A few Veterans Days ago, my wife and I made a day trip to Ball’s Bluff Battlefield Regional Park in Loudon County, Virginia. You’d never know it was there, tucked away as it is behind a suburban housing development. Once you step out of your car and into the park, you’re in another place altogether. For one thing, Ball’s Bluff is really two sites in one. Just inside the park is a small National Cemetery, containing the remains of 54 soldiers in 25 graves, all killed during the Battle of Ball’s Bluff. We were there on a cold, cloudy day, the kind of day that really made us think somberly about that long-ago battle near the beginning of the Civil War. Given that it was a small engagement, we were able to walk most of the battlefield, up to the edge of the high bluff where the inexperienced Union soldiers made their last stand.
This battle was relatively inconsequential militarily, but it had a larger impact politically. An overly ambitious reconnaissance in force that resulted in the death of Abraham Lincoln’s friend Colonel and Senator Edward D. Baker, it cost Union General Charles Stone his career and was the impetus for the establishment of the Congressional Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, which became long-term Radical Republican thorn in the side of Lincoln’s Administration.
The U.S. Army’s Center of Military History has a neat little booklet on the battle that I wish we’d had that day. Battle of Ball’s Bluff was developed as a staff ride guide for Army personnel so they can “learn from the past by analyzing the battle through the eyes of the men who were there.” The best part of the booklet is the blow-by-blow account of the battle, accompanied by a number of detailed maps. As I said, the battlefield is relatively small, so you can really get a sense of what happened in just an hour or two.
What sticks in my mind is the fearful predicament of the Union troops, unfamiliar with the area and forced back to that steep bluff above the Potomac. Many of them jumped to their deaths or died on the narrow little 
strip of land beneath under a rain of Confederate musket fire (left). I’m not that crazy about heights, so looking down from the top of that cliff really brought at least a bit of the grim reality of that day home to me.
You can read about this little battle with lasting consequences here, get your own copy here, or find a library that has a copy here.
govbooktalk
Trudy Hawkins
Government Book Talk 
I do not even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post
was good. I don’t know who you are but certainly you are going
to a famous blogger if you are not already 😉 Cheers!
LikeLike
I wonder how many other lesser yet poignant civil war there are ?
LikeLike
[…] 1940 by Brett Holman at Airminded29. Sunday, 15 September 1940 by Brett Holman at Airminded30. Ball’s Bluff: a Little Battle With Lasting Consequences « Government Book Talk by n/a at Other Military History […]
LikeLike
It was such a shame that President Lincoln just kept sending men to be slaughtered because the numbers of men were available to be guided by generals without the strategic planning necessary to not be in such a situation.
LikeLike
I found the little blurb about the Battle at Ball’s Bluff very interesting. It made me think about how
many gave their lives to keep this Nation whole.
So now I’m off to the libary.
LikeLike
THIS IS AN UNKNOWN BATTLE DURING AMERICAN CIVIL WAR!BUT IS VERY INTERESTING!I WOULD LIKE TO LEARN MORE THINGS ABOUT BATTLES , AND OTHERS TOPICS , WICH ARE RELETED TO AMERICAN CIVIL WAR!
LikeLike