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Battle of Ball's Bluff


The Battle of Ball's Bluff, also known as the Battle of Harrison’s Landing or the Battle of Leesburg, took place on October 21, 1861, in Loudoun County, Virginia, as part of Major General George B. McClellan's operations in northern Virginia during the American Civil War. It was the second largest battle of the Eastern Theater in 1861.

McClellan had recently been promoted to general-in-chief of all Union armies and, now, three months after the First Battle of Bull Run and considerable organizational activities and defensive preparations, he was being pressured by the Lincoln administration to take some offensive military action. He launched a reconnaissance in force in hopes of seizing Potomac River crossing sites and, ultimately, Leesburg, Virginia.

On October 19, 1861, McClellan ordered Brigadier General George A. McCall to march his division to Dranesville, Virginia , fourteen miles south of Leesburg, hoping to intimidate Confederate Brig. Gen. Nathan "Shanks" Evans into abandoning Leesburg. Evans did move out of the city, taking up a defensive position on the Leesburg Turnpike. McCall's orders were to leave the area that night. Meanwhile, McClellan was uncertain Evans had actually evacuated, and ordered Brigadier General Charles P. Stone to stage a demonstration at Edwards' Ferry to distract the Confederates and glean their location and intentions. In Stone's division was brigade commander Colonel Edward D. Baker, a sitting U.S. Senator who was a close political ally of Lincoln's; he was in the process of deciding whether to leave the Senate and accept a commission as a brigadier general.

On October 20, 1861, a patrol from Stone's division spotted what it thought was a Confederate encampment at Ball's Bluff. The bluff, named for the Ball family, was halfway between Edwards' Ferry and Conrad's Ferry (now known as White's Ferry), rose 100 feet above the Potomac, and overlooked Harrison Island, a narrow island about three miles in length in the center of the narrow river. Stone ordered the 15th Massachusetts Infantry to raid the camp the next morning. Finding that the patrol had been mistaken and there was no camp, the 300 Union soldiers nevertheless stayed on the southern bank of the river. They were soon discovered by the 17th Mississippi Infantry and forces gathered from both sides until each had approximately 1,700 men facing each other.

Stone was no expert military tactician and he improvidently kept his small command on the Maryland bank too long while he personally arranged logistical matters. And he failed to secure an open field on his left flank. The Confederate force directed murderous fire on his position from that flank. Many of the Union soldiers were driven over the steep bluff and into the river; a number of the casualties resulted from drowning and dead bodies floated as far downriver as Washington; more than 500 were captured. Senator/Colonel Baker was shot and killed around 5 p.m.

This Union rout was relatively minor in comparison to the battles to come in the war, but it had an enormous impact. Due to the loss of a sitting senator, it had severe political ramifications in Washington. General Stone was treated as the scapegoat for the defeat, but members of Congress suspected that there was a conspiracy afoot to betray the Union. The outcry led directly to the establishment of the Congressional Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, which would bedevil Union officers (particularly those who were Democrats) for the remainder of the war and contribute to nasty political infighting among the generals in the high command.

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Last updated: 05-22-2005 04:56:04