Manassas · Harpers Ferry · Antietam · Gettysburg — Bull Run to the High-Water Mark
The Plan
A compact and powerful circuit through America's most hallowed ground — from John Brown's raid that lit the fuse, to the bloodiest single day in U.S. history, to the Pennsylvania fields where the Confederacy reached its furthest point north.
Starting point. Load up the Brinkley and head east — this is a cross-country drive to the Mid-Atlantic.
Site of both First (July 1861) and Second (August 1862) Battles of Bull Run. First Bull Run sent panicking civilians — who had come to watch — fleeing back to Washington. Thirteen months later, Second Bull Run ended in an even worse Union defeat and opened Lee's first invasion of the North.
Where John Brown's 1859 raid on the federal arsenal helped ignite the Civil War. The town changed hands eight times during the war and sits at the dramatic confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers.
September 17, 1862 — the bloodiest single day in American history. More than 23,000 casualties in one day. The Union victory here gave Lincoln the moment he needed to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.
July 1–3, 1863 — the turning point of the war. Pickett's Charge. The high-water mark of the Confederacy. Over 51,000 casualties in three days across a 25-square-mile battlefield. Four months later, Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address here.