The Battle of Ball's Bluff was an early battle of the American Civil War fought in Loudoun County, Virginia, on October 21, 1861, in which Union Army forces under Major General George B. McClellan suffered a humiliating defeat.

The operation was planned as a minor reconnaissance across the Potomac River to determine whether the Confederates were occupying the strategically important position of Leesburg. A false report of an unguarded Confederate camp encouraged Brigadier General Charles Pomeroy Stone to order a raid, which resulted in a clash with enemy forces. A prominent U.S. Senator in uniform, Colonel Edward Baker, tried to reinforce the Union troops, but failed to ensure that there were enough boats for the river crossing, which were then delayed. Baker was killed, and a newly arrived Confederate unit routed the rest of Stone's expedition.

The Union losses, although modest by later standards, alarmed Congress, which set up the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, a body that would provoke years of bitter infighting.

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