Yesterday the Battle of Ball’s Bluff was fought in 1861. It struck me that the leading officer of the union troops, who lost, was a close friend of Abraham Lincoln’s. I recall that the first man killed in the civil war, in Alexandria, as I recall, was also a close friend of Lincoln’s.
It is often pointed out that Lincoln aged dramatically over the course of the war. I wonder how much of that was the result of losing so many friends. Whatever else you can say of him, he was resolute.
Stonewall Jackson was appointed the commander of the Valley District in the Department of Northern Virginia.
