National

Controlled Burn Held At Manassas Battlefield Park To Restore Civil War Landscape

By Vanessa Romo, Barbara Campbell

Published April 20, 2018 at 7:40 PM PDT

This story was published more than 6 years ago.

National Park Service wildland firefighters set a prescribed fire in Manassas National Battlefield Park's Brawner Farm area to help the area look more like Civil War soldiers would have seen it.

The cannons were quiet this time but there was fire and smoke anyway at the Manassas National Battlefield Park during a prescribed burn intended to maintain the look of the area as Civil War soldiers would have known it.

The National Park Service says it waited for ideal weather conditions to spark the blaze last week on 60 acres of Brawner's Farm where soldiers fought on Aug. 28, 1862, during the Battle of Second Manassas.

The Confederates defeated Union troops in the historic battle. The park service says among the winners of the controlled burn are creatures including Northern bobwhite and American woodcock whose habitat benefits from the brush clearing.

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Managers have been clearing vegetation to restore the wartime feel of the land since 1985, when the park service acquired Brawner's Farm in Prince William County, Va.