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Charles Ball (1780 - ?) was an African-American slave from Maryland, best known for his account as a fugitive slave, The Life and Adventures of Charles Ball (1837).
Charles Ball in Trail of Glory[]
Charles Ball was a freedman and gunner in the U.S Navy during the War of 1812, a member of the Iron Battalion, and later an important military leader of the Confederacy of the Arkansas.
The Battle of the Capitol[]
On August 24, 1814, Ball was one of several military men who'd seen defeat at the Battle of Bladensburg. Rather than regroup at Georgetown as ordered by General William Winder, Ball joined a band led by Lt. Patrick Driscol that regrouped at the Executive Mansion. Here, Driscol's men joined another group led by Captain Sam Houston, which then marched to the Capitol Building.
Upon their arrival, Ball realized two guns left behind had been rendered useless, but suggested that Foxhall's Foundary, the employer of freeman Henry Crowell, would have guns and shot. With an escort of U.S. dragoons, Ball led a scavaging mission at the Foundary, and returned to the Capitol that evening. Shortly after his arrival, his commanding officer, Commodore Joshua Barney, who'd been injured at Bladensburg, was delivered to Houston's custody by the British.
When the assault finally came, Houston, with some guidance from Driscol, left the command of the artillery to Ball, who in turn quickly savaged the advancing British.