Gael Glen Farm On The Road

Our morning adventures took us to the site of the first, and one of the bloodiest, land battles of the Civil War. Both the Federal (Union) and Confederate (Secessionist) armies were “green” (very new and inexperienced), with many of the recruits being extremely young men (17-19). Few men on either side had military experience; many were students, painters, and plumbers. Each side framed their cause as worthy of fighting for. In a nutshell (obviously, there is more nuance) - for the South, they were fighting for the right of their states to form their own sovereign country so they wouldn’t be ruled by the Northerners. For the North, they were fighting to keep the country united and not to have slavery spread to their states. Both sides erroneously thought the conflict would be resolved in one quick battle. Obviously, they were both mistaken. 3,690 men were killed in just the two battles at Manassas, with more American men killed in the Civil War than any other armed conflict in which they have engaged. Upon hearing this statement, Alistair pointed out that this made sense to him as the Americans were fighting (and dying) on both sides in the Civil War, unlike in the other wars. He made a good point.

Manassas Visitors Centre

The boys were very engaged and attentive at the battlefield. They made us proud with their respectfulness and solemness.

We learned that Stonewall Jackson was the military Captain of the Confederate army during these battles and received this nickname because he “stonewalled” the Union army both times. The Confederate Army won both Manassas battles, though with numerous casualties on both sides.

This is a reconstruction of Judith Henry’s house, which unfortunately for her ended up being right in the middle of the hill where the worst fighting took place.

This was the state of the Henry house after the first battle.

This was the state of the Henry house after the second battle.

Mrs. Henry was 80 years old and bedridden when she was killed by Union fire during the first battle. She was the only civilian casualty of the first battle of Manassas. She is buried on the property.

A monument of all the Union soldiers who died in the Manassas battles.

This Stone House was a field hospital.

For the afternoon, we did something a bit less intense. We visited the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Centre to check out their aircraft hanger and space museum. This museum is part of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum but located outside of the National Mall area downtown.

We saw our second space shuttle of the trip, Discovery. During our 1.5 hour guided tour, we learned all about her 39 trips to space. Discovery spent a whopping 365 days in space during her lifetime. Amazing!

The Discovery was the shuttle that went back to space following the Columbia and Challenger accidents.

The Shuttle Discovery put the Hubble telescope into orbit.

Heat shield. The tiles are made of a silica material.

We saw a life-size version of the Mars rover.

This robot was used to develop spacesuits.

This drone looked like the X-Wing from Star Wars.

We watched an IMAX movie about the Hubble Telescope narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio.

We went up this tall tower to watch the planes at Dulles airport.

We watched planes take off and land at the nearby Dulles airport. It was neat because we could hear the radio from the air traffic control tower.

This plane was going to Istanbul, Turkey.

This blue plane is going to Seoul, South Korea.

Have a nice flight!

We saw the Concord that could fly at 2x the speed of sound and carried 100 people. It would have cost $5 thousand dollars to fly from the USA to France on the Concord compared to $600 for a regular economy flight.

The actual plane that dropped the Little Boy atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945.

Our tour guide, Bob, with the Enola Gay.

German plane.

The astronauts that visited the moon used to have to decontaminate in here for 3 weeks after returning to Earth in case of “moon germs”. Eventually this quarantine period was discontinued.