MANASSAS
(Bull Run)
NATIONAL BATTLEFIELD PARK
Virginia

by Francis F. Wilshin

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE HISTORICAL HANDBOOK SERIES NO. 15
Washington, D. C., 1953

Contents

THE FIRST DAYS OF THE WAR 1

CONFEDERATES LOOK TO MANASSAS DEFENSES 3

THE FEDERAL ARMY MOVES TOWARD MANASSAS 5

MCDOWELL TESTS THE CONFEDERATE RIGHT 7

FIRST BATTLE OF MANASSAS 8

Morning Phase—The Fight at Matthews Hill 11

Afternoon Phase 13

Effects of First Manassas 17

WINTER’S LULL 18

PRELIMINARY OPERATIONS TO SECOND MANASSAS 19

POPE CONCENTRATES BEHIND THE RAPIDAN 20

LEE’S OPERATIONS ALONG THE RAPIDAN AND RAPPAHANNOCK 21

SECOND BATTLE OF MANASSAS 26

First Phase—Bristoe and Manassas, August 27 26

Second Phase—Groveton, August 28 27

Third Phase—Main Battle, August 29-30 27

Fourth Phase—Chantilly, September 1 36

Results of Second Battle of Manassas 37

THE WAR AFTER SECOND MANASSAS 38

GUIDE TO THE AREA 39

THE PARK 46

HOW TO REACH THE PARK 47

ADMINISTRATION 47

RELATED AREAS 47

VISITOR FACILITIES 47

Wartime photograph of the Stone House, which still stands as the most conspicuous landmark of both the First and Second Battles of Manassas. Courtesy National Archives.

Manassas National Battlefield Park preserves the scene of two of the famous battles of the Civil War. The first shall be ever memorable as the opening engagement of that great conflict, while the second, fought approximately a year later, paved the way for Lee’s first invasion of the North. In each instance Confederate arms won signal success and dangerously threatened the National Capital.

The Civil War was perhaps the most dramatic and significant event in the history of the United States as an independent nation. It was the climax of a half century of social, political, and economic rivalries growing out of an economy half slave, half free. In the race for territorial expansion in the West, in the evolution of the theories of centralized government, and in the conception of the rights of the individual, these rivalries became so intense as to find a solution only in the grim realities of civil strife.

It was on the great battlefields of this war, stretching from the Mexican border to Pennsylvania, that these differences were resolved in a new concept of national unity and an extension of freedom. In the scope of its operations, in the magnitude of its cost in human life and financial resources, the war had few, if any, parallels in the past. Its imprint upon the future was deep and lasting, its heroic sacrifice an inspiring tribute to the courage and valor of the American people.

The First Days of the War

The flash and the dull roar of a 10-inch mortar, April 12, 1861, announced to a startled countryside the firing of the opening gun of the Civil War. Two days later Fort