The story thus far

Touched with fire

One: Lieutenant Holmes believed himself a dying man...

Two: Charles Carleton Coffin rode into camp in the immediate aftermath of a battle lost, when visible evidence of the disaster included corpses laid out in line awaiting burial, and the memory of their first defeat at the hands of Johnny Reb was still fresh in the minds of the young men who'd fought it.

Three: "...Lt Putnam is dead Capt. Putnam lost his right arm. Hallowell fought like a brick but wasn't hurt Schmidt badly wounded Lowell wounded Colonel Major & Adjutant probably prisoners Babo & Wesselhoeft probably dead Dreher shot through the head Serg Merchant shot dead (in the head) From a third to a half of our company killed wounded & prisoners..."

Hours of Darkness

One: Major Paul Joseph Revere found himself a prisoner. Captured - along with several hundred of his fellow Union soldiers - by the secessionists (no true son of Massachusetts would call them "rebels" then) in his first battle; his war was seemingly over almost before it had begun. His grandfather had been in a similar fix decades before...

Two: 18 April, 1775: Two men stood in the moonlit darkness on the shore of the Charles River, gazing across the water towards Boston, their eyes searching for a boat... 21 October, 1861: Two men stood in the pre-dawn darkness on the Virginia side of the Potomac, their eyes turned back across the water, looking for boats. Today there could be battle... 18 April, 1775: Tomorrow there could be battle...

Julia Cutler's Journal: ...Confederate armies didn't march into Ohio, but early in May the war took a different route to her back yard - her nephew wrote of his intention to serve. "Lucy has just received a letter from her brother Rufus in Wisconsin," Julia recorded. "He has raised a company of seventy-eight men and received every vote for captain."

The Long Roll

One: ...But exchanging bullets and blood for real estate was not the only way to win or lose a war, and now Morse was confronted with something that, while potentially explosive, was a situation no tactics manual addressed. He was entertaining a visitor that day, a local slave owner who'd come on an unpleasant task...

Two: ...However, Dawes concluded, "Lieut. Kellogg was of quick blood and it was not always safe to congratulate him as the only man wounded in the Battle of Patterson Park."

Three: Clarissa, along with those other residents of Washington D.C. whose sympathies didn't lie with the South, was glad to hear the first regiments of troops called for by President Lincoln had arrived.

Four: After hearing musket fire all day the men of the 19th Massachusetts were finally going to war...

Five: Perhaps he was too small to be seen - perhaps he was an unremarkable sight, or perhaps the bloody corpse carried on a stretcher he was accompanying drew the full attention of the men going the opposite way - toward the battle. Whatever the case, when John Adams wrote of his experience at Ball's Bluff he didn't mention Ithiel Johnson of Oxford, Massachusetts.

Six: The drum sounded the long roll. It was just a drill - but the men stopped what they were otherwise doing and hurried into formation.

Seven: As Colonel Augustus Morse waited with his esteemed guest, the Honorable Thomas Holliday Hicks, Governor of Maryland, he took the opportunity to thank him once again for his efforts on behalf of the regiment. That very day an expedition was departing Annapolis for Hampton Roads, thence to South Carolina (though destination officially unknown) for purpose accurately supposed to be actual battle. Morse's 21st Massachusetts had been selected to go, too...

A Slight Demonstration

One: "Look lively, boys," someone called out, "we're about to get a visit from the rightful King o' France."

Two: The men of the 15th Massachusetts could proudly claim their regiment had the finest band in their division of the Army of the Potomac.

Three: Major General George Brinton McClellan commanded the largest military force assembled in modern history. Approaching 150,000 men strong (with additional regiments still arriving) he had at his disposal in the area around Washington DC an army that outnumbered Napoleon's and Wellington's at Waterloo combined.

(Scraps)

Four: The Honorable Francis Boardman Crowninshield of Boston arrived in London after transiting from New York to Liverpool via the steamer Persia...

Five: Colonel Eppa Hunton was a Virginian, sir. One who would cut a dashing figure in the uniform of the Confederacy, mounted or on foot, leading fellow Virginians into battle. At this moment, however, he was bedridden...

Six: "Rebel Accounts of the Leesburgh Affair" read the headline in the New York Times. It had taken a few days for the news to travel from behind enemy lines, but New Yorkers could now read the story as presented in the October 29th issue of the Richmond (Virginia) Examiner.

Seven: "What do you think I received as a present yesterday?" He'd written his wife Ellen (Nell, he called her) the previous week. "Some poor woman away up in the middle of New York sent me half a dozen pair of woollen socks..."

(Scraps 2)

Eight: Lieutenant Henry Livermore Abbott was writing an urgent letter home from camp. One of his previous messages had not been received in the manner intended - or rather, had gone beyond its author's intent.

(Scraps 3)

Nine: Hard times were upon them. "John Brown, on the day of his capture, prophesied the destruction of Harper's Ferry, to take place in a short time," Barry claimed - and whether the fiery abolitionist had made such a prophesy or not, no one could deny it had come to pass.

Ten: McClellan had written his wife the previous day of his intent to frighten the rebels away from Leesburg, but to have any hope of actually doing so he'd have to let Stone in on the plan, too, and thus far he hadn't done that...

"Message from General McClellan, sir." Stone accepted the paper, once again pondering briefly his good fortune to be in such close communication with headquarters via telegraph.

News From Stone's: "The Ball Bluff affair is pregnant with trouble," reported the New York Times "special correspondent" on the scene, "and Courts-martial innumerable may be discerned in the distance."

Roads to Leesburg

One: Robert Augustus Moore knew where the Confederate soldiers were. But as he was one that wasn't surprising.

Two: The legend of Captain Henry Alden began to grow immediately after his death at Ball's Bluff.

Three: John White Geary began a letter to his wife. Following his heartfelt appreciation of news of her continued health and well being -and assurances that he himself was "never better" ("God has blessed me with an excellent constitution," the six-six, 240-pound colonel wrote) - he offered a mild complaint:

The Voyage of the Enchantress: Jacob Garrick's adventure had begun in early July, when the schooner Enchantress set sail. Little did the ship's cook expect he'd serve three crews before returning to port.

Thanksgiving on the Potomac: "The month which followed the battle of Ball's Bluff ... was a period of much discussion concerning the events and conduct of the battle. Each one had his own story to tell, his own inquiries to make. It was clearly realized that the sacrifice had been needless and that some one had blundered. Was it General McClellan? Was it General Stone? Was it Colonel Baker? Was it Colonel Cogswell? It was a period of many visitors from the North, who came to find out the condition of the men of the different companies, in order that they might report to their friends at home... But we could not get along without Thanksgiving in some shape; and considering our circumstances, the celebration came very nearly up to the Puritan standard... There was one feature of the day that I take especial pride in mentioning, as indicating the material of which the regiment is composed. It is that not a man was intoxicated during the whole day."

Four: From all indications battle was imminent, and barring some miracle its outcome predictable. "General Evans and Colonel Featherstone both gave us a short speech," Private Robert Augustus Moore of the 17th Mississippi noted in his diary that day... "The General said if we died here he would die with us." Commanders didn't always deliver on promises... but it seemed likely Evans would fulfill that one.

(More to follow...)