Ball's Bluff and Belmont
Still relishing in its victory at Manassas, the Confederates maintained scattered forces not far south of the Potomac River, some in sight of Washington's Capitol building itself. One such was a signal station with a cannon at Munson's Hill, about ten miles from the Capitol. In late summer, a Union colonel attacked up the hill and withdrew after taking a few casualties. In late September the Confederates themselves withdrew, believing the position untenable. When the Federals advanced they found that the “cannon” was really a log painted black, and the story of the earlier repulse at the hands of a “Quaker gun” made it into the newspapers.
Defeat
One result of this discovery was renewed congressional and civilian pressure on the Federal army to press the Confederates with more vigor. When reports arrived at Union army headquarters that it seemed Southerners were about to abandon Leesburg, about two-thirds of the way up the Potomac River toward Harper's Ferry from Washington, D.C., senior officers gave orders to allow for army units to press where feasible. On the Virginia side, Federal troops marched upriver to Dranesville, then stopped. On the opposite side of the river, Federal troops prepared to cross.
The fight at Ball's Bluff did not amount to much of a battle compared to the one at Manassas or the many to come, but it was notable for its casualties. Not only was a U.S. senator killed, among the Federal soldiers captured were a grandson of Paul Revere, a son of the writer Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., and a nephew of poet James Russell Lowell.
These troops were under the command of Colonel Edward Baker, a U.S. senator from Oregon and a good friend of Lincoln. On October 21, Baker crossed the Potomac with several regiments and climbed a 100-foot bluff — Ball's Bluff — to press the Confederates. Upon encountering Rebels, the Federals regrouped in a field backing up to the steep bluff itself. Confederates concealed in the edge of the field fired at them, killing Baker. The Confederates charged and the Union men scrambled down the slope in an attempt to escape. A hundred were shot and 700 captured. Lincoln wept when he learned his good friend Baker had been killed.
The War in the West
Despite political pressure and a good deal of concentration and effort, the Union was getting nowhere pressing Confederate forces southward in Virginia. But in the west, the war became more fluid. It was obvious to both sides that rivers were gateways to the Deep South. The Mississippi, of course, flowed through the heart of the South, and the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers were watery highways to Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama. Ulysses S. Grant would first try to crack the Southern defenses along the Mississippi River at Columbus, Kentucky, at the lower point of Illinois.
“We cut our way in and we can cut our way out.” — General Ulysses S. Grant to his regimental commanders after being surrounded by Confederate counterattackers at the Battle of Belmont
Grant led an expedition south on the Missouri side of the river to the Confederate encampment of Belmont, across the river from the heavily gunned fort at Columbus. At first the attack was successful, but the Northern soldiers stopped to celebrate in the Confederate camp. The Southerners rallied, took advantage, counterattacked, and surrounded the undisciplined Union men. Grant turned cannons on the Confederate lines and blasted a gap through which his soldiers could escape.
Grant withdrew, but he learned lessons that would benefit him in the future: condition the men for any eventuality and follow up diligently when the enemy is on the defensive. The western war was about to break loose.
