Cooperative Living May 2017 - 35

Above: Color lithography of the First Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861; Right: Fife and drum band
at the Manassas National Battlefield Reenactment.
to Leesburg, Winchester, Warrenton
and other towns stayed overnight.
George Washington rested there, as
did Thomas Jefferson on his way from
Charlottesville to his presidential
inauguration in 1801.
ROLLING THROUGH
CENTREVILLE
Centreville grew. The Gazetter wrote
in 1835: " Centreville Post Village ... is
elevated and highly picturesque, affording
one of the best mountain prospects in
the state of Virginia. It has always been
remarkable for the salubrity of its air and
the health of its inhabitants. "
Wealth came from exporting crops,
including " King Tobacco. " Oxen-pulled
rigs rolled tobacco hogsheads through the
village on Braddock and Union Mill roads,
then onto Rolling and Ox roads to
Potomac River ports.
EXPLODING INTO CIVIL WAR
The American Civil War, 1861-1865,
embroiled Northern Virginia, particularly
Centreville where its high plateau and
proximity to Washington, D.C., made it
strategic. Roads that brought travelers also
brought Union and Confederate troops.
First Manassas
In mid-July 1861, 37,000 inexperienced
federal soldiers headed for Centreville.
Union Major Sullivan Ballou wrote to
his wife:
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My very dear Sarah:
... I have no misgivings about, or lack of
confidence in the cause in which I am
engaged, and my courage does not halt or
falter. I know how strongly American
Civilization now leans on the triumph of the
Government, and how great a debt we owe to
those who went before us through the blood
and sufferings of the Revolution. And I am
willing - perfectly willing - to lay down
all my joys in this life, to help maintain this
Government, and to pay that debt. ... Sarah,
my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind
me with mighty cables that nothing but
Omnipotence could break; and yet my love of
Country comes over me like a strong wind
and bears me unresistibly on with all these
chains to the battlefield. ...
After a hoop-skirted spy tipped off the
Confederates, guns and cannons started
firing in Manassas near Bull Run on July 21.
So assured were Washingtonians of a
Union victory that ladies with parasols and
gentlemen in top hats watched the first
major battle of the war.
The federals overwhelmed the
Confederates initially, but when southern
soldiers started to retreat, one soldier
shouted to his fellow southerners to look
at Gen. Thomas Jackson, sitting resolutely
on his horse " like a stone wall. " They
turned and fought with such renewed fury
that Union soldiers retreated right into
ladies and gentlemen throwing picnic
baskets into their buggies. The Confederates
let out a high-pitched " Rebel Yell " as
they chased scurrying Northerners in " the
great skedaddle. "
Chaos ensued in Centreville.
A Massachusetts soldier wrote: " The
wounded had been gathered and here
likewise the dead were buried. It would
seem that in a well-known Virginia town
on the high road, only miles from the
capital, boards enough might have been
found to make into rude coffins ... but
they could not be; and as it was necessary
to bury them immediately, they were
wrapped and covered with their own
blankets, and thus consigned to the earth. "
Major Ballou was one of the
Union dead.
Encampment
In October, 40,000 Confederates
arrived at Centreville about midnight.
A veteran wrote: " The boys threw their
tired frames upon the ground and slept
soundly. ... The hills and valleys around
the little village of Centreville were
occupied by Regimental and Brigade
camps. As the darkness increased, the
skies above were lighted with the glimmer
of a thousand camp fires. "
The soldiers spent the harsh winter
building one of the largest military
earthworks ever constructed. They
fooled Union scouts by placing Quaker
guns - logs shaped like cannons and
painted black - in embrasures. Soldiers
built 1,500 log huts and scrounged for
food and firewood.
May 2017 | Cooperative Living | 33
KURZ & ALLISON
PRISCILLA KNIGHT PHOTO

http://www.co-opliving.com

Cooperative Living May 2017

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