[75] blockade of the Potomac and the disaster at Ball's Bluff, of which events I must give a brief account.
Shortly after the battle of Bull Run, the Confederates advanced their outposts from Centreville and Fairfax Courthouse forward as far as Munson's Hill, and almost to the banks of the Potomac,—a move that was of no military value, but which gave them the prestige of flaunting their flag within view of the capitol of the nation. They then proceeded to erect batteries at different points on the Virginia side of the Potomac, with the view of obstructing the navigation of the river. So successfully was this work performed, that early in October the flag-officer of the Potomac flotilla officially reported the water highway by which a large part of the supplies for the army around Washington was brought forward from the North to be effectually closed.1 This event, the actual blockade of the capital, produced throughout the country a deep feeling of mortification and humiliation, and called forth bitter complaints against the Government. A proposition was made to destroy these batteries by an assaulting force sent from the Maryland side of the river; but the enterprise was abandoned in consequence of an adverse report from General Barnard, chief-engineer.2 Meanwhile, the commander was unwilling to undertake the destruction of the batteries by the only method that promised success—to wit, a movement by the right bank of the Potomac,—for the reason that it would bring on a general engagement.
The affair of Ball's Bluff was of a kind to affect still more powerfully the popular imagination; for, while in itself a lamentable disaster, it seemed to reveal a strange looseness and want of responsibility in the conduct of military affairs. It appears that on the 19th of October, General McCall was ordered to make, with his division, a movement on Drainesville, for the purpose of covering reconnoissances in all directions to be made the following day. These reconnoissances
