Preservation success story

The Battle of Ball's Bluff has been called a preservation success story by historian Jim Morgan. The Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority currently controls 223 acres of the original battlefield, including all key areas. Together with Ball's Bluff National Cemetery, this landforms Ball's Bluff Battlefield Regional Park. Irregular working days by a team of volunteer guides (one of which is held annually as part of CWPT's Parks Day) and the dynamic leadership of the park's curator, George Tabb, helped clear up an overgrown meadow, restored a part of 1861, and made interpretation and understanding much easier. Of course, this is one of the facts about the Battle of Ball's Bluff.

Regarding the preservation success story, despite the fact that the site of the fighting in the early morning of October 21 was lost to development, part of the battlefield is still well preserved to this day. The Northern Virginia Regional Parks Authority (NOVA Parks) owns 223 acres of the original battlefield along with Ball's Bluff Battlefield National Cemetery, all of which became Ball's Bluff Battlefield Regional Park. NOVA Parks cleared trees to give the battlefield the same look as it did some 158 years ago, and new enhancements, including interpretive trails, guided tours, and updated signage have made Ball's Bluff an important conservation site. Additionally, Ball's Bluff Battlefield Park began its annual battle commemoration practice in October by hosting battlefield lighting activities. In 1984, the US Department of the Interior designated 76 acres around the battlefield as a National Historic Landmark. In 2017, the boundaries of that landmark designation were expanded to include more than 3,300 acres of riverfront land on both sides of the Potomac River and to include Harrison Island, Maryland.