Ball ' s Bluff Battlefield and National Cemetery Ball ' s Bluff Battlefield Regional Park and National Cemetery is a battlefield area and an United States National Cemetery , located northeast of Leesburg , Virginia . The cemetery is the third smallest national cemetery in the United States . Fifty - four Union Army dead from the Battle of Ball ' s Bluff are interred in 25 graves in the half - acre plot ; the identity of all of the interred except for one , James Allen of the 15th Massachusetts , are unknown . Monuments to fallen Confederate Sergeant Clinton Hatcher and Union brigade commander Edward Dickinson Baker are located next to the cemetery , though neither is buried there . While the stone wall - enclosed cemetery itself is managed through the Culpeper National Cemetery and owned by the Department of Veterans Affairs , the balance of the park is managed through the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority . Battle . The Battle of Ball ' s Bluff was a small but consequential defeat for the Union early in the American Civil War , occurring just months after the Union Army ' s rout after the First Battle of Bull Run and another embarrassing loss at Battle of Wilson ' s Creek in the Western Theater . The Union defeat at Ball ' s Bluff revealed something to the public about the political nature of Union appointments of officers and their occasional incompetence , and led directly to the creation of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War . On October 21 , 1861 , Union Colonel Edward D . Baker , a U . S . Senator from Oregon and close friend of President Abraham Lincoln , was given orders from Brigadier General Charles P . Stone to either withdraw Massachusetts troops who already had landed on the Virginia side of the Potomac River to reconnoiter and raid a Confederate camp north of Leesburg , or reinforce the expedition in the event the raid was successful , at his discretion . Before Baker could discover the true nature of the situation , Confederates pickets detected and fired upon the Union force , and local Confederate district commander Col . Nathan " Shanks " Evans quickly deployed his Virginia and Mississippi regiments against the threat , while still presenting a defense against a larger Union crossing downriver at Edwards Ferry . The inexperienced Baker crossed additional companies to the bluff , but positioned his troops poorly , with the peak of the bluff against their back and higher ground in front of their lines . After a prolonged firefight , the Confederate pressure broke the Federal line , and the assault pushed the Union troops down the difficult terrain and onto the river bank , killing Baker and 222 others , wounding 226 , and eventually capturing 553 . The few boats available became quickly overloaded and some capsized due to overcrowding , so evacuation became impossible . Some swam across to nearby Harrison Island , but 161 went missing , many of them drowned in the swollen Potomac . Bodies of Union troops who had drowned floated downstream towards Washington , D . C . for days after the battle . Aftermath . Wartime Washington , D . C . was horrified by Baker ' s death . At the opening of the second session of the 37th Congress in December , the eulogies for the late senator went on for days . An investigative Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War was formed to examine the causes of the recent defeats , particularly actions related to the death of Baker , Lincoln ' s close friend . Such congressional investigations , more common since , had only very weak precedents at the time . The committee ' s operations were arguably an aggravation for the duration of the war , and ultimately ruined the career of General Stone , who was held accountable for the Baker ' s defeat at Ball ' s Bluff . Army of the Potomac commanding general George B . McClellan , who was responsible at a larger level and had issued vague orders which set in motion the debacle , escaped blame . Cemetery , landmark , park . The land for a cemetery was donated in 1865 . The battlefield area was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1984 . At that time the tall bluff , the landing on the Potomac River , and almost all aspects of the site were substantially the same as the time of the battle 123 years before . An " intrusion " is the wall - enclosed Ball ' s Bluff National Cemetery , holding 54 graves of Union dead ( 53 unknown , and James Allen of the 15th Massachusetts Infantry ) . Another intrusion is a fenced approach road built in 1907 . A commemorative marker for Confederate soldier Clinton Hatcher , of the 8th Virginia Infantry , and a marker of the site of Baker ' s mortal wounding , are nearby . The park , maintained by the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority , contains over seven miles ( 11 km ) of marked trails , including a mile - long loop trail to the bluff overlook with interpretive markers and trail along the Potomac riverbank .