 Hundreds of Union soldiers who were stationed in Poolesville were killed in this battle that was badly managed by inexperienced Union generals.There were several Confederate raids into the town during the war, and the Confederate Army invaded Maryland by crossing the Potomac near Poolesville in 1862 and 1864.The old Poolesville Methodist Church cemetery contains the remains of approximately twenty soldiers who either were killed in action at Ball's Bluff or who died of illness while in camp.