Battle of Ball ' s Bluff The Battle of Ball ' s Bluff , also known as the Battle of Harrison ’ s Island or the Battle of Leesburg , was fought on October 21 , 1861 , in Loudoun County , Virginia , as part of Union Maj . Gen . George B . McClellan ' s operations in Northern Virginia during the American Civil War . 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 . 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 was building up the Army of the Potomac in preparation for an eventual advance into Virginia . On October 19 , 1861 , McClellan ordered Brig . Gen . 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 Col . 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 Brig . Gen . 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 . McClellan came to Dranesville to consult with McCall that same evening and ordered McCall to return to his main camp at Langley , Virginia , the following morning . However , McCall requested additional time to complete some mapping of the roads in the area and , as a result , did not actually leave for Langley until the morning of October 21 , just as the fighting at Ball ' s Bluff was heating up . On October 20 , while McCall was completing his mapping , McClellan ordered Brig . Gen . Charles Pomeroy Stone to conduct what he called " a slight demonstration " in order to see how the Confederates might react . Stone moved troops to the river at Edwards Ferry , positioned other forces along the river , had his artillery fire into suspected Confederate positions , and briefly crossed about a hundred men of the 1st Minnesota to the Virginia shore just before dusk . Having gotten no reaction from Colonel Evans with all of this activity , Stone recalled his troops to their camps and the " slight demonstration " came to an end . Stone then ordered Col . Charles Devens of the 15th Massachusetts Infantry ( stationed on Harrison ' s Island facing Ball ' s Bluff ) to send a patrol across the river at that point to gather what information it could about enemy deployments . Devens sent Capt . Chase Philbrick and approximately 20 men to carry out Stone ' s order . Advancing in the dark nearly a mile inland from the bluff , the inexperienced Philbrick mistook a row of trees for the tents of a Confederate camp and , without verifying what he saw , returned and reported the existence of a camp . Stone immediately ordered Devens to cross some 300 men and , as soon as it was light enough to see , attack the camp and , per his orders , " return to your present position . " This was the genesis of the Battle of Ball ' s Bluff . Contrary to the long - held traditional interpretation , it did not come from a plan by either McClellan or Stone to take Leesburg . The initial crossing of troops was a small reconnaissance . That was followed by what was intended to be a raiding party . To make matters worse , Stone was not advised that McCall and his division had been ordered back to Washington . Battle . On the morning of October 21 , Colonel Devens ' raiding party discovered the mistake made the previous evening by the patrol ; There was no camp to raid . Opting not to recross the river immediately , Devens deployed his men in a tree line and sent a messenger back to report to Stone and get new instructions . On hearing the messenger ' s report , Stone sent him back to tell Devens that the remainder of the 15th Massachusetts ( another 350 men ) would cross the river and move to his position . When they arrived , Devens was to turn his raiding party back into a reconnaissance and move toward Leesburg . While the messenger was going back to Col . Devens with this new information , Colonel and U . S . Senator Edward Dickinson Baker showed up at Stone ' s camp to find out about the morning ' s events . He had not been involved in any of the activities to that point . Stone told him of the mistake about the camp and about his new orders to reinforce Devens for reconnaissance purposes . He then instructed Baker to go to the crossing point , evaluate the situation , and either withdraw the troops already in Virginia or cross additional troops at his discretion . On the way upriver to execute this order , Baker met Devens ' messenger coming back a second time to report that Devens and his men had encountered and briefly engaged the enemy , one company ( Co . K ) of the 17th Mississippi Infantry . Baker immediately ordered as many troops as he could find to cross the river , but he did so without determining what boats were available to do this . A bottleneck quickly developed so that Union troops could only cross slowly and in small numbers , making the crossing last throughout the day . Meanwhile , Devens ' s men ( now about 650 strong ) remained in its advanced position and engaged in two additional skirmishes with a growing force of Confederates , while other Union troops crossed the river but deployed near the bluff and did not advance from there . Devens finally withdrew around 2 : 00 p . m . and met Baker , who had finally crossed the river half an hour later . Beginning around 3 : 00 the fighting began in earnest and was almost continuous until just after dark . Col . Baker was killed at about 4 : 30 p . m . and remains the only United States Senator ever killed in battle . Following an abortive attempt to break out of their constricted position around the bluff , the Federals began to recross the river in some disarray . Shortly before dark , a fresh Confederate regiment ( the 17th Mississippi ) arrived and formed the core of the climactic assault that finally broke and routed the Union troops . Many of the Union soldiers were driven down the steep slope at the southern end of Ball ' s Bluff ( behind the current location of the national cemetery ) and into the river . Boats attempting to cross back to Harrison Island were soon swamped and capsized . Many Federals , included some of the wounded , were drowned . Bodies floated downriver to Washington and even as far as Mt . 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 . It is interesting to note that the Official Records incorrectly state that only 49 Federals were killed at this battle , an error probably resulting from a mistaken reading of the report of the Union burial detail which crossed over the next day under flag of truce . Fifty - four Union dead — of whom only one is identified — are buried in Ball ' s Bluff Battlefield and National Cemetery . Aftermath . This Union defeat was relatively minor in comparison to the battles to come in the war , but it had an enormously wide impact in and out of military affairs . Due to the loss of a sitting senator , it led to severe political ramifications in Washington . Stone was treated as the scapegoat for the defeat , but members of Congress suspected that there was a conspiracy to betray the Union . The ensuing outcry , and a desire to learn why Federal forces had lost battles at Bull Run ( Manassas ) , Wilson ' s Creek , and Ball ' s Bluff , led 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 an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1902 . Herman Melville ' s poem " Ball ' s Bluff - A Reverie " ( published in 1866 ) commemorates the battle . Holmes ' great friend and role model , Lt . Henry Livermore Abbott also survived the battle but did not survive the war . In 1865 , Abbott was posthumously promoted to Brigadier General . Another outstanding young officer named Edmund Rice also eventually reached the rank of Brigadier General , was awarded the Medal of Honor and was fortunate enough to survive the war by near a half century . John William Grout was killed in the battle ; his death inspired a poem ( and later a song ) titled " The Vacant Chair " . The site of the battle has considerably overgrown today , though ongoing efforts by volunteers have thinned out the overgrowth and made interpretation of the battlefield much easier . It is preserved as the Ball ' s Bluff Battlefield and National Cemetery , which was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1984 . The park is maintained by the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority . In culture . Bernard Cornwell ' s " Copperhead " , the second installment of " The Starbuck Chronicles " , begins with the Battle of Ball ' s Bluff . The fictional Faulconer Legion is placed at the left flank of the Confederate position and led by Captain Starbuck ' s K Company , begins the rout of the Union forces . Geraldine Brooks ' " March " , winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction , also opens with the Battle of Ball ' s Bluff . Mr . March , the father in Louisa May Alcott ' s " Little Women " , is the chaplain serving with the Union army . Along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal on the Maryland side , it was rumored that ghosts of departed soldiers from that battle ( particularly those who drowned in one of the boats that sank in the Potomac River ) haunted that area , so canalers would not stay in that area overnight , but would tie up their boats for the night away from that area .