Ticket lottery ends for 150th commemoration of First Manassas

A National Park Service ticket lottery for the July 21 kickoff to the 150th commemoration of the First Battle of Manassas at Bull Run ended at 10 p.m. May 4. The lottery for one of the 4500 tickets available was conducted at http://www.recreation.gov .
The tickets are for standing room; people may bring blankets to sit on, according to NPS spokesman Bill Justice.
The kickoff is scheduled for 9:15 a.m. at Manassas National Battlefield Park on the grounds of Henry Hill near the park’s Visitor Center just off VA 234.
According to an NPS news release, the commemorative program will include speechmaking by Virginia’s governor Robert F. McDonnell and local, state and federal dignitaries. Dr. Edward Ayers, president of the University of Richmond and a noted historian of the American South, is scheduled to deliver the keynote address on “The Battle of Manassas: America’s Brief Civil War.”
The commemorative program begins a weekend of activities, July 21-24, involving the National Park Service, the Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission, Prince William-Manassas Convention and Visitors Bureau and Historic Manassas Inc. For more information visit http://www.nps.gov/mana or www.virginiacivilwar.org/manassas or http://www.Manassasbullrun/com.