A Thousand Words a Battle: Ball’s Bluff

Battle of Ball’s Bluff
October 21, 1861

While envisioned by George McClellan as only a demonstration, the October 21, 1861, battle at Ball’s Bluff devolved into a disaster for Federal forces as inaccurate information, inexperienced troops, unforgiving terrain, and a lack of boats to navigate the Potomac River quickly doomed their expedition into Virginia.

As skirmishing broke out that morning, both sides funneled reinforcements to the area. With the death of Senator Edward Baker of Oregon later that afternoon—the only sitting member of Congress to fall in battle—the Federal stand collapsed. Survivors streamed back towards the river, but the steep bluffs hampered movements, and the retreat turned into a rout. Confederates drove Federals over the bank and into the Potomac, where many drowned in the swift current, some bodies surfacing as far downstream as Washington, D.C.

The 19th Massachusetts had been in service less than two months by the time of the battle. The regiment was spared the vicious fighting at Ball’s Bluff, instead detailed to picket duty along the river, giving the men a front-row seat as Federal troops scrambled down the bluff. The 1906 regimental history recalled the feeling of the regiment:

Standing thus, inactive, it was a sickening sight to see men with their heads, arms and legs tied up in bloody bandages and hear the groans of the poor fellows as they were helped out and slowly moved along the front of the regiments. The sight of the body of a soldier who had been killed, and the presence of so many wounded, had a disheartening effect upon many.[1]

From the opposite bank of the river, the 19th Massachusetts watched their comrades streaming back towards the Potomac:

The scene of carnage there witnessed cannot adequately be described. The men were just in time to see a little 12-pounder, which had been carried up on to the bluff, spiked and tumbled over the cliff into the river. It had done valiant work, but all except two of its crew had been killed or disabled and in no other way than by destroying it could the fleeing men save it from falling into the hands of the Confederates. The exultant cries of the foe rose above all the other uproar of battle as the Union men were pushed back to the brink of the bluff and nothing remained, apparently, but surrender or merciless slaughter. Col. Cogswell, of the Tammany troops, ordered the men to throw their guns into the river and escape as they could. Some refused to flee further and stood upon the bluff, loading and firing, until they were shot down.[2]

 The regiment remained on the riverbank.

It was a terrible night for those on picket. The wounded on the Virginia side of the river, cut off from all help, could plainly be heard crying for water and begging that a boat be sent over to them. Now and then one could be heard as he waded out into the water, and, with strong and steady strokes, breasted the current. Little by little his strokes became weaker, then less steady, then mere splashes, in the frantic endeavor to hold out. Then a gurgling sound, a cry for help, and all was still again. All this passed under the senses of willing comrades, powerless to give aid. Now and then, one who was more successful would creep, cold, benumbed and almost dead, up the bank.[3] 

The Union lost more than 1,000 men at Ball’s Bluff, the Confederates approximately 300. And while the 19th Massachusetts escaped their first battle without bloodshed, the regiment lost nearly 300 men over the next four years. Its ranks would count seven Medal of Honor recipients.

— Jon-Erik Gilot

Part of a series.

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[1] Ernest Linden Waitt, History of the Nineteenth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 1861–1865 (Salem: The Salem Press Co., 1906), 22.

[2] ibid, 22 – 23.

[3] ibid, 25.