Fields of Honor

The Battle of Bull Run Library of Congress image




When folks speak of United States Battlefields the list is long.

The National Park System includes eleven National Battlefields, three National Battlefield Parks, nine National Military Parks and one National Battlefield Site.

The oldest preserved National Battlefield is Fort Necessity, located in Western Pennsylvania where thirty men under command of George Washington lost their lives and the first battle of the French and Indian War on July 3, 1754.

Moving to North Carolina and Moore’s Creek National Battlefield where 1000 North Carolina Patriots defeated 1600 British Loyalists on February 27, 1776.

Both North and South Carolina tout other notable Revolutionary War sites including Kings’ Mountain and Guilford Courthouse National Military Parks.

The Civil War spilled the blood of many men and left battlefields spread far and wide throughout the country.

Virginia claims many battlefields. Richmond National Battlefield Park includes eleven sites linked with the siege of Richmond such as Cold Harbor and the Naval Battle of Drewry’s Bluff.

Manassas National Battlefield Park is the site of First and Second Bull Run.

Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park is the largest military park it includes four major Civil War Battlefields; the Wilderness, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Spotsylvania Court House.

This area saw action from 1861-1865 resulting in the deaths of some 110,000 men.

Maryland has the Antietam National Battlefield, the site of the bloodiest one-day clash of the Civil War, which left some 23,000 casualties.

The high water mark of the Confederacy took place at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The bloody three-day clash left some 55,000 casualties.

No matter the Battlefield’s location the hero’s blood spilled there has consecrated the soil on those Fields of Glory.

"We cannot make a more lively representation and emblem to ourselves of hell, than by the view of a kingdom in war!"

{Clarendon}