Rich Gillespie doesn't play fair. I had arrived at the Morven Park Equestrian Center to cover a dressage event and ran into him while picking up my press pass,

"You know, we've got Yankees camped out in front of the mansion".

He had deftly baited me. My purpose that night was to shoot lovely ladies on handsome horses, not some sweaty guys in blue wool. But Rich knows me pretty well and after some quick calculations I asked,

"Can you show me the back way over there?".

It seems that the 71st Pennsylvania California Regiment re-enactors (from Pennsylvania) had teamed up with Boy Scout Troop 466 from California to teach the boys about Yankee soldiering in the Civil War. Morven Park is a great place to do that given its wide open spaces and the re-enactment camp there built by Doug Smith's 17th Mississippi re-enactors.

Boy Scout Troop 466 had come in from California to accomplish a number of things while attending the Boy Scout Jamboree in Washington, DC. Two of them were working to obtain their Eagle Scout rank.  To that end, the entire troop worked at Ball's Bluff for three days that week, cutting down trees on the battlefield, weeding and planting grass in the cemetery and scrubbing the headstones. Alex Bahr, in the July 30th edition of Leesburg Today, does a great job telling that part of the story.

But troop leader "Colonel" Malone (a.k.a Micheal S. Malone, technology writer for Forbes) had a lot more in mind for this trip. He sought to have a total immersion experience for the Scouts, in as much as one can immerse in events that occurred nearly 150 years ago.  The Scouts would drill-drill-drill with the soldiers of the 71st Pennsylvania California. They would sleep in their tents and in the Confederate huts up in the woods. They would visit Gettysburg and see where the 71st had fought at a place called "bloody Angle", the finale of Pickett's ill fated charge on day three.

And they would return to Ball's Bluff with the 71st, to not only practice raising the "Colors", something they would do for real at the Jamboree, but to learn more about the battle there as members of the 71st did too.  For the 71st Pennsylvania California Regiment it was a kind of "homecoming" as they were actually the 1st California, led by Colonel Edward D. Baker, when they scaled those Virginia bluffs back on October 22, 1861.

The visit of Boy Scout Troop 466 to Leesburg was a decided "win-win" situation. In October, 2011 Leesburg will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Ball's Bluff with a grand re-enactment. A lot of work to be done over next 14 months to get ready. To that end, Troop 466 cut down a lot of trees and scrubbed all the headstones at Ball's Bluff. In return, Morven Park played host to a great bunch of boys, they got to sleep in the 17th Mississippi huts and drill in front of the mansion, taking back memories to last a lifetime.

I hope "Colonel" Malone will bring another group someday for Leesburg to host. A good man, helping boys make the transition to becoming men. I also hope that Mr. and Mrs. Mullins and the 71st Pennsylvania California Regiment re-enactors will come back in October of 2011 for the grand Ball's Bluff re-enactment.

Please take a few minutes to tab through the slide show below.