It has been several weeks since I've been able to add an entry to this blog. I was in Tyson's Corner, VA for a week of training that covered two consecutive weekends (when I normally have time to write) but they were not totally wasted weekends as I was able to finally visit the Manassas battlefield. The First Manassas battlefield park is pristine with a large part of the field preserved as it was after the battle. Many of the houses have been recreated that sit atop key landmarks and a nice walking tour follows the battles progress. Few monuments dot the landscape, however, save for artillery pieces demarking positions of the Washington Artillery and Sykes Batteries opposite them on Henry House Hill. There are little sign posts marking where so-in-so died, but otherwise the field is open, leaving one to imagine the battalions as they arrayed themselves opposite one another.
I was struck by how cleanly the battlefield was preserved and how close the opposing sides were to one another. A field of perhaps 250 yards from the cannon of the Washington Artillery to Sykes batteries with a rolling valley in between, the high ground where death was easily meted out by the cannoneers and one could see that these were small and inexperienced armies who faced one another. I had read many accounts of the battle but was not prepared for the awful grandeur of the layout of the land. These early soldiers stood almost toe to toe, the cannon lines alone would have been enough to deter veteran soldiers from dashing into that deadly valley to charge the opposite line, but charge they did.
What I found unique about First Manassas was the clearly visible size of the field from all points. If you have ever been to Shiloh, or another battlefield you get the idea that thousands upon thousands, tens of thousands of troops were involved and at the point where you might find yourself standing was only a small portion of the whole, a short act in the larger drama. The First Manassas battlefield does not leave you with this feeling of confusion. You can see where most of the action of that day took place save for the crossing of Bull Run and Poplar Ford.
Second Manassas, on the other hand, leaves you with just that feeling of bewilderment. Unfortunately, not much of the action that took place a year later is pristine compared to the area around the Henry House Hill. Here, one has to drive (or walk, but in my case it was getting late and I wanted to see as much as possible before sun down). Signs point to what you would have been looking at had one hundred and sixty years of progress not marred the battlescape. The primary preservation has been done on T.J. Jackson's line in the railroad cut that extends for more than a mile paralleling the Manassas/Sudley road before curving off to the south west. All that is left is a tiny strip of land, overgrown with trees and hemmed in by modern houses of this line that Union General John Pope failed to break. Deer inhabit the railroad cut now. The area of breakthrough, the wide cut in the railroad bed is now gone and at the time of my visit was being cleared of trees for a preservation effort. I remember standing in the fading sunlight wondering what it was I was supposed to be seeing there as we stopped along the tour map.
One can walk the entire length of the remnants of the railroad cut, and in places it is still quite deep. All along this line fighting occurred and deadly fighting for the Federals as their piecemeal attacks probed and sought for a weak point. I did have one mission, however, and that was to make it to the site of the Brawner farm fight between King's brigade and the Stonewall brigade. But, here the field is unkempt and not even a well marked trail was supposed to have existed leading one into the Brawner farm area were the Iron Brigade earned another laurel and the fighting of Second Manassas kicked off. I wanted to stand in the twilight, between the two brigades and see what those men had seen. There is a well groomed field to the left of the Warrenton Turnpike where King's brigade was executing a forced march when they ran into the Confederates. Having read several accounts of this brutal and long fight, was intrigued about the land. As a writer, I've always been interested in how the geography of a place adds to its character. The hill opposite the Brawner farm house is marked where the 1st US artillery unlimbered to support the Iron Brigade and a feint trail leads down the hill and towards a line of trees that mark the course of Young's Branch. But, on the other side of the little stream it is all tall grass and no trail. I waded through chest high grass to make it to the Confederate line but was unable to continue for very far due to fallen trees and bushes. It was difficult, although easy to see minus the grass where the Confederate line stood some four hundred yards from the railroad cut and the Iron Brigade's line around the Brawner farm buildings. The buildings are gone and but for the unkempt nature of the area I did not find were they had stood. But I did stand, in the twilight, where the two forces stood and traded blows for more than an hour, a feat knowing how outnumbered the Federals were. For one who writes fiction, seeing is believing. It is easy to get the idea when reading modern historical accounts of the battles to get the idea that men fought and marched over flat terrain. The hill where the 1st US Artillery was situated towers over the Brawner farm field and over the Confederate position opposite. But for the modern trees lining Young's Branch, it is a wonder that King's Brigade was able to stand at all for as long as they did. The Confederate line in the opposite field was also heavily treed during the battle and the fight took place up the slope leading to the Confederate line in front of the Brawner house. You can read about these things, but they make more sense when you stand on the same ground.
It is a pity that, save for this one little section of battlefield, there is not much preserved of the fields. Trees obscure fields of fire and you have to dig back into memory to conjure up what it looked like back then. Few if any post war markers or even cannon mark the Second Manassas fields. Encroachment by both the forest and modernity force you to use your mind's eye to encompass what happened here.
