The North: Union Leaders at Ball's Bluff

At Ball's Bluff, Union leadership included Brigadier General Charles Pomeroy Stone, the overall commander who later became the scapegoat for the defeat; Senator and Colonel Edward Dickinson Baker, a close friend of Abraham Lincoln who helped organize the 1st California Regiment and was killed there, becoming the only U.S. Senator ever to die in combat; Colonel William R. Lee, commander of the 20th Massachusetts Regiment, who was captured after the Union defeat; Colonel Milton Cogswell, a professional soldier who led the 42nd New York Infantry Regiment and was also captured; Colonel Charles Devens, who commanded the 15th Massachusetts Regiment, whose men were the first Union troops in the field; Captain William Francis Bartlett, who helped the largest group of Federals escape by ferrying them across the Potomac in a repaired skiff; and Lieutenant Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., twice wounded in the battle and later known for his long service as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Leesburg, Virginia · United States