The following is transcribed from the New York Times, dated October 31, 1861:

​

The Battle of Ball's Bluff

​

          The smoke of this battle has sufficiently cleared away to give to both sides a very accurate knowledge of the number and character of the forces engaged. The exaggerated reports that so invariably go out on the occurrence of an important engagement, have been more speedily corrected in the present case than is usual. The official report of Gen. EVANS, the officer in command of the rebels, states that the Confederate troops engaged in the affair numbered 2,500. He goes on to particularize the men, as follows: the Eighth Virginia Regiment, the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Mississippi Regiments, and the Thirteenth Mississippi Regiment -- "the latter being held in reserve." A regiment in the Confederate service averages about 600 men; and these four regiments make up the force, 2,500, that Gen. EVANS states he was in command of. It may be a question with some whether we are to accept the rebel report of the number of troops engaged on their side as truthful. We unhesitatingly answer that it is, and for this most obvious reason. No rebel officer would dare exclude from his report of the battle the names of any regiments or companies that had participated in what they regard as one of the most brilliant victories of the war. Men, North or South, and men the world over, are the same in this one regard -- they demand all the honor that they are fairly entitled to. And honor won on a bloody battle-field is too dearly bought to be safely withheld from the soldier. The Richmond Whig, speaking of the rebel victory of Ball's Bluff, says that "history shows few feats of arms so splendid," and that Gen. EVANS' "unconquerable troops have achieved a deed that will make their memories glorious for centuries to come." We may be sure that Gen. EVANS has not committed the unpardonable sin of omitting to mention any troops that fought under him -- nor would he have dared to report the "Thirteenth Mississippi" as "held in reserve," if they had been scarred in the thickest of the fight, or participated in any work of the tragic day. But while Gen. EVANS would not venture to withhold honors from any of the Confederate soldiers engaged in the fight, he could safely, and perhaps honestly, magnify the numbers of the National troops he had to contend with. He tells his superiors that, with his four regiments -- his 2,500 men -- he vanquished 10,000 of the Nationals. We know better than this. We know, almost to a man, how many men we had in that fight. There were about 1,900, perhaps not a dozen more nor less. But these men on our side were not all engaged at once. A few companies of the Massachusetts Fifteenth first got into the fight, and bore up against the three rebel regiments most bravely. Col. BAKER brought up a battalion of his California Regiment and part of the Massachusetts Twentieth to their support, and these fractional regiments sustained the conflict against the enemy's three. Lastly, but when the fight was nearly over, part of the Tammany Regiment came into the fight, and for the first time the National forces were nearly balanced with the enemy. The total engaged during the day was about 1,800 men on each side, but the Nationals coming into the fight only by detachments, at hours wide apart, the enemy fought them throughout the engagement two or three to one. Besides, they had the immense advantage of an ambuscade, being strongly posted in the woods and firing from their cover, thus obtaining over their opponents, so inferior in numbers, the additional advantage of a surprise and of the first blow. That Gen. EVANS supposed himself to have encountered "10,000 of the Nationals" is the best testimony that he could bear to the obstinate resistance of our brave troops; and that the Confederate regiments, fighting in their concealment, suffered a loss of 800 killed and wounded, is proof that the National soldiers, though beleaguered and hopeless, fought with the coolness and precision of veterans. There can hardly be a doubt that up to the time of the retreat ordered by Col. COGGSWELL -- an inevitable necessity in the circumstances -- the enemy had suffered more than we in killed and wounded. The National loss occurred mainly in the retreat and the desperate attempt to recross the Potomac. It was chiefly from the disorganization resulting from the loss of officers, and the discouragement of the detachments in having to bear up so long unsupported against the entire force of the enemy, who was continually flanking them, that even the very unequal struggle was lost to the Union cause.

​

​