Men of Virginia at Ball's Bluff'. 273
of battle. This would have enabled him, at least, to retreat in good order. He disregarded Stone's order to report frequently, and left the latter unaware of the perilous position of his troops, and thus unable to render assistance. He had conspicuous personal bravery ,^but in all other qualities of a commander, as shown by this battle, he was totally lacking. General McClellan and the leading officer's of Baker's brigade, including those wounded and captured, cast no reproach on Stone, but their voices were drowned in the prevailing fury. In " McClellan's Own Story," he writes that Stone "was a most charming and amiable gentleman, honest, brave, a good soldier, though occasionally carried away by his chivalrous ideas. He was very unfortunate, and was, as far as possible from meriting the sad fate and cruel treatment he met with."
The same black spirit, which made Stone its victim, later on led to the downfall of McClellan and the displacement of many others of that gallant band of Federal officers supporting him, who had impressed a generous and chivalric spirit on the war, which caused the remark in General Dick Taylor's "Destruction and Recon- struction," that the future historian, in recounting some later operations, will doubt if he is dealing with campaigns of generals or expeditions of brigands." Napoleon, when General Mack capitulated at Ulm, recalling his own chagrin when compelled by Sir Sidney Smith to raise the siege of St. Jean d'Acre, remarked: "How much to be pitied is a general on the day after a lost battle." The pity that was felt in all manly breasts for this brave soldier in misfortune has been changed to respect for his memory and con- tempt for that of his persecutors.
There were notable men in that famous battle from Massachusetts, Mississippi and Virginia. Colonel Devens was afterwards breveited Major General, and was Attorney- General under the Hayes administration; Colonel Lee was brevetted Brigadier, and was Attorney-General of his State; Lieutenant Oliver Wendell Holmes, of the Twentieth Massachusetts, who "was shot through chest from side to side, is now a Justice of the Supreme Court, and has deliv- ered some good State Right's decisions; Captain Win Francis Bart- lett, also of the Twentieth, became a General and lived for a time in Richmond, where he was much respected. Major Paul Revere, Colonel Ward and others also attained distinction. Mississippi sent Barksdale and Featherston to the House of Representatives and
