Hey everyone, thanks for downloading episode number 74 of our Civil War podcast.

My name is Rich.

I'm Tracy. Hello y'all. Welcome to the podcast. Last week we looked at the Battle of Balls

Bluff which took place along the Potomac River near Leesburg, Virginia on October 21,

1861. This week we're going to look at one of the unfortunate consequences of the Union

Disaster at Balls Bluff. That is the persecution of Brigadier General Charles Stone by the Joint

Committee on the Conduct of the War.

After the committee selected him as its scapegoat for Balls Bluff and after he made a personal

enemy of Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, Stone would be arrested in early February

1862 and taken to New York where he was confined first at Fort Lafayette, then at Fort Hamilton.

He remained in prison for just over six months during which time no formal charges were

ever filed against him. During his confinement, Stone never got a hearing or a response to his

many pleas for information.

Charles Stone was released in August 1862 without any more explanation than had been given

for his arrest, but just how had he come to find himself in such a wretched predicament

in the first place? The answer to that question is one of the more shameful unhappy stories

of the Civil War, a story in which a promising officer is done in bipartisan politics and

personal grudges.

Charles, Pomeroy Stone, was a West Pointer, class of 1845. He served during the Mexican

War, impressing Winfield Scott with his performance during the siege of Vera Cruz and while in

command of Hevy Artillery at the battles of Malino Del Rey and Chipotle Peck. Stone

won brevets for his conduct at both of those engagements and left Mexico as a brevet captain.

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