back all the way to Harrison Island. By that
evening Charles Stone hears word there is an unguarded Confederate camp at Balls Bluff. Stones demonstration at Edwards Ferry had achieved nothing. There was no real to do at Edwards Ferry. Here at this unguarded camp Stone see's an opportunity. He later writes,
"This was precisely one of those pieces of carelessness on the part of the enemy that
ought to be taken advantage of." Stone sends word to Charles Devens to cross the river
with five companies go back up the bluff through the woods to the field and destroy the Rebel camp. That is essentially what happens Here is Charles Devens. He takes his five companies
and he is going to be supported by two companies of the 20th of Massachusetts. He knows not
far away are other Union regimens. The 1st California we know them better as 71st Pennsylvania and the 42nd NY. Once he has destroyed the camp he is to return to Maryland or if he finds a good position he can stay on the defensive but he is to use a bit of his own discretion.
Again takes a long time to cross all the men over the river. By the time they reach the
Virginia shore its 5am. It was a cold night the men in the 15th Massachuettes were told to
leave their overcoats behind and were told it would be warm enough by morning. Devens
goes up the bluff and through the woods. He gets to the edge of that wood line looks in
the field where the camps should be but instead of tents he see a row of trees. The reconeses
from Philbrick was mistaken there was no camp just trees. Again, these guys were all new,
so maybe through the darkness they thought they saw Confederate tents. Charles Devens is in a bit of a conundrum. What is he going to do? He could fall back or stay there is
no Confederate camp to destroy. With 150 odd years of hindsight the practical thing for Devens
to have done is fall back to the bluff and cross back the Potomac river. He has no Confederate troops in front of him. He decides to stay and set up on ridge line and hold defensive position and send word to Stone. This all
happens at about 7am. Devens tells Stone there is no camp and he will stay where he is. Now lets go back to the bluff for a minute. As I mentioned the 15th Massachusetts was going to be supported by two companies of the 20th Massachusetts. Sometimes called the Harvard regmime commanded
by Col. William Lee. So they are on the bluff. Now this is the open field that I talked about that is right at the lip of the bluff and this is roughly were those two companies are positioned. As
light illuminates the battle field men of 20 Massachusetts look around they have the Bluff to their backs
open field to the fronts with trees and ravines surrounding them. Col. William Lee orders
men to probe either side of open field. No sooner did they do that they run into Confederate pickets. These are men under William Duff, Mississippians, a brief fire fight happens and a Sargent of the 20th Massachusetts gets wounded, shot in the arm, and for the men of the 20th Massachusetts who hear the sound of gun fire who were kind of blissfully ignorant of what is going on well to their
front, This sargent is the first wounded man they have ever seen. All the sudden a realization
sweeps through the ranks of the 20th Massachusetts. The men they had incountered again were men of
the 20th Mississippi led by that captain named Duff. Duff is going to be quick to communicate to his superiors and eventually all the way back to Nathan Evans that there are Union
troops at Balls Bluff. There are Union troops in there front. Nathan Evans does a masterful job on October 21 of shuffling Confederate troops to this battle field so that not long after 7am in the morning the 15 Massachusetts is going to be subjected to mounting pressure as Confederates start to duel with his men. So Union troops have taken Balls Bluff, the 15th Massachusetts about a mile from the river. A little before 7am they hadn’t run into anyone but now after 7am they definitely have Confederates in their front. It isn’t until 830am that Charles Stone at Edwards Ferry will get Devens original note that there is no Confederate camp and no Confederates and he was staying put. Now Stone is two or three steps
behind what is actually happening on Balls Bluff and makes a decision. He assumes theres no fighting at Balls Bluff so he reinforces Devens position and sends over all the 15
Massachusetts and all the 20th Massachusetts so about 1000 Union men will now be at Balls Bluff. He also makes one other decision. There is a Col. by the name of Edward Baker. This is the situation at Balls Bluff at about 11am when all of the 15th and all of the 20th of Massachusetts are across the river. Edward Baker is a name more closely associated with the battle
of Balls Bluff more than anyone who fights there. Born in England comes to the United
States at age 4, moved to Illinois, hes a lawyer passed the bar by the age of 30. He served
briefly in the Mexican American war but beyond that he had no real military experience. He owes his position to two things he was a sitting United States Senator from Oregon and he had raised a lot of Union troops for the cause and that he was close friends with Abraham Lincoln. As a matter of fact Lincoln names his second son after Baker and they ride to the inauguration together.
Stone sends Baker to Balls Bluff. To take over the situation and essentially be Stones eyes and ears be the acting commander on the field. Again Baker has a bit of discretion
again both of these guys think there has been no fighting so Baker can throw more men across the river or pull everybody back. The biggest challenge that Union troops at Balls Bluff
are going to face is really the defining feature of the battle field itself. For the
Union Army it’s not the Bluff it’s the Potomac river. Crossing troops from MD to
Harrisons Island and from the Island to Virginia takes a lot of time and for almost the
entirety of the battle the Union high command is shuttling troops across the river and really
only a handful of boats they have one big flat boat that holds 50 people and two smaller boats that can hold 10 men. So every time your trying to move from Maryland to Virginia you have to shuttle these guys across. By 11 o'clock or so Stone and Baker realize there is fighting going on at Balls Bluff. Stone telegraphs McClellan telling him. They think there is about 4,000 Confederates at the front but Stone will tell
McClellan the biggest problem they have had so far is they were short of boats. What Baker does is dedicate himself and time to finding more boats. He spent four hours doing it. Actually, at one point he spends the bulk of his time supervising lifting the boat out of the canal to be put in the river which could have been done by a Sargent, Col., or Liuetent. Meanwhile, at Balls Bluff
the 15th Massachusetts is under more pressure Charles Devens sends about three messages back to Baker back to Stone asking for reinforcements it’s not until 2 o'clock that Baker himself crosses the river, climbs the bluff, and surveys the situation. By this point more Confederates have arrived, a good portion of the 8th Virginia, essentially the entirety of the 17th, and 18th Mississippi you have Confederate cavalry now descending on what is becoming very crowded Balls Bluff for the Union army . Initially Baker is pretty optimistic
about what he sees he climbs up the bluff and one of the first men he sees is Col. William Lee of the 20th Massachusetts and he says, "I congratulate you upon the prospect of the battle." A more experienced solider than Baker probably would have looked at not an optimistic situation but a very
bleak situation and it doesn’t take Baker long to realize he isn’t going to be launching
any kind of defensive from Balls Bluff if anything he has got to form a defensive position at the lip of the Bluff. That’s what he does. Meanwhile, the Confederates, primarily from the 8th Virginia and the two Mississippi regiments, are going to use the woods around that open field to literally just pepper these crowded Union soldiers at the Bluff with riffle fire.
Not long after at about 2:30 more Union troops arrive at Balls Bluff. This is the 42nd New York or at least a part of them. Commanded by a guy named Milton Cogswell. By this point union troops have gotten artillery to the top of the Bluff. Major from the 20th Massachusetts named Paul Revere somehow gets two mountain howser the top and one riffled gun from the 1st Road Island. Cogswell and Baker are now going to survey the situation again one that is looking worse and worse. Again the Confederates are what
I call very heavy skirmishing they are peppering the Union troops on the Bluff. The men of
the 20th Massachusetts that day had crossed the river in very heavy over coats and as the day got warmer they hung those coats on the trees behind them and by this time most of the men of the 20th Massachusetts are lying down and a number of men would remember their jackets hanging from the trees
were riddled with riffle fire from the Confederates in front of them. The problem is by 2:30 there is not room for Union troops at the Bluff and it is such a small contained area so some
men of the 20th Massachusetts and 1st California and the 42nd New York can't fire because they have other Union troops
in front of them. Meanwhile, the Confederates encircle their position. By 3 o'clock more Confederate troops arrive and causalities amongst the Union high command, the officers, really starts to take its toll. The gentlemen on the left Isaac Wister he is in the 1st California and 71st Pennsylvania is serverly wounded
and taken off the Bluff. The gentlemen on the right, Oliver W. Holmes, is from the 20th Massachusetts and was hit twice by Confederate fire and taken off the Bluff. But the biggest lost happens a little latter
between 4:30 and 5:00 when Edward Baker is killed. He is hit by 8 rounds was taken off the bluff, carried across the Potomac river, and now the Union defense is without a leader. There is some confusion on who should take
over. It is a debate between Col. William Lee of the 20th Massachusetts and Milton Cogswell of the 42nd New York. These two men have drastically different ideas about what should be done next. Lee believes they should retreat and get across the river. Cogswell thinks that would be a disaster and the only way
to get out is to cut there way out and get to Edwards Ferry three or four miles down
the river on the Virginia side. Ultimately, Cogswell takes over and tries to organize this breakout operation but as he does that he throws the Union troops on the Bluff into disarray. There is a fair amount
of contained panic going on. The Confederates can see this and seize upon it. Eppa Hunton from the 8th Virginia will charge across that open field and actually take those two mountain howitzers that Union troops have dragged to the top. There's that riffle gun and Union troops in a panic to try to get the gun keep it out of the hands of the Confederates by rolling it down the Bluff but it gets caught on some trees. This gentlemen Winfield Scott Featherson sees the Union line shaking and quivering and orders his men to charge shouting out “Charge MIssisippians Charge! Drive them into the Potomac or into eternity.
At the point panic insues and the Union defensive line at Balls Bluff collapses and it turns
into every man for themselves. Union troops slide, jump, run down the bluff and they discover at that point the same problem getting to Balls Bluff is the same problem leaving, there are not enough boats. Again, panic insues and it becomes every man for themselves the largest
boat is over corwded it topples and sinks. The other boats are riddled with Confederate fire and sink. Dozens of men drown in the river at this point. Meanwhile, Confederates at the top of the bluff are raining fire down on the Union troops. Charles Devens ends up throwing his
sword in the river and grabs onto a log floating down the Potomac and swims his way across.
Some of the officers of the 20th Massachusetts, huddling under the bluff, tried to use sword belts and fence rails to make a raft and it falls apart in the river. Paul Revere is captured. Milton Cogswell is captured. William Lee is captured. It is turning into an absolute debacle getting across the river. Very typical in the aftermath of the cross is the name of a captain named Alois Babos a German immigrant and a friend of his Lt. Wesselhoff. Alois tried to swim across the river but by mid stream he was shot so Wesselhoff tries to swim to save him but drowns. Alois's body is never found. 13 days after the battle
at Great Falls they find Wesselhoff's body lodged in the rocks by this point he is so
decomposed he is only indentifiable by dental work and the shoes he was wearing that day.
Both of those men share a common stone in a cemetery outside Washington D.C today. That is a typical scenario of what happens when Union troops try to cross the river. By 6:30 Charles Stone learns of the disaster at Balls Bluff and that Baker was dead. For the first time he leaves Edwards
Ferry and get to Harrisons Island for himself. As he conducted this ride he must have been
able to get a sense of the scope of the disaster by the refugees he encountered on the toe path, by
the bodies floating down the river. It was a disaster, 900 Union casualites many drowned over 500 were captured by Confederate troops. The following day Union burial party crosses the river to return to the Bluff to burry the dead. By sudown 47 Union bodies have been buried 2/3 of the ones who were killed. Today there is a national cemetery at Balls Bluff it is
one of the smallest in the United States but it marks the site of that battle field. For
the Northern people there was particular whole in the Union defeat of Balls Bluff. For days
and weeks people would find the dead bloated bodies along the Potomac. They would get caught
near bridges in Georgetown. One body washed up on the front lawn of Mount Vernon. There
were articles in the newspapers that spread across the North detailing the disaster. For
Abraham Lincoln the defeat was intensely personal. Word of Bakers death reached D.C at 10pm on
the day of the battle via telegraph. The note is delieverd to McCLean who is having a meeting
with Lincoln in the White House. He unfolds it reads it and never tells Lincoln what
it says. Folds it up and puts it back in his pocket. It wouldn't be until a few hours later that Lincoln travels travels to the telegraph office and finds
the dispatch. He walked with head bowed and tears rolling down his furrowed cheeks, the correspondent wrote. His face pale and waying his heart heavening with emotion he almost fell as he
stepped into the street. Only the day before Lincoln and Baker had walked the White House grounds together and now Lincoln had suffered what you could call the second of many deeply
personal losses he would find himself in during the Civil War. Noah Brooks would write, "For Lincoln the death of his beloved Baker smote upon him like a world wind from a Desert. Lincoln wasn’t the only member of the first family to mourn Baker. Even Willy Lincoln was grief stricken over the death of an Uncle. Willy Lincoln was much like Abraham. He published a poem published in the national republican entitled Lines on the Death of
Col. Edward Baker. Part of which reads “There was no patriot like Baker, So noble and so
true; He fell as a soldier on the field, His face to the sky of blue.” Bakes death made
him a hero made him a morter. His likeness become something like Elmer Elsworth a patriotic
emble for the northern people. His death did something else though. It spared him from
having to accept any responsibility for what happened at Balls Bluff something that very well would have happened had he lived. It was Baker who sent the Union troops to the
overcrowded Bluff it was Baker who didn’t take into account the shorter of boats it
was he who spent four hours trying to find more boats. But perhaps the biggest mistake
made that day was Stone trusting Bakers command he was just too inexperienced. McClellan
agreed in a letter to his wife he wrote “The man directly to blame for the affair was Col.
Baker who was killed. He was in command, disregarded entirely the instructions he had received
from Stone and violated all military rules and precautions. And it was also not his fault.” The whole thing took place 40 miles from here without my orders or knowledge it was unauthorized by me and
I am not responsible. With hindsight we can give him some blame the entire operation were flawed. His orders to stone about a slight demonstration were a little vague. Furthermore
at no point did McClellan tell Stone that George McCall was turning back to Langley. Every move Stone makes on Oct 21 it’s with the understanding theres a 11,000 man Union division not far away on the Virginia side of the river. Which simply wasn't the case. Like McClellan, Stone blames Baker
in his official report in the New York Tribute he praises Baker for his gallantry but ultimately blames
him for the disaster. Bakers many friends in the senate were outraged at Stone. It was
what Roscoe Conkling called, “the most atrocious military murder ever committed in our history
as a people. Stone was no solider but a martinet." Stone become the Senates public enemy. Not
only were his actions at Balls Bluff suspect for not reinforcing Edwards Baker but men
like Charles Sumner from Massachusetts started paying close attention to other things Stone did particularly interactions with fugitive slaves entering the Union line. Men like Charles Sumner will declare Stone is slave catcher painting him with a broad unflattering brush. A reporter will later write that Stone
faced a lot of injustice but that he had a manner that provoked injustice. So he replied
to Sumner’s letter with one that essentially challenged him to a dull. He doubled down
on his official report and published a second one that was even more persisient because of the attacks made upon him from Baker. Stone hopes to have a military court of inquiry look into the matter to clear his name but the last thing McClellan wants is more heat on himself
and sends Stone a message to keep quite and say that his military superiors are attacked.
Had it been an active campaign season perhaps the attention of the nation would have shifted
to that, but it’s the winter and the focus of the nation is still on that battle. Out
of this is created an organization called The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. It’s purpose was to look into waste and corruption inefficiencies in Union war efforts
it is made of members of the House and Senate and dominated by radical Republicans. Senator
Henry Wilson summed up the purpose of the organization bluntly and said it was to teach
men in civil and military authority that the people expect they shall not make mistakes
and that we should not be easy with their errors. Critics of the Committee would argue that the real intent was to push a radical republican agenda into the war effort. They
intruded upon the war effort by supporting the genrals they liked and throping the ones
they didn’t at the expense of again the generals and prosecution of the war itself.
It was headed by Ben Wade a Senator from Ohio. One of his and the committees first takes
would be to investigate Balls Bluff. Someone would have to held accountable. Wasn’t going
to be Baker or McClellan and that really just left one other person. On the 5th of January
1852 Charles Stone testifies in a closed session before the Joint Committee. He was prohibited by McClellan to reveal any larger plans and so basically he just repeated what was in
his official repoirt. Unbenounced Stone dozens of eliged witnesses were called in after him
and testified against Stone. Many had never even fought at Balls Bluff and had previously been brought up on charges by Stone so they had a axe to grind and if you look very closely
you can see this conspiracy bubbling up. They charged Stone with all kinds of things they
said he was aiding the enemy that he was communicating with Confederate officials that Nathan Evan
considered Stone to be gentlemen. Which was a damning thing apparently. That the secessionist people of Maryland thought that Stone was a good guy. Now you couldn’t prove any of this but it didn’t really matter it was all hearsay
but I think it matched what the Committee on the Conduct of the War wanted to hear.
Stone appeared in front the committee twice. Never would he be allowed to look at the accusations or to comment directly on the testimony everything is basically summarized to him by Ben Wade. Stone is still confused about the point of the Committee and what he is being
accused of. Wade told Stone he was being accused of not reinforcing Baker and mismanaging the
battle and certain claims that created skepticism to Stone’s loyalty to the government. When
Stone heard that he replied that is one humiliation I have hoped never be subjected to. McClellan watching from affair commented to someone they want a victim and once they have tasted
blood no one can tell who will be next. By February it is pretty clear that victim is Charles
Stone. Wade Brings his evidence to Stanton and formed a kind of alliance with the committee
and on the 8th of February at Stanton's orders McClellan dispatches Brigidaire Gen. George Sikes to
arrest Charles Stone. The arrest occurs in the middle of the night in front of his quarters
and 24 hours after that he is in Fort Lafayette. New York Diarist George Templton wrote that everyone
was astounded by the news that Stone was arrested. He is now in Fort Lafayette charged with treasonable
correspondence and if Stone is guilty I hope he may be speedily hanged. Stone repeatedly
asked for the charges and according to the Articles of the War he had 8 days to file
charges for Stone those 8 days come and go and hears nothing. So he writes to McClellan,
Lincoln, and Stanton but to no avail he gets no word at all. Then I would begin to see
that malice and injustice was occurring Stone would write. The fact of the matter is no
one wanted to see him charged at all. The Committee on the Conduct of the War was it had guided the prosecution of the war. McClellan was only too happy to have the cross hairs on someone else so he isn’t going to help anybody.
Stanton I think probably saw how flimsy that case was and didn’t want to see it brought
to trial and was happy to jus have Stone out of the way for a while. Lincoln essential
a non-entity during this. Stone would talk to him later and Stone wrote
Lincoln told Stone if he should tell me all he knew about that matter he would not tell
me very much. Fact of the matter is Stone never gets charged there is no official paper
work filed. He is in prison for 189 days and never charged or given a reason for his arrest.
He is released on the 16th day if August 1862. He would remain a kind of pariah a solider
without a command. A man tainted by skepticism. McClellan requested to have Stone brought
back during the Antietam campaign but Stanton refused. He gets a command out west during the red river campaign. Stone is basically removed from the volunteer service against his wishes and is made a Col. in the army. For no reason what-so-ever. He ultimately gets a bit of a command in 1864 outside of Petersburg but there is such
a cloud over his head that he ends up resigning and that’s the end of his service in the American Civil War. Following the war he goes to Egypt and serves for 13 years as essentially the Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Army. He comes
back and is involved in engineering projects in 1887 he supervises the construction of
the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. The ironic thing is from Liberty Island you can
see Fort Lafayette where he was in prison. He dies that same year and is buried at the
West Point Cemetery. In time both North and South forget about the battle of Balls Bluff.
In time larger battles …such as Battle of Fredericksburg, 2nd Manassas, and Chancellorsville
would really consume the attention of the nation. In time battles like Antietam and
Fredericksburg would dwarf the battle of Balls Bluff. Even Stone had said it himself that had the battle been fought in 1864 no one would had noticed it at all. Balls Bluff was a small engagement that had
profound consequences. I think it serves as one of the best examples of the fact that
what happens in the military and political world are linked. As Carl Von Clausewitz likes to remind us, "war is not merely an act of policy but a true political instrument." We see that in Balls Bluff we see that in its aftermath with the creation of the Committee of the Conduct of the War. That will have a profound influence on how the Union and Northern government wages this war. They will meet, the committee, 272 times they will published 8 volumes of the report
they will investigate virtually every major disaster. They will investigate every single Commander of the Union Army of the Potomac. So whether you agree with what they did or you don't they have a profound influence. Harry Truman who is responsible for a committee similar to that during the 2nd World War took time to model his committee not on the Committee on the Conduct of the War but have it be a little above the board. You can't deny its influence. We see that in the saga of Charles Stone. A man who as much a casualty at Balls Bluff as Edward Baker its just the means are different. In lighting of his arrest and imprisonment and to an early historian Stone will later say, "if you can make out the reason, it is more than I have been able to do." So even in his late years he couldn't understand why this happened to him. I think if you are George McClellan, Ambrose Burnside, Joe Hooker, and George Meade you are going to remember Charles Stone. And all those who are investigated by the committee. So loyalty and what that means I think takes on a new meaning after Balls Bluff for men like McClellan and Stone. It was no longer enough to be loyal to the government. You had to be the right kind. Willing to wage the war in the right kind of way. A way decided bu the Committee on the Conduct of the War. So again that word, loyalty, kind of takes on a new kind of meaning. I would be inclined to argue that Bruce Catton again really gets to the heart of the matter in that same book, Mr. Lincoln's Army. Catton goes on to describe this incident and I will conclude with this. He would write that, "Indeed the war was peculiarly and very bitterly a war of tragic modern kind, in which loyalties and disloyalties do not follow the old patterns even though those patterns may be the only ones men can use when they try to formulate their loyalty. And so that generation was deprived of the one element that is essential to the operation of free-society - the ability to assume, in the absence of good proof to the contrary that men in public life are generally decent, honorable and loyal. Because that element was lacking, the wisest man could be reasonable with only part of his mind.." I encourage you to go visit the Balls Bluffs battlefield. It is a regional part a beautiful place and highlights the good and bad aspects of preservation. The battlefield itself is very well preserved. It is a fascinating place with a river down below. When you go there you can really get an appreciation of the Bluff itself. If you would like to read further into this there a few good books. One being "A Little Short of Boats: The Battle of Ball's Bluff and Edwards Ferry" by James A. Morgan. Stephen Sears also published a book, it is a collection of essays really called "Controversies and Commanders." One of the first essays is about Charles Stone.
