The plan had been to spend the morning driving up the Skyline Drive enjoying the lovely overlooks and soaking in all of the mountain
vistas. Instead, the stead rain continued and rapidly, it became clear
this would be a hard days's driving in the rain and fog, going perhaps 25
miles/hour and not being able to see much of anything. This reminded Dick of a family trip on the Blue Ridge Parkway where we would dutifully stop at lookouts and read about what we were supposed to be seeing. Fortunately we did see several more deer.
After a few miles, we changed plans
into coming back down out of the mountains and heading directly up to Manassas Battlefield.
Today was the 151st anniversary of this first real battle of the Civil
War. Manassas is about 25 miles south west of Washington DC, and on that day in 1861, many Washingtonians
drove down for the day to watch the battle. Rather like tailgaters for a
football game.
Both the North and the South thought it was be a quick one-battle situation and that they would
come out the victors having shown the other side what was what. It didn’t
go that way.
The biggest two things of the battle were confusion and loss of innocence. The confusion
came from both armies being very green, and also because especially it is early
in the war there were no standardized uniforms: troops wore whatever they
had. Being that many of the Confederate officers were from the US Army,
they had US Army uniforms. There were also groups such as firefighters from New York who wore red shirts
but fought for the North and southern troops with blue uniforms.
The loss of innocence came with the 4000 deaths and the clarity that this would
be a long and very bloody costly war.
Because of the anniversary day, we saw many renactors for both North and South,
including quite a powerful canon firing demonstration. Did you know that it took a team of 4-8 men to service and shoot one canon?
We also sneaked in on a Daughter’s of the Confederacy special event, where they
pledged allegiance to the U.S. , to Virginia
and to the confederacy. They sang The Star Spangled Banner, Carry Me Back
to Old Viriginy, and I Wish I Was in Dixie. The women were
wearing wide hats, expensive dresses, and some had on white gloves. Their keynote speaker was a historian
from the National Park Service who told the fascinating story of Stonewall Jackson. This was a glimpse into the current day feelings of some ancestors of those who fought in this long bloody war. Some of it was very moving, some of it was highly uncomfortable to be witness to.
After the presentation, Dick had a chance to talk with renactors who played Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. They talked about uniforms and their whole interest in playing these roles. They were quite dedicated to acting authentically in these roles.
We went on a guided ranger talk where a young ranger took us around the
battlefield where the main battle was held. It was clear that the front
lines were so close to one another, about 300 yards apart. These canons had the range of 1000 yards, so this was really point blank range. We heard that
for years later, farmers would find bones and teeth when they would plow their
fields, there were so many bodies. This was also the battlefield where "Stonewall" Jackson was given his nickname when, in the face of a Union attach, he was described as standing there like a stonewall. His unit repulsed the Union attack.
There was also the grave of a woman in her 80's who refused to leave her home
and was killed when the Union blew the home up to stop sharpshooters from shooting at them. Since her house was in the middle of the battleground, the first monument was placed in her backyard. It recognized the patriots who had fought there.
The whole site was very moving.
We then went to the Manassas Museum and got to see another local view of the
War. A highlight there, was talking with one of the staff who was happy
to give us the "Virginia view" of the War. The National
Park Service is very careful to be neutral in their interpretation, honoring
both the North and South, noting that these were all Americans. Many southerners
are quite clearly still very hurt and bitter about the War. Our docent was the lead for this exhibit and was quite willing to share his views on a wide range of topics.
We then had a late lunch and drove on to Arlington, noting that we are now officially
in the East and that the traffic is heavy and drivers are much less courteous
than the southern ones we have been experiencing.
Getting ready for a couple days world-wind spin through Washington DC.
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