Manassas, VA: the site of not one, but two Civil War Battles of Bull Run. As I’ve come to understand it, Union troops tended to name battles after natural features of the immediate area. Bull Run was, and is, the name of a stream in the midst of the battle area. Confederate troops, on the other hand, named battles after man-made objects such as towns, inns, taverns, and so forth. Manassas was, and is, a town and Manassas Junction was a railroad junction. Control of the area was important, in both battles, because the victor would be in a strong position to attack, or defend, the Confederate capital of Richmond. In both battles, Confederate forces were ultimately victorious.

We enjoyed our visit to the battlefields in Manassas. Our timing wasn’t great, because some of the buildings were closed when we were there. The “Stone House,” for instance peaked our interest because it was used as a field hospital during both battles of Manassas and there are still visible carvings of names and initials made by wounded troops being treated there. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get inside this historic building.

Manassas just “felt” different than some of the other Civil War battlefields we’ve visited. I think it was largely because in order to get to the battlefield area from where we were staying we had to drive through very congested, commercial areas in heavy traffic. A volunteer at the Battlefield Visitor’s Center in Fredericksburg said it well when he expressed the wish that the Park Service had “gotten their hands on” the battlefield areas sooner, before commercial and residential construction had encroached on the most historic areas as much as it has. Interestingly, the most historic areas of Frederickburg didn’t seem to us as jammed into the modern world as did those of Manassas.