feel free to see me. have great day. thank you very much.

and mr. john j. hennessy who's going to present stonebridge at manassas john hennessy retire in 2021. as the chief historian, fredericksburg and spotsylvania, national military, where he worked for the final 26 years of his nps career. that deserves a round of applause applause. prior to fredericksburg. he served an exhibit planner for nps across the country and as a front line ranger historian, manassas national battlefield park, where he began his career

he's author of four books, most notably return to bull run the campaign and battle of second manassas, still in print after 30 years and the first ballymena passes and end of innocence and into innocence substantially revised and published in 2016. let's welcome mr.. thank you everybody it's good to be here and good to see you all. i am not going to mention zombie gordon. i am from massachusetts which jettisoned maine in 2019 and an unfortunate and you're going to have to suffer this through will and and and the rest of us we don't have any animated trains or anything like that and our slide program so we are outclassed brian and will and i certainly are outclassed technology really when it comes to all of that before i get

started i do to say there's been a lot of conversation here this week about the absence of young people. it is a conversation we've had since. i started in the park service in 1981 and it's never it hasn't changed tremendously. but i do think two things i'd like to say about that. one is our young people. you witness one of them today, ryan quinn at fredericksburg is tremendous historian. and he is not alone. the park service has a number of really tremendous thinkers. the work of historians and national parks is changing. i retired as the chief historian. i think i am the last chief at any civil war battlefield park. now the rest of them an hour. chiefs of interpretation are chiefs, visitor services or some other titles. so that gives you a sense. but there are a lot of young people. i would also suggest that maybe the problem necessarily a latent

interest, an evolution in learning styles. i don't think a lot of young people are are much keen on sitting in a room for a weekend or even an evening sometimes listening to someone like me prattle on so have hope and be inspired by by people like ryan because there are a number like them not enough but perhaps there are certainly some so by the measure length of bridge tonight we started and we got 2600 feet at high bridge over a mile at wrightsville ryan had three bridges to talk about. brad had three or i forget how many. i've only got one that's 70 feet long. so so des was clearly out of line in terms of the allotment of time and and, and i am going to be done about 3 minutes based

on my. the stone bridge over bull run that's where the historic warrenton turnpike crosses, one of america's most famous streams. it was the left of the confederate line at the first battle of bull run on sunday, july 21st, 1861. of course, the major land battle of the american civil war. the first shots of that battle echoed across this landscape first cannon and then musket treatment. a man from the far south carolina was, among those who witnessed fired those first shots, that warm sunday morning. he remembered the evidence the yankees came on until they were within 100 yards of us. let me get my pardon me with the thing. i'm going to get this going in the right direction. there we are. this is a view across the stone

taken in march of 1862, looking at the confederate position on the western side of the bridge, off to the left of heights of nry hill. that's van pelt hill in front where i'm matthew. so where the battle really began is out of you to the right. so this soldier is behind the camera. yankees on until they were within 100 yards of us. i laid my gun down across the top rail of a fence and ran my eye down the barrel. this was first gun fired at the battle of manassas i set my gun down and jumped the fence i had no reach on top of it when zip when a bullet by my head. this was the first intimation that i had that a yankee shoot at you if he had the chance. and i lost no time in getting down from that fence for 2 hours, the boomed and the muskets rattled. here on both sides of bull run.

by about 8:00 or so, up on top the hill you see in the distance there, right up there, van pelt hill, the commander of the confederate forces, received a warning by signal by flag signal semaphore signal by a man named edgar porter alexander, whose tent had been pitched on that hill the night before by who that morning had left to go to a signal station about five miles away, and that morning i had reporter alexander was looking through his spyglass reading a signal from the top of powell hill when he spotted the background, the glint of some simmental, he refocused and he looked and he started. he could bayonets. and then he watched and he saw a cannon. and this as the federal troops marched along a road north of the stone bridge on this flank march that would ultimately

shape this battle. but this is not really why the stonebridge is famous events carried the action away from this place to the heights. ultimately, at the end of the day, on the very left of the screen up on henry hill, even after the confederates defending bridge vacated this position, which they did in the late morning, the federal troops did not cross at the stone bridge. in fact, it's unlikely that few, if any, of the troops who fought on those distant heights of the federal troops who fought on those tests and heights. on july 21st, 1861, actually crossed this bridge to do. so they all crossed above and and came onto the field from other directions for much of the day. in fact, the federal troops abided the rumor or supposition

that someone had mined the bridge, and for some reason the yankees couldn't convince anyone to go on to the bridge to, see whether or not that was true. and so nobody crossed. so no. of the union troops that far so fought so famously on matthews hill on henry hill this the size of combat that had the attention of the world on this sunday. i actually got there by crossing the stone and yet the stone bridge which is shown here in march of 1862, after been destroyed by the confederates, blown up by the confederates when they abandoned the area. and yet this place is iconic for some visitors. it's only specific place on the manassas battlefield that. they've heard about or seen in pictures or perhaps in a war game or watch, says james reed and his wife across the bridge

and north south in 1984 and the mini series, it's often the only place they know anything about its famous not really because it's so second african but because it's so visual. it was a thing, not just a place. evidence this we have one reasonable decent photograph of the landscape of the battlefield of manassas. but we have, i think or six shots of this ruined bridge. and so again to consciousness or a place in the imagination, this image or one similar to it appears in almost every book, i would dare say every book that's been written about the first battle of manassas and in most articles that have appeared about it to it, is iconic. i'm working very well went too

far. there we go. now the union army did retreat here across this at second manassas and fact it is retreat with which most people associate the stone bridge at manassas. they when you if you were to ask people visitors whether non visitors anybody what do they know about the first battle in manassas most people would answer well most people would probably answer nothing. of course. yes, stonewall jackson. but they would also about civilians. the civilians came out watch and they would know about route. and if they're from generation, they would associate it probably with patrick swayze in some form because of a mini series. but those are those folks have

come to associate this bridge with defeat. it is the iconic symbol is the symbol of union fertility in. the first year of the war in many ways, this bridge that everybody presume does carry the union army and sorry defeat and, rout as portrayed on cbs in 1984. in this film, there is by the way, i look there is a youtube of this segment of mini series that shows you exactly how the retreat of bull run played. so you can i'm not going to get into just watch the video but the so the bridge bridge is famous large because people then and now based on largely an assumption associated with this

most famous union retreat of the war. i don't the the common perception of the experience here at manassas on the sunday july 21st is that civilians out to watch right they across the bridge to the edge of the battle field. right. tell me when i'm wrong. they sat down with their parasols and picnic things and watched the battle unfold in front of them. right. that's the popular. but but the story of the bridge has come to us wrapped in simplicity is ones everyone can understand. and so that kind of perception of this bridge associated with root and defeat and disaster and defining this battle of manassas

in many ways has become rocks solidly implanted and american heritage for sure. but one of the things i want to talk about today is not so much the fighting here, what happened here, but maybe a little bit about what didn't happen here and how these of events find way and what do we do with them and moreover, we what value is there going beyond the simplicities that have come to us so often? i think we would tell you or anyone who's worked in this business for any amount of time that almost every piece of conventional wisdom, every one of those simplicities learned that our grandpappy ne or in our fourth grade history book, almost every one of those pieces, conventional wisdom is either.

or oftentimes just flat out wrong. there's almost something to be added or, corrected. we don't always like that. we cherish our simplicities in this. and when you challenge its simplicity and people get really off, then your label what what do they label you? a revisionist historian. but this bridge was not the site of the chaotic scene that imagine at first manassas, that scene took place about a mile and a half down the road to the east at another bridge. the caribbean bridge, which i talked about and just a little bit now, i do not embrace mania that we have for turning points in history or especially the civil war, about which. i know much more than other

pieces. history they are more these are we like to find places where we imagine that the war 90 degree turns or even most dramatically 180 degree turns and fortunes and we argue about them endlessly. i don't know how many civil sites i would be curious to see how many civil war sites claim. the mantle of turning point. but i suggest to you that this war was so big and so complicated that there were no. 90 degree terms, there were arcs six, eight, maybe ten degrees of change. and manassas, i would never claim either the battles as a turning point, but i do think it is useful to look at in the event in terms of what were the conditions before and what

changed afterwards. in other words, what this event or pick any of that reveal to us about this war. now, this war began as one thing and ended as something very different. we all know that, both in terms of its physical nature and its purpose, ultimate like we all know that. and yet so many people assume it was the same from beginning to end. but there was tremendous evolution in this war and. each of these events that we and all these places that we so treasure these sites that we see, each of those reveals something about how this war was changing. petersburg hampton park reveals, something very different than

antietam or manassas or lord knows manassas. i think one of our challenges as public historians is to help people understand on this arc of concern, change each of these events fit and how each of these events, both affected and were affected. these changes now, i will say to upfront that i, i do not believe that there is an event, the american civil war, if take the assumption that each of these events something new about this war there is not an event of the war that reveals more more quickly about this war and its eventual than the first battle of manassas. if you look at expectations, beliefs and realities on july

15, 1861, and look at the same expect patience, belief and political on november 15th 1861, holy, what a change. and this is the fulcrum for that change. so my purpose today is not so to describe for you this significance of 75 feet of stone bridge. that's by way, not mostly original. there's an original wing wall, but most of it was mobile, saw the confederates destroyed it and most of it was rebuilt 1972. this this bridge was six feet underwater during hurricane agnes, which severely damaged the and in fact, it was not until the nineties that it was really fully restored. so what i want to do is as at how these this place and other

bits of conventional about manassas about bull run are what they help understand about this war and how it changed. so let's start with disaster. let's start civilians, which is perhaps other than it is the most famous aspect of the battle. and i think actually for many people who don't live in the south it is the most famous aspect of the battle now few nations more confidently heralded war than the union of july 1861. i think the were perhaps louder but maybe a little bit less confident largely a condition due to the fact that they had no experience to justify their hopes yet, but certainly the federal union on july and july

of 1861 heralded the war not because they welcomed it. but once it was on the way, they with enthusiasm. in the wake of fort sumter, more men to the flag than the federal government could handle. they were sending men away and the belief of course, that this would be a short undertake in few events in american super bowls included have received more advance press and analysis than the impending battle somewhere in northern virginia in july of 1861 and certainly presence of spectators civilian spectators at bull run is the most famous aspect of the battle. let's see here. there you go. you didn't know there was a photograph of it, did you? this actually the 1961

centennial hall reenact moment at manassas. and you can see the tent literally tens of thousands of people. and i think this is how many people it actually was in july 1861. but i hope you'll leave here understand that that's not the case. was a brutally hot day. they had the airlift. i think 30 or 40 people out. it was like 100 degrees that day. the re-enactors, some of them fire, their ram runs across the field. there, all sorts of stuff. we did an archeology retrieval on henry hill 1984 because we needed the septic field. and so jim burgess, i went out with the archeologists, did a metal detector retrieval, what was to be the the septic field where we covered over 3300 artifacts from an little bit bigger than this, but not much. but of those 3300 artifacts,

about 2900 rooms from the various reenactments that been held on the field fence. but this is a symbol of really a photograph that i love because it really says a great deal about how american treat and perceive this war. we're talking last night at dinner. you know, this is the centennial the first major event of the centennial of the civil war, the first major event of the centennial of the first world war. and great britain. do you remember any of you what it was? it's a purser at st paul's cathedral, the first major event of the sesquicentennial of the american civil war wasn't a prayer service, it was a secession ball in charleston. americans go at the civil at at this war of ours with an uncommon and sometimes

uncomfortable sense of lightness forgetting its stakes. and, in fact, its true nature. but there's no question that the american tradition war watching began on july 21st, 1861, and last we think that this is a relic of the past it is not you are the primo generation of war watchers in american history because we still do it. but this was the the first kind of public spectacle war watching it was followed by generations of other people who want to witness history. i don't think they were morbidly curious. they just wanted to history. and those of you like me who turned in on january 17th, 1991 and watched the missiles fly

over baghdad, we didn't watch because we wanted see carnage, but that we wanted to witness history. and so this tradition continues today. of course, if you could this be close to, a battlefield without fear getting hurt, we'd be selling t shirts and, snow cones out there. and in fact fact, capitalism. but phenomenon of spectators became entwined with the spectacle of union defeat and the understanding of union defeat. in fact, it became so inclined, so intertwined, the syracuse standard would right after the battle one of the principal causes of defeat of the federal troops of bull run seems to be the presence of editors, reporters and other civilians who were looking for a fight. they the first to fly in, seizing every vehicle they could command, made a grand for centreville. they spread confusion as they advanced and filled with consternation. many a man who would have remained firm as granite.

but for that society, i and north and south of many series that perfectly they might have been well reading this correspondent or this editorialist syracuse. so here we have civilians not just present but causing the panic at bull run so how much of this was a real i think you know where i'm going with this we're going to revise one of the simplicities that you've all heard about. well, well, well. dozen reporters and members of congress actually traveled with the as it marched out from washington. in fact, on the day of the battle, the sun rose. there were probably only those few dozen luminaries, if you will, on the field with the army most the spectators who came to manassas just left washington that morning and they traveled

out the 25 or 26 miles to centreville virginia, which you have to drive through to get to dulles airport. if you're coming from anywhere from the south. and they gathered on the heights at centerville. they are they came in all manner of ways, wrote a federal officer some in stylish carriages others city hats d still others in buggies or on horseback or even on foot. apparently everything in the shape of vehicles in and around washington had been pressed into service for the equation, but they were five miles for the battlefield and very few of them got any closer than that. very few of them really wanted to get much closer than that. for most of them, the day glimpses of, distant smoke and rampant rumors about what was happening on the battlefield, stray soldiers came among.

the civilians gathered on the heights at centreville. there's a mcdonald's. they kind of at the high spot today. and they would offer commentary, not very informed, but they wore uniforms, so they believed them those us in the park service people. if you put on a uniform, they're going to believe what you say. you learn that pretty quickly and so they did and centreville that day better commander john tibble who commanded a battery out here on this day remembered when he put his guns in position not far from centreville, a whole train of civilian hacks followed him and pulled up on the side the road like saturday morning, a soccer game when there weren't parking spaces and, he complained. later they plied with questions innumerable as to civilians, meandered around the battery now at the days these distant spectators did get caught up in the retreat.

but the very true was well underway, and most of them, once but without panic. back to washington and they certainly did not causing and they got nowhere near the stone bridge but there were a few a handful who did get near the stone bridge. now here's a classic map. i love this map. i bought this map in 1967 from the general government printing office handbook on manassas. andt's still one of the most kind of geometrically helpful maps that you are. u e the union flank mar top. youee approach to bull run just east of just west of where the red dot on on the map if are getting if you are a civilian manassas gunning getting beyond centreville required connections the roads were jammed with troops coming and going supply wagons and only those with credentials who could get close to the field that the press and members of congress and a few

others and as word of the morning successive bull run and i'm not getting into the details of the battle. you can easily read that. but the morning was successful for the federals. they drove the confederate troops off of matthews back toward henry hill. so off of matthews hill in the morning back to henry hill in the afternoon, which is where the fighting took place there as word that morning success which we'll talk about more just a bit past back to centreville those with connections aside it's time it's for us to move forward. in fact some of them thought maybe we can be helpful. the senators, the congressmen, the press. now, throughout the day, these men, perhaps 75 and all, began to from an area of centreville to here today. this is a quarry here, but it's about 80 feet above bull run and

about, oh, 800 yards or so from the stream. and there those people could actually see what was going on on the battlefield to some extent. and as the day went on, some of them bolder, some of them decided, well, i'm a congressman, i can take part, can help with this thing. a guy who was spurned went down and offered to perform a reconnaissance for robert sink, his ohio troops. and he did congressman alfred ely of new york decided he wanted to get a closer look. and so wandered down toward bridge and. so it went through out the day until finally about four, 415. an officer ran into one of the reporters at the stone bridge and he said all is chaos front. the battle is lost our troops are giving way and falling back. orders get back to center ville at this point in time. congressman alfred ely realized

he was in a little bit of a tough place. he saw a line of battle coming in, so he took refuge in some bushes. he was promptly very shortly discovered by members of the second south carolina who did the stone bridge that day, and he was hauled to their commanding officer, a man named ib cash, who apparently was and participated in the legal duel in south carolina in the 1880s. i believe. but there was an old ruling this day simply took out his gun and held it to congressman lee's head. and he said, -- your luck, white livered soul, i'm going to blow your brains out right now until someone knocked his hand away and suggested that might not be a good idea idea. and and they would spend. the next eight months in confederate prison. and he wrote a book about it when he got out of which is very american of him i think and very

shortly the retreat was on now i want to go back just a little bit mind you most of the federal troops remember, had gone to the battlefield either by route or by crossing bull, run up here. and so at the end of the day when they had to leave, how did they go back the same went back the same way they came very there were some but very few retreated back across the stone bridge. they all came back this way. and where they came now, there were troops at the stone bridge who began to retreat and where these men returning on the flank marched on the reverse route of the flying guards. and at the warrenton turnpike, just short of the cover of the bridge, a traffic jam devop. and this is where things got wild. ambulances horses, cannon and men were piled in one confused ss and. thfedete artillery got within range of this bridge. when somebody thinks about and then the enemy command convened,

commanded, commenced firing solid shot directly at the bridge, i leaped over the and had hardly done so when i heard a loud and looking back i held the half of a soldier's body flying up hill. he'd been cut to at this almost barbarous, a cry of mortal terror arose among the flying. now, once cross bull run, the panick mob transformed into a discouraged flood, fugitives back towds centerville. the scene at this bridge was a defining visual moment of this fit manassas campaign. it was into this scene that some ofhose men who been on quarry ridge, back where that dot is, you're watching the battle from here. these guys got caught in the. now, what's important about that is that those 75 or so men,

including. probably close to two dozen members of congress and members of the press, they were the ones whose accounts of the bgot in in thein the newspapers, found their way. so the civilian in manassas is defined by not the majority, but the minority of civilians who we there. and so we have a kind a different experience for a of those who are back at so why does it matter this lile adjustment? well, there's a couple of that grow out of that really do matter a great deal th y may not recognize. as i mentioned, those were on that ridge were the ones w with their penthperceptions the public of this battle and that perception has endured in american societyad a huge

impact at the time. but here's someth else as you to think about among those. coming along were i mentioned henry wilson, i mentioned wade. anyone know who guy is? james lane who i always put two pictures up in me just so you would recognize that the first one just wasn't a bad day day. and i do have to say, i also imagine, especially this one probably bears some resemblance to will green on a sunday morning. and in his junior year in college, suspect. you'll get yours. i know it is a little dangerous. you have to you have to remember who the microphone last. yes, i yeah, i.

but coming up then slope and to centerville among mass of of disorganized frightened soldiers for the most part was this man one man described by him as he said he was a musket. he was long, slender, hayseed looking. and as long legs kept kicking back far to the rear as to urge his old beast to greater speed, then came henry wilson. i don't have a picture of not nearly as interesting as as as lane is a future vice president and he came up the hill high and red in the face from exertion in his shirt sleeve, carrying his coat on his arm when he reached john ball, the artillery man said. he growled cowards, why don't they turn and beat back the scoundrels now?

remember, henry wilson is chairman. the senate military affairs committee. and finally, the last one in the and and the procession of these this great troika was wade. he said he didn't have this ted ball remembered as walked up the hill to centreville. he didn't have the strength to even lift his coat off the ground. he dragged it behind him. so ben wade would soon become in november the chairman of the joint committee on the conduct of the war. so my point that these men who would oversee the american military, the american civil war had a experience with the military that constituted or was constitu the by their experience of bull run on this day the purpose of the joint on the

conduct of the war was, as wade said, to teach men civil and military authority that the people expect they will not make and that we shall not be easy on their errors. we'll would oversee the confirmation. every brigadier major and one lieutenant general who was commissioned in the united states army during the american civil war that oversight shaped by this, had profound implications on the army of the potomac, especially if you wonder one why the army the potomac was such a had such a culture of non initiative was so kind of conservative in its kind of political philosophy wasn't george mcclellan? it was up and down the line, not everyone. there were a few exceptions, but they also had this looming force

while looking their shoulders. and if any of you have in washington dc or near it, you know that the closer washington dc you are, the more you get watched. i worked at manassas. we had staffers who drove through the battlefield every day and we would hear about it. when i got to fredericksburg last petersburg you probably never even heard it down here. i suspect. but that is a reality. so this is a provide it as context for conservative culture that would really help shape the nature of the army of the potomac and a culture that would persist really throughout the army's history, countering only to some extent by grant's presence and. 64 and 1865. just couple of other things i'd like you to think about as we go. things this battle tells that we

might not think about. we have as a people a misplaced belief and the decisive or existential we think when our headlines roll up in the morning that somewhere in there is going to a threat to the survival of. the world or the society as we know it. we tend to see everythinor many things and existential terms, and so did the soldiers of the american civil war. could. and might have have might have beens enthrall us. so we do this in the present, but we also do it in the past. we tend to see all of these events as existential, as potentially leading to an outcome that could have been one way or the other. but what do we generally find is that the outcomes for example, i

great example the confederates fire fight a perfect battle. they beat a force on the field that's more than twice their size. the army collapses at first and then and abraham lincoln. what he say afterwards. well, the country's saying, what will the country say? but what does history show us. country did't say much. but by then the war was so large that a single battle wasn't going to move th needle. a whole lot. the war was this accumulation of eventsnd policies and ideas played out over 2000 miles by 1863 and 1864. any event in maryland or pennsylvania or even vicksburg probably move the needle more than any. doesn't move the middle needle.

nearly as much as we think. but this sense of drama, this existential belief, that we are on the edge, something momentous and perhaps existential catastrophe, catastrophic. we see that certainly at manassas. and we also to think that, okay, well, the war the great lesson of manassas was that people realized it was going to be a long war, but that did not. hey, that's not necessarily. but too that did not cure anyone of the belief that then and the next moment be decisive existence? the same sorts of letters you being written on the eve of battle in july 1861. we go into battle tomorrow. we if we win this. everything will change. you can find those letters

written on may 4th, 1864, before the overland campaign, probably on april first 1865, more rightly so there than than elsewhere else wise. so this was it's just another example how americans how, people i don't think it's purely american but how people see this these events and we like to see them retrospectively. and i would urge not to go at these events in the framework faulkner's every southern boy where something had just different. if the federal army if longstreet had just gotten around the flank at gettysburg or or of william scott's, i forget who he was fighting, but william seals had just emerged on little round top that the

federal army would have collapsed in the war, would have ended. it's an unreal expectation. we place far too much hope in our past that way. maybe the most important. you look at the before and after. the most important change associated with first manassas is is that it was a gateway or an entry way into an expanding changing war. so after the battle you see north speak with a much greater gravity than they had before. one newspaper man reported men no longer speak lightly of this war or of the manner of conducting it, or of the time or conditions of termination. what is to become the country? where is it all to end? have we been mistaken in our. of this whole subject? is not the war likely to linger for years in the north?

the battle inspired, newfound respect for southerners and respect that word in many circles. most circles persist till after mathematics in. new york snap after wrote. and let me hear tell you wrote to his home folks. the south has been tremendous underrated class northerners that they have a splendid army of enormous strength and that it is still more what still more they will fight for south. all the stories of the notwithstanding. and so most importantly the clash along bull run ushered in a really new phase of discourse about. this war, especially in the north. a debate that would expand about how the war be waged and ultimately what should be its purpose. now these were conversations of kind of theoreticians prior to bull run. but after bull run they would

emerge into the open and in fact those questions would be the foundation of the fundamental political schisms that govern northern society through the election. 1864. so the greatest change of all was this door that opened to issues that until that point had not been part of the public discourse. and of course, the result of that was what a war that would become harsher for southern civilians. a war that would become bigger and far cross 2000 miles with different technologies brought to bear. a war that would ultimately waged to extinguish slavery and transform america to restore the union by ultimately transforming. and that's a process that really was whispered prior to manassas.

but emerged loudly in the aftermath. now, the thing i would ask you to about manassas is it highlights the enduring one of the enduring problems of any nation to war. and that is question what is victory on the morning, july 21st, 1861, on matthews hill, irvin mcdowell when a staff rode up and up and down union lines after the confederates would and they wave their hats and they victory, victory, victory. and for the next 2 hours, they behaved as if they had gained the victory. and twas. three george w bush stood on the us. abraham lincoln with a banner behind mission. my point is that one of the most difficult challenges in more

especially now. but even then is being able to identify and understand what would be and the growth and expansion of the union war effort over the next four years would be the united states. answer to that question. ultimately, and that's a process that begins here on day and then finally, kind of the big idea i would like you to remember. so imagine if you will. one it would take each of you to think of yourselves as something other than an american. i assuming most of you are u.s. citizens, can you imagine calling yourself something than an american? what would it take for that to? it's almost unimaginable, is it

not. for any american to decide that they would like to be something other than an american. and yet think about about most, not all white civilians in the south who in the summer 1862 or in or excuse me, in and throughout the 1861 went through a profound transition. remember the confederacy, as we know it was not really created in its final form until just a little bit more than two months before, this battle. so it's nation that is two months old and and yet we have in the aftermath of july 21, 1861, a people who have embraced a new identity now and i would

argue to you that the victory of manassas gave, the south instant heritage, all own much as lexington and concord, the new or emergent or aspiring united states. an instant heritage all its own. in 1775. the victory unleashed a flood of patriotic in the south. before this the idea of the confederacy was untried was an idea an aspiration rather than a reality. but after first manassas and you see it in the language that southerners used to the confederacy became real. one soldier wrote from georgia, you said he wrote above all the

morale fact was a great and brilliant victory. he said a woman from fredericksburg who wrote children her sons in army regularly referred for the first time after asked to her son, she wrote of our beloved confederacy. betty herndon. maury the daughter of matthew maury, would write of the despicable us flag. shortly, frank paxton, who commanded the stonewall brigade and who would die at its head at chancellorsville wrote to his wife after battle. we spent last in the sacred work of achieving nationality and independence. the work was nobly done, and then he made of a marital mistake. one has to believe, he said, and was the happiest day of my life. my day not accepting, he said.

oh, i'm so. well, he did. and as i he died at a diner. chance for a spell. but most importantly, after manassas, most southerners came to believe that the south was strong enough to bear what might lie ahead. and they just might succeed. one soldier, one of jackson's future officers, wrote, i have no fears now for, the final result of the contest. are we not fighting for all that? we hold dear on earth. that sense of identity, which, of course, would forged further. but i think really had its first in many ways kind of rising of life after first manassas goes from a hope to a reality. i would, of course, be hardened over the next four years, but sense of identity, that regional

identity, even that national identity, would be, would become and remains a powerful force and maybe of the most the war's most enduring legacies. so to conclude, i would say with apologies to john jakes and the movie makers, the stone bridge itself might not be as central to the story as we imagined it, but the importance of the events that surrounded it are undeniable. no event of the war revealed so much, so quickly about this. what this war would become, as did first manassas. the war before and the war after would be vastly different things. and as one south carolinian wrote after the battle, i have no. he wrote that they intend to give up the fight.

on the contrary, five men will rise up where one has been killed. in my opinion, the war will have to be continued to the bloody end. and the big question in 1861 was imagining just how difficult and bloody that path would be. so thank you. i'm glad to answer any. and any questions. any questions? i didn't talk about jackson. he just didn't kind of fit in what i want to talk about. he is a powerful. i. all right, officer. got it. yes. you. and if you were talking to that south, carolina, i'm sorry. i'm from se if you talk to the south carolina soldier when they withdraw from the union, they're all they're talking about south carolina as a nation, as its own place and the war as a temporary

thing, necessary so that south carolina can have its independence. are you suggesting that after this, the basically that narrative disappears and most people who were for who supported the rights of states such as louisiana also did this to withdraw and now recognize that their future even after a war with the union would be all in a confederacy. well, i think, you know, the confederate constitution mirrors, the federal constitution and most with the exception of its commitment, perpetual protection of slavery, you know, i don't i'm not an expert. southern nationalism and southern visions, but i have seen nothing. i don't i'm not aware of anything that suggests that most white southerners believe that the confederacy was a temporary measure to permit the creation

of 11 or however many ultimate independent nations within the south. i don't think that was the vision. i think they realized that to achieve what they wanted to which included i mean they had. there's a recent book out in the last couple of years about, you know, kind of the confederate beyond the war and right. and and which included, you know, solidifying slavery as an institution in america by ensuring its survival elsewhere in the caribbean and in south america. so i think most historians view the confederacy as being seen as a temporary measure to allow for the breakup of the union later on. i mean, of the the confederate union later on. i mean most countries don't create themselves with the idea that they will provide a man mechanism for their own destruction and aftermath.

so so thank you very