The Federal force which first had crossed to Ball's Bluff, was composed of 300 men of the 15th Massachusetts under Colonel Devens. Later it was augmented by a company from the 20th Massachusetts. No adequate transportation across the river for a large force had been provided, so that later it was difficult to send over needed Federal support. When Evans became convinced that the main fight would be at Ball's Bluff, he sent forward Colonel Hunton and his 8th Virginia Regiment of which several of the companies had been recruited in Loudoun. To these forces there were added, later in the day, the 17th and 18th Mississippi. Sharp fighting, with advantage first to one side and then to the other, culminated in a Confederate bayonet charge and the resulting route of the Federals, many of whom were killed and wounded, others driven into the river and drowned and by 8:00 o'clock the survivors surrendered and were marched as prisoners to Leesburg. It is estimated that about 1,700 men were engaged on each side. The Confederate loss was reported as 36 killed, 118 wounded and 2 missing. The Federals reported losses of 49 killed, 158 wounded and 714 missing. The Confederate dead were interred in the Union Cemetery at Leesburg; the Federal slain are buried at Ball's Bluff where their lonely resting place long has been cared for by the Federal Government.[156]
[156] Condensed from Hotchkiss' _Virginia Military History_ as quoted by Head, p. 138. Also White's _Battle of Ball's Bluff_. For Gen. Evans' report see "Official Reports, Sept. to Dec. 1861," published in Richmond in 1862.
Among the killed were Colonel Baker of the Massachusetts troops and Colonel Burt of the 18th Mississippi. Among the very dangerously wounded was a young Massachusetts first lieutenant who, miraculously recovering, later crowned a long judicial career as a venerated member of the Supreme Court of the United States and conferred additional lustre upon the name of Oliver Wendell Holmes.
The Confederates were led in the fighting by Colonel Eppa Hunton of the 8th Virginia. It was he who rallied that regiment when a part of it was in retreat and turned threatened disaster into victory. Colonel Hunton had been born in Fauquier on the 2nd September, 1822, of a family long settled in that County. At the outbreak of the war he was practicing law in Prince William and held a commission as brigadier general in the Militia. After the Ordinance of Secession was adopted, he was commissioned a colonel by Governor Letcher and ordered to raise the 8th Virginia Infantry. For that purpose he proceeded to Leesburg and recruited his command. Chas. B. Tebbs became Lieut. Colonel and Norborne Berkeley, Major. Both were of Loudoun and Berkeley eventually succeeded Hunton in command of the Regiment. Of the ten companies in the regiment, six originally were made up of Loudoun men under Captains William N. Berkeley, Nathaniel Heaton, Alexander Grayson, William Simpson, Wampter, and John R. Carter. Of the remaining four companies, one was from Prince William, one from Fairfax and two from Fauquier. During the war the regiment covered itself with glory by its splendid fighting qualities from the first Manassas to Pickett's charge at Gettysburg and suffered frightful losses. It became known from these losses, as the "Bloody Eighth." Hunton, shot through the leg at Gettysburg, was promoted for his valour there to brigadier general. After the war he lived in Warrenton, practicing his profession with marked ability in Fauquier, Loudoun, and Prince William where juries, frequently including members of his former regiment, seldom failed to give him their verdict. He served as a member of the House of Representatives and later as United States Senator from Virginia, holding in his professional and political life the esteem and affection he had won on many a field of battle.