Battling for Manassas: The Fifty-Year Preservation Struggle at Manassas National Battlefield Park

Table of Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Bibliography

Appendix I

Appendix II

Appendix III

Appendix IV

Appendix V (omitted from on-line edition)

Appendix VI

Appendix VII

Appendix VIII

Manassas Chapter 6

Changing of the Guard

"Seventeen Gates, Three Logs, and a Load of Gravel"

The change in leadership following Wilshin's fourteen years as superintendent involved more than new faces. The National Park Service now emphasized specialized training for its managers and a clearer demarcation between positions than had been the case earlier. In the historical parks, historians were supposed to focus their attention on doing the research and interpreting the site for visitors. Park superintendents, though they may have history backgrounds, were responsible for daily affairs and planning for long-term improvements. Each position had a function that was flexible but focused on specific tasks and objectives. [29]

Russell W. Berry Jr., who replaced Wilshin, benefited from this new Park Service approach. Berry had joined the NPS in 1966 just as he completed his undergraduate degree in history, specializing in the Civil War, at Old Dominion University in Virginia. Instead of sending new employees directly to a park site, as had been the case with Wilshin, the Service arranged for a three-month orientation program at the Grand Canyon. Here Berry learned about the history and traditions of the Park Service while also gaining practical skills in interpretation and protection. He applied this training to his historian position at the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial before heading to the East Coast and Manassas. [30]

When Berry arrived at Manassas in summer 1969, he encountered many reminders of Wilshin's reign. First, Wilshin himself continued to live in the park superintendent's house for the next several months. Berry commuted from Annandale, Virginia. Second, Mildred Gay, who had served as Wilshin's administrative officer and then acting superintendent until Berry came, expected to continue in her administrative role, in practice if not in title. Gay proposed to take the "burden of administration" so that Berry could be the "dreamer and the keeper of the history and the vision." Berry did not accept Gay's offer. He understood his job as being the park's manager. He wanted the historians to recommend changes to the park's interpretive program without getting involved in the details himself. [31]

Another carryover from Wilshin's superintendency involved visitors' use of the park. When Berry arrived, the "whole park was saturated with recreational use." On the battlefield, it was "solid cars and picnic blankets and frisbees and dogs running." Local hunt clubs had permission from Wilshin to chase foxes throughout the park. These different activities encompassed all areas of the park, including Chinn Ridge and Henry Hill. The Robinson House area served as a softball park in the daytime, while other spots be came the "evening social haven" for local area high school students. Without gates to control the level of access to certain areas, the entire park served as a recreational outlet for the local community. [32]

The need for recreational space in Prince William County had risen sharply toward the end of Wilshin's administration of the park. Completion of Interstate 66 to the south of the park in 1966 made the Manassas area a viable bedroom community for Washington. Housing spurts that had begun in the immediate post-World War II period accelerated in the late 1960s, bringing more and more families to the area. In the same period, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors had decided not to join the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority, which maintained a series of public parks in the area. The Park Authority charged residents of non-participating counties, including Prince William County, for using any of its regional parks. The Bull Run Regional Park, a large recreational area located nearby in Fairfax County, was one park under the authority's jurisdiction. [33]

The Manassas National Battlefield Park provided a free alternative. Wilshin's close connections with local community organizations and park neighbors made it difficult to say no, which exacerbated the growing problem. When Gary Farley of the county's Parks and Recreation Department contacted the Park Service about the recreational opportunities at the Manassas battlefield, Wilshin did not express opposition. Farley wanted assurances that the park would play a "much more active role" in the county's recreational program. Specifically, Farley pointed to the battlefield's many acres of "unused lands." With some funding assistance from the county, Farley thought these areas could be improved with more adequate sanitary facilities and the like. Wilshin assured Farley that the Park Service had development plans for the park that would address some of the county's concerns. [34]

In Berry's mind, "total recreational use" as it developed under Wilshin's administration threatened the park's mission to preserve and protect the Manassas battlefields. Restoring historic use to the park became one of his most significant contributions. He had the chief maintenance worker at the park design gates to blend with the historic scene and had them placed on each of the dirt roads leading into the park. These seventeen gates allowed Berry to control access and reduce unauthorized recreational use. He established horse trails that removed equestrian usage from the most historic parts of the battlefields. Berry moved the picnic area from Chinn Ridge to its current location, a generous piece of land along Route 234 north of Lee Highway. He placed signs on Chinn Ridge stating: "In order to preserve the historic area, recreation is restricted to the picnic area." The zoning of recreational use inside the park represented an essential change in park management, one that the National Park Service in time adopted for other historic park sites. [35]

With historic use reasserted, Berry encouraged park historian George Reaves to develop more interpretive programs. Immediately apparent to Berry and Reaves, both newcomers to the park, was the need to give equal voice to the Second Battle of Manassas. Reaves suggested adding a guided driving tour, and Berry agreed. They walked the park and chose areas based on historical significance, distance, and safety concerns. Then, with "every spare dime that [he] could scrape together," Berry asked the maintenance foreman to put "three logs and a load of gravel" at each spot to establish a widened shoulder for pulling out. The driving tour emerged one stop at a time. At the visitor center on Henry Hill, Berry and Reaves inaugurated guided tours of First Manassas, which three seasonal employees conducted. The Stone House also finally opened with its living history display of the field hospital. [36]

Berry revamped some parts of the visitor center and walking tour by drawing on the mutual needs of the park and other Park Service divisions. He turned to the Harpers Ferry Design Center, which needed a place in the vicinity to try out new technologies in interpretation, to improve the battle map that Wilshin had started at the end of his tenure. The design center also introduced an audio narrative for the Henry Hill walking tour, using the voices of a Northerner and a Southerner talking about the battles they had fought at Manassas as if they were at the reunion fifty years later. With the designs in hand, Berry went to the Job Corps Center for student workers to construct the interpretive displays. The battlefield park provided temporary housing for the Job Corps workers, making the effort mutually beneficial. [37]

Berry oversaw one other lasting change to the visitor center exhibits. He had adopted the practice of keeping the museum open after hours when he was working in the building so that latecomers had the opportunity to tour the museum. One night while Berry was sitting at the information desk reviewing paperwork, a gentleman stopped by and struck up a conversation. The visitor noted that his great grandfather had been killed at Manassas and that he always wondered what the spot on the battlefield looked like. Berry asked for the name and took the visitor to check the official records. Based on the description Berry found, he knew within twenty or thirty feet where the site was. He took the gentleman out to the battlefield, to a place in the midst of the woods near the old railroad embankment, where he determined the man's great grandfather had been mortally wounded. The man was thrilled.

On returning to the museum, the visitor mentioned that he had a few things relating to his great grandfather that he wanted to give to someplace where people cared. On two previous trips to the park, he had not found anyone to answer his query about where his relative had died. Berry had shown that the park was indeed responsive to its visitors, and the gentleman offered to donate his items. The great grandfather's sword, the surgical kit used by his brother to try to save him, and the railroad pass used to bring the body back to Ohio were incorporated in a special exhibit in the park's museum. [38]

Berry continues to share the story of the surgical kit with his seasonal employees at other parks. In his mind, the story encapsulates the Park Service mission of serving people and preserving parks for future generations. And sometimes the park gets something in return from smiling at visitors, saying hello, and offering to lend a hand. This story also serves as a reminder that despite the many changes occurring at national park sites, one constant remained: service to the public. [39]

http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/mana/adhi6c.htm