Bulldozed Tract At Manassas Is Restored To '62 Look
By Deborah Fitts
Feb./March 2004

MANASSAS, Va. - Fifteen years after a developer tore up part of the battlefield of Second Manassas, a serendipitous convergence of needs by two federal agencies has resulted in
restoration of the landscape.

"It was an amazing project," said Robert Sutton, superintendent of Manassas National Battlefield Park. The only way to see a more accurate restoration, he said, "would be to get in a time machine and go back 150 years."

The so-called Stuart's Hill tract was the focus of one of the watershed events in battlefield history, when Northern Virginia developer John T. "Til" Hazel purchased the privately owned land and began bulldozing for a shopping mall and residential subdivision. A national outcry resulted in Congress seizing the property and giving it to the battlefield park.

The "Third Battle of Manassas" launched a wave of interest in preserving Civil War battlefields that continues to this day. But on its new 550-acre tract, the park was left with 115 acres of drastically altered landscape - in some places the grade was changed by 15 to 20 feet- and no funds for restoration.

The park did, however, have some critically important information. They had maps that showed exactly what the land looked like in 1862.

That was because in 1878 Union Gen. Fitz-John Porter won a retrial of a court-martial that had thrown him into disgrace following the battle of Second Manassas. Union commander John Pope blamed Porter for the Federal defeat and Porter was ejected from the army. But when he won the right for a retrial, his supporters commissioned detailed maps of battlefield terrain and vegetation to help make his case.

This time, Porter won.

Sutton said it was the maps that made the difference. For instance, Porter was able to show that a rise of ground enabled Confederate Gen. James Longstreet to conceal his 30,000 troops until it was too late to prevent them from smashing the Union line.

More than a century later, a team from the University of Georgia used the maps to draft a blueprint for restoration following Hazel's aborted development. But the plans languished for years - until the Smithsonian Institution came looking for help in construction of a new annex for their Air and Space Museum at Dulles International Airport outside Washington.

Construction of the new museum would destroy seven acres of wetlands, and environmental regulations required the Smithsonian to make up for it by restoring other wetlands in the same watershed. The battlefield park fit the bill. And the Smithsonian had the $1.4 million to get the job done.

The Smithsonian restored all of Hazel's disturbed ground, Sutton said. And although the acreage was larger than it was required to tackle, the Smithsonian actually saved money because no land had to be purchased.

Earth-moving began in June and concluded in November. Streams that had been rerouted and channeled by Hazel were restored. Thousands of trees, shrubs and grasses were planted. Grades were restored to "within less than a meter," according to Sutton.

"It will be about as close as you can possibly be," he said. "The court-martial, that little quirk of history, is what made this possible to the degree of authenticity."

Sutton said the park will allow the newly restored ground to "sit for six months," and then begin building trails for public access. A drive that Hazel built has been left to provide parking, and a picnic area will go next to it.

The Air and Space Museum annex opened Dec. 15. Sutton is still amazed at the park's good fortune. "It would have taken us years and years and years" to get the funding for the restoration, he said. "It's one of those things where you can't believe it actually happened, but it did."