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 5

Reenacting the Past

REENACTING THE PAST

Francis Wilshin loved to tell the story of the First Battle of Manassas. During his tenure as superintendent of the Manassas National Battlefield Park, from 1955 to 1969, he had many opportunities, big and small, to enthrall listeners with his dramatic and accurate renditions. He could quote from soldiers' letters archived in the park's library and articulate complicated events so that visitors became converts to the cause of preservation. [1]

Wilshin's devotion to the history of the Civil War stemmed from his familial connection to this event. One of his grandfathers had served in General J. E. B. Stuart's cavalry; the other had been a blockade runner. A native Virginian, Wilshin pursued his interest in Civil War and United States history, receiving a bachelor's degree from the College of William and Mary and a master's degree from Columbia University. He taught history briefly at Staunton Military Academy before joining the National Park Service in 1934 as a park historian at the Vicksburg National Military Park in Mississippi and then at the Saratoga National Historical Park in New York. Later, assigned to the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park in the 1940s, Wilshin delved into the history of First and Second Manassas and assisted Hanson with the Manassas National Battlefield Park museum displays. Through this experience, Wilshin developed an intense love in telling the story of First Manassas, to the benefit and detriment of the battlefield park. [2]

http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/mana/adhi5.htm