Battle of Bull Run revisited

This past month I visited my nephew Christopher and his wife Megan in Virginia. We went to Centreville Va. out in the country to see where Chris works.

Centreville was the location of the first major land battle of the armies in Virginia. On July 16, 1861, the untried Union army under Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell marched from Washington against the Confederate army, which was drawn up behind Bull Run beyond Centreville.

The house in the back of the photograph is called the Henry House. There lived Judith Carter Henry, 85 and her house maid. Judith was laid up when the battle began, unaware that the war had begun. Mrs. Henry was mortally wounded when a projectile of the Union artillery crashed through the bedroom wall and tore off one of her feet and inflicted multiple injuries, from which she died later that day.

She is buried in the back of the house with her parlor maid Lucy Griffith. You can see the headstones in the photograph. This is also the location General Jackson received his nickname "Stonewall" Jackson as he stood his ground at Mrs. Henry's House. The house was destroyed and rebuilt after the war.