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Balls Bluff Battlefield Has Many Friends
Balls Bluff Battlefield Has Many Friends
By Joe Motheral
The Civil War Battle of Balls Bluff took place on October 21, 1861, just east of Leesburg with significant implications.
Confederates forced the Union troops in retreat to back up and get down the 80-foot bluffs into the Potomac River. A number of Union soldiers drowned and the Confederates won the day.
Bodies floated downriver to Washington and even as far as Mount Vernon in the days following the battle. A total of 223 Federals were killed, 226 were wounded, and 553 were captured on the banks of the Potomac later that night.
There’s now a small cemetery at the battlefield near Leesburg and a volunteer organization, Friends of Balls Bluff, has been responsible for overseeing its upkeep and occasionally holding events, particularly on October 21, the anniversary of the battle. The battlefield is also now part of The Northern Virginia Park Authority (NVPA).
According to the NVPA website, “Ball’s Bluff Battlefield Regional Park preserves the site of one of the largest Civil War engagement in Loudoun County. The conflict was fought….as part of Union Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s operations in Northern Virginia.
“While a minor engagement in comparison with the 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.
“Fifty-four Union Army dead from the Battle of Ball’s Bluff are interred in 25 graves in the half-acre plot cemetery; the identity of all of the interred except for one, James Allen of the 15th Massachusetts, is unknown.”
John Anderson, the Friends former chairman, said that after the battle, “they originally found 70 bodies. They tried to bury them but weren’t able to complete the job. Later they found bodies scattered all over and buried who they could but it didn’t become a cemetery until after the war. It’s probably the smallest Civil War cemetery in the country.”
As for the battle’s significance, Oliver Wendell Holmes, a Union officer from Massachusetts, was wounded there and later at several other engagements. He later became a widely respected Supreme Court justice.
Another officer in the Union Army, Colonel Edward D. Baker, was killed in the battle and was a close friend of President Abraham Lincoln. Col. Baker was originally from California, later became a senator in Florida, and subsequently moved to Illinois, where he met Lincoln.
The Friends outgoing chairman, Martin Johnson, said that because Balls Bluff was the second Union loss after Bull Run, “Congress decided to set up a committee to oversee the war. It was made up of Democrats and Republicans.”
Both Anderson and Johnson served in the U.S. Army, as did Joseph A. Kotch, the incoming Friends chairman. Kotch indicated that the Friends of Ball’s Bluff are all volunteers.
“We’re responsible for the stewardship of the Ball’s Bluff Battle Regional Park,” he said. “We do this service as tour guides, every Saturday and Sunday. (During work days) we concentrate on trail maintenance, mulch and cleanup of trees and brush and debris.”
Other activities involving the Friends include a Fourth of July celebration, a Ball’s Bluff Battle anniversary celebration, an annual remembrance dinner and a Balls’ Bluff Elementary School essay contest.
Details: The cemetery is located off Battlefield Parkway on Ball’s Bluff Road east of Leesburg. Go to www.novaparks.com/parks/balls-bluff-battlefield.
