[Jamestown1630]

I seem to recall reading that civilians would sometimes have ‘picnics’ while watching the battles...

[fidelis]

I seem to recall reading that civilians would sometimes have ‘picnics’ while watching the battles...

At the Battle of Bull Run:

[ansel12]

That story came from beginning of the war at Bull Run, and the day turned into shock and horror at the spectacle of the bloodiest battle in American history to that point, and the defeat of the Union forces.

[sauropod]

True dat.

[mass55th]

"I seem to recall reading that civilians would sometimes have ‘picnics’ while watching the battles..."

The first Battle of Bull Run was one of them.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“I seem to recall reading that civilians would sometimes have ‘picnics’ while watching the battles...”

You reminded me of a really good Civil War-era novel I read years ago. The theme is slavery, but the opening scene is of people having a picnic...at a public hanging!

On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon
By Kaye Gibbons

[Clutch Martin]

“I seem to recall reading that civilians would sometimes have ‘picnics’ while watching the battles...”

I don’t think that practice lasted much beyond the first battle of Manassas after their mistaken expectations had been thoroughly squashed by the gore and the suffering witnessed.