The Strange Tale of Col. Dahlgren's Prostheic Leg-- Part 2: The Leg That Served Both North and South

Union Colonel Ulric Dahlgren lost a leg in battle and acquired a new one .  After he was killed in his famous raid on Richmond, his leg was taken and displayed in  a Richmond department store.  Soon thereafter, Confederate Lieutenant James Pollard, who had led the unit that killed Dahlgren,  lost a leg.

He claimed Dahlgren's leg as a war prize.  When it didn't fit him, he gave it to Confederate Captain John N. Ballard of Mosby's Rangers.

So, the leg served both North and South.

Captain Ballard had lost his leg  in a skirmish with a small party of Union cavalry at Ewell's Chapel, east of Bull Run Mountains.  After the war, he married  Miss Thrift, and the Thrift Farm on the site of the Battle of Chantilly became known as the Ballard Farm.

--Old Secesh