Speaker: Mike Devine

This event is open to the public. For more information about the Lifelong Learning Institute, Manassas, visit lli-manassas.org

The Civil War Battle of Ball’s Bluff was fought near Leesburg, Virginia, on 21 October 1861. Compared with later battles, such as Antietam or Gettysburg, the casualty count was small. But because it occurred early in the war, and because it was a debacle that followed other Union defeats, the impact of this fight would be felt throughout the war. This presentation will outline the military situation in northern Virginia in the late summer and early fall of 1861 that set the stage for the battle, then describe how an erroneous scouting report initiated the fight. The battle itself will be detailed to include the death of the only sitting U.S. Senator ever to be killed in combat. Lastly, the long-term result of Ball’s Bluff will be addressed, specifically, the formation of a Congressional committee that would first destroy the career of a Union brigadier general and later try to usurp Abraham Lincoln’s role as Commander-in-Chief. 

Mike Devine is a retired USAF lieutenant colonel. He was commissioned via the Air Force ROTC program at St. Michael’s College in Vermont and received a master’s in engineering physics from the Air Force Institute of Technology. He served for over 24 years, primarily in science and acquisition billets. He was also an Air Force ROTC instructor and completed his military career in 2003 teaching test and evaluation and systems engineering at the Defense Acquisition University at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. After his military retirement, he worked for some 16 years as a Department of Defense support contractor, first for the Missile Defense Agency and later for the F-35 program, retiring full time in 2019. He has been interested in military history since he was six years old.