BGuthrie Photos: VA -- Manassas Natl Battlefield -- Visitor Center

VA -- Manassas Natl Battlefield -- Visitor Center:

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Description of Pictures: Including the Brawner farm visitor center.

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. MANASV_110520_017.JPG: (found in the Robinson House) Flag comb (hatchel) Used to remove seeds from flax With his home about to be engulfed by fighting, James Robinson, a free black man, sent his wife and children to a neighboring house, where they hid in its cellar. Family tradition holds that after gathering some valuables, Robinson took refuge under the turnpike bridge at Young's Branch. The Robinson family was able to return to their small frame cottage on the east side of Henry Hill which miraculously survived the war.
2. MANASV_110520_023.JPG: The Unresolved Question of Slavery: The Founding Fathers were vague on the question of sovereignty -- where the ultimate power of the government resided. The preamble of the Constitution began with: "We the People of the United States..." But, what exactly did this phrase mean? Did sovereignty lie with the people or with the states? Could the government be dissolved? These questions were debated without resolution before the Civil War. South Carolina, and the other Southern states that followed, answered these questions by withdrawing from the Union in 1860-61. When Abraham Lincoln took office as President in March 1861, he declared that secession was illegal. In April 1861, the fledgling Confederate army launched an attack on Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Then on July 21, 1861, the first major land battle took place at Manassas, Virginia. Nearly four years later, these questions were finally answered, but at a great price. Sovereignty resided in the "People of the United States," not in the individual states. And, the Union could not be dissolved.
3. MANASV_110520_029.JPG: Mrs. Henry's Bible, ivory fan, and tapestry purse. Widowed and bedridden, Judith Carter Henry was 85 years old the summer of 1861. Despite her family's pleas, the refused to leave her home before fighting began. Nearing the Henry house, Union Captain James B Ricketts' artillery battery received hostile file from that direction. He immediately returned fire, mortally wounding Mrs. Henry. The only civilian casualty of the battle, she died that evening.
4. MANASV_110520_038.JPG: I had a dim notion about the "romance" of a soldier's life. I have bravely got over it since. -- Attributed to a soldier at the First Battle of Manassas
5. MANASV_110520_062.JPG: The End of Innocence: First Battle of Manassas: July 21, 1861: I felt that I was in the presence of death. My first thought was, "This is unfair; somebody is to blame for getting us all killed. I didn't come out here to fight this way; I wish the earth would crack open and let me drop in." -- Private B.M. Zettler, 8th Georgia Infantry For eleven hours, under the hot July sun, young men met in battle on these fields. Lack of discipline and a sense of general confusion led to mistakes and missed opportunities. In the end, the Union army was in retreat and the Confederates surveyed a field of human wreckage.
6. MANASV_110520_066.JPG: "You need not send for me or want me to come home for I would not leave for a thousand dollars." -- Virginia Military Institute Cadet Charles R Norris, to his parents, April 17, 1861 A young soldier fulfilled his dreams of service to country at Manassas. Appointed as an acting captain, this 17-year-old cadet from the Virginia Military Institute led Company B of the 27th Virginia Infantry into the battle. Moments after exhorting his men into action, Cadet Charles R. Norris lay dead, struck by a bullet or shell fragment.
7. MANASV_110520_074.JPG: Fit to be Shot: In the hurried preparations for war, some enlistees mustered for drills wearing civilian clothes. Some still had no uniforms when they fired their first shots against the enemy. Many companies, now organized in regiments, set off for war in colorful uniforms.
8. MANASV_110520_079.JPG: General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, CSA, by Benjamin F. Reinhart, October 1861 Beauregard came to Bull Run as the flamboyant hero of Fort Sumter. The Confederate victory at Manassas made him even more admired in the South, despite the fact that Gen. Joseph E. Johnston was senior in command of the Confederate forces at Manassas.
9. MANASV_110520_085.JPG: Deceptive Colors, Deadly Confusion: "Are those our men or the enemy?" -_ Colonel JEB Stuart, 1st Virginia Cavalry At the First Battle of Manassas, the terms Blue and Gray were hardly synonyms for North and South. Soldiers fought in more than 200 different "uniforms." The Stars and Strips of the Union flag were stitched in red, white, and blue -- but so was the Confederate First National Flag. When the flags hung limply on a windless day, or in the dust and smoke of battle, they were almost indistinguishable.
10. MANASV_110520_086.JPG: Private, Company B (Tiger Rifles), 1st Special Battalion (Wheat's), Louisiana Infantry
11. MANASV_110520_089.JPG: Sergeant, 14th Regiment, New York State Militia
12. MANASV_110520_092.JPG: Private, Company F (Huntsville Guard), 4th Regiment ...
13. MANASV_110520_096.JPG: Union military snare drum
14. MANASV_110520_100.JPG: The Realities of War: After months of fretting over the lack of action, unseasoned soldiers found themselves in savage fighting. Some men broke and ran during battle but, surprisingly, most did not. As the advantage seesawed back and forth between North and South, soldiers on both sides grimly held their ground and charged bravely. Shocking numbers of soldiers were shot or captured.
15. MANASV_110520_103.JPG: Handsome Targets: Artillerymen traditionally carried sabers rather than firearms for self-defense against enemy charges. Their sabers and handsome red-piped jackets may have reflected a Napoleonic view that the cannoneers would quickly destroy the enemy and not come under heavy fire. But, when the batteries of Union captains Charles Griffin and James B Ricketts arrived on Henry Hill before infantry support, they and their horses became easy targets for nearby Confederate infantrymen.
16. MANASV_110520_104.JPG: Zouaves on Both Sides: Some Union and Confederate infantry regiments wore exotic uniforms inspired by the elite Zouaves of the French Army. Their uniforms were based on traditional clothing worn by a North African Berber tribe, the Zouaoua. Conspicuous at First Manassas were the 11th New York "Fire Zouaves," raised from New York City fire companies, and the "Tiger Rifles" of Wheat's 1st Special Battalion, Louisiana Infantry, said to have been recruited out of New Orleans jail cells.
17. MANASV_110520_106.JPG: Relics of Battle: Under the strain of forced marches, heat prostration, or confusion on the battlefield, many soldiers threw down their equipment and left it. Others collected the abandoned gear as battle souvenirs or to replace their own.
18. MANASV_110520_109.JPG: Gravestone of Private Benjamin Franklin Ward, 7th Georgia Infantry: Ward was wounded on Henry Hill and taken to the Lewis house, "Rosemont," where he died on August 4, 1861. He was buried in the Lewis family cemetery.
19. MANASV_110520_121.JPG: Shot from the Saddle ... "I saw at once that I was going into great peril for me horses and men." -- Captain James B Ricketts, 1st US Artillery By 1:30 pm on July 21, the Union artillery batteries of captains Charles Griffin and James Ricketts were ordered to the top of Henry Hill. Exposed to withering fire, Union men and horses fell at an alarming rate. Ricketts himself was shot out of the saddle, wounded in the thigh. With more than half of their horses dead in the traces, Griffin and Ricketts had no hope of withdrawing to safety. When Confederate troops captured Griffin's guns, it marked the turning point of the battle. "No words... can describe the horrors around me... On a table in the open hall, a man was undergoing amputation of the leg. At the foot of the stairs two bloody legs lay and through all I went to my husband." -- Fanny Ricketts, July 26, 1861 ...and Captured Captured after his wounding, Captain Ricketts was taken to "Portici," home of the Lewis family. His wife Fanny made her way from Washington, DC to Portici, nursing him for a week then accompanying him to prison in Richmond. Although he would exclaim: "I had better died on the battlefield than die the lingering death suffered here," James Ricketts did survive to become a major general. Fanny Ricketts' diary leaves vivid images of field surgeons struggling to deal with hideous wounds.
20. MANASV_110520_124.JPG: Medicine ... in Field and Camp: "I have been with the dead and dying. One man... has been amputated twice and must be again. His fortitude is remarkable." -- Fanny Ricketts, at Portici, July 26, 1861 Surgeons on both sides worked in tents or hospitals improvised from barns, churches, or houses. To deal with hundreds of wounded, they had only basic equipment and woefully inadequate supplies. Many surgeries successfully amputated limbs or removed bullets and fragments -- only to see men die from post-operative infections.
21. MANASV_110520_127.JPG: The Faces of First Manassas: "Up on the bluff we saw the first dead Yankee. He lay stark and cold in death upon the hillside among the trees in the gloom of the gathering twilight. The pale face turned towards us, upon which we looked with feelings mingled with awe and dread... Later on in the war we could look upon the slain on the battlefield with little less feeling than upon the carcass of an animal." -- Orderly Sergeant William H Morgan, 11th Virginia Neither North nor South could look upon war in the same way after the First Battle of Manassas. Union losses came to about 3,000 men killed, wounded, or missing. Confederate losses probably totaled about 2,000 men. But the figures are misleading. In some regiments as many as one out of three men was lost. The jubilant Southerners and dejected Northerners were equally staggered by the toll.
22. MANASV_110520_135.JPG: Old Tactics, New Weapons: To increase firepower and make communications easier, pre-Civil War armies fought in close formations and tight lines. Infantry, cavalry, and artillery could advance close to the enemy line without unacceptably high losses because they faced short-range, smoothbore muskets. By the 1860s, rifling, the spiral grooves cut into the bore of some weapons, imparted a spin to bullets and shells, increasing accuracy and range.
23. MANASV_110520_138.JPG: Intelligence and Communications: On July 21, Confederate Captain E Porter Alexander's telescope caught the glint of sunlight on burnished steel. Union troops were moving north to attack Beauregard's left flank. His signaled warning, "Watch out on your left, you are turned," saved the say for the South. Colonel Nathan Evans' troops moved north from Stone Bridge to meet the attack.
24. MANASV_110520_139.JPG: Fielding an Army: Union and Confederate armies were similar in organization. In the infantry and cavalry, ten companies constituted a regiment. Regiments were usually grouped into brigades, and brigades into larger divisions. Artillery batteries consisted of four guns in the Confederate army and six in the Union army.
25. MANASV_110520_142.JPG: "Drilling is warm work. We would get pretty tired before our day's work ended. We were, however, learning our lessons in soldiering, and the drill was an important part of them. It is this mainly that makes the difference between trained soldiers and a mob." -- Private George A Gibbs, 18th Mississippi Infantry Bravely predicting swift victory, soldiers chafed under monotonous drills and discipline. Shortages of food, equipment, transportation, uniforms, and weapons plagued both sides. Volunteers found themselves crowded together in encampments where diseases spread. Many wound up in hospitals.
26. MANASV_110520_144.JPG: Despite the drudgery and confusion of army life, spirits in camp remained high. The new soldiers were anxious to drop drilling and strike the enemy. Officers, knowing the difficulties ahead, struggled to organize, equip, and train troops. "Made my first detail... for guard duty to which most men objected because they said they did not enlist to do guard duty but to fight the Yankees -- all fun and frolic." -- Orderly Sergeant A..L. P. Vairin, 2nd Mississippi Volunteers
27. MANASV_110520_146.JPG: The Institution of Slavery: "We have the wolf by the ears,. and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go." -- Thomas Jefferson to John Holmes, April 22, 1820 Thomas Jefferson, nearing the end of his life, made this observation following the passage of the Missouri Compromise in 1820. He prophesied that the institution of slavery, more than any other issue would eventually, tear the nation apart. Most of the Founding Fathers agreed to protect slavery in the Constitution, while hoping that the institution would end on its own. However, as the cultivation of cotton spread throughout the South, slavery expanded dramatically. The southern political, economic, and social systems became intertwined with slavery. Politically, the region south to protect slavery within its borders and expand to new areas. Economically, agriculture was dominant, with the growing desire for free trade to export cotton and import manufactured goods. In the North, industrial development fueled the growth of cities and encouraged the immigration of foreigners to work in the factories. Politically and economically, the region desired tariffs to protect these growing industries, an expanded transportation system to ship goods and services, and more land for the growing population to expand. Also, in the North, there was a small, but vocal antislavery movement determined to end slavery. Until 1850, the American political system accommodated the slavery question through compromise. During the 1850s, however, the compromise system broke down. When Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860 on a platform of no expansion of slavery into the territories and a protective tariff, southern states, beginning with South Carolina, seceded from the Union.
28. MANASV_110520_148.JPG: Amateur Armies: "You are green, it is true,but they are green also; you are all green alike" -- President Abraham Lincoln to General Irvin McDowell, June 29, 1861 The innocence of the recruits who faced each other at Manassas is hard to overstate. Volunteers by the thousands answered calls to arms. Few had any formal military experience. Some officers on both sides had trained together at West Point and some had fought in the Mexican-American War of 1846=48. Most were untried in battle. Many militia officers came from political backgrounds or prominent positions in civilian life.
29. MANASV_110520_151.JPG: The "Only" Battle of the War: First Battle of Manassas, July 21, 1861 "Come on boys, quick and we can whip them!" -- Virginia Military Institute Cadet Charles R. Norris, age 17 The first major battle of the Civil War took place here at Manassas on July 21, 1861. Inexperienced soldiers on both sides expected a quick victory, trusting courage more than drill and experience to make it possible. The fierce fighting of the First Battle of Manassas shattered their illusions and influenced the course of the long struggle ahead.
30. MANASV_110521_01.JPG: "We are all well and feeling first rate, longing for the drum to sound that bids us onto victory or death. We shall take Manassas or die before tomorrow night. I never felt better in my life. I fear death as much as I fear the sting of a bee." -- Al Baker Thompson, 2nd New Hampshire Infantry, July 20, 1861 Many Union recruits had answered Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers to serve ninety days. As the end of their three-month enlistments approached, some men complained that they might not get a chance to fight. Generals worried that the men would leave for home just before the battle.
31. MANASV_110521_04.JPG: Colorful company nicknames reflected recruits' local origins -- the Grayson Daredevils, Raccoon Roughs, Tallapoosa Thrashers, or Chickasaw Desperadoes. Recruiting entire companies or regiments from the same area was thought to strengthen morale, but this practice meant that a community could lose a great many sons in one day. "I shall never forget that beautiful day... marching down the street while the band played 'The Bonnie Blue Flag' and 'Dixie'. Thousands were on the sidewalks, cheering... Of course it never occurred to me that many of us would never see those dear friends and neighbors again." -- Private George A Gibbs, 18th Mississippi Infantry
32. MANASV_110521_10.JPG: A Long Line to Defend: The Southern Strategy: "On to Richmond!" cried the Union press in the war's first months. The South's capital lay one hundred miles from Washington DC. To counter Union advances, Confederate commanders placed troops throughout northern Virginia. Railroads gave Confederates crucial mobility to meet Union advances.
33. MANASV_110521_14.JPG: Fight at Blackburn's Ford: July 18, 1861: Confederate troops took up concealed positions behind various crossings [sic] points along a seven-mile strength of Bull Run.
34. MANASV_110521_20.JPG: Battle Plans Takes Shape: July 19-21, 1861: July 19 and 20: General McDowell's engineers look for an opening to attack. Finding that Confederate lines did not extend beyond Stone Bridge, McDowell plans to move around that position and strike it from behind.
35. MANASV_110521_37.JPG: Captain Francis B Schaeffer's position, July 21... Steep banks on Bull Run could stop or slow down an enemy army marching on foot and using horses for transport.
36. MANASV_110521_48.JPG: Amateur Armies: "You are green, it is true,but they are green also; you are all green alike" -- President Abraham Lincoln to General Irvin McDowell, June 29, 1861 The innocence of the recruits who faced each other at Manassas is hard to overstate. Volunteers by the thousands answered calls to arms. Few had any formal military experience. Some officers on both sides had trained together at West Point and some had fought in the Mexican-American War of 1846=48. Most were untried in battle. Many militia officers came from political backgrounds or prominent positions in civilian life.
37. MANASV_110521_62.JPG: Wilmer McLean could say the Civil War began and ended in his home. On July 18, 1861, Confederate General PGT Beauregard established his headquarters at McLean's house, "Yorkshire," while McLean's barn became a field hospital for Confederates wounded at Blackburn's Ford. Seeking refuge from the war, McLean left Manassas and resettled his family at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. On April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia in McLean's parlor at Appomattox. Looking over the Union and Confederate camps in 1865, McLean remarked, "I stood it on Bull Run till... my whole plantation was ruined and I sold out and came way off here over 200 to this out of the way place where I hoped I never would see another soldier of either side, and now just look at this place." The artifact is the cornerstone of Wilmer McLean's barn at "Yorkshire." The inscription reads: "Wilmer McLean, 1856... Rector, Builder"
38. MANASV_110522_002.JPG: Uniform of the 5th New York: The soldier figure represents a member of the 5th New York Infantry Regiment that ofrmed in New Yokr City int he spring of 1861. Called "Duryee's Zouaves" after their first commander, Abram Duryee, the unit adopted the "Zouave" style of uniform modeled after the respected French colonial troops of North Africa.
39. MANASV_110522_010.JPG: The Case for Emancipation: By the summer of 1862, Lincoln recognized that ending slavery had become essential to winning the war. The abolition of slavery offered both military and political advantages. Emancipation would weaken the South's ability to wage war, minimize the possibility of European intervention, and heal fractures in the Republican Party, In late July, Lincoln quietly presented the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet. Reaction was mixed. Lincoln chose to delay a public announcement until the Union had secured a victory on the battlefield. Would John Pope deliver that military success? "We must free the slaves or be ourselves subdued." -- Abraham Lincoln
40. MANASV_110522_018.JPG: The Court-Martial of Fitz John Porter: Convinced that rival officers from the Army of the Potomac had undermined his campaign, Pope moved quickly to deflect responsibility for defeat. He found a convenient scapegoat in General Fitz John Porter. A protege of McClellan, Porter had been recklessly outspoken in his denunciations of Pope before the battle. Afterward, Pope charged Porter with disobedience of orders and misconduct. A partisan military court convicted Porter and dismissed him from the service. He spent the next twenty-three years fighting to redeem his name. He was the most prominent casualty of the dangerous political schism that threatened the Union war effort in the summer of 1862.
41. MANASV_110522_028.JPG: Prelude to Battle: In the summer of 1862, the Union war effort in Virginia struggled amidst deepening political divisions. Two Union generals, George B McClellan and John Pope, shared the goal of subduing the rebellion, but held opposing views of how to achieve that goal. Union success required cooperation. Would political and philosophical differences compromised the changes of victory? For the Confederates, the campaign in Virginia offered a chance to reverse recent misfortunes. Shaken by setbacks in the western theater, a continued loss of territory, and the near-capture of Richmond, Southerners worried about their national survival as the war entered the second summer. Could the army's commander, Robert E Lee, direct a military turnaround and lead the South toward independence? With the failure of McClellan's Peninsula Campaign outside of Richmond, President Lincoln ordered the Army of the Potomac to return to Washington to join forces with Pope's Army of Virginia. Lincoln hoped this combined command could deal the Confederacy a final blow. Recognizing the urgency of striking Pope before McClellan arrived, Lee ordered his troops northward. By August, Lee confronted Pope along the upper Rappahannock River. Concerned that Union reinforcements drew closer each day, Lee gambled. Dividing his army, Lee sent half his command, under General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, on a flank march around and behind the federal position. The resulting capture of the Union supply base at Manassas Junction caused Pope to abandon his line on the Rappahannock, drew him out into the open, and set the stage for the battle of Second Manassas.
42. MANASV_110522_041.JPG: Union Rivals: Although not present at Second Manassas, few men would have a greater impact on its outcome than General George B McClellan. The commander of the Army of the Potomac was a vocal advocate for a conservative approach to war, and throughout 1862 he clashed with the Lincoln administration over both military strategy and political policy. Pope's arrival antagonized McClellan, yet ordered and circumstances required him to cooperate with his rival. Although nearly 20,000 soldiers of his command fought under Pope at Second Manassas, critics would later claim that McClellan's delaying actions contributed to the Union defeat. Frustrated with a commander who mixed politics with his military profession, President Lincoln sought an officer committed to both supporting the administration and defeating the Confederate army. General John Pope was a staunch Republican, an opponent of slavery, and victor of minor campaigns in the Mississippi River Valley. In June 1862, Lincoln appointed Pope to command the newly created Army of Virginia. Few of his 45,000 troops had yet tasted victory. To improve morale, Pope issued an address to his new command that implied criticism of McClellan and his army. Resentful of Pope's boastful and patronizing tone, many soldiers wondered whether such brash talk would lead to victory.
43. MANASV_110522_044.JPG: Lee's Army Comes of Age: By late August 1862, General Robert E Lee had been in command of the Army of Northern Virginia for less than three months. Initial skepticism amongst the ranks had yielded to enthusiasm and devotion. After his victories in front of Richmond, Lee reorganized the Confederate army into two "wings," commanded by James Longstreet and Thomas J "Stonewall" Jackson. Second Manassas tested this new command structure for the first time. It passed impressively, and Lee's army emerged as the South's great hope.
44. MANASV_110522_051.JPG: The Aftermath: The Confederate victory at Second Manassas transformed the military situation in the East. In less than ninety days, Lee had relieved central Virginia of enemy occupation and shifted the seat of war from Richmond to the outskirts of Washington. Armed with the initiative, Lee advanced into Maryland. A victory on northern soil might unnerve the Union war effort, encouraging peace candidates in the coming mid-term elections, and inspire European powers to recognize the Confederacy. For the Union army, the Second Manassas campaign ended in another defeat. President Lincoln relieved Pope of command and dissolved the Army of Virginia, reassigning his troops to the Army of the Potomac. Despite his reservations, Lincoln turned to McClellan to re-establish order, defend the nation's capital, and pursue the Confederates. Frustrated by the Union army's escape on August 30, Lee quickly organized a pursuit. The Confederate commander ordered another flank march to cut off the Union retreat to Washington. On September 1, Stonewall Jackson's men collided with Pope's column at the Battle of Ox Hill (Chantilly). As additional Union reinforcements neared Pope's army, the Confederates turned north to cross the Potomac River.
45. MANASV_110522_064.JPG: The Brawner Farm: In 1857, John C Brawner and his family took up residence at "Bachelor's Hall," the antebellum house that stood on this site. Brawner leased the property from the widow Augusta Douglas, and worked as a tenant farmer until the war arrived at his doorstep. The structure sustained considerable battle damage on August 28, 1862 and the Brawner family abandoned the farm soon afterward. Archeological and architectural evidence suggests the present structure was likely moved to this site after the war. Later owners enlarged the house in 1905. The National Park Service completed the restoration of the postwar structure in 2007.
46. MANASV_110522_070.JPG: In the Line of Fire: For the second time in thirteen months, war visited the Manassas community. Many civilians fled the area in advance of the combat, while others took refuge in cellars or outbuildings. Troops took grain for forage, killed livestock, and burned fence rails for firewood. Homes quickly became field hospitals. Although there were no known civilian casualties, the devastation left in the wake of Second Manassas far surpassed that of the first battle. "All who come down represent Prince William County as a perfectly desolated waste, without food in it for man or beast, and the few houses that are left standing as without occupants." -- From the diary of Anne S. Frobel
47. MANASV_110522_079.JPG: The Changing Tone of War: Convinced that civilian support of the rebellion should be dealt with harshly, Pope announced a series of orders designed to erode resistance and restore Federal authority. Pope authorized the Union army to subsist off the country, to hold local citizens responsible for damage done by Confederate raiders, and to expel anyone from the occupied region who refused to take the oath of allegiance. Across the South, Pope's ordered spurred outrage. Lee directed that Pope be "suppressed." Lee aimed to "restrain as far as possible, the atrocities which he threatened to perpetrate upon our defenseless citizens." Within two years, however, many of these controversial policies would be considered commonplace.
48. MANASV_110522_082.JPG: The Cost of Battle: More than 23,000 Americans were casualties at the Battle of Second Manassas. Nearly 3,300 soldiers died. The dead of both armies were buried on the battlefield in makeshift graves. Not until the end of the Civil War, nearly three years later, would most of the dead receive proper burials. The Federal government removed the Union dead to Arlington National Cemetery. The Manassas Ladies' Memorial Association, established in 1867, coordinated the interment of Confederate dead. Some of the dead may still remain buried in unmarked graves on the battlefield. "Part of my journey was very mournful, as it took me over the battle-field of last August near Manassas; and the hastily formed graves of my men almost covered the ground where they fought -- formed, as each was, by covering him with earth where he fell." -- General Gourvernear K Warren, USA
49. MANASV_110522_087.JPG: The Sacrifice of the 5th New York: Few Union regiments would earn as many accolades as the 5th New York Volunteer Infantry. None would earn those accolades with a heavier toll in blood. On the afternoon of August 30, the unit was decimated by the massive Confederate counterattack at Second Manassas. In less than fifteen minutes time, they suffered 330 casualties, 120 of them killed or mortally wounded -- the highest number of deaths of any Union infantry regiment in any single action of the war. In the retreat, two wounded members of the 5th New York, privates Charles Brehm and Eugene Geer, took refuge in the Stone House. They were placed in an upstairs room where they carved their names in the wooden floor and baseboard.
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