Loading and firing a musket is a nine-step process. “Disciplined troops would be able to load and fire one every 15 or 20 seconds,“ said John Reid, a National Park Service employee who was acting as master of ceremonies for a Saturday-morning Civil War infantry demonstration at Manassas National Battlefield. “It takes nine steps to load, prime and ready it for firing.“

MANASSAS—Alexander Webb wasn’t persuaded that his team of Boy Scouts would find any historic artifacts when they put up a garden fence on the grounds of the Ben Lomond Historic Site, but they did. Alexander and the Scouts recently built the fence around an heirloom vegetable garden behind the antebellum, stone house as part of Alexander’s Eagle Scout project.

A firetruck bound for Manassas to replace a disabled one caught fire Thursday night and was likely destroyed, authorities said. No injuries were reported. The truck was being driven to the city by two Manassas firefighters from the OWL Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department, which had agreed to lend one of their ladder trucks to Manassas for the night.

Nearly every kid loves to dig in the dirt. Seventeen students in grades six through eight did that last week while learning the often difficult work of an archaeologist during the Manassas Museum’s Archaeology Camp. Students spent time learning about the tools that archaeologists use, the historical records that determine where archaeologists dig, the extensive site preparation necessary, and the techniques for digging a test pit and for finding, identifying and preserving artifacts.

A Manassas woman pleaded guilty today to killing her 13-year-old adopted daughter, whose body was found in a creek earlier this year

Manassas woman raped during home invasion

Paul Warner Powell raped and stabbed the murder victim’s 14-year-old sister in the same attack. A July 14 execution has been set for a Prince William County man sentenced to death in part because of a taunting letter he wrote to his prosecutor. Unless the U.S. Supreme Court or Gov. Timothy M. Kaine intervenes, Paul Warner Powell, 31, will be executed by electrocution or lethal injection for the 1999 fatal stabbing and attempted rape of Stacey Reed, 16, of Manassas.

More than 100 immigrants and their supporters marched through Prince William County yesterday to protest policies they say have torn apart families, caused racial tension and made them fearful of reporting crimes. With chants in Spanish of “Justice!“ and “Stop police brutality,“ the immigrant advocacy group Mexicans Without Borders demanded that county officials rescind a 2007 resolution that allows county police to enforce federal immigration law and denies some public services to illegal immigrants. They say the policy, which drew national attention, has created strife between Hispanic immigrants and police.