Let me point out first that I am not the person “who heads the battlefield guide program” at Ball’s Bluff. The group is headed by park manager George Tabb. He deserves a great deal of credit for bringing a level of energy that previously had been missing from the park’s management. I’ve been pushing for the new signs for years but it didn’t happen until George came on board about a year ago.

Re Randy Sauls’ comment about clearing the center of the field, I can say only that we’re working on that. We have two or three volunteer work days each year and the park sometimes brings in work crews as well. We cannot return the field to its 1861 appearance but we are working on bush hogging so as to keep the underbrush down, on cutting away the smaller saplings and trees, and on removing deadfall. These efforts have resulted in a much more easily interpretable field with much better lines of sight (and we’ve taken a good bit of flak from local tree huggers even for doing that).

It is a long-term work in progress. We are gradually working forward from the bluff toward the area of the parking lot. Eventually, we hope to establish good lines of sight throughout what was a 10-12 acre open field.

Again, let me invite everyone in the area to come to the dedication on Saturday, Sep 22. Check out http://www.nvrpa.org for updates.

best

Jim Morgan

Thanks for the update. I stopped there a couple of weekends ago on my way up to South Mountain. Now I have a reason to go back.

Always a pleasure to hear such good news in regards to battlefield preservation.

Wade

That is great news indeed. Ball’s Bluff is, despite the relative small number of troops involved, one of the most important early battles of the war in my opinion. The political consequences of the battle colored the thinking and subsequent actions of a fair share of Union officers that likely resulted in indecision and timidity in later battles. For that reason alone the battle deserves the attention it doesn’t always seem to get. I look forward to checking out the battlefield improvements. I took a group up on a tour there this past spring and the trails and interpretive signage were certainly in need of some help. The biggest improvement to me would be the clearing of the wooded portion of the center of the field. Maybe some day. Even without the improvements though, it has always been a wonderful battlefield to visit.

Randy