Directions to Signal Hill Park in Manassas Park
Directions: From the North: Drive to Washington, D.C. Take the Beltway to 66 West in Virginia. Take 66 West to Rt. 28 south.
From Route 28 (Centreville Road) take Manassas Drive southeast
over the railroad tracks to the 4-way stop sign, make a right onto Signal View
Drive, the park will be on your right.
Use the address "9300 signal view drive, manassas park, va" if you want to create a map using Google maps.
Historical significance: A Confederate observation post here warned of the Union effort to turn the flank of the Southern position during the initial stages of the First Battle of Manassas. It was the first use of wig-wag signals during wartime. Memorial cites first telecommunication on a battlefield.
From "Battle at Bull Run," by William C. Davis, pg.67;
"One novel aspect of his (P.G.T. Beauregard's) defenses were four signal towers erected by Captain E. Porter Alexander and his staff. He had devised a system of signaling by waving flags---sometimes called 'wigwag'---while in the United States Army, and Beauregard brought him to Manassas to install his system in order to speed communications all along the line. . . Materials for his operation came slowly, but by July 10, 1861, Alexander had most of his stations communicating with one another by daylight, and some of them by torches at night . . . as the days wore on into July, Alexander's men practiced relentlessly with their flags."
