Union Veterans Honored Fallen Foe at Balls Bluff

By Carl L. Sell Jr. · Originally published December 2018 · p. 9

The story behind a lone marker honoring a Confederate soldier at Balls Bluff Regional Park on the Potomac River near Leesburg, Va., stands in honored contrast to recent conflicts involving statues of southern heroes. The Oct. 21, 1861, encounter at Balls Bluff resulted in a defeat for Union forces and cost the life of the only United States senator ever killed in battle. The spot where Colonel Edward D. Baker, a senator from Oregon, was killed late in the afternoon is marked by a marble stone. Baker had visited his friend, President Abraham Lincoln, the previous day at the White House. U.S. National Cemetery containing the remains of 54 Union soldiers is also at the Battlefield Park. The only known Union soldier buried at Balls Bluff is Private James Allen, Company H, Fifteenth Massachusetts Infantry. The Union soldiers are buried in 25 graves beneath markers arranged in a circle. Outside the half-acre walled cemetery is a granite marker in honor of Sergeant Clinton Hatcher, the color bearer for the Eighth Virginia Infantry. Hatcher was killed leading the final Confederate charge that broke the Union lines and chased them into the Potomac River, where many died from gunshots fired from the steep bluffs or drowning. Neither Baker nor Hatcher is buried at Balls Bluff. Baker’s body was buried at the Presidio in San Francisco in his adopted state

Inscribed on the Clinton Hatcher marker is “Clinton Hatcher / 1840–1861. / Co. F. 8th Va. Regt. / C. S. A. / Fell Bravely Defending his Native State.” (Ken Fleming) of California. Hatcher is buried near his Loudoun County home at Ketoctin Baptist Church near Purcellville. His memory is perpetuated by the fact that the local Sons of Confederate Veterans camp is named in his honor. The stone honoring Baker was authorized and installed by Congress in the early 1890s. During the same time frame, members of the Twentieth Massachusetts Infantry visited Leesburg and the Balls Bluff Battlefield. They were guided by Elijah White, who had been a volunteer guide for the Confederates during the battle. White later raised and commanded the Thirty-Fifth Virginia Battalion of Cavalry that became an important part of the Confederate cavalry force during the war. Sometime after the visit by the Massachusetts veterans, a granite stone arrived by rail in Leesburg. After being offered the chance to honor their own unit with a marker at Balls Bluff, the Massachusetts veterans decided to honor an opponent who displayed an act of valor before them. The only thing they got wrong was Hatcher’s birth year of 1839. Around the time of the battle’s centennial, a group of citizens interested in history from Pennsylvania visited Balls Bluff. Among them were several stonemasons who worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad and were experts in granite. They identified the granite as coming from the area of Quincy, Mass., the home area for the Twentieth Massachusetts. Local stonemasons also identified the stone as being made of Quincy granite, which no longer was available. There is little doubt the stone was sent by the Massachusetts veterans, but there is no information as to who installed it at Balls Bluff. No mention could be found in minutes of the United Confederate Veterans or the successive Sons of Confederate Veterans files. The answer might be hiding in a yet undiscovered document that eventually will be found. Meanwhile, the Hatcher marker, apparently placed near the spot he fell, stands as a reminder of the respect Civil War soldiers showed for their adversaries as the roar of the cannons dimmed and the wounds healed. In the early 1900s, numerous reconciliation events occurred at numerous sites on the 50th anniversary of battles, highlighted by the famous meeting at Gettysburg’s stone wall on July 3, 1913. In his memoirs, White, who served one term as sheriff of Loudoun County and was a successful businessman in Leesburg following the war, recalled a conversation with a Massachusetts veteran during their battlefield tour thirty-two years later. One of them called attention to an oak tree and said, “I was behind that tree when an officer on a white horse rode out there, leading a line of troops upon us, waving his hat and shouting ‘Come On, fellows, follow me.’ I took aim and fired at him and then threw down my gun and ran for the river, for they were close on us. I don’t know whether I killed him or not.” White replied, “No, thank God, you did not.” When he asked, “Are you the man?” I replied, “I surely am. He threw his arms around me and exclaimed, “I thank God, too.” The battle was in response to Union Commander Maj. Gen. George McClellan’s order to send a party across the Potomac from Maryland into Virginia to determine Confederate strength in the area. After a scouting party crossed the river and reported no opposition, Brig. Gen. Charles P. Stone sent a force commanded by Baker to surprise the Confederates. Delays in crossing allowed Colonel N.G. “Shanks” Evans to gather his Confederate defenders to meet the threat. Evans was promoted to Brigadier General after his victory at Balls Bluff. As it turned out, Stone and Evans commanded forces of equal strength. Although there were thousands of Union troops in and around nearby Poolesville, Md., they had no way to reach Stone’s forces and the clash resulted in a major defeat. The Federals lost 49 killed, 158 wounded, 533 captured; an additional 161 were listed as missing and presumed drowned in the Potomac River. The Confederates had 36 killed, 117 wounded and only two, both from the Eighth Virginia, captured. As a result, Stone was arrested and it took two years before he finally was exonerated from blame and restored to duty. Taking part in the battle with the Twentieth Massachusetts was a future Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and the grandsons of Revolutionary War hero Paul Revere. Lieutenant Oliver Wendell Holmes, Junior, was shot in the chest in the afternoon of October 21, but recovered in time to rejoin his unit at Antietam, where he was wounded again. He also was wounded at Chancellorsville and did not reenlist in 1864. Major Paul Joseph Revere commanded a company in the Twentieth Massachusetts. His brother, Edward Hutchinson Revere, was an assistant surgeon. Paul was wounded in the leg and both were captured, sent to prison in Richmond then exchanged the following May. Edward would be shot and killed at Antietam. Paul Joseph was wounded at Antietam, and then died of wounds suffered on the second day at Gettysburg. Another brother, Joseph Warren Revere, survived the war. Information for this article was collected from the works of Kim Bernard Holien and Kenneth M. Fleming as well as the memoirs of Col. Elijah V. White, commander of the Confederate Thirty-Fifth Virginia Battalion of cavalry during the Civil War. Holien is a retired professional historian with the Center of Military History, Department of the Army. His book, Battle at Ball’s Bluff, provided valuable information on the incident. Fleming and his wife, Becky, did extensive research on Hatcher for a two-part series that appeared in the Loudoun County History Commission’s Bulletin. Fleming is a past commander of the Clinton Hatcher Camp, Sons of Confederate Veterans. White’s memoirs highlighted his role as a guide during the visit by the Twentieth Massachusetts veterans in 1893. See Lincoln compares height with Hatcher on page 21. Carl Sell is a retired writer and editor for the Washington Evening Star newspaper in Washington, D.C. The paper was founded in 1852 and was published daily during the Civil War. It ceased publication in 1981. Sell now writes about his relatives on both sides in the war, including Thank God He Survived Pickett’s Charge, an account of the life of his great grandfather. He lives in Northern Virginia and is a frequent visitor to nearby battle sites. He is particularly interested in finding stories, such as this one, that are hidden among the Official Records and memoirs.