Balls Bluff

I wrote a post about the battle at Balls Bluff in August 2007. Press here to visit that description and explanation of the battle.

Last weekend I returned to the site, which has been much improved in terms of signs and clearing of undergrowth, that I last came to in 1999. The significance of the battle was not its size, but the death of Senator Baker - which led to the establishment of the congressional 'Committee on the Conduct of the War'. The tragedy of the battle is made clear as you look around the site. It was a pointless skirmish - which led to the deaths of 223 soldiers. A faulty intelligence report led Brig. General Charles Stone to send troops up the near cliff like sides of the Potomac. Trees were misidentified as a set of confederate tents. The battle involved close range firing in a wooded area. The Union force sent by Stone was virtually destroyed. A surviving casualty was Oliver Wendall Holmes, who become one of the greatest Supreme Court Judges.



The spot where senator Baker was shot and killed