Ball's Bluff battle game: a brigade with the Potomac at its back
A raid that grew all day, a few small boats, and a hundred-foot drop to the river. Ball's Bluff opens River Crossings in Civy War, and it is free to play.
One scenario, playable from either side. Every battle runs five minutes on the clock against a Green, Regular or Veteran enemy: the attacker has to break the line before nightfall, the defender has to hold.
Ball's Bluff
Free · opens River Crossings
October 21, 1861 · 4 p.m.
As the Union, hold the field above the bluff and keep the landing open. Colonel Edward Baker, a senator in uniform, has the 15th and 20th Massachusetts, his own 1st California and the Tammany men of the 42nd New York in a small field with woods on three sides, two light guns, and the 19th Massachusetts back on Harrison's Island. Don't lose the path down to the landing.
As the Confederacy, drive the Federals off the field and over the bluff into the river. Colonel Nathan Evans has Hunton's 8th Virginia in front, Burt's 18th Mississippi in the woods on the right and Featherston's 17th Mississippi coming up at the double, while Jenifer's men and the dismounted Loudoun cavalry work around the Federal right. The enemy has a river at his back and almost no boats.
The battle
In October 1861 a small Union raid crossed the Potomac from Harrison's Island to look at a Confederate camp near Leesburg. The camp turned out not to exist, but the raiders ran into Confederate pickets and the fighting grew all day. Colonel Edward Baker, a close friend of President Lincoln and a sitting United States senator, brought his brigade over to finish it. There were only a few small boats, and every company had to be ferried across in turns and then climb the bluff.
In the late afternoon Burt's 18th Mississippi charged out of the woods on the Federal left, and Burt fell mortally wounded. Baker was killed at the front of his line at about 4:30, the only sitting senator ever to die in battle. Shortly before dark the 17th Mississippi led the last Confederate assault and drove the Federals down the bluff. At the water the overloaded boats swamped, and many men drowned trying to reach the island; bodies floated down the Potomac as far as Washington.
Of about 1,700 Federals who crossed, some 1,000 were lost, more than half of them captured. The Confederates, about as many, lost about 155. Baker's death shocked the North, and Congress set up the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, which went on to question generals for the rest of the war. Among the wounded of the 20th Massachusetts was Lieutenant Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., the future Supreme Court justice.
Free or paid
Free. Ball's Bluff is the opening battle of River Crossings and is free to every player. Dam No. 1, Fredericksburg, North Anna and Natural Bridge are the paid part of the expansion. The map was drawn by J. Wells for Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, published in 1887.
Fourteen battles, the Drill Field and the Field Manual are free. The Historical Campaigns, Grant's Campaigns, The Western Campaigns and River Crossings are optional one-time purchases that restore on every device signed in to the same Apple ID.