Is He Related?

Balls Bluff Virginia, the first battle for the 20th Massachusetts, which included Oliver Wendell Holmes and two sons of Paul Revere and many men from Harvard University . . . of which ninety three were killed over the course of four years. All the names are on white marble plaques at the beautiful Sanders Theatre in Cambridge. Look for them the next time you go to Christmas Revels.

Page 56.  The  Twentieth Massachusetts was intended to play a supporting roll in the second part of McClellan's original orders - to observe Leesburg and to see if McCall's march and Stone's demonstration convinced the Rebels to evacuate. As his regiment cooked a meager supper that evening across from Harrison Island, which was located in the Potomac approximately four hours north of Edwards Ferry, Colonel Lee did not know that a small reconnaissance party from Colonel Charles Deven's 15th Massachusetts was already in Virginia. Led by CAPTAIN NATHANIEL PHILBRICK.

I am currently reading the history of the 20th Massachusetts (Harvard' s Civil War) and I am finding it fascinating. In this battle at Balls Bluff, relatives of George Washington fought relatives of Paul Revere.

There is a Philbrick / Philbrook News letter by a guy from Palm Springs. There is no mention of OUR writer Nathaniel Philbrick of Nantucket yet in any of the 37 newsletters. I am guessing that he is not related to the Captain in the Balls Bluff fight.

by Robert F. Bacon  . . . "I was at Gettysburg with Thomas P. Egan all three days. I remember that our tent had a wood plank floor."