Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 7.djvu/510

Rh driving the Federals back to their field works at the river. The loss of the Thirteenth in this fight was four killed and two wounded.

In Colonel Jenifer's report of this battle he stated that the forces engaged at Ball's Bluff were as follows: detachment of Virginia cavalry, 70 men; Eighth Virginia infantry, 375; Eighteenth Mississippi, 500; Seventeenth Mississippi, 600; a company of the Thirteenth Mississippi, 60; total, 1 605. Our loss in killed, 35: wounded, 115. The Federal strength, according to their own reports, was from 1,700 to 2,000 at Ball’s Bluff, and their loss 49 killed, 158 wounded and 704 missing. Many were drowned in attempting to cross the river, and about 1,500 stand of arms and the artillery were left in the hands of the Confederates. Independent of the Federal force in action were three or four regiments of infantry and one or two squadrons of cavalry at Edwards Ferry, which were held in check by Colonel Barksdale.

The battle was not a great one, but it was one of the most famous of the war on account of the deep feeling it produced in the North. The death of Colonel Baker, and the terrible scene of defeat at the bluff, aroused a storm of censure, which was turned against General Stone and caused his arrest and imprisonment for six months in close confinement at Fort Hamilton, one of the most remarkable examples of a survival of the oriental treatment of defeated generals in the history of North America. To Mississippians the battle has a peculiar interest on account of the great share of the honors which fell to the gallant sons of the State who participated.

On December 8, 1861, the Mississippi regiments in the Potomac district were ordered to be organized in brigades as follows: Second, Col. W. C. Falkner; Eleventh, Col. W. H. Moore; Thirteenth, Col. William Barksdale; Seventeenth, Col. W. S. Featherston; Eighteenth, Col. T. M. Griffin–to form the First brigade, General Whiting, of the First division, which was under the command of