October 15, 2007
Prince William County’s Newest Battlefield Park Opens to the Public
Bristow, VA -- Almost 144 years to the day after Confederate forces suffered a bloody defeat in Prince William County, Virginia (www.visitpwc.com) when they tried to cross Broad Run in pursuit of the Federal Third Corps, the site of the Civil War battle has been turned into a park, now open to the public.
The Prince William County Government’s Division of Historic Preservation hosted the grand opening of Bristoe Station Battlefield Heritage Park with tactical demonstrations, battlefield tours and living history displays on October 13 and 14, 2007.
The 133-acre park now features interpretive signs, a pond and nearly three-miles of walking and equestrian trails through scenic woods, leading up to 203 mostly unmarked gravesites of Confederate soldiers from Alabama and Mississippi. Soldiers from North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia also are believed to have been buried in shallow graves at Bristoe Station, but their plots have not been traced.
“Rare was the day you wouldn’t hear volleys being fired for the dead,” said Dave Born, Historic Programs Coordinator and Site Manager for Bristoe Station Battlefield Heritage Park. Born was one of the experts who gave tours of the site over the weekend.
The grand opening also featured torchlight tours, medical demonstrations and a Civil War roundtable.
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The park is located at 10708 Bristow Road in Bristow, Virginia, 20136. It is open year-round dawn to dusk. For more information on this and other historical sites, lodging and dining, and for a free visitors guide, calendar of events, golf guide and pocket map, please call the Prince William County, Virginia Convention and Visitors Bureau at 800-432-1792, or log on to www.visitpwc.com.
