Battle of Ball’s Bluff

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As Hunton was moving to his left, Colonel Erasmus Burt moved his 18th Mississippi into their former place. After the men were situated, Burt almost immediately ordered them forward. Not seeing the right wing of the Federal chevron because those men were under the cover of woods and sloping ground, Burt marched directly into what Rebel cavalryman Elijah White, a local resident home on furlough and acting as a guide, later called ‘the best directed & most destructive single volley I saw during the war.’ More than half of the 18th Mississippi’s 85 casualties that day came from that volley. Burt was one of them. Shot through the hip, he was taken into Leesburg, where he died five days later.

The Mississippians pulled back and were split into two battalions by Lt. Col. Thomas Griffin. One moved to the left and the other to the right, creating an opening of some 200 yards in the Confederate line. The Federals did not exploit that gap, and it eventually would be filled by the 17th Mississippi. As the afternoon developed, the Rebels constructed a U-shaped line that penned the Union troops in along the precipitous bluff.

Mixed companies of the 18th and 17th Mississippi Infantry anchored the left flank, with the reorganized 8th Virginia next in line. The rest of the 17th Mississippi then filled in the aforementioned gap between 4:15 and 5 p.m., and seven companies of the 18th Mississippi held down the right flank of the gray line. Company H of the 18th was on the extreme right, separated from its comrades by a ravine.

The Union troops were even less organized than their foe, as various companies and battalions of the 15th and 20th Massachusetts, the 1st California and the 42nd New York were moved to threatened areas. Other elements of the 42nd New York were the final piece in the Union puzzle, crossing over later in the day and taking an initial position roughly in the Federal center.

After Burt’s mortal wounding, the fighting was almost continuous, becoming a swirl of individual company or battalion actions. One Yankee called it a fight ‘made up of charges.’

The 18th Mississippi kept working around the Confederate right, assaulting out of a ravine at least five times. Each time they were repulsed. The Union cannons, though in the open, contributed to holding the line. When the vulnerable artillerymen were quickly shot down, infantrymen came forward to man the guns.

It was probably during the final assault by the 18th Mississippi on the Union left, between 4:30 and 5, that Colonel Baker was killed. Many descriptions have been left of Baker’s death, though one of the most credible came from Captain Caspar Crowninshield of the 20th Massachusetts, who reported seeing Baker rallying his men when he was shot, ‘got up again and then fell, struck by eight balls….’ Hand-to-hand fighting occurred before Union troops could retrieve Baker’s body. The colonel remains the only U.S. senator ever killed in battle.

Colonel Milton Cogswell of the 42nd New York eventually took command of the Union forces and attempted to break through the Confederate right flank. Had that been tried earlier, it might well have succeeded. But by the time the beleaguered Yanks made their charge, it was a desperate move that fell apart almost before it began.

The fight continued to rage as the Federals made other failed attempts to drive away their Rebel tormentors. Things came to a head when the 17th Mississippi, about 700 fresh troops with full cartridge boxes, and supported by much of the 18th and possibly a company of the 13th Mississippi, advanced on the worn-out Federals.After filing into the gap in the Rebel line, the 17th’s commander, Colonel Winfield Scott Featherston, had his men lie down. ‘No lizards ever got closer to the ground than we did,’ remembered one Mississippian. The men soon rose again at Featherston’s command and moved forward in the final attack that drew in troops from the other Rebel regiments around dusk.

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Tags: 19th Century, America's Civil War, American Civil War, Historical Conflicts

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