Qualla: Battle of Ball's Bluff

Battle of Ball's Bluff: Introduction

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alfred Wordsworth Thompson, Public domain. It started with a row of trees. On the night of October 20, 1861, Captain Chase Philbrick led 20 men across the Potomac River from Harrison's Island to the Virginia bluffs above. Advancing nearly a mile inland in the dark, the inexperienced officer mistook a line of trees for the white tents of a Confederate camp. He did not investigate further. He returned and reported an unguarded enemy position. By the time the sun rose and the mistake became obvious, the chain of blunders was already in motion. Within twenty-four hours, 223 Union soldiers would be dead, a sitting United States senator would be killed in battle -- the only one in American history -- and bodies would be floating down the Potomac to the capital.

Read more: Battle of Ball's Bluff on Qualla

Image: Alfred Wordsworth Thompson | Public domain

Battle of Ball's Bluff: A Slight Demonstration Gone Wrong

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Three months after the Union humiliation at Bull Run, Major General George McClellan was slowly building the Army of the Potomac. On October 20, he ordered Brigadier General Charles Pomeroy Stone to conduct "a slight demonstration" along the river near Leesburg to probe Confedera...

Read more: Battle of Ball's Bluff on Qualla

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Battle of Ball's Bluff: The Senator Who Chose to Cross

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit American Battlefield Protection Program, Public domain. Colonel Edward Dickinson Baker was a United States Senator from Oregon, a close personal friend of the Lincoln family, and a man with no business commanding troops in combat. When he arrived at Stone's headquarters on the morning of October 21 to inquire about the action, Stone g...

Read more: Battle of Ball's Bluff on Qualla

Image: American Battlefield Protection Program | Public domain

Battle of Ball's Bluff: Slaughter at the Bluff's Edge

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit J. Wells. A list of artists and engravers can be found on p. 23 of the PDF., Public domain. The serious fighting began around 3:00 p.m. and raged almost without pause until dark. Baker commanded from the front, exposed and conspicuous. At approximately 4:30 p.m., he was shot and killed -- becoming the only sitting U.S. Senator ever killed in battle. His death threw the ...

Read more: Battle of Ball's Bluff on Qualla

Image: J. Wells. A list of artists and engravers can be found on p. 23 of the PDF. | Public domain

Battle of Ball's Bluff: The Political Earthquake

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit American Battlefield Protection Program, Public domain. The butcher's bill read 223 killed, 226 wounded, and 553 captured -- modest numbers by the standards of what was coming, but staggering in October 1861, when the nation was still absorbing the shock of Bull Run. The death of a senator struck Washington like a thunderbolt. Congres...

Read more: Battle of Ball's Bluff on Qualla

Image: American Battlefield Protection Program | Public domain

Battle of Ball's Bluff: Ghosts and Future Justices

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit American Battlefield Protection Program, Public domain. Among the wounded at Ball's Bluff was Lieutenant Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. of the 20th Massachusetts, who took a near-fatal bullet through his chest. He survived to become an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in 1902. Herman Melville commemorated the battle in his poem "Ball...

Read more: Battle of Ball's Bluff on Qualla

Image: American Battlefield Protection Program | Public domain