luding both officers and men, was 49;
wounded, 158; missing, 714, of whom a few were drowned, and the
great mass taken prisoners. The popular admiration for Colonel
Baker was unbounded, and the suspicion that his life had been
needlessly destroyed created such a feeling as demanded a victim.
General Stone was selected for the sacrifice, and popular wrath
was turned upon him with burning intensity. Rumors and exaggerations
filled the newspapers; and the public, in that state of credulity
which is an incident to the victim-hunting mania, accepted every
thing as true. It was widely believed that Colonel Baker said
mournfully, as he marched to the battle-field, "I will obey General
Stone's order, but it is my death-warrant."

BALL'S BLUFF DISASTER INVESTIGATED.

Goaded by these injurious and unfounded rumors, General Stone, in
a letter to the Adjutant-General of the army, written a fortnight
after the battle, deemed it his "duty to answer the persistent
attacks made through the press by the friends of the lamented
Colonel Baker." He called attention to the "distinct violations
by Colonel Baker of his orders and instructions," and declared that
he was left "to use his own discretion about crossing his force,
or retiring that already over." He found it "painful to censure
the acts of one who gallantly died on the field of battle," but
justice to himself required "that the full truth should be made to
appear." Colonel Baker did not receive the order "as a death-
warrant," for it was delivered to him "at his own request." That
"Colonel Baker was determined to fight a battle" was made evident
by the fact that "he never crossed to examine the field, never gave
an order to the troops in advance, and never sent forward to
ascertain their position, until he had ordered over his force, and
passed over a considerable portion of it." On the 5th of January,
1862, General Stone appeared before the Committee on the Conduct
of the War, and was examined under oath as to every detail of the
Ball's-Bluff disaster which could in any way, directly or remotely,
involve his responsibility as a commander. His answers were frank,
withholding nothing, and were evidently intended to communicate
every pertinent fact. So far as may be inferred from the questions
and comments, the evidence was entirely satisfactory to the
committee.

After the examination of General Stone, many officers of his comman