Manassas (Bull Run) National Battlefield Park, Virginia [1953]

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Oscar L. Chapman, Secretary
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Conrad L. Wirth, Director
HISTORICAL HANDBOOK NUMBER FIFTEEN
This publication is one of a series of handbooks describing the historical and archeological areas in the National Park System administered by the National Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior. It is printed by the Government Printing Office and may be purchased from the Superintendent of Documents, Washington 25, D. C., price 20 cents
by Francis F. Wilshin
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE HISTORICAL HANDBOOK SERIES NO. 15 Washington, D. C., 1953
The National Park System, of which Manassas National Battlefield Park is a unit, is dedicated to conserving the scenic, scientific, and historic heritage of the United States for the benefit and enjoyment of its people.
Wartime photograph of the Stone House, which still stands as the most conspicuous landmark of both the First and Second Battles of Manassas . Courtesy National Archives.
Manassas National Battlefield Park preserves the scene of two of the famous battles of the Civil War. The first shall be ever memorable as the opening engagement of that great conflict, while the second, fought approximately a year later, paved the way for Lee’s first invasion of the North. In each instance Confederate arms won signal success and dangerously threatened the National Capital.
The Civil War was perhaps the most dramatic and significant event in the history of the United States as an independent nation. It was the climax of a half century of social, political, and economic rivalries growing out of an economy half slave, half free. In the race for territorial expansion in the West, in the evolution of the theories of centralized government, and in the conception of the rights of the individual, these rivalries became so intense as to find a solution only in the grim realities of civil strife.
It was on the great battlefields of this war, stretching from the Mexican border to Pennsylvania, that these differences were resolved in a new concept of national unity and an extension of freedom. In the scope of its operations, in the magnitude of its cost in human life and financial resources, the war had few, if any, parallels in the past. Its imprint upon the future was deep and lasting, its heroic sacrifice an inspiring tribute to the courage and valor of the American people.