When was manassas va founded

The fields were hallowed once again in late August , as the Second Battle of Manassas set the stage for the Maryland Campaign, culminating at the Battle of Antietam - still the bloodiest day in American history. Established in , Manassas National Battlefield Park is the keeper of numerous Civil War stories, sharing them with more than , visitors each year.

The park offers programs and activities for all ages and interests, providing opportunities for everyone who visits! Grow your intellect by seeking out a guided walking tour with a park ranger, travel back in time with a living history demonstration or encourage your young visitor's curiosity through Junior or Scout Ranger programs or TRACK Trails Adventures!

For those wanting to take things at their own pace, the park's mile self-guided driving tour allows visitors to interact with the site's vivid past from the comfort of their vehicle. On the other hand, those who wish to dive directly into the physical landscape can turn their attention to birding, fishing and wildlife watching. With more than 40 miles of hiking trails and roughly 21 miles of designated trails for horseback riding- amidst habitats ranging from mature forests to open grasslands to meadows, as well as freshwater creeks and ponds - Manassas National Battlefield Park is not only a place suited to contemplate our Civil War past, but also an ideal escape to nature.

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Manassas was first chartered as a town in - after the Civil War, and almost a century after the American Revolution ended the colonial era. Olde English names for places in Manassas are historical anachronisms. When the English colonists arrived in , the current site of Manassas was in a boundary zone. Initial colonial settlement focused on lands east of the Fall Line, or near to the navigable rivers.

Tobacco was a bulky, heavy crop to transport by wagon, so the Manassas area was not a priority for settlement until the 's. Fences, barns, houses, and other structures for the initial quarters and plantations were constructed from the abundant wood. Later, the local sandstone was quarried to build imposing plantation houses such as Ben Lomond complete with stone slave quarters and public structures such as the Stone Bridge over Bull Run, and the Stone House used as a tavern and toll booth on the Warrenton-Alexandria Turnpike.

Local clay was also converted into artificial stone, baked into bricks and used to build plantation homes such as Liberia. The headwaters of the Occoquan River was agricultural "back country" feeding its trade to Alexandria, after construction of the Warrenton-Alexandria Turnpike around and then the Orange and Alexandria Railroad thirty years later. Business could have gone towards Dumfries, but that town failed to expand on its road extending westward to the base of the Blue Ridge near modern-day Catlett.

A separate colonial road ran from Ashby Gap where modern Route 50 crosses the western flank of the Blue Ridge southeast to Neville's Ordinary near modern Warrenton to Fredericksburg, but it was not improved to match the quality of the transportation options to Alexandria. Though the Culpeper Basin near modern Manassas is flat, the topography and watershed boundaries were key to the development and later growth of Manassas.

The Orange and Alexandria Railroad, however, was designed with a maximum grade of just 1. The "flat route" through the Piedmont east of the Blue Ridge bypassed the county seats of Fairfax, Prince William, and Fauquier counties - all of which had courthouses built on relatively high locations, adding prominence to the public buildings.