George Carr Round's vision for the Manassas battlefields laid the foundation for preserving this Civil War site. Further contributions came from the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) and the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. In 1921 the SCV established a Confederate park at the Henry farm, the location of heavy fighting during First Manassas. Fourteen years later, the Roosevelt administration incorporated the Confederate park into a New Deal recreational demonstration area, which included a sizable amount of land associated with both battles. Only after the federal government obtained control of these lands did Manassas National Battlefield Park come into existence on 10 May 1940.

Preservation of the Manassas battlefields during the interwar period was symptomatic of a larger movement in the United States that embraced tradition and history. Collecting Americana, from books and manuscripts to furniture and folk art, became an obsession for some of America's wealthiest citizens. These vast collections, valuable for their insights into past ways of life, eventually became the foundations for many important museums, including the Winterthur Museum (housing the Henry Francis du Pont collection of furniture and decorative arts) and the Shelburne Museum with its folk art. This collecting boom soon spilled over into the preservation of buildings and even sections of towns. Henry Ford relocated historic buildings to his Greenfield Village near Detroit, while John D. Rockefeller Jr. bankrolled the massive restoration of Colonial Williamsburg. [1]

Participation by middle-class Americans in this love affair with history took several forms. They drove their newly affordable automobiles, another contribution by Henry Ford, on the growing national system of highways and explored many out-of-the-way historic sites. States and organizations assisted these travelers' history bent by erecting roadside plaques describing significant events or directing tourists to notable stops along the way. Best seller lists for the 1920s and 1930s revealed America's penchant for history books and biographies, especially for the Revolutionary and Civil War eras. Local associations flourished with activity, celebrating occasions of both regional and national significance. People also celebrated their family histories by delving into genealogical research. Many New Deal agencies supported the chronicling of American history, whether in Farm Service Association photographs of the dust bowlers or in Works Progress Administration murals and theatrical productions. Each stage along the way to national park status for the Manassas battlefields reflects this feverish interest in history and provides specific examples of how Americans thought lands should be preserved and interpreted.

Confederate Achievement

E. W. R. Ewing, the historian-in-chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, took up the cause that Round had initiated and rallied support from the various Confederate organizations to establish a Confederate park at Henry Hill. In 1920 he called a mass meeting of the Washington Camp of the SCV, along with members of the public and representatives from several southern states. Around the same time, Mrs. Westwood Hutchinson, president of the Manassas chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), obtained an option for the purchase of the Henry farm, totaling 130 acres, for $25,000. With this option in hand, Ewing and his supporters wrote a charter that the Virginia State Corporation Commission granted under its nonstock laws in May 1921. The resulting corporation provided a vehicle for accepting contributions and raising funds toward the acquisition of land and maintenance and development of the park. [2]

Controlled by a board of three directors, for which Ewing served as president, the Manassas Battlefield Corporation promoted memorial, educational, and historical activities. Its mission was to seek cooperation and fairness between North and South. The corporation, however, also wanted to give voice to the South's "distinct, wonderful, equally thrilling, all-important story." In the opinion of the corporate directors, recent historical treatments of the Civil War had depicted their "Confederate ancestors as enemies of [their] country," arguing that the perpetuation of slavery, not states' rights, had prompted the Southern states to secede. In response, the corporation saw the Confederate park as a way to "offer the full truth," in the hopes that the " 'truth shall make' our children free." [3]

Education was a primary focus of the Confederate park, and planned developments reflected this mission. The Henry House, which the Henry family had turned into an informal museum prior to the establishment of the Confederate park, continued to serve as a museum for war relics. To facilitate the educational benefits of this collection, the corporation began seeking donations to build a larger, fireproof museum at the park. To assist visitors as they toured the battlefield, a caretaker living on the grounds provided directions and answered some questions. The corporation hoped to have a full-time guide on the premises at some future date. Eventually, the corporate directors also planned to publish "an impartial and full history" of the Manassas battles and of the Civil War and its causes. These educational efforts served the stated mission of giving more sympathetic treatment to the South's understanding of the history of the Civil War than had so far existed. [4]

Paired with education, the corporate directors intended the Manassas Battlefield Confederate Park to serve as the "supreme battlefield memorial" to all Confederate soldiers. Ewing lobbied individual state legislatures to appropriate money for the erection of memorials and markers to recall Southern, as well as Northern, strategies and displays of courage in the battles. The Virginia State Highway Commission had already placed markers along Lee Highway, providing directions to the Confederate park. A landscape architect, detailed from the U.S. government, had begun landscaping the acquired lands. Ultimately, the corporate directors wanted to create "the most beautiful memorial Park in all the land." The resident caretaker maintained the grounds until further financial assistance could pay for more extensive changes. [5]

To show their support for the educational and memorial mission of the Confederate park, a range of interests became involved during the first years of the park's creation. In 1923 the Virginia state legislature authorized payment of $10,000 toward purchase of the Henry farm, under the condition that the Manassas Battlefield Corporation provide the remaining $15,000. Representatives from the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Southern Confederated Memorial Association, the Confederate Veterans, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and each southern state served on the corporation's audit board and thus directly contributed to the organization and planning for the park. Officials, ranging from the governor of Maryland to a past commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, expressed their enthusiasm for the Confederate park, while individuals throughout the South sent contributions. [6]

Despite the early optimism, the Manassas Battlefield Confederate Park had difficulty meeting its financial obligations, which slowed its momentum. Although the corporation had received $10,000 in individual contributions and another $10,000 from Virginia during its first fund-raising efforts, the last $5,000 remained elusive. Under the threat of losing the battlefield lands, the SCV renewed its support and convinced each of its divisions to donate between $500 and $1,000 toward the final payment, made in June 1927. The battlefield corporation also needed finances to cover litigation costs when, in 1924, the board of directors fought off an attempt by a subgroup within the organization to acquire the lands. Maintenance of the property continued to tax the remaining limited resources, leaving the corporation without the funds to accomplish its primary goals: erecting memorials on the battlefields, building a fireproof museum to house its collection of artifacts, and writing a history of the Manassas battles. [7]

The financial condition of the Confederate park continued to worsen into the 1930s, prompting the corporation to consider alternatives to its administration of the Manassas battlefields. Ewing, the park's chief proponent, had died in late 1927, leaving a vacuum that few could fill with the same enthusiasm and dedication. Financially, by 1935 the corporation had spent more than $50,000 toward the park, and yet it encountered difficulties in raising the $30 required each month to pay the caretaker's salary. Recognizing this situation, Edmond Wiles, the chairman of the Manassas Battlefield Committee, which the SCV formed to erect markers and other memorials at the park, began corresponding with the National Park Service in 1933. Wiles asked NPS Director Horace Albright for aid in building a museum at Manassas, to which Albright responded that Congress had not authorized the Park Service to assist the private organization. Recognizing the opportunity presented, Albright instead asked Wiles if the Manassas Battlefield Committee would be "disposed to turn over to the Government" the battlefield for designation as a national monument. Wiles thought Albright's idea possible, in light of the current financial difficulties and past discussions held on this topic at SCV conventions. Following one more detour through the New Deal's recreational demonstration area program, these first communications eventually led to incorporation of the Henry Hill tract into the Manassas National Battlefield Park. [8]

A New Deal for Manassas

Reflecting a renewed interest in commemorating the actions of American soldiers in World War I and previous conflicts, Congress reconsidered the idea of establishing battlefield parks at Manassas and elsewhere between the end of World War I and the onset of the Great Depression. By 1926 the Manassas battlefields competed in the House Military Affairs Committee with twenty-eight other bills that proposed creating national military parks. Rejecting the idea of a military park commission study, Congress turned instead to a 1925 memorandum, written by Lt. Col. C. A. Bach of the Army War College and approved by the secretary of war, which provided a comprehensive battlefield classification system. Congress passed and in June 1926 President Calvin Coolidge signed legislation authorizing the War Department to survey identified battlefields using Bach's classification system, the first time the federal government had authorized a broad historic sites study. [9]

Bach's classification scheme relied on past congressional legislation and thus incorporated the ideas presented by such influential individuals as Brig. Gen. George B. Davis, originator of the Antietam Plan. Bach ranked various battlegrounds based on his determination of what level of commemorative action would appropriately memorialize the events that took place at each site, ranging from national military parks to the placement of historic markers. Class 1 battlefields, according to Bach's organization, represented battles of "exceptional" political and military significance with "far-reaching" effects that justified designation as national military parks. Bach identified Yorktown and Saratoga, from the American Revolution, as the only sites that met this criterion and were not yet incorporated into parks. Bach subdivided Class 2 battlefields, which overall warranted designation as national monuments, into two groups. Class 2a, in which Bach placed Manassas, justified marking of the battle lines of the engaged forces with markers but not necessarily memorials, while Class 2b battles required only a tablet or monument to indicate the location of the battleground. Bach's scheme reconfirmed the historic significance of the Manassas battlefields. [10]

Under the congressionally sanctioned War Department surveys conducted between 1926 and 1932, Manassas received attention but still failed to reach national park status. In 1928 district engineers performed a preliminary field investigation of the two battlefields at Manassas and noted that $2,600 would be needed to complete a detailed survey. Congress finally authorized this sum in 1931, but because of worsening national economic conditions, the War Department excluded Manassas in its fiscal year 1933 budget estimates as a cost savings measure. Fourteen other areas became federal parks between 1926 and 1933, including Virginia's Petersburg National Military Park (1926) and Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park (1927), but Manassas remained without the coveted designation, perhaps again due to its connection to two stunning Confederate victories. [11]

Support for the Manassas surveys, and thus a park, evaporated in Congress in the late 1920s, and it was not until the Roosevelt administration that the idea of a national battlefield park was revived. First, in 1933 President Roosevelt reorganized the National Park Service and transferred the previously established military parks to the agency. Although not included in the transfer, Manassas did inspire Roosevelt to pursue this step. In early April 1933 Horace Albright had the fortunate opportunity of riding in a touring car along Lee Highway from Shenandoah National Park to Washington with the president. Referring to the lands where initial fighting had occurred during the Second Battle of Manassas, Director Albright suggested that the Park Service obtain administrative control over the War Department's historic parks and monuments. Roosevelt readily agreed and urged Albright to "do something about this tomorrow," resulting soon afterwards in the transfer. [12]

Second, Roosevelt's New Deal recreational demonstration projects provided the funding and human resources for acquiring land, planning development, and ultimately preparing Manassas for transfer to the Park Service. Originated in 1933 under the authority of the National Industrial Recovery Act, recreational demonstration projects served a long-identified need for providing more recreational facilities to lower-income families. In 1935 Roosevelt incorporated the recreational projects into the newly established Resettlement Administration, which served to demonstrate the proper use of land by buying inferior and unprofitable farmland and using it for other, more beneficial purposes. [13]

From the start, the National Park Service supervised the planning for the forty-six recreational demonstration project areas located in twenty five states. Using funding available from other New Deal programs, including the Public Works Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Emergency Relief Administration, and the Works Progress Administration, the Park Service converted old farms and woodland into recreation areas with cabins, picnic areas, and trails. On reclaimed lands, the government built playgrounds for low-income urban populations. Farm families struggling on submarginal lands were transferred to more productive lands. In each case, the recreational demonstration program served the larger mission of the Resettlement Administration to better the lives of both rural and urban dwellers. [14]

By 1935 the Roosevelt administration had designated 1,476 acres of the Manassas battlefields as the Bull Run Recreational Demonstration Area. Howard W. Smith, recently elected representative for northern Virginia, assisted the government in identifying tracts for the project area and obtaining competitive prices for the land. Smith considered the Manassas battlefield park one of his pet projects. He justified the program to Conrad Wirth, then assistant director of the Park Service, pointing to three beneficial aspects: preservation of a significant historic site, provision of recreational facilities for area residents, and availability of submarginal land that could be put to more productive use as a military park. Interestingly, Smith had opposed some of the New Deal programs that had made the recreational demonstration project possible, such as the $4.8 billion work relief program contained in the emergency relief appropriation bill of 1935. However, Smith recognized the value of the Bull Run Recreational Demonstration Area to his voting public and remained a longtime advocate of the battlefield park. [15]

The reasons why the Roosevelt administration included Manassas in the recreational demonstration program are complex. Certainly the many unsuccessful attempts to obtain park status through Congress may have convinced some enterprising and farsighted individuals, including Smith, to use the vehicle of the recreational demonstration areas, which bypassed the legislative branch almost entirely. Albright had gone on motoring trips through the historic and scenic areas of Virginia with both President Roosevelt and Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes, providing the historic preservation-minded Albright with ample opportunity to plant the idea. The battlefields' proximity to Washington also presented an exemplary chance to display the virtues of the recreational demonstration program to a sometimes critical Congress. For a combination of reasons, the National Park Service embraced the Manassas project. [16]

Bull Run Recreational Demonstration Area

Initial plans for the Bull Run Recreational Demonstration Area departed significantly from the previous legislative attempts to preserve the Manassas battlefields. Instead of modestly acquiring a few hundred acres of land that had important historic associations, as favored by the Antietam Plan and by George Carr Round, the Bull Run project proposed a maximum area of almost 10,000 acres to provide for a "complete visualization" of the two battles. Even the smaller "primary purchase area" of 1,600 acres represented a sizable increase over Round's recommendations, and Park Service planning documents repeatedly prioritized holdings with the view of obtaining the larger park. The National Park Service wanted Bull Run to become a point of historic interest of the same caliber as Gettysburg, a project that would require restoration of the battlefields, development of adequate facilities to accommodate the expected thousands of visitors, and marking of the historic areas in the park. [17]

The National Park Service justified its planning for Manassas using a three-pronged approach emphasizing the historical, recreational, and work relief advantages. By tying historic preservation and use together, the Park Service met both the requirements of the Resettlement Administration and its own vision of the value and importance of battlefield parks. Historic preservation served as the guiding force for locating the park and designing its overall layout. The Park Service wanted to include the most historic areas associated with the two battles of Manassas. The story of these battles would be told in conjunction with other important Virginia campaigns during the Civil War. Park Service historians envisioned a linked national battlefield system, in which visitors could trace the movement of soldiers from one Virginia battlefield to the next and emerge from the experience with an overall understanding of the Civil War. [18]

To fulfill this historic preservation mission at Manassas, the Park Service pursued several development projects. Landscape work completed by the Works Progress Administration followed the advice of historians, who researched the war records and reconstructed the appearance of the land at the time of the battles. Among other areas, workers cleared the rounded crest of Bald Hill, which had been free of trees during 1862 and had proved of tactical significance to the events of Second Manassas. Some landscape work was dictated by the poor condition of the soil. The Park Service recommended keeping gullies and erosion areas protected with vegetation until suitable grass cover secured the soil. Workers saved historical relics unearthed during clearing operations for an eventual park museum. Laborers also opened and improved formerly overgrown roads and braced the falling Chinn House until a set of plans could be drawn for its possible restoration. [19]

Other development projects supporting the historic preservation mission of the demonstration area involved interpretation. Joseph Mills Hanson, a trained historian who later served as the park's second superintendent, provided historical research support. With guidance from Branch Spalding, the coordinating superintendent at Fredericksburg who directly supervised all recreational demonstration work at Manassas, Hanson conducted research on the Manassas battles. He retraced the routes different forces had taken over the battlefields and sought out period maps. This research aided workers in clearing fields to resemble their historical appearance. Hanson's understanding of the battles also proved useful for writing texts for more than sixty markers, which were placed at strategic areas on the battlefields. [20]

Recreation, the second of the three-pronged approach at the Manassas battlefields, aimed to serve the Washington, D.C., regional population, which in the "not distant future" was expected to house almost a million people in need of space and an outlet for outdoor activities. Representative Smith predicted in a letter to Assistant Director Wirth that the Bull Run demonstration area, located about thirty miles from the district line, "would be visited daily by thousands of people from Washington who lack any large park area of this character ... for an afternoon's recreation." The Park Service's final project report for the demonstration area echoed this sentiment: "When the Battlefield with its many springs and streams and its 5,000 acres of woodland is properly developed, not as a cemetery, but as a pleasure ground," it will attract more visitation than Gettysburg. Suggestions for recreational developments ranged from picnic areas to athletic fields, camp sites to bridle paths. With access assured through paved roads and proper management, the possibilities seemed boundless. [21]

Ideas about serving the recreational needs of the nation's capital reflected an underlying mission for the recreational demonstration areas. The Park Service argued that the Manassas area, "teeming with history and romance," could serve to inspire future generations if the "deeds of heroism" were properly memorialized. Here, history and recreation went hand-in-hand to aid in the furtherance of the democratic nation. These lofty goals for a national park site were not unusual. Interior Secretary Ickes had designated 1934 as National Park Year to promote travel to America's natural and historic areas and to provide a needed respite from the worries of the Depression. Many people spent all of their energy trying to find work, food to feed their families, and a warm, dry place to sleep. Projects like the one at Manassas offered hope through rejuvenation. Taking a break from these worries by going out into the country refreshed the mind and renewed the spirit. This reenergized electorate, the Roosevelt administration predicted, would return to their plights with sustaining hope. Better times would be that much closer when everyone joined together, renewed in purpose. [22]

When considering the underlying goals of the Bull Run Recreational Demonstration Area, it becomes evident that the Park Service did not favor one particular type of recreation over others. In addition, what the Service considered "recreation" in the 1930s varies from present understandings of the term. Taking a leisurely drive and following a battlefield tour qualified as a form of recreation. Today, this activity seems more focused on history than recreation. Hiking along Bull Run and enjoying the rural countryside or picnicking in the shade of a hillside and exploring the historic events of the Manassas battles, although certainly an educational experience, was also considered recreation. What these activities had in common was the opportunity to leave the city, walk or drive in open spaces, and immerse oneself in enjoyable diversions. The end result, the Roosevelt administration hoped, was a refreshed American public able to take on the challenges of the economic hard times.

In addition to history and recreation, the recreational demonstration area served the third important function of using unemployed local labor to assist the Park Service in implementing its development plans. Viewed as an ideal work relief program, this project employed residents of Prince William and adjoining counties to clear grounds and restore the landscape using proper natural resource conservation techniques. Stabilization of historic structures and control of erosion were largely done by relief workers. The "demonstrated" concept was that the "ennobling inspiration" and valuable instruction gained from the preservation and development of the battlefields would be heightened by the fact that local laborers in need of work immediately benefited from the establishment of the park. [23]

Although recreation and work relief continued to be important factors, history remained the driving force for the recreational demonstration area. Historian Hanson's research into the two battles of Manassas enabled him to identify the most significant properties for inclusion in the Bull Run project area, those lands which had sustained the heaviest fighting. The National Park Service used Hanson's research to determine the core area for the battlefield park. Acting Director Arthur E. Demaray noted in summer 1937 that the Park Service would acquire only the most important sites, including the Henry House, the Chinn House, the Stone Bridge, the Stone House, the Van Pelt House, and Sudley Mill. Adjacent land that had been under cultivation at the time of the battles, in Demaray's estimation, could remain in private ownership "unless developments occur thereon which would be incompatible" with the battlefield park's mission. By November of the same year, Hanson reported that more than 1,400 acres had been secured from such families as the Robinsons and Dogans for inclusion in the park. The Park Service, however, still needed to find a way to acquire the crucial Henry Hill tract. [24]

Due to his close supervision of the historical research and development projects at Bull Run, Coordinating Superintendent Spalding took on the delicate issue of securing the Manassas Battlefield Confederate Park for the federal government. When members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans learned in July 1935 of the proposed transfer, significant opposition, led by Col. Walter L. Hopkins, rallied to keep the park privately owned. Primarily, Hopkins believed that the Manassas Battlefield Corporation's board of directors had exceeded its authority in making the offer without first consulting the general organization, but he also held some reservations about having the federal government take control of a park that southern money and dedication had created. Spalding feared that the opposition did not have confidence in the National Park Service's ability to administer the land, but this issue proved less significant. [25]

Relying on his detailed knowledge of the Manassas project and other Park Service efforts in the South, Spalding addressed the concerns expressed by Hopkins and his followers. As Hopkins later admitted to Arno Cammerer, the director of the NPS, Spalding's scholarly understanding of the issues, his courteous and diplomatic manner, and his long-term dedication soothed the rumpled sensibilities of the membership. Based on first-hand accounts of the Park Service's interpretive activities at Gettysburg, Hopkins also gained confidence in the fair and even treatment with which the federal government would interpret the Manassas battlefields. Spalding's efforts were rewarded in June 1936 when, following a "bitter all day debate," the Sons of Confederate Veterans voted to donate the Manassas property, leaving Spalding "exhausted but happy." [26]

Despite Spalding's skillful handling, delays and obstacles further hampered the transfer. Opponents, now led by J. Roy Price, placed certain restrictions on the gift, most notably the promise that the federal government would erect a museum at the park. The Park Service intended to build the museum eventually and thus argued for immediate transfer, but the solicitor general ruled in November 1938 that acceptance required either the exclusion of the provision for a museum or congressional appropriation of the necessary funds. In May 1939 Congress supplied $56,000 for construction of a museum. Continued minor problems delayed the final transfer of property until 12 February 1940. On 10 May 1940, Interior Secretary Ickes, using the authority conferred by the 1935 Historic Sites Act, designated more than 1,600 acres of the Bull Run Recreational Demonstration Area and former Manassas Battlefield Confederate Park as Manassas National Battlefield Park. [27]