Oct. 21, 1861

Oct. 21, 1861: The CSS Nashville, a US mail steamer captured by the Confederates, has been fitted out as a man-of-war by the Rebel navy to engage in commerce raiding. On this date, the Nashville, commanded by Lieut. Robert Pegram, CSN, braves the Federal blockade at Charleston by slipping out of the harbor at night, and sails for England.

BATTLE OF BALL’S BLUFF, VA: Gen. Stone orders Col. Edward Baker and his brigade to cross the Potomac at Ball’s Bluff and drive off what appears to be a picket station on the hill. Baker sends Col. Devens of the 15^th Mass across with a skirmish line, and they encounter only one company of Mississippi troops on Ball’s Bluff. Devens mistakenly reports just the one company of rebels. Devens remains south of the river, and sends a report back to Gen. Stone, who in turn orders Devens to bring his entire regiment over the river and to advance west towards Leesburg in a reconnaissance in force. Stone puts Col. Edward Baker, an English-born Senator from Oregon (and personal friend of Lincoln) in command of the movement. Baker decides to funnel more troops to the bluff to support Devens. Devens’ 15^th Mass begins to engage a growing force of Confederates, and the battle rapidly escalates. Devens begins to withdraw, but there are only three small boats, and re-crossing is slowed to a trickle. Devens’ men are pinned down on the river side of the bluff, and begin to take heavy losses. Soon, he was joined by detachments from the 20^th Mass, 1^st California, and the 42^nd New York regiments, plus three artillery pieces that had somehow been able to cross the river. They met the 8^th Virginia, the 17^th and 18^th Mississippi, along with a company from the 13^th Mississippi. The lines surged back and forth across the wooded plateau. At one point, Col. Baker arrived with his Californians (who were mostly Philadelphians, actually, and later were renamed the 71^st Pennsylvania), and led a Union attack. At the acme of the movement, Baker was shot and killed, and the Union command structure fell apart as a strong counterattack by the Rebels forced the Federals back to the river. Many hundreds of Federals surrendered, and hundreds more, in a panic, ran down the steep bluff to the river and attempted to swim across in battle gear and heavy wool clothes. The victorious Confederate troops fired into the masses of unarmed Yankees trying to swim, and hundreds more drowned. The bodies float past the waterfront downriver in Washington, D.C., before the aghast crowd gathered there. Ironies: Gen. Stone, USA, nominally in command, was not present at the battle, and Gen. Evans, CSA, was behind the lines, according to one of his soldiers, "drinking freely during the day."

Losses:

U.S.--223 killed, 226 wounded, 553 captured, and an undetermined number missing, believed to be drowned in the river.

C.S.–36 killed, 117 wounded, 2 captured.

Virginia Miller, a Leesburg teenager, writes in her diary: "We saw several wounded . . . frightfully . . . with the blood streaming from his face, from a terrible wound in the head, some with arms and legs wounded and another with his jaw bone crushed. . . . Oh, it was terrible and we were in a state of great suspense and excitement, but had no idea of what a battle was being fought so near us. . . . The musketry was perfectly terrific and we could plainly see the smoke and the dead and wounded of our men and the enemy rapidly increased."

As a result of the battle, Gen. Stone is court-martialed and Congress forms the Joint Committee on Conduct of the War.