“What about dessert?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Dessert would be nice, too.”
“You’re easy,” he said. “A real pushover.”
“Not as much of a pushover as you think. I’m going home to shower and change. Pick me up in an hour? I’m sure Dominique will give us a good table at the Inn.”
“What are you talking about? You mean dinner, like dinner?” He looked wounded.
I smiled. “And dessert, like dessert.”
“What about the Pleiades?”
“One thing at a time,” I said.
The Battle Of Ball’s Bluff
Ball’s Bluff Battlefield Regional Park is located at the end of a street in a quiet subdivision near a sprawling outlet shopping mall a few miles from Leesburg, Virginia. But once inside the 223-acre park, the noise and bustle of the twenty-first century recede, and a visitor, out to exercise the dog or take a walk with friends or family, is soon enveloped in silence in the sun-dappled woods. Well-marked paths, Civil War monuments, and the third smallest military cemetery in the United States, where the remains of fifty-four Union soldiers lie in twenty-five graves, make it impossible to forget that a bloody battle occurred here—and some will swear that the park is haunted.
The Battle of Ball’s Bluff took place on October 21, 1861, three months after the Union army lost the First Battle of Bull Run, the first great land battle of the Civil War. Ball’s Bluff was, plain and simply, an accident that evolved as a result of a mistake by an inexperienced Union officer. In a few years’ time, it would be considered of relatively minor importance when compared to other battles such as Gettysburg, Antietam, or Chancellorsville, but its significance on the remainder of the Civil War is indisputable: Congress, eager for a scapegoat after the death of one of their own, Senator Edward Baker, a Union commander responsible for much of the bungling, decided to form the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. Shocked by Baker’s death and the sight of so many bodies in blue floating down the Potomac River past Washington, the committee oversaw the strategy and battle plans of Union commanders, who chafed under this authority for the remainder of the war.
James A. Morgan III, author of
In the fall of 1861, under orders of Major General George McClellan, Union troops were keeping an eye on the area around Leesburg. Because all Potomac bridges between Harpers Ferry and above the Chain Bridge near Washington, D.C., had been burned, the ferry crossings above and below Leesburg were of strategic importance to both armies. Whoever controlled the area controlled invasion routes leading north and south.
For several weeks in October, Confederate commander Nathan “Shanks” Evans watched uneasily as a growing number of Union troops amassed in the area. Worried that he might be cut off without nearby reinforcements, Evans withdrew from Leesburg on October 16 without getting permission from his commanding officers.
Union troops monitoring Evans’s departure assumed Leesburg had been left unprotected. What they did not know was that Evans’s commander, General P.G.T. Beauregard, had ordered him to return to the town, which he did on October 19. The following day, Union soldiers, under orders of Brigadier General Charles P. Stone, staged a small show of force to see what, if anything, the Confederates would do. That night a small Union patrol crossed the Potomac River to investigate the impact their demonstration had had on the Confederates. Unfortunately, in the moonlight their inexperienced leader mistook a row of trees for an enemy camp and reported this to Stone, who ordered a raid the next day.
But early on the morning of October 21, the raiding party was discovered by a company of Confederate soldiers who engaged them in fighting—ironically just as General Stone was being told there was no camp. Stone handed off what he believed was an expanded reconnaissance mission to Baker who, without evaluating the situation, immediately began sending more troops across the river.
Ball’s Bluff was not so much a single battle as a series of smaller skirmishes that gradually escalated over the course of the day as both armies sent more troops. Though each side had almost the same number of men, Baker’s troops—relatively inexperienced compared to the Confederates, some of who had fought at Bull’s Run—were eventually trapped at the end of a long, punishing day of fighting at one end of the battlefield with their backs to the bluff. Overwhelmed and panicking after a seesaw battle that cost Baker his life, Union soldiers fled and were injured or killed attempting to escape down the steeply sloped cliffs of Ball’s Bluff. Those who made it to the floodplain found only three small boats to take them back to Harrison Island. Some tried to swim and either drowned or were shot. Many surrendered.
Though Balls Bluff would later be overshadowed by larger, bloodier battles, it was significant as a stunning early success for the South. According to Jim Morgan, neither side was expecting the Civil War to drag on as it did, nor to turn into a bloodbath. But the South would always remember their surprising victory, practically in the backyard of the Northern capital. For the North, however, the name Ball’s Bluff became a curse.
Acknowledgments
As usual, I owe thanks to many people who took time out of their busy schedules to let me pester them with questions or hang around and watch them at work. If it’s right, they said it; if not, blame me. Thanks to Rick Tagg, winemaker at Barrel Oak Winery in Delaplane, Virginia, for taking my calls at all hours, whether he was driving a tractor, operating a forklift, or crushing grapes. Cheryl Kosmann of Swedenburg Estate Vineyard in Middleburg, Virginia, answered a multitude of questions about the business of selling wine.
I’m especially indebted to Karen Quanbeck, Rick Etter, and Pam Stewart of the Loudoun Museum in Leesburg, Virginia, for their generous time and valuable assistance in explaining Civil War reenacting and directing my attention to the small but important Battle of Ball’s Bluff. Without their help, I would still be wandering in the wilderness.
Jim Morgan, who spent years researching the Battle of Ball’s Bluff and is widely considered the authority on the subject, kindly took the time to review my own essay on the battle and answer numerous questions. Two volunteer guides at the park, Mike Wolford and Max Gutierrez gave me my first tour of the battlefield. Special thanks to Max Gutierrez who invited me back for a more in-depth tour and took me down to the Potomac River floodplain one steamy summer day—much like the day Lucie visited Ball’s Bluff—and patiently answered my many follow-up questions, e-mails, and phone calls.
On the subject of Civil War reenacting, I’m grateful to Doug Becktel, who spent considerable time with me at the 145th anniversary of the Battle of Chancellorsville, and also to Tom Dunn and Michael Schaffner. Allison Willcox made time to answer questions on forensic anthropology and the process of identifying human remains, as did Dr. Diane France. Dr. Andrew Thompson and Dr. Doug Arendt helped with medical questions; John French talked to me about crime scene investigation. Lieutenant Ed O’Carroll, Officer Ron Miller, and Detective Dave Smith of the Fairfax County, Virginia, Police Department responded to queries about law enforcement as did author and former homicide detective John Lamb. Terry Jones helped me with firearms matters.
Thanks, as always, to the RLI gang who are the first to read what I’ve written and put me right: Donna Andrews, Carla Coupe, Laura Durham, Peggy Hanson, Val Patterson, Noreen Wald Smith, and Sandi Wilson. I’m grateful to André de Nesnera, Catherine Kennedy, and Martina Norelli, who read and commented on later drafts of this book. Elizabeth Arrott, who by day uses her blue pencil as a senior editor at an international news organization, gave up her nights to go over this book not once, but twice. Tom Snyder gave me more help than I deserved and drummed into me
