Anniversary Videos from the Battlefield

Left to Right, Dana Shoaf, Melissa Winn, and Brandon Bies on Matthews Hill

This past Thursday, July 21, 2021, I had the great fortune to roam about the battlefield for the 160th Anniversary of the First Battle of Bull Run, to record a series of Facebook Live videos with the good folks from Civil War Times Magazine, Editor Dana Shoaf and Director of Photography Melissa Winn. Also joining us was Manassas National Battlefield Park supervisor Brandon Bies. We spent time on Matthews and Henry Hill, and took in some familiar and new sites and sight lines. Over the next few days I’ll be posting the videos here. Topics discussed include: the 71st NYSM boat howitzers and their captain; Francis Bartow and his monument; Barnard Bee and “that nickname”; a dead letter office member of the 1st OVI; BOOM; tree clearing and the threat of a GINORMOUS data center to the view shed; the Robinson family; Hampton’s Legion; and the Gallant Pelham. And lots of other stuff on the way.

It was typically blistering hot on the Plains of Manassas. Not as hot as two years ago when it was 108 degrees, but still plenty hot enough for me to, I suspect, suffer from a little heat exhaustion toward the end of the day – but lack of sleep and food also had something to do with it.

Thanks so much to Dana and Melissa for giving me the chance to talk about the battle and the people and to be seen and heard all over the planet, and for allowing me to wear a hat!

Coming Up Live From the Battlefield, July 21, 2021

In just a couple of weeks (that makes me really nervous, because it’s just 13 days and I don’t feel nearly ready), I’ll be coming to you live via Facebook with Dana Shoaf, Melissa Winn, and Civil War Times for a series of short vids from various sites at Manassas National Battlefield Park, on the 160th Anniversary of the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas). It should be fun – I’ll be sharing various cool (well, what I consider cool) stories from the field, and we’ll be joined by Superintendent Brandon Bies to discuss some new additions/deletions on the field that will greatly enhance interpretation of the First Battle of Bull Run. You can follow Civil War Times Magazine, and their wonderful First Monday videos (ours will be a Third Wednesday) on Facebook here. Below is a little example of how these things work from a couple of years ago. But we’ll be mostly outside. And hot. We’ll probably be really, really hot.

Anniversary

In case you came here looking for the answer to a very simple question, yes, today marks the 151st anniversary of the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas).

Take some time and cruise the site. Check the articles for original content, and the resources for primary accounts. Create your own narrative of the event.

You’re welcome.

Above photo from Manassas National Battlefield Facebook page.

The 30th Anniversary of First Bull Run, the Hatchet is Buried…

…in them damned Yankee/Rebel skulls!!!!

Good stuff at Remembering.

 

149th Anniversary of First Bull Run

Activities at the park July 17 & 18 for the 149th anniversary of the battle (from the NPS site):

See Union and Confederate troops portrayed in an encampment representing the raw soldiers of the summer of 1861 on the Henry Hill battlefield.  Demonstrations of musketry and artillery firing will echo over the grassy fields where the combat raged 149 years ago.  Soldier life demonstrations will describe the experience of citizen soldiers, naive amateurs in their baptism of fire, encountering their “first gunpowder christening.”  U.S. Marine Battalion exhibits will illuminate the uniforms and equipment of Civil War Marines.  Replica colors or flags of regiments in the colorful confusion of the battle will be unfurled, and impressions of Union and Confederate uniforms will depict the “fog of war” the muddle of confusion in the reek of smoke on the battlefield.  Park Ranger tours will be conducted over the ground where bravery and sacrifice was witnessed in what the raw troops, “as green as grass” believed would be the “only battle of the war,” only to be sobered by the carnage revealed in the brutal combat.