ACHLS Special Events

The Battle of Ball's Bluff – Two Dozen+ Guests Join Professor Chesson for Free Civil War Seminar

On October 22, more than two dozen guests filled the main classroom at the American College of History and Legal Studies. On that Saturday morning, a free Civil War seminar honoring the sesquicentennial of the Battle of Ball's Bluff was led by Dr. Michael B. Chesson, Founding Professor and Dean of the American College of History and Legal Studies.

Chesson explained that the Battle of Ball's Bluff was ignited by an error, but quickly exploded into a rout. Seminar attendees learned that Ball's Bluff was a prime example of how on American soil, geography determined strategy and outcome as much as in our conflicts on foreign soil. While on a reconnaissance mission, a soldier from Massachusetts mistook natural topography for a Confederate encampment, so a raid by Union troops on the "camp" was scheduled. The battle began on October 21. Unlike the Confederate troops who were familiar with the landscape, Union troops were ill-prepared to contend with fording the Potomac, the steepness of Ball's Bluff itself, nor the numbers of Confederate reinforcements who were ready to join the battle. Even as they fled, many Union soldiers were killed by falling down the bluff, by bullets which felled them while they lay injured at the foot of the high, steep bank, or by sharpshooters who picked them off as they tried to swim away. Ball's Bluff was indeed "a small battle which cast a long shadow."

The first half of the Ball's Bluff seminar was dedicated to a lecture by Dr. Chesson; after a brief break for coffee and pastries, attendees returned for a question and answer period about the battle. Guests look forward to the next lecture by Dr. Chesson.

Watch the ACHLS's web site and a future edition of the ACHLS E-Newsletter to view the entire seminar online!