Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 1.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[411] his regiment at Conrad's Ferry, and had assumed the command conferred upon him by the instructions of Stone. A senator from Oregon and a personal friend of Mr. Lincoln, an orator of talent and respected by all for his nobility of character, Baker was an officer as brave as he was inexperienced. Learning that Devens had exchanged a few shots with the enemy, his only thought was to renew the fight and to mass as many men as possible on the right bank of the river, without troubling himself about the means of retreat in case of a reverse.

On the top of the cliff of Ball's Bluff there is a clearing a little less than a kilometre in length, following the course of the river, and from four to five hundred metres in width. It is surrounded on three sides by thick woods; the fourth, overlooking the Potomac, is formed by the crest of the steep acclivity which slopes down to the shore. Nothing intervenes between the foot of this acclivity, which is thickly covered with copse-wood, and the rapid waters of the stream below, but a kind of banquette twenty metres wide. It was impossible to select a worse place for landing. The troops, having reached the clearing after a perilous ascent, found themselves without protection and surrounded by woods which concealed the approach of the enemy. The precipitous character of the acclivity did not admit of falling back in good order as far as the river, while the impossibility of effecting a rapid embarkation would doom those detained on its banks to certain disaster.

To establish himself without danger in that position, Baker should at least have possessed a sufficient number of boats and been able to convey with rapidity all his forces from one side of the river to the other. But as we have stated, he had only three boats at his disposal for this important service. Stone, in allowing him entire freedom of action, had not troubled himself about the matter, and had even aggravated that fault by his inconsiderate zeal. The crossing of three guns, which he sent to Ball's Bluff, with their horses, also occasioned much loss of time, and diminished by several hundreds the number of combatants whom he might have massed in season on the right side of the river.

In the mean while, Evans, who had been advancing with great caution, at last reached the line occupied by Devens's five companies