Civil War Battlefields have become all too common as I drive on the East Coast of America.  While I was staying in Virginia I went to Manassas.  The first Battle of Manassas was one of the first battles in the American Civil War.  Back then, neither side was very good at war.  Sadly we were learning how to fight our own countrymen.  And our soldiers were learning what it meant to fight and die.  The above quote sums up the learning curve for the soldier.  “I felt that I was in the presence of death.  My first thought was, “This is unfair; somebody is to blame for getting us killed.  I didn’t come out here to fight this way; I wish the earth would crack open and let me drop in.”  As this soldier laments the horrors of this war, both sides only got better at killing each other.  The earth eventually opened up and let 620,000 Americans drop in; roughly 2% of the population at that time.

This is commonly called the first Battle of Bull Run.  Bull Run is a creek off in the distance.  This is where Stonewall Jackson got his name as the Confederates were in disarray, Jackson held his position like a “stonewall” and gave his men hope.  This hope only prolonged the battle and increased the death toll.  When I came here, I thought about how large this battlefield is; I thought about the soldier who walked miles and days to come here to fight his countrymen.  He walked.  The battlefield wasn’t mown nicely for the “contest.”  This wasn’t a game or a match to be played.  We so often talk of teams going to battle on the field.  I understand why we describe the play that way; but after being here, I will have a different picture in my head when that phrase is used.

The monument atop Henry Hill at Bull Run in Manassas was built and dedicated by Union Soldiers after the Civil War ended, but before they knew the war had ended.  Somehow they knew.  Somehow they felt it.  It was fitting that the Union would put a monument on a battlefield where they didn’t have any success.  This was a battle they never won.

This was Bull Run.