Battle of Ball's Bluff
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The Battle of Ball's Bluff, also known as the Battle of Harrison’s Landing or the Battle of Leesburg, was fought on October 21, 1861, in Loudoun County, Virginia, as part of Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's operations in northern Virginia during the American Civil War. While a minor engagement in comparison with the Virginia battles that would take place in years to follow, it was the second largest battle of the Eastern Theater in 1861, and in its aftermath had repercussions in the Union Army's chain of command structure and raised separation of powers issues under the United States Constitution during the war.
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[edit] Background
In the weeks preceding the battle, McClellan had been promoted to general-in-chief of all Union armies and, now, three months after the First Battle of Bull Run and after some considerable organizational activities and defensive preparations, he may have felt pressure from the Lincoln administration to take offensive military action. He chose to launch a reconnaissance in force in hopes of seizing Potomac River crossing sites and, ultimately, Leesburg, Virginia.
On October 19, 1861, McClellan ordered Brig. Gen. George A. McCall to march his division to Dranesville, Virginia, fourteen miles southeast 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 Brig. Gen. Charles Pomeroy Stone to stage a demonstration at Edwards' Ferry to distract the Confederates and glean positions and intentions. Stone personally supervised the crossing at Edwards' Ferry; he also decided on a second demonstration two miles upriver, and he delegated that task to one of his brigade commanders Col. Edward D. Baker. Baker, a sitting U.S. Senator and close personal friend of Lincoln's, had recently been offered a commission as major general of volunteers, and was in the process of deciding whether to leave his Senate seat to accept.
[edit] Battle
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For more details on this topic, see Ball's Bluff order of battle.
On the night of October 20, 1861, a patrol from the upstream crossing spotted what appeared to be rows of Confederate tents in the fields behind Ball's Bluff. The densely wooded cliff was halfway between Edwards' Ferry and Conrad's Ferry (now known as White's Ferry), rose a rocky 100 feet above the Potomac bank, and overlooked Harrison Island, a narrow island about three miles in length in the center of the narrow river. Sensing opportunity, Stone ordered a detachment of the 15th Massachusetts Infantry under Col. Charles Devens to raid the camp early the next morning, October 21. After sending a messenger to Stone with news the "tents" were merely moonlit reflections from rows of trees, Devens and his green battalion of 300 Union soldiers stayed on the southern bank of the river awaiting further orders.
Stone's written instructions to Baker ordered that additional forces under Baker's command be crossed to the Virginia side, or completely withdrawn at Baker's discretion, depending on the situation. Instead of crossing to the bluff personally to evaluate his tactical options, Colonel Baker immediately chose to cross his entire force, and for some hours personally supervised the lifting of boats from the nearby Chesapeake and Ohio Canal to assist his river crossing.
Devens's command had been facing increasingly stiff resistance all morning from elements of the 17th Mississippi infantry. Additional Union battalions crossed all day using the makeshift flotilla made available. Baker himself crossed after 1:00 p.m., and saw his chances for a glorious victory. Evans continued to deploy additional troops against the Ball's Bluff crossing, while screening the Edwards' Ferry crossing with a single company.
Colonel Baker was shot in the head at about 5:00 p.m., and as darkness fell Union command eventually broke down under sustained and enthusiastic Confederate volleys. Many of the Union soldiers were driven over the steep bluff and into the river. Boats attempting to cross back to Harrison Island were soon swamped and capsized; a disturbing number of the casualties resulted from drowning and dead bodies floated as far downriver as Washington in the days following the battle. More than 500 Union prisoners were captured on the banks of the Potomac later that night.
[edit] Aftermath
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 for the remainder of the war (particularly those who were Democrats) and contribute to nasty political infighting among the generals in the high command.
Lt. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., of the 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, survived a nearly fatal wound at Ball's Bluff to become a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1902. Herman Melville's poem "Ball's Bluff - A Reverie" (published in 1866) commemorates the battle.
The site of the battle has considerably overgrown today, but is preserved as the Ball's Bluff Battlefield and National Cemetery, which was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1984.[1] The park is maintained by the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority. [2]
[edit] References
- Ballard, Ted (2001). U.S. Army Online Bookshelf: Battle of Ball's Bluff Guide. Center for Military History. Retrieved on April 23, 2008.
- Farwell, Byron (1990). Ball's Bluff: A Small Battle and Its Long Shadow. McLean, Virginia: EPM Publications. ISBN 0-939009-36-6.
- Holien, Kim Bernard [1985] (1995). Battle at Ball's Bluff, third printing, Orange, Virginia: Publisher's Press. ISBN 0-953422-10-2.
- Morgan, James A., III (2004). A Little Short of Boats: The Fights at Ball's Bluff and Edwards Ferry, October 21–22, 1862; a history and tour guide, Discovering Civil War America 2. Fort Mitchell, Kentucky: Ironclad Publishing. ISBN 0-9673770-4-8.
- National Park Service. National Park Service battle description. Retrieved on April 23, 2008.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Edwin C. Bearss (February 8, 1984), National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Ball's Bluff Battlefield and National CemeteryPDF (2.07 MiB), National Park Service and Accompanying 1 aerial photograph, undated.PDF (47.6 KiB)
- ^ Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority website
[edit] External links
- Battle of Ball's Bluff is at coordinates Coordinates:
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