Battle of Balls Bluff

Battle of Ball's Bluff
Part of the American Civil War
Depiction of Ball's Bluff by Alfred W. Thompson
Date October 21, 1861 Location Loudoun County, Virginia Coordinates: 39°07′42″N 77°31′40″W / 39.1282°N 77.5277°W / 39.1282; -77.5277 Result Confederate victory
Belligerents
United States (Union)	CSA (Confederacy)
Commanders and leaders
Charles Pomeroy Stone Edward Dickinson Baker †	Nathan G. Evans
Strength
1,720	1,709
Casualties and losses
921–1,002 total	155 (36 killed; 117 wounded; 2 captured)

The Battle of Ball's Bluff in Loudoun County, Virginia on October 21, 1861, was one of the early battles of the American Civil War. In the battle, Union Army forces of the Army of the Potomac, under the command of Major General George B. McClellan, suffered a humiliating defeat.

The operation was planned as a minor reconnaissance across the Potomac to establish whether the Confederates were occupying Leesburg. A false report of an unguarded Confederate camp encouraged Brigadier General Charles Pomeroy Stone to order a raid, which clashed with enemy forces. A prominent U.S. Senator in uniform, Colonel Edward Baker, tried to reinforce the Union troops, but failed to ensure that there were enough boats for the river crossings, which were then delayed. Baker was killed, and a newly-arrived Confederate unit routed the rest of Stone’s expedition.

The Union losses, although modest by later standards, alarmed Congress, which set-up the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, a body which would provoke years of bitter political infighting.

Three months after the First Battle of Bull Run, Major General George B. McClellan was building up the Army of the Potomac in preparation for an eventual advance into Virginia. On October 19, 1861, McClellan ordered Brigadier General George A. McCall to march his division to Dranesville, Virginia, twelve miles southeast of Leesburg, in order to discover the purpose of recent Confederate troop movements which indicated that Colonel Nathan "Shanks" Evans might have abandoned Leesburg. Evans had, in fact, left the town on October 16–17 but had done so on his own authority. When Confederate Brigadier General P.G.T. Beauregard expressed his displeasure at this move, Evans returned. By the evening of October 19, he had taken up a defensive position on the Alexandria-to-Winchester Turnpike (modern-day State Route 7) east of town.

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