The North

The North. Union Leaders at Ball's Bluff. , Brigadier General Charles P. Stone , Overall commander of Union forces at Ball's Bluff, stone was to become the scapegoat for both the Union disaster and the death of Senator/Colonel Edward Baker. Stone was born in Massachusetts in 1824 to an old Puritan family. He was graduated from West Point in 1845 and served with distinction in the Mexican War. During January through May of 1861, he was the officer in charge of the security of Washington, D.C. Following the Union defeat at Ball's Bluff, he was arrested on February 12, 1862, and imprisoned without write of habeas corpus for 189 days. Stone later served in the Port Hudson and Red River campaigns. He resigned from the Army in 1864 and after the war served the Egyptian army for 13 years. He selected the site, built the pedestal and was grand marshal at the dedication of the Statue of Liberty in October 1886. He died in January 1887.

Senator/Colonel Edward D. Baker , Born in London in 1814, Baker came to the United States in 1815 and grew up in Illinois with Abraham Lincoln. They served together in the Black Hawk War and as the state politicians and lawyers in Springfield. Baker was a Colonel of the 4th Illinois Infantry Regiment in the Mexican War and, later, a Whig congressman. He was among the greatest orators of his day and was said to have a brilliant but undisciplined mind. At the beginning of the Civil War, through his efforts, California and Oregon remained in the Union. He was elected senator from Oregon and commanded the 71st Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment raised in New York and Philadelphia. He was Lincoln's closest friend. His death led to the formation of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War which enabled his fellow Radical Republicans to set the agenda of the Union war effort in Washington. He is buried at the Presidio in San Francisco.

Colonel William Lee , Born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1807, Lee was graduated from Norwich Military Academy in 1825 before attending West Point with Jefferson Davis. He served in the Seminole War in Florida, then resigned from the army to become a civil engineer. At the beginning of the Civil War, he was appointed colonel of the famous 20th Massachusetts (Harvard) Regiment. In the fighting at Balls' Bluff, he was capture and later, in 1862, was exchanged. He served in the Peninsula/Seven Days battles, at Antietam (for which he was brevetted Brigadier General for gallant and meritorious service) and finally in the bitter fighting at Fredericksburg, after which he resigned as the result of ill health. He returned to civil engineering with the railroads and died in Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1891.

Colonel Milton Cogswell , A native of Indiana, Cogswell was graduated from West Point in 1849. He saw extensive service including combat against the Indians of the southwest prior to the Civil War. On July 1, 1861, he became colonel of the famous Tammany Regiment (42nd New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment) and led with distinction here at Ball's Bluff. When Colonel Baker arrived atop Ball's Bluff at about 2 p.m. Colonel Cogswell recommended that the Union forces advance and take possession of the ridge line toward Leesburg. Baker acknowledged this sound military judgment by quoting from "The Lady of the Lake" by Sir Walter Scott- "One blow upon your bugle horn is worth a thousand men." Taken prisoner here, he was exchanged in September 1862. At Petersburg, on July 30, 1864, he was recognized for "gallant and meritorious service." He stayed in the Army after the war, retiring in 1871 as a result of war injuries. He died at the Soldiers Home in the District of Columbia in 1882.

Colonel Charles Devens , Born in Massachusetts in 1820, Devens was a lawyer, state senator and militia general before the Civil War. In 1861, he was appointed colonel of the 15th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. Historians attribute the Union force's defeat at the Jackson House early in the Battle of Ball's Bluff to his inexperience. He was wounded here, at Seven Pines and at Chancellorsville where his repeated failure to acknowledge Jackson's flank attack contributed to the Union debacle in that battle. He led a division at Col Harbor from a stretcher because of rheumatism. After the war, he served as attorney general for President Arthur Hayes and later was a member of the Massachusetts Supreme Court. Camp Devens in Massachusetts is named for him. He died in 1891.

Captain Francis Bartlett , A native of Haverhill, Massachusetts (born in 1840), Bartlett was a member of the Harvard Class of 1862. When the war started in 1861, he became a captain in the famous 20th Massachusetts (Harvard) Regiment. At Ball's Bluff, he commanded the company leading the final rear guard delaying charge against the Color Guard Company of the 8th Virginia Regiment, in the process killing its color bearer, Clinton Hatcher. He then led 80 men to escape upriver by Smart's Mill Ford. He lost a leg at the siege of Yorktown in 1862 and then became colonel of the 49th Massachusetts. He served at Port Hudson in 1863 and twice was wounded there. During Grant's Overland Campaign of 1864/65, he led the 57th Massachusetts Regiment. He was commissioned a Brigadier General just before being taken prisoner at The Crater. Exchanged, he received a brevet major generalship in March 1865. He died in 1876.

Lieutenant Oliver Wendell Holmes , Homes was born March 8, 1841, in Massachusetts, to one of the most prominent families in America. A young lieutenant of the famous 20th Massachusetts (Harvard) Regiment, he was wounded at Ball's Bluff. He again was wounded at Antietam and at 2nd Fredericksburg by elements of the same Confederate regiments that he had fought here at Ball's Bluff. Legends claim he saved President Lincoln's life at the battle of Ft. Stevens in July 1864. Discharged due to his injuries in late 1864, he became a prominent lawyer in Massachusetts, and from 1902 to 1932, an associate justice of the Supreme Court. He died on March 6, 1935, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery just below the Custis-Lee Mansion. Reflecting on his experience in the Civil War, he said: "in our youth our hearts were touched with fire."