Ruins at Manassas Junction, VA (March 1862)

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Manassas, the junction of the Orange and Alexandria and Manassas Gap Railroads, twenty-seven miles from Alexandria, strikes the attention of the visitor at once by its remarkable strength as a military position. High tableland, flanked by dense woods and bounded on all sides by deep, treacherous streams, or precipitous bluffs, provided an excellent permanent camp for the Confederates. The original half a dozen houses soon became the center of a vast camp, which, though nearly overwhelmed by the attack of July 21, 1861, remained increasing in strength until March, 1862, when the movements of General McClellan compelled its abandonment. The scene of devastation after the evacuation was terrible. Of the pleasant village only tottering chimneys were left, surrounded by blackened ruins, and the debris of half-burned cars and storehouses. The forts were dismantled, broken wagons were strewn over the fields, and quartermaster and commissary stores smoked in all directions, presenting one wide area of desolation, but a small portion of which can be represented in a single photograph.
Such material as had not been wholly destroyed by the fire was speedily removed by the Government. Federal camps were established, and with the return of spring much of that which disfigured the landscape utterly disappeared.

Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the Civil War - Plate 10