OTD 165 YEARS AGO: Federals led by Colonel Charles P. Stone seize Edwards’ and Conrad’s ferries on the Potomac River, which are the main approaches from Maryland to the strategic town of Leesburg, Va.
Exploring the most important 55 months in American history
OTD 165 YEARS AGO: Federals led by Colonel Charles P. Stone seize Edwards’ and Conrad’s ferries on the Potomac River, which are the main approaches from Maryland to the strategic town of Leesburg, Va.
An officer is assigned to protect Washington from secessionists, and a controversial letter from Winfield Scott becomes public.
Joseph Hooker works to reorganize and revitalize the demoralized Federal Army of the Potomac.
Federal troops arrest General Charles P. Stone in the early morning hours after new “evidence” surfaces confirming Stone’s disloyalty to the Union.
The Radical-dominated Joint Committee seeks to put the blame of the Ball’s Bluff disaster on the shoulders of Charles P. Stone, for both military and political reasons.
The Federal defeat at Ball’s Bluff outrages northerners, sends the Lincolns into mourning, and increases calls for an “all-out war” against the Confederacy.