Balls Bluff - An Episode And Its Consequences To Some Of Us

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Barton Press

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491_9781443774055

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This subject, like many of the periods of the Civil War, has been often described, and is familiar to .the passing generation, but has, I believe, never before been placed upon your records, ,nor by an eye witness. Therefore, I venture to present it here. TheTwentieth Massachusetts Regiment of Volunteer Infantry, in which I had the honor to be a First Lieutenant and Adju- tant, left Boston in the Autumn of 1861, for active service with the army. It was commanded by William Raymond Lee, as Colonel,-a West Point graduate. Paul J. Revere was the Major. It had been, before the date of the Balls Bluff engagement, but a few weeks in the ser- vice, and was stationed first at Wash- ington, where I remember calling with Colonel Lee, who knew them, upon Gen- eral Scott, then commanding the Armies of the United States, and upon General McClellan, then Commander of the Army of the Potomac. The men of the Regiment, like all of the troops in the East at that time, were un- trained by battle, never having heard the sound of a hostile bullet, and were of no more value as soldiers than were the Mi- litia Regiments. Soldiers are not soldiers until they have been long enough together to have acquaintance with and respect for their officers, and have learned obedience with a belief in discipline, with a willingness to abide by it. The earlier Battle of Bull Run, which became a rout for want of discipline, proved nothing and taught nothing except the after-thought of the necessity of discipline. Up to this time 1861, the important arms of Cavalry and Artillery had been almost entirely neglected, most of the Cavalry not yet being armed or equipped. General McClellan, who was in command when we joined the Army of the Potomac, was a thoroughly educated soldier. Soon after his graduation from West Point, he was employed in the construction of the first Pacific Railway. Later he was selected as one of a Commission to study the Art of War in Europe. For a time he was with the Allied Armies

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