Evening star., 1933-09-10


the war Balls Bluff, on the
Potomac a few miles from LeesDurg, presents
today very much the same wild features as
on the day nearly thousand Union soldiers
met death at its edge as result OF strategic
bunder that put Washington in a furor for
months and provoked Senate investigation
ending in the imprisonment Of a general OF
the United States Army.
This has never yet been sight-Seerers' bat
tlefield. 1t is back in the country. on tie edge
of woods, approachable by dirt road. There
has been no effort to make it into park. The
State of Virginia has called attention to its
location by a. sign on the Pcint Of Rocks road
about a mile north of Leesburg. On the actual
site there is the little National Cemetery, with
its flag pole inclosed by low wall Of red
brick Four years after the battle the skeletons
of 54 men were collected from the rocky and
overgrown decliv1ties OF the spot and buried
in this cemetery-an but one unknown soldier
Otherwise, the battlefield remains the same
in its landscape features as it was on the day
it served as a death trap for a small army.
The place itself tells the story OF the men who
crept up the bluff at midnight, to be met the
next day by a withering Confederate fire that
sent them back stumbling through the thick
woods and down the rocky, tangled face OF the
bluff to the swirling river. The people living
in the neighborhood know the story and still
speak of the "pcor Yankee soldiers who went
with as much feeling as if the battle had been
fought in the past week. Where the turf is
worn away by the edge of the road the
fortunate visitor may pick up one OF the big
lead minnie" balls, smooth and creamy with
oxide, which at other battlefieds made
into watch fobs
At the edge Of an oak woods the little ceme-
terry stands in a clearing Of grass and scrub
oak extending back about so yards in the
direction of Leesburg. This little field is en-
circled by gully on the left and inclosed by
wooded hills in the Leesburg direction. It
was these hills which the Confederate soldiers
occupied with deadly command of the spot
where the graveyard now is. Down the gully
on the left they poured in a hanking move
ment when the disordered Union retreat had
begun. A person standing by the wall Of the
cemetery understands partly the pressure OF
that trap into which the Union leaders walked.
The gravestopes ON the edge of the woods tell
story, but at the same time suggest ques-
ton.
But it is not in any historical account that
the answer need be sought. The explanation
lies graphic and grim, within a few feet. Sew
eral steps into the woods, along the winding
patch of red dust. and the path twists sharply.
It seems to run along the edge Of a drop,
though the tangle Of vines and bushes makes
it difficult to tell where the edge begins or how
far one might fall. Old trees lean out far and
let their branches down. in . screen which
meets the tops Of other trees growing some
where below.
This is Balls Bluff. the precpice which the
Union leaders had failed to take into con-
sideration, and which cost one Of them his
life and another his reputation. Seventy feet
high, but running only about 100 yards along
the river, the bluff is an anomaly for this
part of the Potomac and the visitor walking
through the woods comes upon the irregular
edge Unexpectedly. In spots through the foliage
the water can be seen racing below. Local
tradition holds that in the mud Of the river
bed Is buried q Union cannon that rolled
back over the bluff in the battle. After long,
dry SPELL when the waters are clear and low,
boys swimming have reported seeing the gun.
Beyond the water, Harrisons Island the
largest in the Potomac. stretches its smile
length and blocks any extended view of the
river. Beyond that are the hills of Maryland,
near Poolesville. Harrisons Island, also part
of Maryland lies in the southwest corner Of
Montgomery County. Local explorers who have
crossed the Potomac near Leesburg at Whites
Ferry-Conrads Ferry in Civil War days
will remember seeing downstream about