Manassas Battlefield
Hello all! Long time no post. Don't worry, I'm back... most likely.
Today was so beautiful I felt the need to go for a drive. I must be a throwback from when it was cool to just go for a drive. I love driving. I don't even need a destination as long as I have my music going. Once I got in the car though I kept thinking I also wanted to walk around, enjoy the sunshine, perhaps get an iced coffee from Dunks. The last time I felt the need to drive I headed south. I didn't really want to retrace that path, so I headed north and then west. I ended up on I66 and soon saw signs for the Manassas Battlefield Park. I have no idea how long I've been in this general area. I thought about it and couldn't remember ever going to those battlefields. Sure, I've driven by them and even through them if I decided to take the scenic route home instead of the interstate. But have I ever stopped and explored them and read all the little signs telling everyone all sorts of important historical information? I don't remember ever doing that, although I find it hard to believe that I haven't knowing who my parents are. So I took the exit and soon found myself in the visitor's center parking lot. I found a parking space (right between two massive dark blue Ford F150's, that amused me because never has my little Tahiti green Chevy Aveo looked smaller nor brighter than in that moment). As I walked towards the visitor's center I saw under a group of trees a big family having a picnic. I suddenly heard my mom's voice say "a bunch of people came out with picnics to watch the battle and everyone was horrified by how bloody it turned out to be." That's when I began to realized that yes, I have been here, but it must have been forever ago. There was a large group of people gathering in front of the Henry house and it turns out they were about to start a rifle demonstration. I hung out there and watched. After that was done they said they'd do an artillery demonstration in about half an hour. I walked around the house, saw the tombstones of Judith Carter Henry and knew then that I had definitely been here, I've seen those tombstones before. As I looked over the tombstones a young girl probably 5 or 6 years old came running up and yelled behind her "Look mom! Somebody died!" She probably said it about three times before her mom caught up and agreed with her. I couldn't help but laugh because that is totally something my niece would say and do. From there I walked around a large loop and read all the signs along the way. They each talked about this confederate Gen. Thomas J. Jackson and how when he showed up it inspired the confederates because he had been wounded 4 times previously in his life and he was able to rally the troops and lead them to victory over the union soldiers. With each sign I read I thought "who is this Gen Thomas J. Jackson? Why do I not know who this person is?!" It was pretty embarrassing, but not as bad as when I reach the last sign on the loop (which I was beginning to think I walk around backwards) which had in big letters "There is Jackson standing like a stone wall!" and then explained that was how he got the nickname Stonewall Jackson that was used for the rest of the war. I couldn't believe I hadn't put two and two together earlier. It was one of the biggest "Duh!" moments of my life. Not even just recently, but OF MY LIFE. It was probably a good thing I was walking around by myself because I know had another person been with me I would have said "hey, who's this Thomas J. Jackson person" and I really don't think I would have been able to stand the completely shocked look on their face that I didn't know who the second most famous general of the confederate army was. Yeah...
I went and watched the artillery demonstration. The living history people explained how the gun was loaded and fired and basically just talked for about half an hour. At one point the guy talking said something like "are there any modern artillery men in the crowd today?" I actually looked around for Soldier Boy to see if he was going to raise his hand. I don't know why I did this. It was just a natural reaction. The entire time the guy was explaining about the gun I was thinking about Soldier Boy and how he said pretty much all the same things to me while we were in Hawaii and looking at the WW2 guns (artillery really hasn't changed a lot in the last 150 years). So yeah. Since half of what was being said I was hearing in Soldier Boy's voice it just felt like he was there so when I heard them ask about artillery men in the audience I just assumed that he would raise his hand. But he didn't raise his hand because he wasn't there. As I looked around I noticed all the couples in the crowd. Some were older couple, some where younger couples, some had kids, some appeared to still be kids. But all of them were together. And I was by myself. Up until that moment I had been fine with the fact that I was exploring by myself, but after that I was sad and jealous and didn't really want to be there anymore. So I stayed another 10 minutes to see/hear the gun fired and then I left.
I hadn't really thought about it before, but it definitely felt weird visiting a history place without Soldier Boy. I can't think of going some place like that in the last few years without him. In the last three years he and I have gone to Fort Necessity, Mount Vernon, all the Pearl Harbor places, Volcano National Park (which isn't really history, but it had a bunch of signs telling us all sorts of stuff), the CO state capital, all the DC monuments, the Ft. Riley museums... That's a lot of US history there.
Only 5ish more months until he comes home.
Today was so beautiful I felt the need to go for a drive. I must be a throwback from when it was cool to just go for a drive. I love driving. I don't even need a destination as long as I have my music going. Once I got in the car though I kept thinking I also wanted to walk around, enjoy the sunshine, perhaps get an iced coffee from Dunks. The last time I felt the need to drive I headed south. I didn't really want to retrace that path, so I headed north and then west. I ended up on I66 and soon saw signs for the Manassas Battlefield Park. I have no idea how long I've been in this general area. I thought about it and couldn't remember ever going to those battlefields. Sure, I've driven by them and even through them if I decided to take the scenic route home instead of the interstate. But have I ever stopped and explored them and read all the little signs telling everyone all sorts of important historical information? I don't remember ever doing that, although I find it hard to believe that I haven't knowing who my parents are. So I took the exit and soon found myself in the visitor's center parking lot. I found a parking space (right between two massive dark blue Ford F150's, that amused me because never has my little Tahiti green Chevy Aveo looked smaller nor brighter than in that moment). As I walked towards the visitor's center I saw under a group of trees a big family having a picnic. I suddenly heard my mom's voice say "a bunch of people came out with picnics to watch the battle and everyone was horrified by how bloody it turned out to be." That's when I began to realized that yes, I have been here, but it must have been forever ago. There was a large group of people gathering in front of the Henry house and it turns out they were about to start a rifle demonstration. I hung out there and watched. After that was done they said they'd do an artillery demonstration in about half an hour. I walked around the house, saw the tombstones of Judith Carter Henry and knew then that I had definitely been here, I've seen those tombstones before. As I looked over the tombstones a young girl probably 5 or 6 years old came running up and yelled behind her "Look mom! Somebody died!" She probably said it about three times before her mom caught up and agreed with her. I couldn't help but laugh because that is totally something my niece would say and do. From there I walked around a large loop and read all the signs along the way. They each talked about this confederate Gen. Thomas J. Jackson and how when he showed up it inspired the confederates because he had been wounded 4 times previously in his life and he was able to rally the troops and lead them to victory over the union soldiers. With each sign I read I thought "who is this Gen Thomas J. Jackson? Why do I not know who this person is?!" It was pretty embarrassing, but not as bad as when I reach the last sign on the loop (which I was beginning to think I walk around backwards) which had in big letters "There is Jackson standing like a stone wall!" and then explained that was how he got the nickname Stonewall Jackson that was used for the rest of the war. I couldn't believe I hadn't put two and two together earlier. It was one of the biggest "Duh!" moments of my life. Not even just recently, but OF MY LIFE. It was probably a good thing I was walking around by myself because I know had another person been with me I would have said "hey, who's this Thomas J. Jackson person" and I really don't think I would have been able to stand the completely shocked look on their face that I didn't know who the second most famous general of the confederate army was. Yeah...
I went and watched the artillery demonstration. The living history people explained how the gun was loaded and fired and basically just talked for about half an hour. At one point the guy talking said something like "are there any modern artillery men in the crowd today?" I actually looked around for Soldier Boy to see if he was going to raise his hand. I don't know why I did this. It was just a natural reaction. The entire time the guy was explaining about the gun I was thinking about Soldier Boy and how he said pretty much all the same things to me while we were in Hawaii and looking at the WW2 guns (artillery really hasn't changed a lot in the last 150 years). So yeah. Since half of what was being said I was hearing in Soldier Boy's voice it just felt like he was there so when I heard them ask about artillery men in the audience I just assumed that he would raise his hand. But he didn't raise his hand because he wasn't there. As I looked around I noticed all the couples in the crowd. Some were older couple, some where younger couples, some had kids, some appeared to still be kids. But all of them were together. And I was by myself. Up until that moment I had been fine with the fact that I was exploring by myself, but after that I was sad and jealous and didn't really want to be there anymore. So I stayed another 10 minutes to see/hear the gun fired and then I left.
I hadn't really thought about it before, but it definitely felt weird visiting a history place without Soldier Boy. I can't think of going some place like that in the last few years without him. In the last three years he and I have gone to Fort Necessity, Mount Vernon, all the Pearl Harbor places, Volcano National Park (which isn't really history, but it had a bunch of signs telling us all sorts of stuff), the CO state capital, all the DC monuments, the Ft. Riley museums... That's a lot of US history there.
Only 5ish more months until he comes home.