Only A Few Lines

In which our author succumbs to drowsiness and lets the reader draw his own conclusions

...........................................................................................................................................

On October 24, 1861, the battle at Ball's Bluff was still electrifying the public, as more detailed accounts began to get out. Southerners rejoiced at a second victory over the best and brightest of the Northern armies (especially since the secondary theaters, like Robert E. Lee's campaign in western Virginia, were going very poorly). Northerners became more and more horrified as every report proved worse than the one before.

But for the high command of both Northern and Southern Armies of the Potomac, things were starting to get back to normal. Senator Edward Baker's body was brought to Washington City, where it lay in state in the home of Colonel J.W. Webb, at the corner of 14th and H Streets, NW. Lincoln had wanted his friend to lay in the East Room of the White House, but the room was undergoing repairs.

Jefferson Davis wrote another pedantic letter to Maj. General G.W. Smith on the issue of ranks for Confederate army officers in relation to the size of their commands. In blue, Brig. Generals James Bayard and William Barry, chief engineer and artillery officer, respectively, submitted more details on their report to Brig. General Seth Williams (McClellan's adjutant) about the number of troops and pieces required to defend Washington, a report that brought the construction of forts into the unified system of defenses that heavily influenced the development of the modern District.


And George McClellan himself was already blaming other people, specifically Edward Baker. He sent an advisory of the battle to all his division commanders, preserved in the Official Records in the form forwarded to Irvin McDowell by his adjutant, James Fry:

George Meade's two letters to his wife reveal that at the lower levels, things hadn't quite settled down as much: