This past weekend (a long weekend thanks to Christopher Columbus), my friend and I got a chance to visit the
Manassas Battlefield Park. Well, really, he wanted to go to a Cracker Barrel, and one of the closest ones just happened to be right down the street from the park, so it really only made sense to drive out to Manassas to do something besides just eating at Cracker Barrel so we also went to the park. It was neat, and did a good job of showing the history. There was a good video and a little musuem. Apparently there were two battles of Manassas, and the North lost both of them. (Northerners actually call it the
First and
Second Battle of Bull Run.) But the South can't get too cocky because we all know how it turned out in the end... In fact, neither side can be too proud because over 620,000 Americans died in the civil war which is just slightly more than all other wars combined. That is a shocking statistic! The
first battle was the first major battle in the civil war. People actually brought picnic lunches to watch from nearby hills and thought that it would be the only major battle. In the
second battle, something like 15,000 Northern troops died and 10,000 Southern troops died (or were wounded which pretty much equals death in a time before penicilin). So can either side really call that a victory? It was certainly eye-opening and frightening to picture that much death. And while I'm glad that the North eventually won, I have to wonder what brought them to such a place that so much death was the only answer? Sad. I guess the silver lining is that we haven't had another civil war since! And hopefully, we never will. So it was definitely an interesting visit. And being from the North, it was interesting to be at a site of Southern victories. But like I said before, we all know how it turned out in the end! It has inspired me to rent the Ken Burns documentary. And possibly read that book on Lincoln (Team of Rivals). It certainly was a fascinating moment in our country's history!
~L
