Manassas National Battlefield Park

On horse drawn carriages, families packed their picnic baskets, parasols, and opera glasses and flocked to the serene rolling hills near Manassas, Virginia to watch first major meeting between the Union and Confederate armies on a warm July day in 1861.  Today it’s hard to imagine such a bizarre event, but at the time, it was thought that the Civil War would be over relatively quickly.

In the aftermath, the Union army retreated back to Washington DC and the First Battle of Bull Run became the largest and bloodiest battle in American history up to that point.  Today, the Manassas National Battlefield Park is a a peaceful and solemn place that offers trails and exhibits of the battle and war that preserved the US as one country  and abolished the institution of slavery.