History of the Civil War in America

History of the Civil War in America

A historic account of the American Civil War

The Comte de Paris who served as an Aide-de-Camp with General George McClellan wrote a two volume account of the Civil War. He spent some time on Upton's Hill.

The Comte de Paris

Archive.org

Porter & Oates

1875

Public Domain

The Civil War in America pg. 403

Two months had elapsed since the battle of Bull Run. The
Confederate chiefs, in view of the increase of the Federal forces
at Washington, could no longer entertain the idea of an offensive
campaign. The ardor with which they had fired the South, by
pushing their outposts in sight of the capital, had swelled the
number of their soldiers ; the result which they had sought was
accomplished. These outposts, having ventured very far from the
main army, were then drawn back. On the 27th of September
they evacuated a small work situated on an isolated height called
Munson's Hill, which soldiers in the Union army were in the habit of pointing out from a distance to visitors and journalists,
who came from the North to say that they had seen the enemy.
The Federals entered the work on the following day, and afterwards
successively took possession of the villages of Lewiusville,
Vienna, and even Fairfax Court-house, on the 9th, 16th, and 17th
of October. In the absence of more important military events,
this movement, which had not cost a drop of blood, was made the
subject of comment in the North, both by the press and the public,
for several weeks. McClellan contented himself, nevertheless,
with extending his positions, and laying out a plan for a new line
of works two or three kilometres in advance of the old one. He
thus left a space between the two armies which was to render their
encounters still rarer than before.
The inaction which fortified his position above and around
Washington was soon, however, the means of causing him a
great deal of trouble on the Lower Potomac. The line of railway
not being sufficient to transport all the supplies intended for
Washington, part of that service was performed by Avater. From
the time that a large army had begun to collect in that city the
Lower Potomac was ploughed by a considerable number of sailingvessels
coming from Baltimore, Havre-de-Grace, Philadelphia,
New York, and Boston, carrying, at reduced prices, the materiel
of war and the necessary provisions for the military and civil
population of the capital. The Confederates, being masters of all
the right bank, resolved to balk their operations. The wooded
hills which rise along the borders of the Lower Potomac aiforded
excellent positions for intercepting the navigation of that arm of
the sea. They erected earthworks, in some of which they placed
navy guns, whilst others were prepared to receive field-pieces.
Towards the middle of September they began by firing a few
shells upon the vessels that were coming up the Potomac, and a
fortnight after, their batteries were so well posted between the
mouth of the Occoquan and Mathias Point, that merchant-vessels
dared no longer to brave them, and navigation was almost entirely
suspended. It was not long before the capital began to suffer for
want of provisions ; the trains engaged in the transportation service
of the government encumbered the railroad, and the price of
all commodities was immediately raised. The material damage
BALL'S BLUFF. 405
was not great, but this partial blockade of the capital was regarded
in the North as a new humiliation, and for the first time General
McClellan was taken to task. These reproaches were unjust. It
was impossible to prevent the Confederates from erecting batteries
along a coast eighty kilometres in length, of which they
were absolute masters. The war flotilla, stationed on the waters
of the Potomac, could act as a police force, intercept all communications
between the two banks, protect merchant-vessels against
sudden attacks, throw shells into one and another of the enemy's
works, but it could not entirely silence batteries the armament
of which it was always easy for the Confederates to renew. In
order to break up the blockade it would have been necessary to
effect the military occupation of the right bank of the Lower Potomac
; but such an operation could not be undertaken with an
arm of the sea in the rear and the whole of the enemy's army
encamped at Manassas in front. To break the blockade of the
Potomac, therefore, depended upon the retreat of that army, and
could only be an incident in the new campaign which was being
prepared.