Ball's Bluff - The Aftermath

Tuesday, October 22, 1861
The Twentieth Massachusetts suffered a devastating blow to their ranks at Ball’s Bluff. The regiment reported 87 killed or wounded and 111 captured, for a total of 198 casualties, a loss of approximately one-third of the regiment.

The casualties among the officers were catastrophic. The high command of the regiment were captured and taken prisoner by the Confederates. Colonel William R. Lee, Major Paul Revere, Adjutant Charles Peirson, and Assistant Surgeon E.H.R. Revere, as well as First Lieutenant George Perry of Company D, were reported captured. Major Revere was also wounded.

Among the officers killed were Second Lieutenant Reinhold Wesselhoeft of Company C, Second Lieutenant William Lowell Putnam of Company E, and Captain Alois Babo of Company G.

Among the officers wounded were First Lieutenant Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. of Company A, Captain Ferdinand Dreher of Company D, Captain George Schmidt and First Lieutenant James Lowell of Company E, and Captain John Putnam of Company H.¹

References:
¹George A. Bruce, The Twentieth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry 1861 - 1865 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Riverside Press, 1906), 59-61.