About

On April 1, 1862, the Joint Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War issued its report based on little known testimony regarding what it officially referred to as "rebel Barbarities at Manassas." In summary, the Committee noted that "these disclosures establishing, as they incontestably do, the consistent inhumanity of the rebel leaders, will be read with sorrow and indignation by the people of the loyal States." Using firsthand accounts from both sides, historian Harry Smeltzer will discuss these and other incidents associated with the first battle which, at the time, were considered evidence of aberrant behavior. He will also look at why they were thought of as such, and how opinions in that regard changed over the course of the war. This lecture is a FREE program jointly sponsored by the Prince William County Office of Historic Preservation and Historic Prince William. FREE