Portici

Portici stood on the ridge as an important landmark in both battles of Manassas. In 1861, Frank Lewis lived there with his wife Fannie and their two small children on a middling plantation of 769 acres. The family owned eleven slaves who worked the property by cultivating grain, herding livestock, and performing domestic chores. War shattered the plantation's peaceful existence. During the First Battle of Manassas, the home served as both a headquarters and a hospital. Thirteen months later, Union and Confederate cavalry clashed in the adjacent fields. At the end of the war, the Lewis family returned to utter devastation and began the arduous process of rebuilding their lives, like countless others across the ravaged South.

Sudley, Virginia · United States