Civil War Illustrations

The Battle of Ball's Bluff 

The Battle of Ball's Bluff (Virginia), also known as the Battle of Harrison's Island or the Battle of Leesburg, took place on October 21, 1861. It was the second largest battle in the Eastern Theatre in 1861, though it was a minor engagement compared with battles fought in later years of the War. It was a Confederate victory; 500+ Union soldiers were captured. Col. Edward D. Baker, a sitting U.S. Senator, was killed.

This Union rout had severe political ramifications in Washington and led to the establishment of the Congressional Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. At the time, however, it did not receive as extensive coverage in periodicals such as Harper's and New York Illustrated News as some of the previous battles; perhaps readers were already tired of images of battlefields.

New York State troops that were involved in the Battle of Ball's Bluff, according to New York in the War of the Rebellion (vol. 1), were a detachment of the 6th Independent Battery (Light Artillery) and the 42nd Infantry (Tammany Regiment).