Caught this on First Read this a.m.:
We now have a good idea of where the two campaigns will spend their last four days until Election Day. Today, Obama campaigns in Iowa and Indiana, and in between the events he heads home to Chicago to spend part of Halloween with his daughters. On Saturday, he travels to Nevada (Henderson), Colorado (Pueblo), and Missouri (Springfield). On Sunday, it’s an entire day in Ohio (Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati). And on Monday, per the New York Times, Obama hits Florida (Jacksonville), North Carolina, and Virginia (Manassas).
Closing his historical campaign in Manassas highlights Barack Obama's sense of his accomplishment and honors an area integral in the development of race relationships in our country of many colors.
In 1861, the First Battle of Manassas – also widely known as the First Battle of Bull Run – the first major land battle of the American Civil War, was fought near here. Second Manassas (or the Second Battle of Bull Run) was fought near here on August 28-30, 1862. At that time, Manassas Junction was little more than a railroad crossing, but a strategic one, with rails leading to Richmond, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and the Shenandoah Valley. Despite these two Confederate victories, Manassas Junction was in Union hands for most of the war.
The crossroads grew into the town of Manassas following the war, incorporated in 1873. In 1892, it became the county seat of Prince William County, replacing Brentsville. In 1975, Manassas became an independent city.
In his final campaign appearance before Tuesday’s election, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama will hold a Change We Need rally in the Manassas Park area Monday night.
It will be Obama’s 11th trip to the commonwealth since the end of the primary campaign. He began the general election campaign season with Virginia stops in Bristol and Manassas.
The campaign has not released the time and place where Obama will appear.
City officials have not been officially contacted by the Obama camp, but are considering using Signal Hill Park or Manassas Park High School as a rally location if they are, Manassas Park City Manager Mercury T. Payton said.
Not far from the rally site sits the Liberia Plantation mansion:
Built in 1825
In 1825 by Harriett Bladen Mitchell Weir and her husband William James Weir built the house that would become known as Liberia. The house was originally situated on a 1,660 acre parcel known as the lower Bull Run Tract, first patented in 1732. Today the house is known as Liberia but the family often referred to it as the "Brick House." According to tax records the house was valued at the time of construction at $2,876, a handsome sum for the time period.
Successful Plantation
On the eve of the Civil War the plantation had grown into one of the largest and most successful in western Prince William County. With the labor of 90 slaves the Plantation produced grains and vegetables sold commercially in Washington City. The Weir’s also raised a large herd of Moreno sheep as well as horses, cattle, and hogs.
The Civil War
When Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861, William’s sons enlisted in the Confederate Army and he, now an old man, remained to operate the plantation. In the months following the secession the nearby railroad junction of the Orange and Alexandria and Manassas Gap Railroad became a massive military encampment. By July Liberia was pressed into service as the headquarters for General P. G. T. Beauregard, CSA and some reports also record its use as a hospital and "death house" after the Battle of First Manassas.
Despite the hardships the family suffered during the months of military occupation, they continued to live at Liberia until March of 1862 when the advance of Union troops forced them to flee south. The house, left in the care of trusted slaves became the military headquarters of General Irvin Mc Dowell, USA. It was during this period that President Abraham Lincoln came to Liberia to confer with his generals. By the end of the Civil War, Liberia was the only significant structure to remain standing on the plains of Manassas. It was to this devastated landscape that the Weir family returned to farm their holdings. Despite the family's labor, they were unable to return the plantation to its former grandeur.