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

VA -- Manassas Natl Battlefield -- 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_170220_003.JPG: The Capture of Ricketts's Battery by Sidney King, oil on plywood, 1964
2. MANASV_170220_010.JPG: "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. In experienced 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.
3. MANASV_170220_013.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.
4. MANASV_170220_050.JPG: The surrounding land, containing approximately 128 acres, locally known as the "Henry Farm" and sometimes referred to as the "Henry House Hill" was conveyed to the Manassas Battlefield Confederate Park INC., in 1922 and the funds for its purchase where raised under the auspices of The Manassas Battlefield Confederate Park INC., and the general organization of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. This property was donated to the United States Government by The Manassas Battlefield Confederate Park Inc., and the Sons of Confederate Veterans by deed dated March 19, 1938 as an everlasting memorial to the soldiers of the blue and gray who so valiantly fought in the two battles known as The First and Second Battles of Manassas July 21, 1861 and August 29-30, 1862. Officers and directors of The Manassas Battlefield Confederate Park Inc. John Warwick Rust, President, Fairfax, Virginia. Joseph Roy Price, Secretary-Treasurer, Shreveport, Louisiana. Walter Lee Hopkins, Richmond, Virginia. Former Directors of The Manassas Battlefield Confederate Park INC. E. W. R. Ewing, Ballston, Virginia. Westwood Hutchison, Manassas, Virginia. Clarence J. Owens, Washington, D. C. Willam McDonald Lee, Irvington, Virginia. Rufus J. Pearson, Washington, D. C. F. R. Fravel, Ballston, Virginia. Officers of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Thomas Gilbert Wood, Commander-in-Chief, Roanoke, Virginia. Walter Lee Hopkins, Adjutant-In-Chief, Richmond, Virginia. John Ashley Jones, Executive Council, Atlanta, Georgia. M. A. Robinson, Executive Council, New York City. Baylis M. Earle, Executive Council, Greenville, South Carolina. MC Whorter Milner, Executive Council, Atlanta, Georgia. Clifton Ratliff, Executive Council, Oklahoma city, Oklahoma. Edmund Richardson Wiles, Executive Council, Little Rock, Arkansas. Erected By The United States Department Of The Interior National Park Service The 21st Day of July, 1942
5. MANASV_170220_057.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.
6. MANASV_170220_069.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.
7. MANASV_170220_083.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.
8. MANASV_170220_093.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.
9. MANASV_170220_108.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.
10. MANASV_170220_111.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.
11. MANASV_170220_120.JPG: General Fitz John Porter Born August 31, 1822, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Fitz John Porter bucked a family naval tradition and attended the US Military Academy at West Point, graduating 8th in the Class of 1845. In the Mexican War he won promotions for gallant and meritorious conduct. Porter subsequently spent 6 years as an artillery instructor at West Point and then served on the staffs of Albert Sydney Johnston and Robert Patterson. As a corps commander under General George B. McClellan during the Peninsula Campaign, Porter displayed great tactical ability but his promising career turned after Second Manassas. Following his court-martial conviction, Porter sought to vindicate his record. In 1878 Porter's case was reopened and he was ultimately cleared of all charges in 1879. President Cleveland approved Porter's reinstatement in 1886 and he retired from the army shortly afterward. Porter died at his Morristown, New Jersey home May 21, 1901.
12. MANASV_170220_124.JPG: Fitz John Porter's Field Glasses
13. MANASV_170220_131.JPG: Fitz John Porter's Staff Officer's Sword
14. MANASV_170220_138.JPG: General George B. McClellan Plaque This plaque was a gift to Porter from McClellan. Porter's loyalty to McClellan and outspoken dislike for Pope worked against him at his court-martial.
15. MANASV_170220_144.JPG: Convenient Scapegoat On August 29, 1862, General Pope ordered Fitz John Porter's newly arrived 5th Army Corps to advance toward Gainesville and cut off the presumed escape of Stonewall Jackson's troops. Confronted by General James Longstreet's forces near Dawkin's Branch, Porter was unable to gain Jackson's flank as Pope expected. Convinced that his orders had been deliberately disobeyed, Pope brought charges resulting in Porter's court-martial and dismissal in January 1863.
16. MANASV_170220_147.JPG: Warren Map: Maps of the battlefield, produced in 1878 from a survey made by Second Manassas veteran General G.K. Warren, were used in the rehearing of the Fitz John Porter case to show the positions of opposing forces.
17. MANASV_170220_158.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.
18. MANASV_170220_161.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.
19. MANASV_170220_165.JPG: "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_170220_170.JPG: A tree root grew around this Model 1855 socket bayonet recovered from the area where Gen. Cuvier Grover's Union brigade made a gallant bayonet charge that nearly broke Stonewall Jackson's line along the unfinished railroad on the afternoon of August 29, 1862.
21. MANASV_170220_176.JPG: Military snare drum found on the Dogan farm at Groveton after Second Manassas
22. MANASV_170220_178.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.
23. MANASV_170220_218.JPG: A Soldier Dying Young: Only 17 years old, Virginia Military Institute Cadet Charles R. Norris joined the command of Col. Thomas J. Jackson in April and was assigned to drill Jackson's inexperienced troops at Harpers Ferry. Norris led Company B, 27th Virginia Infantry into battle at Manassas at its acting captain. Moments after exhorting his men forward across Henry Hill, Cadet Norris was struck down and killed.
24. MANASV_170220_226.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.
25. MANASV_170220_233.JPG: V.M.I.cadet dress coatee worn by Cadet Charles Norris at the First Battle of Manassas: Norris went into battle proudly wearing a coat he had borrowed from a fellow cadet. Pierced by a projectile, the coat's left shoulder shows evidence of the fatal wound. After the battle, Joseph Norris of the Loudoun Artillery took his younger brother's body home for burial in Leesburg, Virginia.
26. MANASV_170220_238.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. One Infantryman 100 Infantrymen = One Company 10 Companies = One Regiment 2 or more Regiments = One Brigade 2 or more Brigades = One Division
27. MANASV_170220_259.JPG: Gallantry and Sacrifice at Second Manassas: Colonel William S.H. Baylor "No more exalted recognition of his worth and services can be uttered and no higher tribute can be paid him than to declare that he was worthy of the command of the Stonewall Brigade." -- Brig. Gen. Wm. B. Taliaferro
28. MANASV_170220_267.JPG: Colonel William Smith Hanger Baylor (1831-1862) At the time of First Manassas, Baylor held the rank of Major in the 5th Regiment Virginia Infantry. In April 1862, he was appointed Colonel of the regiment. Baylor assumed command of the Stonewall Brigade upon the death of Brig. Gen. Charles S. Winder on August 9, 1862 at Cedar Mountain. Before his promotion to Brigadier General could be confirmed, Baylor was killed in action on the afternoon of August 30, 1862 at Second Manassas after taking the colors of the 33rd Virginia and gallantry leading his brigade to the unfinished railroad in a charge against the Union 5th Corps.
29. MANASV_170220_270.JPG: Prior to the war, Baylor commanded a local militia company, the West Augusta Guard, which later became Company L of the 5th Regiment Virginia Infantry. Pictures above with his fellow militia officers, Captain Baylor (standing in center) wears the epaulets displayed below. Elected Colonel of a militia regiment in early 1861, Baylor was relieved of command by an ordnance of the State Convention on April 27, 1861. He subsequently accepted a commission as Major of the 5th Regiment Virginia Infantry.
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