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History’s Crossroads
Federal troops. It was the beginning of the bloodshed. It’s rumored that in a tavern just across the street from that same lawn, Confederate President Jefferson Davis met with his generals, and they reviewed designs for a new Confederate flag so it wouldn’t look so much like the Union flag. As tensions built, US President Abraham Lincoln was anxious to secure the area around Fairfax for federal troops, since it was not far across the Potomac River from the Capitol. To do so, he established a military line west of Washington in the heights of Arlington (the next county over from Fairfax and maybe three or four Metro stops from my hotel, although they didn’t measure distances that way back then). Confederate troops withdrew to Manassas (also referred to as Bull Run by the Yankees) and soon — sooner than they were ready — the very green Federal troops advanced on Manassas Junction, just a short distance from Fairfax. The premature advance was spurred by a great deal of public pressure to move quickly to Richmond and finish the whole affair before it became too messy and drawn out. The common belief at the time was that there would be one large battle, probably at Manassas, that would settle the issue quickly and forever. People were so secure in that belief that spectators came along with the troops to Manassas. They brought picnic lunches, expecting to see almost the entirety of the Civil War played out in front of them — I suppose before dinner. Unfortunately, that was like going to Hiroshima to get a suntan. Over 600,000 deaths and several years later, it was settled — but, still, the pain of that conflict lingers. With my small group of writers, I found myself standing there looking over the rolling hills of Manassas Battlefield National Park. A lovely, solemn, and sad place, I could almost feel the ghosts begging for attention. The Park has guided tours of the battlefield, a small museum, and displays that hint at the magnitude of the carnage and the developments of the new machinery of war. If you’re looking for Civil War books, tapes, CDs, this is the place. They must have everything ever produced on the subject. In Fairfax, one can still see the actual handwriting of the soldiers in the attic of the Blenheim House. Built in 1858 for the family who owned that tavern across from the courthouse, it is currently being restored. We were lucky enough (press trip perks that I told you about) to get in and up to the attic before it had been restored. In the beautiful handwriting script of the times, Civil War soldiers staying in the house composed a sort of diary in words, names, dates, and even pictographs which now compose the largest collection of Civil War graffiti anywhere. That personal touch made the conflict real to me in a way it never was before. The room, still raw and utilitarian feeling before they clean it up for presentation, was dense with the energy of waiting, anxious soldiers. You can almost feel them, still pacing, wanting to get home again. Moving back in time from the Civil War, we stepped into a more hopeful era, although still war-torn by the American Revolution. We next visited Mount Vernon, George Washington’s estate on the Potomac. The Mount Vernon Ladies Association was formed to buy the property, originally 8,000 acres, and save the home and gardens of the first President — now 500 acres, 50 of which are open to the public. The peaceful, rolling landscape on a bend in the Potomac has oak, holly, and laurel trees, sumptuous gardens, and poetic memorials that mark the lives of those so central to the often bloody and chaotic emergence of the democratic ideal in the new world. The main house at Mount Vernon, large and elegant, but smaller than I expected, sits gracefully overlooking a soft curve in the Potomac River. Something of a village in its own right, the acreage is a logical collection of shops, quarters, stables, and gardens. A study in beauty, the cherry, apple, and other fruit trees, herbs, vegetables, flowers, livestock, and forest areas mingle in a well-considered ecology. Although he didn’t have Presidential Estates for Dummies to refer to, Washington was quite |
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