Battles of Manassas • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments • The Armies
Manassas, Virginia was about 25 miles west of Washington, D.C. At the beginning of the Civil War it was on one of the main roads as well as one of the few railroad lines that linked the nation’s capitol with Virginia and the south. It was almost inevitable that it would see not just one, but two major battles during the Civil War.
On July 21, 1861, an army under Federal Brigadier General Irvin McDowell attacked across a small stream called Bull Run a Confederate army under Brigadier General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard. After fighting all day, Confederate reinforcements under Brigadier General Joseph E. Johnston turned the tide and Union forces retreated back to Washington in complete disorganization. It was the first major battle of the war, and a disturbing sign that the war would not be short and painless. The North called it the Battle of Bull Run, after the small stream they crossed, and the South the Battle of Manassas, after the nearby town.
A little over a year later, on August 28-30, 1862, the two armies clashed again. They were much larger and more experienced and the battle was longer and much bloodier, but they followed a similar plan. Federal Major General John Pope spent two days attacking the detached troops of Confederate Major General Thomas J. Jackson (whose nickname of “Stonewall” had been won at the first battle). Then reinforcements under Major General James Longstreet under the overall command of General Robert E. Lee arrived on the field and swept the Union army away in a disorganized retreat to Washington.
Today much of the battlefield is preserved as Manassas National Battlefield Park. The Manassas Battlefield Driving Tour starts from the Visitor Center and visits twelve tour stops. Miles of hiking trails crisscross every part of the park. And scores of wayside markers and monuments tell the story of what happened here in the two battles.