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Contact: Ranger Jim Bailey, 703-361-1339 x1203
MANASSAS, Va.— Manassas National Battlefield will commemorate Memorial Day with an in-person program on Monday, May 30 at 2 p.m. The program will take place at the Patriots Monument on Henry Hill, located near the park visitor center on Rt. 234, just north of Manassas, VA. This year’s program will honor those who gave their life for our country and explore the history of Memorial Day.
The ceremony will feature remarks, songs, and poetry from the original dedication of the monument 157 years ago by active-duty Civil War soldiers in 1865. This will include the laying of a wreath, and the observance of the National Moment of Remembrance at 3 p.m., followed by the playing of Taps by the 8th Regiment Green Machine Brass Band from George Mason University. Additional programs throughout the day will provide visitors opportunities to participate and engage in special ceremonies for Memorial Day, including flag-raising, interpretive battlefield walks discussing the cost of war, and a unique display and presentation featuring original Civil War officer’s uniforms by the Chief Curator, US Army (Retired) David Cole.
The Patriots Monument, also known as the Bull Run Monument, was dedicated on June 10, 1865, by Union troops, many of whom had recently served on burial duty at the battlefield. These troops recognized the need for a fitting memorial to the United States Army dead of First Manassas. In one of their final acts before discharge, the soldiers erected the monument “In Memory of the Patriots Who Fell” in battle in 1861. It remains one of the oldest standing monuments on any Civil War battlefield.
Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for U.S. military personnel who have died in service of the United States of America. Three years after the Civil War ended, Maj. Gen. John A. Logan, the head of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans, established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Ever since 1868, this day of remembrance has been commemorated across the country and in 1971 Congress declared Memorial Day a national holiday.
The National Moment of Remembrance is observed at 3:00 pm local time on Memorial Day. It was established by public law on December 28, 2000, to raise awareness of “the sacred and noble event that the day is intended to be” and calls upon the people of the United States “in a symbolic act of unity, to observe a National Moment of Remembrance to honor the men and women of the United States who died in the pursuit of freedom and peace."
-NPS-
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Last updated: May 18, 2022