4.1. The Controversy at Blackburn Ford
Supplement to Endnotes
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Some papers immediately pointed fingers at the officers of the Twelfth New York. After it first published a condemning report, The New York Tribune printed a more measured one, saying that the officers were not the sole problem, though only two companies -- neither of them Cole’s -- stood firmly and resisted the “dangerous contagion of their companions.” The “remainder were throwing away their muskets and their blankets in the confusion of the retreat.” The report concluded that it would be up to the officers to inspire a sense of duty in the men, and only then, in some future battle could the Twelfth “atone” for its misdeed.
The Syracuse Journal printed the findings of the military inquiry, leaving the many avid readers, Cole’s neighbors and fellow Syracusans, to wonder about the origins of the shameful spectacle. Walrath, the report found, rallied his men together after they first began to run, but could not restrain them when a cannon shell exploded in their midst. As the report phrased it, “during all this time [the Colonel] was exerting himself to bring it in to order, and apparently without proper support from many of his officers.”[1]
A few days after the humiliation of Blackburn’s Ford, a Syracuse paper cited the discrepancies in other papers which reported the losses to be as low as forty and as high as one hundred.[2] Some early news reports downplayed the defeat in ways that would have stroked the pride of pro-Union readers, while certainly relieving soldiers like Tyler (and Cole) who were potentially tarnished by the panic: “Our troops did not retreat, as represented in some quarters, but only retired for a more effectual engagement,” wrote The Times. A telegraphed report in a Syracuse paper claimed the boys “fell back somewhat, but in good order and fighting bravely.” Another upstate New York paper printed an equally rosy narrative: “The New York Twelfth...moved up into action in magnificent style. They were received with the very climax of the enemy’s fire, from both musketry and artillery, and, though they retreated at last, it was not till they had been severely mangled that they escaped to the open field.”[3] In this way, the fog of war began rolling off the daily papers into the parlors and shops of Cole’s neighbors.
As word spread about Longstreet’s victory over Tyler, the outnumbered southern army took courage, believing that ferocity and moral determination really could defeat the Yankee juggernaut. To make matters worse, many Union soldiers suddenly felt an anxious reverence for the mythic valor of southern warriors, especially the mounted Rebel. Terrifying rumors filtered through the ranks about some “Black Horse Cavalry” from Virginia that would sweep onto the field to send Yankee boys back to their maker. Blackburn’s Ford only added to the mental stakes of the battle of Bull Run that would soon follow.[4]
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[1] Full report of trial in Syracuse Journal, August 19, 1861.
[2] The New York Times reported 100, the Tribune had it at 50. See “Our Loss” in: Syracuse Daily Courier, July 20, 1861. The Courier also quoted special dispatches in Philadelphia that erroneously claimed that the battle continued the next evening, that that Congress had announced that Federal troops had captured the Manassas Junction. Perhaps using this story to emphasize its reliability the Courier added, “There is undoubtedly no truth in this dispatch.”
[3] New York Times, July 20, 1861 (under “Later” on first page; Syracuse Daily Courier, July 20, 1861; Oneida Weekly Herald and Gazette and Courier, July 23, 1861.
[4] Phillip Shaw Paludan, A People’s Contest: The Union and Civil War, 1861-1865 (New York: Harper & Row, 1988), pp. 54-60; McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, pp. 139-148.