Second Manassas Battlefield

The Second Manassas battlefield is part of Manassas National Battlefield Park, located north of Manassas in Prince William County, Virginia. Fought between August 28–30, 1862, the Battle of Second Manassas (Second Battle of Bull Run) pitted Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia against Union Maj. Gen. John Pope’s Army of Virginia in the American Civil War. The battle resulted in approximately 21,700 total casualties.

The Brawner Farm Interpretive Center is where fighting began on August 28, when Confederate artillery opened up on the Union army’s Iron Brigade as it marched east along the Warrenton Turnpike. Nearby, on Battery Heights, Confederate artillery swept the field on August 30, devastating Union infantry attacking Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s corps in an unfinished railroad cut.

Unlike the First Bull Run battlefield, which is walkable, the Second Manassas battlefield driving tour is 18-miles long, with separate walking trails. Each tour stop has a parking lot or pull off and interpretive markers.

Some of the most intense fighting occurred at the “Deep Cut,” which obscured Jackson’s men. On August 30, Maj. Gen. Pope ordered 8,000 men up the slope into what he thought was a gap in Jackson’s line. Fighting was so desperate, men who ran out of ammunition threw rocks.

Monuments to the 5th and 10th New York regiments sit south of Highway 29, east of Groveton Road. These two regiments made a valiant last stand as the Union army crumbled around them. In five minutes, the 5th NY lost 123 men, the highest loss of life experienced in a single battle by any infantry regiment during the Civil War.

Manassas National Battlefield Park is open daily from dawn to dusk. The Henry Hill Visitor Center is open daily from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas day. The Brawner Farm Interpretive Center, located on the Second Manassas battlefield, is open daily from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Pets are allowed in the park and on the hiking trails but must be kept on a leash at all times.