indeed, if you've ever had the chance to look at alexander gardner's sketchbook, you might notice that this is the last two image in the book. this is this is the bookend to two what the war meant. and yet by the early hundreds, the monuments had been largely forgotten, so much so that even some veterans denied that these monuments even existed. efforts by a handful of union veterans to create a national park on the site would focus the nation's attentions once again on these stone. but congress, to offer any support, any funds to protect them. ironically, it took the determination of confederate veterans and their female allies to preserve the field as a southern memorial, to ensure that these monuments union patriots would remain protected for future generations. how did these monuments come about? well, in may of 1865, brigadier general william gamble's first separate brigade of the 22nd corps remained on duty near the fairfax courthouse, near fairfax courthouse, where they encountered the skeletons of men who had fallen in the to bull run battles. disturbed by the sight. gamble ask