THE FIRST BATTLE OF MANASSAS (OR BULL RUN AS NORTHERNERS call it) was fought much as described in Rebel, though the novel ignores some tough but scrappy fighting that filled the gap between the retreat of Nathan Evans’s half-brigade and the first engagement of Thomas Jackson’s Virginia Brigade, and it ignores the presence of Jeb Stuart’s cavalry on the battlefield, though in this battle, as in most of the big set-piece engagements to come in the War between the States, the cavalry was unimportant to the outcome. First Manassas was won by infantrymen, and it was Shanks Evans, who really did have a “barrelito” of whiskey on constant tap, whose timely maneuver saved the Confederacy, though it was “Stonewall” Jackson whose name became famous that day and whose statue still dominates the hilltop where he earned his nickname. Around nine hundred men died on July 21, 1861, and at least ten times as many were wounded.

The battlefield has been marvelously preserved by the National Park Service. The visitor center on the Henry House hill offers a splendid introduction to a site that is well signposted and explained, and is an easy drive from Washington, D.C. There is no Faulconer County in Virginia, nor was there a Faulconer Legion in the state’s service.