All of these fortifications were, at the time, considered of great potential importance but in the course of events none, save for a long-distance bombardment of Fort Evans on the 19th October, 1861, were destined ever to be attacked nor, therefore, defended. The remains of all remain largely in place, useful only as local monuments to Loudoun's most tragic era. The principal engagement in the county between the hostile armies took place in the first year of the war. Soon after the first battle of Manassas (Bull Run) the Leesburg neighborhood was held for the Confederates by Brigadier General Nathan G. Evans and his 7th Brigade made up of the 8th Virginia Infantry under Colonel Eppa Hunton; the 13th Mississippi, under Colonel William Barksdale; the 17th Mississippi, under Colonel W. S. Featherstone, together with a battery and four companies of cavalry under Colonel W. H. Jenifer, all sent there by General Beauregard to protect his left flank from attacks by General McClellan, whose forces lay across the Potomac, and to keep open communications with the Confederate troops in the Valley. On the 19th October, 1861 Dranesville, a hamlet on the Alexandria Road, fifteen miles southeast of Leesburg, was occupied by Federal troops under General McCall. That evening his advance guard opened artillery fire on Fort Evans, just east of Leesburg, and another bombardment began at nearby Edwards' Ferry. Evans thereupon ordered certain of his troops to leave the town and occupy trenches he had dug along the line of Goose Creek, to meet the expected general attack. On the following day, a Sunday, word came to McClellan that the Confederates were evacuating Leesburg, whereupon that General sought to make a "slight demonstration," as he termed it, that is an increased firing by the pickets on the north side of the Potomac, with, perhaps, a small force of skirmishers thrown across, to confirm the Confederates in their belief that a general attack was impending and thus to hasten their complete evacuation of the town. It was no part of McClellan's plan, apparently, that troops should cross in force from the Maryland side or that a major engagement should be precipitated. Brigadier General C. P. Stone, in immediate command of the Federal forces along the river, nevertheless ordered a considerable force to cross to the Virginia side, both at Edwards' Ferry and also at Ball's Bluff, some four miles up the Potomac. Apparently in ignorance of Stone's actions, McCall, at about the same time, was retiring his men to their camp at Prospect Hill, four miles west of the old Chain Bridge. Evans was in the fort bearing his name. Early in the morning of the 21st, he learned that the Federals had crossed the river at Ball's Bluff, driving back Captain Duffy and a small force of Confederates. Thereupon Evans sent Colonel Jenifer with four companies of Mississippi infantry and two of cavalry to engage Stone. As a result, Stone's men were pressed back to the river