Commemoration of Civil War a success

Life for Manassas area residents was turned upside down July 21, 1861, when farms turned into killing fields, houses turned into hospitals and young men turned into soldiers. That day, the red clay soil turned even redder with blood spilled from brother fighting brother. Nothing would ever be the same again after the start of the Civil War.

That First Battle of Manassas resulted in a Confederate victory. Both armies believed this battle would put an end to the growing conflict; they were wrong.

Exactly150 years later, Manassas National Battlefield Park turned into a media mecca to commemorate the sesquicentennial anniversary of the Civil War. Though the heat on this day was unrelenting, it mirrored the temperatures of the war when more than 60,000 men fought at First Manassas.

Buses rolled in, and the camera crews rolled out; all in an effort to capture the opening ceremony at 9:15 a.m. on the grounds of Manassas National Battlefield Park’s Henry Hill Visitor. The event was hosted by the National Park Service and the Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission.

—read more about the Sesquicentennial in an upcoming issue of the Observer news.