--(1) John Brown Sesquicentennial Top Tourist Destination -----------------------------------------------------
John Brown Sesquicentennial Top Tourist Destination
By Edward Marshall
1/14/2009
Martinsburg Journal (WV)
http://www.journal-news.net/page/content.detail/id/514422.html
The year 2009 will forever be part of American history not just because of the historic inauguration in a week but also because the year marks the 150th anniversary of John Brown's famous raid on the U.S. Arsenal in Harpers Ferry .
Already, the upcoming John Brown sesquicentennial has been named a Top 100 Event for 2009 by the American Bus Association, making the Eastern Panhandle and surrounding four-state region one of the nation's top tourist destinations.
There are scores of events scheduled throughout the area this year to commemorate the raid, including re-enactments, concerts, educational symposiums, scholarships, living-history programs, family and youth activities and ranger-conducted programs.
The John Brown Sesquicentennial Quad-State Committee - comprised of various historians and officials from West Virginia , Pennsylvania , Virginia and Maryland - has coordinated the wide range of events.
A new Web site sponsored by the Hagerstown-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau promoting the entire four-state area has also just been unveiled, and it has a complete listing of signature events during the 150th anniversary period. The event listings are updated frequently.
"The events committee has been very active for the last year and a half," said Todd Bolton, events committee chair of the Sesquicentennial Quad-State Committee. "We currently have more than 65 events planned that will appeal to a wide variety of people. Our hope is to promote this commemoration to a diverse audience."
Tom Riford, president and chief executive of the Hagerstown-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the John Brown story impacts the entire four-state area.
Brown met with Frederick Douglas in Franklin County, Pa., in August 1859. He spent months of planning at the Kennedy Farm in Maryland and then executed his raid from Washington County , Md. The raid took place in Jefferson County , and several surrounding counties were involved.
"We are already receiving bus group reservations and a lot media attention because of the 150th anniversary," Riford said. "This event is more than just about one town or one county, and it is certainly historic that a coalition of four states is working together to promote our entire area and the events that happened during the time that John Brown was here in 1859."
For several months in 1859, Brown assembled an army in Washington County , Md. On the evening of Oct. 16, 1859, Brown led a group of abolitionists on a six-mile march from the Kennedy Farm in Maryland across the railroad bridge into Harpers Ferry . Once there, they seized control of the town to steal weapons from the old federal armory so they could be used in the fight against slavery. But because a passing train reached Frederick, Md., a telegram notifying the army of the attack enabled soldiers to respond before Brown could fully accomplish his goal.
Brown was soon captured during a skirmish led by U.S. Marines and soldiers dispatched under the leadership of then U.S. Army Col. Robert E. Lee.
In December 1859, Brown was tried and hanged in Charles Town. The Civil War began 16 months after Brown's hanging.
"The John Brown Raid is looked upon by most historians as being the spark which became the inferno of the American Civil War," said Dennis Frye, chief historian at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and chair of the John Brown Sesquicentennial Quad-State Committee.
Events commemorating the sesquicentennial are set to begin at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in April.
ABA 's Top 100 Events in North America is an annual compendium of the best events for group travel in the United States and Canada . The Top 100 Events receive worldwide attention through various media outlets including USA Today and CNN. ABA distributes some 10,000 copies of the Top 100 Events in North America Magazine to all of its members and to thousands of travelers worldwide.
To be selected in the Top 100 is a feather in the cap for our area," Riford said. "It's an honor, and it brings a lot of attention to the event."
More information is available online at www.johnbrownraid.org and a complete list of the Top 100 Events in North America is available at www.buses.org under the Meetings, Events and Education link.
--(2) Store Appears a Go in Orange -----------------------------------------------------
Store Appears a Go in Orange
By Robin Knepper
1/12/2009
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star (VA)http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/012009/01122009/438264/index_html
It can only be called unintended consequences.
Reacting strongly, and negatively, to pressure from groups of historians and preservationists, a majority of Orange County supervisors have thrown their support behind a Wal-Mart supercenter in the northeastern corner of the county.
At a weekend retreat supervisors Mark Johnson, Zack Burkett and Teel Goodwin declared their backing for the 138,000-square-foot store planned for a 19.5-acre site a quarter mile north of State Route 3.
Newly elected Board Chairman Lee Frame said he was undecided and his constituents were divided 50-50. Supervisor Teri Pace steadfastly opposed Wal-Mart's building at that location.
The supervisors were reacting to a five-page memo sent to Frame and Pace on Friday from Katharine Gilliam, Virginia Programs manager for the National Parks Conservation Association. She forwarded a proposal from the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition, a group of eight organizations opposed to Wal-Mart's building in the vicinity of the Wilderness Battlefield.
The group offered to pay for a "Gateway Vision Planning Process" to "protect the character and integrity of the national park."
(The Wilderness Battlefield, part of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park , is on the opposite side of State Route 3 from the proposed Wal-Mart and is already home to a Sheetz, McDonald's, used-car lot and strip mall.)
"This is nothing but a cheap ploy to slow down Wal-Mart," said Burkett, "and we need the jobs and the tax revenue."
"I vigorously oppose this," said Johnson. "It's just a delaying tactic."
Pace objected, saying that her fellow supervisors were "throwing away an incredible opportunity for the county."
Burkett replied, "If we give our blessing to this, it's guaranteed they'll use it against us."
"I don't want to give that group any standing," added Johnson. "They've got a specific agenda they're pushing."
When Supervisor Teel Goodwin was asked whether he supported the coalition's offer, he quickly replied, "Hell, no."
It's not only Wal-Mart that's under fire from preservationists and Civil War buffs. The coalition has declared the agriculturally zoned land located in a 1,000-acre area designated by the county for economic development to be too close to the Wilderness Battlefield.
A condition of its offer was that the county not act on any development proposals in the study area (the Route 3 corridor between Wilderness Run and Vaucluse Road and east to the Rapidan River ) until the study was completed.
Charles "Chip" King, whose family owns 2,000 acres on the north side of Route 3 and has planned Wilderness Crossing, a 900-acre mixed-use development there, has been meeting with preservation groups and the representatives from the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park to develop an alternative route from Route 20 to Route 3.
King has hoped to have Wal-Mart locate in the Wilderness Crossing development to shield it from view from Route 3 and to expedite traffic into the larger development area.
Although traffic from routes 3 and 20 into the Wal-Mart site (between the existing Wachovia Bank and 7-Eleven) would further degrade that intersection, Wal-Mart officials have not been part of the discussions between King and the coalition. Sources say that Wal-Mart officials have recently been contacted, however, and have agreed to discuss the situation with King, Orange County officials and members of the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition and the National Park Service.
The present intersection is failing, according to officials of the Virginia Department of Transportation, who have to approve a traffic-impact analysis from Wal-Mart before the county can grant a special-use permit for the store.
According to County Administrator Bill Rolfe, Wal-Mart's application for a special-use permit (required for retail construction larger than 60,000 square feet) will be subject to administrative review this month.
A public hearing on Wal-Mart's application will be held before the county Planning Commission in March. A public hearing before the Board of Supervisors is expected in April or May.
--(3) Port Gibson Waits on Highway Ruling -----------------------------------------------------
Port Gibson Waits on Highway Ruling
By Heather Civil
1/11/2009
Jackson Clarion Ledger (MS)
http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20090111/NEWS/901110347/1001/newsfrnt
More than six months since state transportation officials presented plans to widen historic U.S. 61/Church Street in Port Gibson, residents still are waiting to hear whether their pleas against the project have been heard.
The state introduced the plan in June and immediately met opposition from people concerned that widening the two-lane portion of the highway to four would take away from the beauty and charm of the town.
"It's so quiet, it's scary," Jane Ellis, one of the opponents, said about the project. "I haven't heard anything for months and months now."
That's because the state Department of Transportation has not decided what it will do, MDOT engineer Kevin Magee said.
Magee said he is unsure whether the state will come up with a new plan. He added that a bypass is not out of the question.
"There's been a lot of people looking at this for a long time," Magee said.
MDOT estimates the project could cost up to $35 million. The plan calls for widening 5 1/2 miles of Church Street and building a bridge below town.
Opponents have called for a bypass east of town instead of widening, but the state said that could cost twice as much as the current plan.
Widening the highway would mean the destruction of several businesses and the loss of parking spaces at others, Ellis said.
That would mean a big economic hit to the town of 2,000, she said. "It would leave the city with nothing," she said.
Ellis admits the area needs help with traffic congestion. But a bypass makes more sense to her because it could spur industrial development east of town, she said.
The state Department of Archives and History several months ago adopted a resolution opposing the state's plan to widen Church Street .
Several houses and buildings predate the Civil War, and the town was the site of a battle during the war, said Jim Woodrick, acting director of historic preservation for the agency.
Church Street is "quaint" with not only old buildings but large oaks lining it, he said.
"Port Gibson is one of our most historic towns," he said.
--(4) Bank Retains Gettysburg Country Club -----------------------------------------------------
Bank Retains Gettysburg Country Club
By Erin James
1/9/2009
Hanover Evening Sun (PA)
http://www.eveningsun.com/ci_11419385
The public auction of the Gettysburg Country Club ended Friday in just a few minutes and without anyone placing bids on the 120-acre property.
Susquehanna Banks, which foreclosed recently on the country club, retained the property and will likely sell the club.
"Banks don't operate golf courses," said Eugene Pepinsky, the bank's attorney.
Before Friday's auction, Susquehanna Banks lowered its asking price from $2.9 million to $2.79 million and agreed to cover about $37,000 in execution costs and a small part of the debt Gettysburg Country Club incurred before the bank's foreclosure.
But only one person, local developer David Sites, signed up as a potential bidder before the auction began.
Sites said he was interested in maintaining the property as a country club but that the bank's asking price was too expensive to be economically feasible.
Sites added that he may still be interested in the property if the bank lowers the price. If he were to acquire the property and reopen the country club, Sites said he would likely abandon the members-only philosophy.
"It would have to be a semi-private, public business model," he said.
But because no one bid on the property, the bank "purchased" the country club "back for cost," said Deputy Michael Cook of the Adams County Sheriff's office, which facilitated the sale.
That means Susquehanna Banks will become the Gettysburg Country Club's official owner provided no objections to the sale are filed with the court by Feb. 20, Cook said.
The bank also is responsible for paying $11,687 to the Cumberland Township Authority and $17,506 to the Gettysburg Municipal Authority in municipal liens - just a small portion of the $3.6 million in debt the country club racked up when it fell into financial distress last year.
Had someone cast a winning bid on the property, they would have been obligated to pay that debt.
That didn't happen - but not for lack of interest in the property. Friday's auction was attended by several dozen people, many of whom are former members of the Gettysburg Country Club.
"A lot of the people were just interested today to see what happened, more than anything," Cook said. "Overall, it was a pretty quiet sale."
Cook said he was surprised that no one placed bids on the property, which is located at 730 Chambersburg Road within the boundaries of Gettysburg National Military Park and was the site of significant fighting during the Battle of Gettysburg.
"I thought there would be at least a couple potential buyers there," he said.
--(5) Union Soldier’s Bones Found at Md. Civil War Site -----------------------------------------------------
Union Soldier’s Bones Found at Md. Civil War Site
By David Dishneau
1/9/2009
Associated Press (NAT)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iKTo8wRxnQXfLrjk3JUhYnRIUEhwD95J7Q284
Cutting through a cornfield where soldiers were literally blown to bits on the bloodiest day of the Civil War, a hiker spied something near a groundhog hole: fragments of bone and a metal button, clotted with red clay.
He brought the remains to the visitors center at Antietam National Battlefield, where they were turned over to experts who made a stunning discovery: They belonged to a Union soldier from New York state.
The remarkable find 146 years after the soldier perished is a reminder that the battlefield at Antietam is "ground that was basically changed forever by what happened on it," Superintendent John W. Howard said Thursday.
Many of the nearly 3,700 soldiers killed in the pivotal 1862 battle were buried in nearby cemeteries five years later, but the New York soldier's remains were somehow overlooked until now.
The handful of bone fragments, iron uniform buttons and U.S. belt buckle help bring into focus the story that battlefield rangers strive to tell.
"These armies were made up of people, of men who fought here," Howard said.
The soldier's identity may remain a mystery. Howard said he was young, probably between 19 and 21, based on the condition of teeth in a recovered jawbone. A National Park Service archaeologist and Smithsonian Institution anthropologist were the ones who confirmed he was a soldier.
And he apparently was no fresh recruit. Five iron buttons found along with textile fragments included some from a coat issued in New York and others bearing the "Excelsior" slogan of federal uniforms, an indication that he had served long enough to replace the lost originals.
The soldier could have served in any of 24 New York regiments that fought in the field where fierce small-arms and artillery fire obliterated cornstalks and men alike.
"We've always worked with the number that there's somewhere between 140 and 200 missing in action here, and some of them, because of the volume of fire, they just ceased to exist as an entity — they were just totally destroyed," Howard said.
About 23,100 soldiers were killed, wounded, captured or declared missing at Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862. Days later, the dead were buried less than three feet deep in the rocky soil, marked by crude wooden headboards.
Five years later, most were dug up and reburied — the Union soldiers at the Antietam National Cemetery and the Confederates in nearby towns.
Howard said the New York soldier's remains were found beside one of the limestone outcroppings that stud the rolling hills at Antietam like whitecaps. He said farmers who worked the soil after the war avoided such outcroppings to spare their machinery, which explains how the soldier stayed hidden for so long.
Remains turn up from time to time. A visitor found the last set, belonging to four unidentified members of the Irish Brigade, in 1989, Howard said.
He said the New York soldier's bones may be buried in the Antietam National Cemetery next spring, after the park service and Douglas Owsley, a forensic pathologist at the Smithsonian's natural history museum, complete their examination. The park service will first contact the adjutant general of New York State to ask whether the state wants the remains, he said.
Owsley declined comment on the case because he hasn't yet examined the bones closely.
Historians consider Antietam, also known as the battle of Sharpsburg , a turning point in the war because Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's retreat from the battlefield gave President Abraham Lincoln the political strength to issue the Emancipation Proclamation five days later.
--(6) Money Challenges Face Somber Civil War Anniversary -----------------------------------------------------
Money Challenges Face Somber Civil War Anniversary
By Bruce Smith
1/7/2009
Associated Press (NAT)
http://www.thestate.com/statewire/story/642205.html
The upcoming 150th anniversary of the Civil War, unlike the commemorations of a half century ago, will be marked with a broader, more reverent recounting of the bloody struggle that wrenched a nation.
But money for sesquicentennial events may be tough to find in a troubled economy and an era of political correctness, some planners say.
"This is not a celebration. There is nothing to celebrate when 700,000 Americans die. This will be a commemoration and everything will be done in a very formal and reverent way," said James Robertson Jr., director of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies who headed the federal Civil War centennial commission.
Before the centennial, America felt better about itself, he recalled.
"We were connecting the nation with interstate highways it was just a good time to celebrate a critical moment in American history," said Robertson, a history professor at Virginia Tech who is on Virginia 's sesquicentennial commission.
Legislation to create a federal sesquicentennial commission has languished in Congress for years so states and local groups will take the lead.
Groups in South Carolina , where the war began, envision re-enactments of the bombardment of Fort Sumter and the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation to freed sea island slaves.
There is talk of recreating the battle of Battery Wagner on Morris Island where the famed black 54th Massachusetts fought in a fight chronicled in the movie "Glory."
But money will be a challenge.
"Certainly for the next couple of years there's not going to be any state funds available to help with anything," said Rodger Stroup, the director of the South Carolina Department of Archives and History.
The 150th anniversary of the signing of the Ordinance of Secession is next year - an event which prompted Charlestonian James L. Petigru to famously quip the state was "too small to be a republic and too large to be an insane asylum." The 150th anniversary of the bombardment of Sumter is little more than two years off.
South Carolina has a sesquicentennial committee, but only one of six political appointees has been appointed and lawmakers didn't provide any money.
The cost of recreating a bombardment is estimated at more than $70,000, said Bob Dodson, superintendent of the Fort Sumter National Monument .
"It's going to be a challenge and we have only a couple of years. Charleston is where the war started. Hopefully things will improve," he said.
Staging a conference with international Civil War scholars could cost $50,000, said Eric Emerson, executive director of the Charleston Library Society, who chairs the Charleston area sesquicentennial committee.
"I just don't know how much public money there will be if there is any public money," he said. "And with this economy, private foundations are hurting as well."
Cities in northwest Georgia , southeast Tennessee and northeast Alabama are working together.
"Funding is tight for things like this. Our plan is to band together instead of everyone out there on their own," said John Culpepper, chairman of the Georgia Civil War Commission and city manager for Chickamauga , one of the largest battle sites in Georgia .
Other factors also enter the equation, Stroup said.
"One of the problems we find is that the Civil War - in terms of raising funds from corporations and depending on what you really want to do - is politically incorrect," he said.
"There are many who will tell you this is not true but it really was a war to continue slavery," he said. "Not only do we have the Ordinance of Secession here are the state archives, we have what's called the Declaration of Causes. It clearly states one of the primary concerns was that the federal government would eliminate slavery."
Virginia is well ahead of other Southern states in its planning. It established a sesquicentennial commission several years ago and state lawmakers have provided $4 million to date for efforts which include promotion, a museum exhibit traveling the state and a mobile exhibit to travel the nation.
Most planners agree the commemoration should center on all aspects of the conflict, not just military campaigns as was generally the case during the centennial.
"Because Virginia was a slave-holding state; because Virginia was the seat of the Confederate government; because armies marched over and fought over the Virginia landscape for four years, Virginia is in a position to tell all of those stories," said Richard Lewis, a spokesman for the state's sesquicentennial commission.
"The story of the Civil War is a fabric woven of many threads. If you pull any of those threads out because you don't want them to be there, you are putting a hole in the fabric," he added.
Robertson sees a more subdued, reflective event than those of 50 years ago.
People, he said, are interested in social history and "what we attained from that war, what we learned from it and where we can go from it."
During the centennial, souvenir makers flooded the market with Civil War kitsch, he recalled.
"You could buy the Confederate flag on women's lingerie," he said. "Today that would seem absurd. It shows you the way the mind-set has changed."
--(7) State Grants $3 Million for CSS Neuse Museum Project -----------------------------------------------------
State Grants $3 Million for CSS Neuse Museum Project
By Chris Lavender
1/6/2009
Kinston Free Press (NC)
http://www.kinston.com/news/museum_51961___article.html/state_project.html
It's a done deal.
The CSS Neuse will soon have a new home thanks to the Council of State's decision Tuesday to fund the $3 million museum project.
Rep. Van Braxton, D-Lenoir, said the Council of State agreed to fund the project as part of the state's economic stimulus package agenda. The state set aside $3 million in the fiscal 2009 budget for the gunboat's move and restoration and the prospective museum.
Local officials have waited for the past several months to see if the project would receive the appropriated funds.
Braxton said Tuesday that Kinston could see ground broken for the museum sometime during the first fiscal quarter of 2009. The CSS Neuse will be moved to the climate-controlled museum at 102 N. Queen St. once the construction work is completed.
The site will also feature an interpretative center for the ironclad gunboat commissioned during the Civil War.
Braxton, whose 10th district includes Lenoir, Greene and Wayne counties, said the museum project was the only cultural restoration project approved statewide by the Council of State for immediate funding.
"The museum's construction will now go out for bid," Braxton said. "It will help create construction jobs, tourism jobs and bring visitors to downtown Kinston ."
The 158-foot-long gunboat, which sank in 1865 and was raised nearly a century later in 1963, has already been cut into three pieces in preparation for its move to the planned Queen Street facility.
--(8) CSI Hunley: Fate of Historic Sub a Cold Case File -----------------------------------------------------
CSI Hunley: Fate of Historic Sub a Cold Case File
By Bruce Smith
1/5/2009
Associated Press (NAT)
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/01/05/csi_hunley_fate_of_historic_sub_a_cold_case_file/
It could be one of the nation's oldest cold case files: What happened to eight Confederate sailors aboard the H.L. Hunley after it became the first submarine in history to sink an enemy warship?
Their hand-cranked sub rammed a spar with black powder into the Union blockade ship Housatonic off Charleston on a chilly winter night in 1864 but never returned.
Its fate has been the subject of almost 150 years of conjecture and almost a decade of scientific research since the Hunley was raised back in 2000. But the submarine has been agonizingly slow surrendering her secrets.
"She was a mystery when she was built. She was a mystery as to how she looked and how she was constructed for many years and she is still a mystery as to why she didn't come home," said state Sen. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston and chairman of the South Carolina Hunley Commission, which raised the sub and is charged with conserving and displaying it.
Scientists hope the next phase of the conservation, removing the hardened sediment coating the outside of the hull, will provide clues to the mystery.
McConnell, who watched the sub being raised more than eight years ago, thought at the time the mystery would be easily solved.
"We thought it would be very simple ... something must have happened at the time of the attack," he said. "We would just put those pieces together and know everything about it."
But what seemed so clear then seems as murky now as the sandy bottom where the Hunley rested for 136 years. When the Hunley was raised, the design was different from what scientists expected and there were only eight, not nine, crewmen, as originally thought.
The first phase of work on the Hunley consisted of photographing and studying the outside of the hull. Then several iron hull plates were removed allowing scientists to enter the crew compartment to remove sediment, human remains and a cache of artifacts.
Thousands of people, many re-enactors in period dress, turned out in April 2004 when the crew was buried in what has been called the last Confederate funeral.
With the inside excavated, the outside of the hull will now be cleaned before the sub is put in a chemical bath to remove salts left by years on the ocean floor. The Hunley will eventually be displayed in a new museum in North Charleston .
Archaeologist Maria Jacobsen said the Hunley is like a crime scene except that, unlike on television shows, there is no smoking gun.
"If we compare this crime site investigation with, say, a tragic plane crash in the mountains, that investigation would be a lot easier," she said. "You can go to the crash you can see the metal pieces and they have the fingerprints of the crash site."
In the case of the Hunley, some of those fingerprints may be covered with the encrusted sediment on the hull that scientists refer to as concretion.
When the sub was found there was no window in the front conning tower, suggesting it had been shot out, perhaps by Union sharpshooters.
But no glass was found inside the sub and the remains of the captain, Lt. George Dixon, showed no injuries to his skull or body consistent with being shot while looking through the window, McConnell said.
The crew's bodies were found at their duty stations, suggesting there was no emergency resulting in a scramble to get out of the sub. And the controls on the bilge pump were not set to pump water from the crew compartment, suggesting there was no water flooding in.
After the attack both Confederates on shore and Union ships reported seeing a blue light, believed to be the Hunley signaling it had completed its mission.
A lantern with a thick lens that would have shifted the light spectrum and appeared blue from a distance was found in the wreck.
But after the attack, the USS Canandaigua rushed to the aide of the Housatonic and there is speculation that the light could have come from that ship instead.
Could the Canandaigua have grazed the Hunley, disabling her so the sub couldn't surface? A good look at the hull in the coming months may provide the answer.
Historians also know the Hunley needed to wait for the incoming tide to return to shore.
"Were they waiting down there and miscalculated their oxygen and blacked out?" said McConnell.
He said a grappling hook, believed to serve as an anchor of the Hunley, was found near the wreck. Cleaning the hull may produce evidence of a rope showing the sub was anchored, perhaps waiting for the tide to change.
Then there is the mystery of Dixon 's watch, which stopped at 8:23 p.m. Although times were far from uniform in the Civil War era, the Housatonic was attacked about 20 minutes later, according to federal time, McConnell said.
One theory is the concussion of the attack stopped the watch and knocked out the sailors on the sub. Or the watch simply might have run down and was not noticed in the excitement of the attack. That could have led to a miscalculation of the time they were under water.
Union troops reported seeing the Hunley approaching and the light through the tower window "like dinosaur eyes or a giant porpoise in the water," McConnell said.
If the Hunley crew miscalculated and surfaced too close to the Housatonic on their final approach they would not have had enough time to replenish their oxygen before the attack, he said.
The clues now seem to indicate the crew died of anoxia, a lack of oxygen, and didn't drown. "Whatever happened, happened unexpectedly, with no warning," McConnell said.
Running out of oxygen can quickly cause unconsciousness.
"Once you reach that critical stage, it's like you flick a switch," he said. "It's that fast, like on an airplane."
--(9) Battlefield Project Reaches Milestone ----------------------------------------------------
Battlefield Project Reaches Milestone
By Charlie Hall
1/3/2009
New Bern Sun Journal (NC)
http://www.newbernsj.com/news/battlefield_43389___article.html/center_visitor.html
Preserving history can take far longer than the noted event.
The March 14, 1862, Civil War Battle of New Bern , for instance, lasted a single day, followed by the Union occupation of the city for the remainder of the war.
The battlefield, near the entrance to Taberna on U.S. 70, was dormant and mostly forgotten for more than a century until preservation and restoration efforts began nine years ago.
The land remained pristine and untouched by development.
Today, the 25-acre battlefield park is the major project of the New Bern Historical Society, which got the battlefield through the Civil War Preservation Trust, and later bought several acres to house a visitor center and parking.
At 1:30 p.m. a week from today, Jan. 11, the battlefield visitor center will be dedicated. The dedication is open to the public.
At 3 p.m., noted Civil War historian Ed Bearss will present a program titled "Burnside's Expedition and the Battle of New Bern" at the Masonic Theater in New Bern .
Mark Mangum, the chairman of the battlefield committee since its inception nine years ago, said the restoration efforts have value to everyone.
"We basically were given a blank sheet of paper to tell a story and the story is the men who fought and died there," he said. "We're happy that we can tell the story."
The opening of the visitor center is a major piece of the physical efforts.
"Our vision was to provide the community with a battlefield park, and we're excited about it," he said. "It is the culmination of a lot of work by a lot of people. We're not there yet, but this is a major step."
He estimated that 200 volunteers have been involved over the years.
"We've had as many as 120 workers out there doing brush work early on, to steering committees and reenactors who have come in," he said.
He said because of the sensitive nature of the land, it can't support a full-scale battle reenactment.
"It is designed for living histories," he said. "There may be small scale reenactments on some of the other property, but we don't envision there ever being a full-scale reenactment (on the battlefield) because those redans (trenches) are very sensitive and you have to take care of those kinds of things."
The battleground's major annual event is Civil War Adventure Day, which is March 14 for about 50 children, ages 6 to 11, and their parents.
The youngsters participate in a small-scale reenactment and go on an educational tour of the battlefield.
Mangum said the visitor center will provide a base site for individual visitors and tours such as school and civic groups.
The battlefield is open to the public, and $5 tours are available with a trained guide.
In the immediate future, battlefield tours will continue to be on a call-and-reserve basis through the Historical Society.
The visitors' center is a $170,000 piece of an overall $900,000 project. Counting the battlefield land value, donations and grants from groups such as the Harold Bate Foundation and Gold Leaf Foundation, the society is closer to its goal.
The Historical Society recently received grants totaling $85,000 toward the battlefield project - $35,000 from the Harold Bate Foundation and $50,000 from Gold Leaf.
The visitor center houses a meeting room, displays and has public restrooms. It includes a large covered outdoor meeting area.
Down the road, a memorial path is planned to lead into the adjacent battlefield site. It will have informational displays along two paths - Union and Confederate - commemorating battles that many of the New Bern battle survivors later fought, such as Antietam and Gettysburg
Mike Dumont, head of the 16-man battlefield guide corps, said anyone wanting a tour of the site can call the Historical Society at 638-8558 to schedule an appointment.
Work on the battlefield has produced trails and bridges, and last year a monument was dedicated to the North Carolina 26th. Plans call for more than 15 additional memorials representing regiments from both the Union and Confederate armies.
--(10) Big Guns Are Back -----------------------------------------------------
Big Guns Are Back
By Brian Hicks
1/2/2009
Charleston Post and Courier (SC)
http://www.charleston.net/news/2009/jan/02/big_guns_back66966/
Most people wouldn't worry much about damaging a couple of three-ton, cast-iron Civil War cannons.
When that is your job, you worry about corrosion, dust, the oil from someone's hand — and pretty much everything else.
"I want them gone now," said Paul Mardikian, senior Hunley conservator at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center . "But I hope to see them again someday."
One day, everyone in Charleston may see them — in the Hunley museum.
These cannons come from one of the few Civil War ships that rival the Hunley's fame, the CSS Alabama. For several years, they have sat in tanks beside the Hunley, unbeknownst to most of the sub's weekend visitors.
There, Mardikian and his team have gently scraped away several inches of hard-shell concretion from the 32-inch, smooth bore cannons. Then they soaked the guns in a chemical bath to leach out the salt that permeated the iron during a century under water.
In the midst of their work, they found a human jawbone stuck to one of the cannons — the first human remains ever found on the Alabama 's wreckage.
The results of the conservation are amazing — you can read the manufacturer's name on both cannons. Even though they are different designs, both were cast in the same year, at the same Liverpool plant. The cannons even have their lock plates and sights on them, something you don't see on many big guns from the era.
The story of how the cannons made it from the English Channel to North Charleston is nearly as remarkable as Mardikian's restoration job.
The Confederate raider was one of the most notorious, and feared, vessels roaming the sea during the war. The Alabama was built in Liverpool in 1862 by British sympathizers and, when it was launched that summer, it quickly became the bane of the United States Navy.
Led by Capt. Raphael Semmes, the Alabama seized dozens of Union merchant ships, taking their cargo and burning them. It sank the USS Hatteras in the Gulf of Mexico in one of its many patrols around the world.
That changed in the summer of 1864, when the Alabama was in France for repairs. The USS Kearsarge caught the Alabama in the English Channel and sank it.
It was lost for 120 years.
After the historic ship was found off the coast of his native France in 1984, Mardikian spent months conserving the ship's wheel, its massive Blakely gun, even its ornate toilets.
So when two of the ship's cannons were raised eight years ago, the Navy decided Mardikian should restore them, too. And that's what he has done.
In appreciation for Mardikian's work, the Hunley project might be allowed to keep one of the cannons. The conservator said that will require them to build a climate-controlled tank, but Hunley officials say it would be worth it.
Randy Burbage, a member of the state Hunley Commission, said the cannon is a natural artifact for the yet-to-be-built Hunley museum.
"I think it's a perfect fit," Burbage said. "It will go well with the Southern Maritime collection, which includes Semmes' Naval Academy sword. It will be a great addition to the Hunley museum because we want it to be a full Southern Maritime museum."
--(11) Historians Fight Walmart over Civil War Site -----------------------------------------------------
Historians Fight Walmart over Civil War Site
By Steve Szkotak
1/2/2009
Associated Press (NAT)
http://www.newsleader.com/article/20090103/NEWS01/901030323&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL
Wal-Mart wants to build a Supercenter within a cannon shot of where Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant first fought, a proposal that has preservationists rallying to protect the key Civil War site.
A who's who of historians including filmmaker Ken Burns and Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough sent a letter last month to H. Lee Scott, president and chief executive of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., urging the company to build farther from the Wilderness Battlefield.
"The Wilderness is an indelible part of our history, its very ground hallowed by the American blood spilled there, and it cannot be moved," said the letter from 253 scholars and others.
Wal-Mart and its supporters point out that the 138,000-square-foot store would be right behind a bank and a small strip mall, a full mile from entrance to the site of the 1864 clash that left thousands dead and hastened the war's end.
Local leaders also want the $500,000 in tax revenue they estimate the big-box store will generate for rural Orange County, a gradually growing area about 60 miles southwest of Washington .
"In these economic times, the fact that Wal-Mart wants to come into the county is an economic plus," said R. Mark Johnson, a tire-shop owner and chairman of the county's board of supervisors.
Grant's Union troops were headed to Richmond on May 4, 1864, when they confronted Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. The Battle of the Wilderness involved more than 100,000 Union troops and 61,000 Confederates. The fighting, according to National Park Service estimates, left more than 4,000 dead and 20,000 wounded.
About 2,700 acres of the Wilderness Battlefield are protected as part of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park .
Preservationists regularly square off against developers in Virginia , where much of the Civil War was fought. This dispute, however, has stirred an outcry similar to the one in 1994 over the Walt Disney Co.'s plans to build a $650 million theme park within miles of the Manassas Battlefield. Disney bowed to public pressure and abandoned the project.
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Jim Campi
Policy and Communications Director
Civil War Preservation Trust
1331 H Street NW, Suite 1001
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202-367-1861
Fax: 202-367-1865
http://www.civilwar.org