Source: Washington Post
by Cardinal Blase J Cupich
“On a summer day after the Civil War began in 1861, civilians including elites, politicians and socialites packed picnic baskets with sandwiches and cakes and drove their carriages to Centreville, Virginia, to watch, some through opera glasses, what would eventually be known as the First Battle of Bull Run. They expected a grand pageant that would be over quickly. Instead, they witnessed the visceral, blood-soaked reality of war. As Confederate forces launched a counterattack, Union soldiers and panicked civilians fled back toward Washington. Their romanticized spectacle of a ‘picnic battle’ had turned into a slaughter with nearly 5,000 casualties. More than a century and a half later, it seems Americans haven’t truly left Centreville — they’ve simply digitized the view.” (03/18/26)