Manassas to Richmond Great American Railroad Journeys

I have crossed the Atlantic to ride the railroads of America

with a new travelling companion.

Published in 1879, my Appletons' General Guide

will steer me to everything that's novel, beautiful,

memorable or curious in the United States.

-ALL:

-Amen.

As I cross the continent, I will discover America's Gilded Age

when powerful tycoons launched a railway boom

that tied the nation together

and carved out its future as a superpower.

I've travelled from the cradle of American independence,

Philadelphia, to the nation's capital, Washington DC.

I'm moving south towards Richmond, Virginia on my way to Jamestown.

Today, I move into former Confederate territory at Manassas,

an important battlefield of the American Civil War.

I will then head through Fredericksburg

to Virginia's state capital, Richmond.

Since I've been in the United States, many people have told me

that there are big differences between the North and the South.

Though not everybody is able or willing to define them.

The way of speaking changes.

The pace of life. The smells.

The food. The drink. The customs and manners.

As I hope to discover as I continue my journey south through Virginia.

Along the way I will discover how crucial railroads were

during the American Civil War.

Actually, it was the first time that troops arrives by rail during

the history of railroad use and military use in the United States.

I will bottle the classic Southern tipple - bourbon.

-You missed one. There is a little more skill to it.

-Apparently!

Michael Portillo. How do you do?

And I will learn how to behave at Virginia's oldest cotillion ball.

-Help me. Help me.

-It's easy.

I'm headed for Manassas.

My guidebook tells me it was the scene of the first great battle

of the Civil War, fought July 21 1861,

and also another battle fought August 29th and 30th 1862.

And for the railway traveller, it tells me that at Manassas

the Manassas branch diverges and runs 63 miles to Strasburg.

I suspect that the fact that it was an important railway junction

helps to account for why it was fought over not once, but twice.

The most destructive conflict in American history

was the Civil War of 1861 to 1865

between northern and southern states.

President Abraham Lincoln opposed the expansion of slavery

to new states and the southern states,

believing that their prosperity depended upon it,

felt threatened by his election.

11 slave-owning southern states left the Union

and renamed themselves the Confederate States of America.

Lincoln's Union army marched towards Richmond, Virginia,

the South's capital.

The first major land battle of the Civil War was about to commence.

I'm meeting the curator of Manassas Museum, Mary Dellinger,

at Manassas Junction, 25 miles south-west of Washington.

In the 1860s then, what makes this place so strategically important?

There wasn't really a town here.

A lot of people think there was but there wasn't.

Lots of outlying farms and a small collection of buildings.

What made this area so important was the junction

of the Manassas Gap Railroad with the Orange and Alexandrian.

Two railroads that provided access to points north,

south and west of here.

So whoever controlled the junction controlled access to those areas.

22,00 Southern Confederate soldiers advanced north to Manassas

to confront the 35,000 Northern Union troops marching south.

Lincoln's volunteer soldiers lacked experience

and when 10,000 Confederate reinforcements arrived

the Union army lost cohesion.

And in that first battle, were trains used by the forces?

Yes, trains were used

and actually it was the first time that troops arrived by rail during

the history of railroad use and military use in the United States.

The result of the battle was a Confederate victory, a resounding Confederate victory.

They drove the Federals from the field.

It was a humiliating defeat for the North.

Just over a year later, in August 1862,

Manassas was the site of a second battle.

The commander of the Southern Confederate forces,

General Robert E Lee, sent troops north.

His target was a storage facility crucial to the Union supply chain.

When he got here, he found an enormous Union supply depot.

Thousands of tonnes of ammunition, clothing, food, stock.

His troops were very hungry so they ate what they could

and whatever they couldn't carry off they burned.

They burned down buildings, they burned crates of uniforms.

They destroyed it all

because they didn't want to leave it for the Union army.

The Union forces launched a counterattack,

but were unable to dislodge the Confederates

who were dug into positions in surrounding woodland.

When Confederate reinforcements under General Lee

arrived on August the 30th 1862,

they inflicted heavy casualties on the Union army,

forcing it to retreat towards Washington.

Today, Manassas National Battlefield Park commemorates the place

where the Confederates twice saw off the Union army.

Mary, I find this battlefield very well preserved

with just a few hints, you know.

The cannon here, the farmhouse here.

How extensive was that battlefield at the time of the second battle?

The second Battle of Manassas was huge.

At one point there was a very large charge by Confederate troops that

was one of the largest in the war of men committed all at one time.

What were the consequences of the second battle of Manassas?

General Robert E. Lee, the Confederate commander,

a lot of people consider that one of his greatest victories

because he drove the Union army from the field and the road was open north.

Less than a week later on September the 5th 1862,

General Lee launched the first Confederate invasion of the North.

These Confederate victories, you're a Virginian,

how do you feel about them?

Well, I am very proud of my Virginia heritage and my Southern heritage,

but I think it's important that when we look back on that and take a certain pride in that

that we don't attempt to put our 21st century knowledge and values

on a set of 19th century issues and problems.

That we really need to look at it as what they knew to be true.

I think if you do that then it's OK to celebrate that part of your past.

The American Civil War can be represented

as a struggle between good and evil.

And there is truth in that.

But as soon as you come to the South and stand here

you develop and extra perspective.

Those young Americans who fought and died here for the Confederacy

deserve to be remembered and honoured.

One in four young white Southern men died

during the four years of the American Civil War.

After the conflict, the North continued to industrialise

while the ravaged South faced a 12 year reconstruction period

to rebuild its cities, railroads and economy without slave labour.

-Can I join you a second?

-Please.

Do you use the trains very much?

Yes, actually I ride the train all the time.

I am a cellist and if you ride the aeroplane

you have to buy your cello its own seat, so actually I ride the train.

It's my main mode of long-distance transportation.

Do you perform all over the United States?

I'm working on it. I just graduated from school.

I just got my masters in cello performance

so I'm trying to get started as a cellist.

I'm actually just coming from Philadelphia where I got my cello repaired.

How do you find getting it up the steps because it's quite a long way up on to these trains, isn't it?

It's a major pain.

The cello is a wonderful instrument but it is a hassle to travel with.

I will leave this train at Fredericksburg,

which Appletons' tells me is a quaint and venerable old city

on the south bank of the Rappahannock River.

It was founded in 1727 and contains about 6,000 inhabitants.

An ideal place for me to begin to discover the spirit of the South.

Bourbon corn whiskey is America's official native spirit.

It takes its name from Bourbon County in Kentucky.

Virginia's oldest family run bourbon distillery

was established here in Fredericksburg in 1935,

two years after the end of the prohibition of alcohol.

I'm meeting Brian Prewitt, the master distiller at A. Smith Bowman.

It feels like we're walking down the aisle of a cathedral here

but the aroma of the incense has been replaced by the sweet

and slightly pungent smell of bourbon.

I like to tell people it is our church of bourbon.

-Our church of whiskey.

-So is bourbon a whiskey?

-Bourbon is a whiskey.

To be called bourbon it has to be at least 51% corn.

It has to be distilled at less than 160 proof.

It has to go into a brand new charred oak barrel.

Whiskey was introduced to America by Scottish

and Irish immigrants who arrived in the 1700s.

These pioneers found corn and maize aplenty

and used them to create whiskey.

Later, the use of charred oak barrels

made it the bourbon that we appreciate today.

The importance of American oak is the fact

that the porosity of the oak keeps it from basically seeping out.

But essentially what they do is they burn this inside of the barrel

and that will caramelise the sugars in the oak

and it will get that nice, red layer,

just like if you were making caramel on your stove at home.

This is the great part. If you look at that line.

This is about an eight-year-old barrel.

That is how far that bourbon really got into the barrel

-over the course of its lifetime and that is called the soak line.

-Wow.

-So it is picking up flavour and it's picking up colour.

-Absolutely.

By law, we can't add colour to bourbon.

So the only colour that we get is from the oak.

Legend has it that barrels shipped down the Ohio

and Mississippi rivers from Bourbon County to New Orleans

had an extra month to mature

and their contents were considered some of the best in the country.

Another gorgeous space and this is where the work is done.

-Absolutely. I call this my play ground.

-What a wonderful room.

This is our bourbon still. This is Mary.

And she is named after the matriarch of the Bowman family.

Mary is a very, very unique design.

-It looks like a child's chemistry set on a very large scale.

-Yes.

It's as if somebody just kind of drew it out on a piece of paper

and said, "Sure, we will make it into a still."

And that is pretty much exactly what they did.

The distillate comes out in three phases.

First, the sharp flavoured heads.

Then the long phase of the hearts with the sweet alcohol.

And finally the tails.

Both the heads and the tails contain impurities

and the art of distillation is to know when to make the cuts.

This is where we do our cuts, where we will actually do the tasting

and I happen to have some of the heart right here.

One of the ways that we do this is we're just going to pour a little bit into our hand.

It's going to make your hands nice and soft. Kind of air it out.

-Tell me, what do you smell?

-Oooh.

Sweetness.

-Vanilla.

-Really nice, sweet, soft alcohol.

That is what we are looking for in the heart.

You must have an extraordinary palette and nose.

It just takes a little bit of practice. You too can get there.

-It must be fun practising!

-It is!

The heart of the run is collected for ageing and bottling

while the heads and tails are added back to the next distillation.

I thought we would give you the opportunity,

since you are here, to bottle your own bottle of bourbon.

-Would you like to give it a try?

-I would love to give you a hand.

All right. We are going to start with some bottles over here.

Throw them facedown on the rinser and basically what we need to do

is put them right in there and line them up.

Put your foot on the lever there.

You missed one.

Go ahead and try again. It should fill that one up.

-Almost there. There is a little more skill to it.

-Apparently!

There you go.

And we're just going to grab a cork and push it in

and this is where a little elbow grease comes in.

All right. Now for the best part of the tour, which is the tasting.

-Yes.

-We are going to taste two of our bourbons here today.

This is a seven-year-old Small Batch bourbon.

Then we are also going to taste its older brother, the John J.

It's about ten years old. John J is my go to.

That is the one when I'm going to sit down in the evening

with a nice glass of bourbon, it's the John J.

-Enough talking!

-All right, let's taste.

-Let's go.

To taste the bourbon correctly,

Brian advises me at first to take a small sip to stir up the palate.

Palate definitely now awake.

You're right about that method.

All the flavours come zooming through your mouth, don't they?

Now for the 10-year-old single barrel John J.

It's bigger, rounder, fuller.

Deeper somehow. Darker.

Yes, I'm with you. That's the one.

-Cheers.

-Cheers.

It's a new day and I am rejoining Amtrak's northeast regional service

to Virginia's state capital, Richmond.

Virginia. Named after the virgin queen, Elizabeth I.

The colony that produced Washington and Jefferson.

I think that in its capital I'm going to feel the pride

and the greatness of the American South.

But Richmond's history also has its fair share of controversy.

In the decade before the American Civil War

it was second only to New Orleans as a centre for the slave trade,

with thousands transported south by rail from its slave market.

Before I explore further I'm in need of sustenance.

I'm ordering ham and eggs with a Southern twist - grits.

Oh, that looks great.

Can you just tell me, what is grits?

They are browned off and made out of corn.

They are a big seller in the South.

Grits stands for "Girls Raised In The South",

which I think is a really cute slogan.

-I hope you enjoy your meal.

-Thank you very much indeed.

-You're welcome.

Popular though grits is in the South,

I'm not sure I'm going to like it very much.

Mmm. Actually, it's not bad.

It's a combination of porridge and semolina.

I just came to check to see how your meal is.

-It's great. It's very, very nice.

-Do you like the grits?

You were right to tell me to have grits. Thank you very much indeed.

Wonderful. Great.

I'm now perfectly primed to visit Virginia's seat of government,

which was designed by one of the founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson.

This polymath was a politician, writer, lawyer and architect.

"The most prominent building in Richmond", says Appletons',

"is the State Capital, adorned with a portico of ionic columns.

"The plan having been furnished by Thomas Jefferson

"after that of the Maison Carree at Nimes in France."

So this building has the triple distinction

of being Roman, Jeffersonian, Virginian,

and I might add one of the most beautiful buildings

in the United States.

The capital was completed in 1788 and was the first state seat

of government to be designed after the War of Independence.

The architecture is so elegant,

the colours are so tasteful

and the state of restoration is absolutely perfect.

I'm meeting Mark Greenough, tour supervisor

and historian of the Capital, in the old hall of the house of delegates.

Virginia played such an important part

in the early days of the United States.

For example, Jefferson, Washington, they were both from Virginia.

Other presidents?

We've had a total of eight presidents of the United States

who were born within the borders of Virginia.

Seven of them served in their office of president

before the American Civil War broke out.

After gaining independence from Britain,

a convention adopted in Philadelphia in 1787

established a constitution for the new nation.

But states had to ratify the constitution.

Virginia was the oldest of the original British colonies in America.

It was the largest. It was the wealthiest.

It was the most populated.

We had our ratification convention in Richmond.

It was a few blocks from this site.

At that point, in June of 1788

Virginia endorsed our new national charter.

Was that very influential on other colonies?

Virginia's vote on the question would be a great help to others

who were wavering on whether or not to support our new federal Union.

It was a controversial question.

74 years later the state played an equally important role

in the country's descent into civil war.

The flashpoint was an attack by southern Confederate forces

in April 1861 on Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

Lincoln called for troops to suppress the rebellion.

War had begun.

Virginia, not yet part of the Confederacy,

now had to decide whether to fight with her southern neighbours.

This is the room where after two months of active debating

Virginia leaders voted to secede from the Union -

another controversial question.

88 voted to secede, but 55 voted to stay in the union.

So Virginia's joining the Confederacy was by no means

-something that could be assumed.

-No means at all.

But then she makes the vote to secede.

What happens in this room after that?

They next looked for a qualified leader

to defend the border of the Commonwealth of Virginia

and they turned to Robert E Lee and he walked into this very chamber.

He stood on that very spot, where today there is a statue

of Robert E Lee, and this is where

he pledged his sword in defence of his native state.

It is not a triumphalist statue.

You see here a man who is showing a dignity

and sadness in the face of America's biggest dilemma

and in the end Lee decided to follow the fate of his native State.

The decision to make Richmond the capital of the Confederacy

made it a target for Union troops.

By 1865 General Lee was no longer able to defend the city

and on April 3rd it was evacuated.

The next day President Abraham Lincoln entered, victorious.

Lee surrendered to Union forces on April 9th.

The American Civil War was all but over.

Today Virginia's grand Capitol houses the state's General Assembly,

where senators and delegates meet to discuss

and vote on legislation, balance the state's budget

and elect judges.

We're now entering the Virginia House Of Delegates chamber

and it's a chamber not guilty of understatement.

I think many Europeans would understand that

at the national level the United States has an upper house -

the Senate, a lower house - the Congress,

and an executive - the President, but that is also replicated,

isn't it, in most of the states at state level?

That's true. With only one exception,

all of the state legislatures are bicameral,

with a House and a Senate,

and Virginia takes particular pride in being remembered

as the oldest elected representative legislature

still meeting in the Western Hemisphere.

The Virginia General Assembly dates back to 1619,

only 12 years after the English first settled the colony.

Well, here in this state of Virginia

I feel much that makes me feel at home, which is

maybe not surprising given that it's named after Queen Elizabeth I.

Oh, good old Queen Bess. She was on the throne

when England began setting her sights on settling Virginia,

but it was after her death

and the ascension to the throne of James I that

an English settlement took hold and it was named Jamestown,

and the river leading to it was named the James River.

The English heritage of this nation is more evident in Virginia's

capital than it has been anywhere else on my American journey.

My next stop will require an attention to manners,

for which the English were once famed.

I'm invited to Virginia's oldest cotillion dance circle.

Hi, nice to meet you.

Learning to dance with a partner has long been a vital training

for young men and women of society

and here the tradition continues for adolescent Virginians.

Hi, Jim. Hello, I'm Connor Stevens.

-Connor, nice to meet you.

-Very nice to meet you.

I seem to have joined some sort of a receiving line.

I don't know what it's about

but I suspect it's some kind of test already.

-Hi.

-Hi.

-I hope I'm blending in.

Hi, I'm Hayley, nice to meet you.

-This is Angelo.

-I'm Miss Davidson.

How do you do? Michael Portillo.

Very nice to meet you, Michael, I'm Miss Williams. Welcome.

Charmed, Ms Williams.

-This is Andrew Cole.

-Hello, I'm Michael Portillo.

Hello, nice to meet you I'm Andrew Cole.

Bob, Michael Portillo, what a pleasure. How do you do?

-Sandra, nice to meet you.

-It's my privilege. Thank you very much.

MUSIC BEGINS

First introduced to the colonies from Europe in the 1770s,

cotillion became a favourite dance at assemblies,

allowing couples to exchange partners in an early square dance.

Today the music and the dances are more varied.

Still, dance is an instrument for teaching teenagers social graces.

I'm hoping not to let the side down.

Help me, help me!

It's easy.

And go.

Out, in, out, in. Heel, heel, toe, toe.

Right, cross, right.

Left, cross, left.

Forward, forward, forward.

Back, back, back.

One, two, three, turn,

five, six, seven, eight.

'Lacking any sense of rhythm, I must call on my manners.'

I'm sorry.

Back now, ready for the pause.

Outside rock. To the centre

'The formal dress and white gloves worn today evoke the gilded age

'of the late 1800s when the tradition of presenting in society

'18-year-old debutants from America's wealthiest families started.'

It's clear that cotillion has taught these teens

more than fancy footwork.

Their social skills and confidence are beyond their years.

-Thank you.

-Thank you, you saved me from humiliation and from myself.

Thank you very much.

My journey through Virginia has made me feel the pride

and complexity of the South's history.

It was largely Virginians that shaped

the declaration of Independence and the constitution,

and political arrangements in Colonial Virginia

provided a model of representative government.

I found people in this state even more polite

than north of the Mason Dixon Line and I appreciate the welcome

that I received at the cotillion,

but I think before I next display my limited dancing skills,

I shall prepare with a generous slug of Virginia bourbon.

Next time, I get into colonial character

on Williamsburg's plantations...

Push away from me a little bit more.

Perfect, that's a good-looking furrow.

..I discover the truth about the first settlers...

This is ground zero,

this is the centre of the beginning of the New World.

..and my spirits are lifted by the First Baptist Gospel Choir.

# The Lord is my Shepherd

# And I shall not want... #