Battle of Ball’s Bluff

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On the evening of October 16, on his own authority, Evans began shifting his brigade south along what is more or less today’s U.S. Route 15. That night and all the next day, he moved to establish a new defensive line some eight miles south of Leesburg behind Goose Creek.

His commander, General P.G.T. Beauregard, was displeased by the move and indicated his displeasure through a sarcastic third-party message that said Beauregard ‘wishes to be informed of the reasons that influenced you to take up your present position, as you omit to inform him.’ Evans took the hint, and by late on October 19, his brigade returned to the town.

Federals observed Evans’ southward movement and reported it to McClellan, who ordered McCall to investigate by taking his division on a reconnaissance-in-force as far west as Dranesville, about halfway between Langley and Leesburg. McCall did so on October 19. By that evening each side must have been very puzzled about the other’s intentions.

General McClellan suspected a trap, thinking that Evans might be attempting to draw some of his forces forward in order to cut off and destroy them. When Evans learned that McCall was in Dranesville, he may well have thought that he had brought on the very advance that he earlier had feared.

On the morning of October 20, McCall was probing westward toward Leesburg. Evans was along another portion of Goose Creek four miles east of Leesburg and some eight or nine miles from McCall. McClellan then ordered Stone to conduct the’slight demonstration’ that led to Captain Philbrick’s involvement.

By the evening of October 20, Stone’s demonstration was over and the Federal regiments were on their way back to their camps. In order to determine the effectiveness of the movement, he ordered Colonel Charles Devens to send a patrol across the river at Ball’s Bluff. Philbrick got the assignment partly because his company was already on Harrison’s Island and partly because he had led a similar patrol on the evening of October 18 that had familiarized him with the area.

Around dusk, Philbrick and a handful of volunteers using two small skiffs quietly crossed to Ball’s Bluff. The patrol moved downriver along the flood plain at the base of the bluff, then up a winding path that came out just behind the current national cemetery. Philbrick’s men cautiously advanced away from the river along a cart path some 10 or 12 feet wide. They crossed a large clearing and passed through some woods to open fields. A full moon had bloomed on October 18, and still provided some uncertain light.

Lieutenant Church Howe later described the patrol: ‘We proceeded…three quarters of a mile or a mile from the edge of the river. We saw what we supposed to be an encampment. [There was] a row of maple trees; and there was a light on the opposite hill which shone through the trees and gave it the appearance of the camp.’Captain Philbrick took the patrol back across the river and reported the presence of ‘a small camp without pickets.’ General Stone called the discovery ‘a very nice little military chance.’ He decided to raid the camp, and the chain of errors that led to the Union debacle had begun. Captain Philbrick’s inaccurate, faulty report would lead to the Battle of Ball’s Bluff.

Preparations were made throughout the night and into the early hours of October 21 for a raid limited solely to the supposed camp. Indeed, General Stone specifically ordered Colonel Devens to make his raid ‘and return to his present position.’

A second crossing was also planned downriver at Edwards Ferry. Stone ordered Major John Mix, an old Regular Army man commanding a battalion of the 3rd New York Cavalry, to take 30 to 35 men across the river and move out the Edwards Ferry road toward Leesburg. Mix’s assignment was to draw Confederate attention away from Devens so that he would be able to conduct his raid and get safely back. Mix also was to scout the roads between the river and the main highway into Leesburg from the east (today’s Route 7 East, the road down which General McCall would march should he be ordered to move on the town). Having done those things, Mix was to recross the river. Believing that he would be back in Maryland by 8:30 or 9 a.m., he ordered the regimental cooks to have breakfast ready.

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Tags: 19th Century, America's Civil War, American Civil War, Historical Conflicts

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