"A Soldier's View of the Battlefield" Topic

"To set the scene for those not familiar with First Bull Run or Manassas, depending on the colour of one's uniform, the battlefield is in low rolling Virginia countryside, similar to area around Kirby Hall, Northamptonshire. Any decent book should have a good map, I used the one from "The American Civil War Source Book"1. Note the scale, it is a small battlefield. I shall walk you through the battle with my own observations, to give you some feel for battle, the conditions and also to bring out some points that I consider relevant.

The very first thing that strikes a visitor to the battlefield is its closeness, no amount of reading can portray the short ranges over the whole battlefield, let alone the distances between the battlelines. A modern soldier, standing in the Union line just west of Mathews House where the first engagement took place, could with a Warrior Armoured Vehicle, dominate the whole of the battlefield without moving! A quick burst from a 30mm cannon would carry over where the Stonewall Brigade stood in the late afternoon, and into the reserves that climbed up through the woods to the south of Henry House Hill. For those who have been to Weston Park, the distance from the first Union line west of Mathews House to the last Union line on Henry House Hill, is about the same distance from the family camp to the main living history camp…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Wrong board.

The small size of the Bull Run battlefield is the first thing I noticed when I visited. You could walk the whole thing in a couple few minutes and go through the whole site in about an hour at a slow walk.

The thing you also have to realize when you talk about how small the battlefield itself is..is that a good portion of it, around the actual fighting area, but still considered part of "the battlefield", is gone forever thanks to the developers.

Sadly, you are correct Murphy. I remember when I was a kid that whole County was farms and fields and you could get a pretty good idea of the field (except there were fewer trees in 1861).

Now it is Henry House and Matthews Hills surrounded by subdivisions interrupted by shopping centers.

Well it is much better then the planned Disney History theme park back in 1980's.