Ironically, today all of the outdoor re-enactment events are canceled from 2-6 PM. I do feel for the participants wearing those heavy wool uniforms. BTW I live and work in Manassas. The Battery Heights hill is fairly close to our house. It’s not a big, sexy site like the actual battlefields are, but it’s neat to visit, being obscure and unmarked as it is. The old homestead and graves are lovely and the views are good too.
My commute takes me through Old Town - I think today I’ll just take Wellington all the way home.
Of course the reenactments I’ve been to have had no shortage of obese soldiers. It’s always been funny to me that some (certainly not all) of these guys pride themselves that everything down to and including their underwear and eyeglass frames are exact period reproductions (manufactured by slaves and genuine malnourished Irish immigrants if at all possible) to get that exactly accurate feel- but then the guy is 120 pounds heavier than any footsoldier in the war.
Bizarrely, McDowell would find himself on this same battlefield a year later, fighting Second Manassas/Bull Run, as a senior commander under John Pope…and again facing Stonewall Jackson.
McDowell’s men didn’t trust him and knew his association with the previous defeat on this field, and muttered dark rumors that he planned to betray them. The Union indeed came to grief in that second encounter, with far heavier losses.
Pope had bragged about his prowess (among other things, by titling his dispatches “Headquarters in the Saddle” instead of a particular location, he was taking a shot at McClellan’s immobility). During the second battle, McDowell was experimenting with a wicker hat he had designed, seeking better air circulation and a cooler head.
The Union troops memorably complained that Pope had his headquarters where his hindquarters ought to be, and McDowell had his head in a basket.
The best I have is my 3rd great grandfather, Andrew Kessler Jr., was a Maryland state representative. He was arrest with 15 or so others in September of 1861 for wanting to succeed from the Union. He was released a few days later when he changed his mind.
It was 150 years ago today,
Colonel Jackson brought his troops to play…
You’re such a lovely audience
We’d like to take you home with us
We’d love to take you home
Now get the f… out of the road
Another significance of the battle was that Jackson specifically ordered his troops to scream like banshees as they charged. This was the beginning of the rebel yell. (Psychological warfare is nothing new, whether it’s painting your face blue or the rebel yell or putting whistles on bombs.)
There are a few recordings of the rebel yell being done by veterans, but this is the onethat probably comes closest to conveying the horror of it. (WARNING: VERY LOUD [and if you have dogs nearby they’ll go berserk].) Imagine it being done by thousands of much younger men, most of whom you can’t see because of the smoke of the battlefield.
The Yankees must have made an extra effort to supress the habit. I’ve read that when the Germans first encountered Americans in WWI, they were unnerved because of how quietly they went into battle, compared to screaming poilus and singing Tommies
Re the crossroads vs body of water naming conventions: my mom obtained her great-grandfather’s service record and asked about the battle of Pittsburg Landing. That was the Union’s name for Shiloh. I’m glad the latter name has prevailed, since it sounds more dramatic, whereas “Pittsburg Landing” evokes gracious waterfront views with close access to schools and major shopping centers.
(BTW, true fact about First Bull Run: the Marines were there, and the broke and ran. Suck on that, bellhops!:p)
A sound my great-great grandfather surely heard in the battle in which he was captured. According to an account of the Battle of Jerusalem Plank Road (just south of Petersburg), June 22, 1864: “with a wild yell which rang out shrill and fierce through the gloomy pines, Mahone’s men burst upon the flank - a pealing volley, which roared along the whole front - a stream of wasting fire, under which the adverse left fell as one man - and the bronzed veterans swept forward, shriveling up Barlow’s division as lightning shrivels the dead leaves of autumn.”
The Confederates took 1,700 prisoners in the Union rout, one of whom was my great-great grandfather.
My understanding was that surrendered ex-Confederates were generally sent to the West to fight Indians, which would have made that part of the Army disproportionately Southern. Perhaps some of the later strife out there is attributable to those men having brought their racial attitudes with them?
Some were, but some were sent to fight for the Union. As for racial attitudes, southerners far from held a monopoly on anti-Indian sentiment before, during or after the war. (Case in point: Custer.)
The white P.O.W.s at Andersonville were offered the option of fighting for the south and a farm after the war, though to my knowledge none took the option. (This was in '64 when the south was really desperate. (This was included in the better-than-average-for-TV-history movie Andersonville; the main thing wrong with the movie was the impossibility of getting actors who both looked like the p.o.w.s there and were able to work.)
I was in Annandale earlier today, near the intersection of Little River Turnpike and Columbia Pike where I assume that this occurred. It’s been built up quite a bit and is now a Koreatown.
I find that way funnier than I should.
