Easter at Bull Run

Often times when traveling, one finds time for the unexpected side trip. While wandering about Virginia, near Manassas, a friend, a local, suggested a look at the famous battlefield that initiated the Civil War: the first battle of Bull Run.
The rolling low hills of tidewater Virginia are noted for their lacking of defining terrain features, small rills and streams excepted. A few miles from the railroad junction town of Manassas is found Henry's Hill on the Henry farm. Neither the Union Army nor its Confederate counterpart were experienced in infantry tactics: untested, unbloodied, but not poorly led. Gen. Thomas Jackson would earn his sobriquet ' Stonewall' here, on a low hill, as he rallied the rebels to carry the day and send the federals running all the way back to the capitol of Washington,DC.
While the southern forces were led by Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard, he needed Jackson's Virginia Brigade to take the initiative. Confederate Gen. Barnard Bee called his troops to rally around Jackson where he stood-like a stonewall! After this battle, those in the know understood that the conflict would be long and bloody, expensive in dollars and lives.
The museum on site does a fine job portraying the significance of the battle and how it evolved on the ground. A solitary monument of red sandstone, placed by Union survivors in 1865, marks the high ground of Henry's Hill. Mute cannon stand in opposition a mere 300 yards apart. This fact alone underscores the lethality of artillery at point blank range. Air bursts of canister rounds would prove to be of exceptional effect. These shells carried primitive timed fuses that allowed cannoneers to create their punishment above ground troops in the attack.
The 150 year Anniversary of the start of the conflict has been marked by the Park Service at various sites. At Bull Run, a reenactment will occur this summer on July 21,2011-150 years to the date. A grim reminder of the cost of Unification and the preservation of the Union.