--(1) Kaine: Protecting Civil War Battlefields an “Obligation” -----------------------------------------------------
Kaine: Protecting Civil War Battlefields an “Obligation”
By David Sherfinski
3/25/2009
Washington Examiner (DC)
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Kaine-Protecting-Civil-War-battlefields-an-obligation-41787262.html
Gov. Tim Kaine said Tuesday that Virginia has a “special obligation” to protect its Civil War battlefields.
Standing at the Slaughter Pen Farm on the Fredericksburg Battlefield, he called the battlefields “places of natural beauty that have truly been sanctified by the blood of patriots.”
The battlefield, where 5,000 men died Dec. 13, 1862, is one of 41 across the state that has been preserved by the Civil War Preservation Trust. It was one of the first sites preserved using the Virginia Historic Battlefield Preservation Fund, a state-funded matching grant program the Kaine administration created.
“Our state saw the majority of the Civil War’s largest and most significant battles. As the stewards of this American history, it has fallen to us ... to protect and safeguard these national treasures,” Kaine said.
The Civil War Preservation Trust began working to preserve the 208-acre Slaughter Pen Farm in 2006; the national nonprofit group says it is the most expensive private battlefield preservation effort in U.S. history.
“Before Governor Kaine came, [battlefield preservation] was benign neglect,” said Jim Lighthizer, president of the Civil War Preservation Trust. “Since that time, we’ve got a full partner in what we’re trying to do.”
Battlefield preservation has drawn renewed interest recently, with actor Richard Dreyfuss in the Washington area last week to advocate preservation of Civil War battlefields.
A report last week by the National Park Service concluded that proposed power lines could hurt the Manassas National Battlefield Park.
Lighthizer told The Examiner that encroaching development and sprawl surrounding historic sites such as the Manassas Battlefield Park are a challenge preservationists are continually facing.
“It’s one word — it’s traffic,” said Lighthizer of the problems facing Manassas. “We’ve got to find a way to bypass the whole battlefield.”
He said that as a former Maryland transportation secretary, he understands the need to keep traffic moving in the area, but there needs to be a balance.
“We can’t move the Battlefield of Manassas,” he said. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way … it shouldn’t be gradually degraded. We simply have got to be able to do both.”
Joan Zenzen, author of “Battling for Manassas: The Fifty-Year Preservation Struggle at Manassas National Battlefield Park,” said that if tourists see power lines and encroachments that come with increased development, they get “jarred back into the 21st century.”
--(2) Battlefield “Heroes” Save History -----------------------------------------------------
Battlefield “Heroes” Save History
By Clint Schemmer
3/25/2009
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star (VA)
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/032009/03252009/454201
Virginia is leading the nation's efforts to save Civil War battlefields, Gov. Tim Kaine made plain during a visit in Spotsylvania County yesterday.
Speaking at Slaughter Pen Farm--epicenter of the Fredericksburg battlefield--Kaine praised the public-private work that is protecting some of these unique historic resources.
In terms of sheer dollars, Virginia leads the United States in its battlefield preservation efforts, according to the national, nonprofit Civil War Preservation Trust. The state has committed $9.3 million to the work since 2001--with $5.9 million of that coming through a bipartisan project begun by Kaine, House Speaker Bill Howell and state Sen. Edd Houck, CWPT officials said yesterday.
Virginia's financial commitment to the cause far outstrips that of other states, they said. Next on the list are Tennessee, at $3.8 million, and Mississippi, at $2.8 million, since 2001.
"We have an obligation as Americans to preserve these places, to tell those stories, so we don't lose them forever," Kaine told the 90-plus people attending yesterday's press conference. "The blood of patriots sanctified these battlefields, and we need to respect and commemorate their sacrifices."
The governor's sentiments were shared by four other speakers--Kathleen Kilpatrick, director of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources; Howell, R-Stafford; Houck, D-Spotsylvania; and James Lighthizer, president of the Civil War Preservation Trust.
Nationally, what Virginia is doing is "without precedent," Lighthizer said, calling Kaine, Howell, Houck and Kilpatrick--along with state Natural Resources Secretary Preston Bryant--"modern Civil War heroes."
"In order to achieve the extraordinary success battlefield preservation has enjoyed in Virginia, it takes leadership at every level," he said. "We have been blessed to find staunch allies at every necessary turn."
CWPT's chief lauded the Virginia Historic Battlefields Preservation Fund, created in 2006. The fund, which leverages private donations and grants 2-to-1, will eventually save more than 1,500 acres on 15 battlefields across Virginia.
Last November, Virginia appropriated $5.2 million to the program--the most generous contribution to battlefield preservation ever made by a state government.
"Our state saw the majority of the Civil War's largest and significant battles," Kaine said. "As the stewards of this American history, it has fallen to us, working in partnership with private organizations and the federal government, to protect and safeguard these national treasures."
--(3) Groups Work to Preserve Two Frederick County Battlefields -----------------------------------------------------
Groups Work to Preserve Two Frederick County Battlefields
By Connor Adams Sheets
3/23/2009
Frederick Gazette (MD)
http://www.gazette.net/stories/03262009/newmnew143755_32480.shtml
On July 9, 1864, 2,359 men lost their lives in the "Battle that Saved Washington" at Monocacy National Battlefield near present-day Urbana.
Now a battle is heating up to save that battlefield from being marred by the view of a proposed incinerator, which would include a 350-foot tall smokestack.
Frederick County's preferred location for its proposed $527 million incinerator — "the McKinney site," is located in Buckeystown between Interstate 270 and Route 85. The sight of the smokestack would permanently degrade the experience of visiting the battlefield, according to Susan Trail, the park's superintendent.
Members of Citizens for Incinerator Alternatives Now, a community group formed March 4, hope they can stop the county from considering construction of the incinerator at the proposed location.
CFIA Now is one of two relatively new community groups that are working to protect Frederick County battlefields that are under threat of having large industrial facilities built on or near them.
The second is Citizens for the Preservation of Middletown Valley. Formed in January 2008, the group aims to stop Dominion Transmission from building a $55 million gas compressor station near South Mountain Battlefield in Middletown.
In their members' eyes, the two groups' concerns were legitimized at the national level last week when the Civil War Preservation Trust of Washington, D.C., included the two battlefields in its report "History Under Siege," which listed the nation's 10 most-endangered Civil War historical sites.
"It is very significant when a national group recognizes the threat in your community," said Rick Maranto, president of the Middletown group. "… We're not against large corporations building out facilities, but we need to do it in conjunction with communities, not by overruling the wishes of communities. It ought to be a partnership. The out-of-state corporations should not be able to dictate what part of history or hallowed ground they will build on."
Both groups have planned a slate of events for the coming months aimed at getting word out about the proposed facilities and the impacts they could have on the battlefields.
The Middletown group held a press conference in Middletown Saturday announcing that a group of Civil War re-enactors will stage a Sept. 12 march on South Mountain Battlefield in order to draw attention to the issue, and that its members will host a number of other events through the fall.
CFIA Now held its first "public awareness event" Saturday at the Westview Promenade in Frederick, where members handed out informational fliers and spoke with residents about the incinerator and impacts it could have on the battlefield, as well as other concerns they have with building such a facility. Robert Chubin, the group's communications director, said it has a "few more [events] in the works."
"We're trying to reach out the public and make them fully aware of what's going on and then take what will likely be public concern to the [Frederick Board of County] Commissioners who will hopefully reconsider," he said at the Saturday event, where the group spoke with hundreds of residents about the incinerator. "Today our focus is to raise awareness about the incinerator."
--(4) Richmond Civil War Site Gets Attention -----------------------------------------------------
Richmond Civil War Site Gets Attention
By Clint Schemmer
3/23/2009
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star (VA)
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/032009/03232009/454153
Unlike Fredericksburg, Manassas or Appomattox, New Market Heights isn't a household name, even among students of the American Civil War.
But it deserves to be, say historians and descendants of some of the men who fought at the central Virginia battlefield.
The Civil War Preservation Trust has thrust the less-well-known Henrico County site into the national limelight, ranking it last week among America's 10 most-endangered battlefields.
"This is a story that needs to be told, about a hugely important place," Mary Koik, the trust's deputy director of communications, said yesterday. "What we're trying to do is to start to get the battle some of the recognition that it deserves and to get some of its land protected."
TALE OF GREAT IMPORT
Part of the Army of the James' campaign for Richmond and a harbinger of the war's end the following spring, the Union attack at New Market Heights established the fighting spirit of the African-American soldier once and for all, Koik said.
"In the whole war, 16 Medals of Honor were given to African-American troops. Fourteen of them were given for bravery in this one battle," she said. Several of the medals were awarded to men who took charge of their units after all the white commanders had fallen.
Though tactically a defeat, since the Confederate defenders turned back the Union effort to seize Richmond and loosen the Confederate army's grip on Petersburg, the black soldiers' daring at New Market Heights boosted Northern morale, historians say.
The fight came just a few weeks after Atlanta, heart of the Deep South, fell to Union Gen. William T. Sherman and as President Lincoln stood for re-election in a political contest he had been expecting to lose.
The Sept. 29, 1864, battle near Richmond was one of the most momentous of the entire war for the Union's black troops, said Hari Jones, assistant director of the African American Civil War Memorial and Museum in Washington.
And for sheer heroism, it eclipses the far-better-known story of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry depicted in the movie "Glory," Jones said. The 1989 film ends with the 54th's valiant but unsuccessful attack on Fort Wagner at Morris Island, S.C., which guarded the southern entrance to Charleston's harbor.
HEAVY LOSSES
At New Market Heights, black troops crossed to the north side of the James River, charged an entrenched Confederate position and captured the earthworks, losing more than 800 men in one hour.
Jones, a retired Marine Corps captain, briefly described the battle to actor Richard Dreyfuss on Wednesday when he visited the memorial to the black troops at Washington's Vermont Avenue and U Street. The Academy Award winner headlined the trust's press conference announcing its 2009 "History Under Siege" report.
Making his way around the bronze monument, Dreyfuss bent over to read the names of some of the men who fought at New Market Heights, inscribed on stainless-steel tablets among those of the 200,000 black soldiers who served in the Union army.
Distinguished veterans of the fight received the Army of the James or "Butler" Medal designated by a champion of black troops, Gen. Benjamin Butler. It was the only medal created solely for the United States Colored Troops.
"It was a huge turning point in people's perception of the U.S. Colored Troops, a watershed moment for these soldiers," Koik said. "Yet today, the battle is sadly underappreciated."
According to Mike Andrus, a historian at Richmond National Battlefield Park, the engagement--part of a larger fight called the Battle of Chaffin's Farm--was the North's best effort to break Gen. Robert E. Lee's defensive lines north of the James.
THREATENED, VULNERABLE
Though its historic significance is indisputable, no part of the New Market Heights battlefield has been protected by any preservation organization, including the trust and the National Park Service, Koik noted.
The battlefield lies about 10 miles southeast of Richmond, roughly halfway between Drewry's Bluff on the James River and Glendale National Cemetery. One roadside marker acknowledges its location.
Already, key portions of the battlefield close to where Union troops crossed the James near Deep Bottom have been destroyed by a housing development, she said. Residential construction under way on the north side of State Route 5, historic New Market Road, will destroy Confederate artillery positions.
And ultimately, Koik said, growing traffic congestion may force widening of Route 5, threatening 75 acres of still-pristine battlefield land that fronts the road.
"There's still time to protect what is left," she said. "Now is when we all need to focus on how to do that."
--(5) Rippavilla Sits Amid Shadows of Growth -----------------------------------------------------
Rippavilla Sits Amid Shadows of Growth
By Kevin Walters and Jill Cecil Wiersma
3/22/2008
Nashville Tennessean (TN)
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090322/COUNTY090101/903220337/1327
Can a bad economy spell increased preservation of historic land? And is that a good thing? Spring Hill is a local example of how the national recession is affecting growth and preservation.
The nation's largest preservation group last week again named Spring Hill's Civil War battlefield one of the most "endangered" Civil War sites in the nation. It's the fifth consecutive year the land here has been named to the list.
The area encompasses 400 acres around Rippavilla, a former plantation, land where an out-of-state developer wants to build homes, apartments, a theater, restaurants and retail space one day.
SLF Acquisitions' development might generate millions in taxes and hundreds of jobs at a time when the city has faced financial turmoil, brought on by the national economic collapse of the housing market and the financial freefall of General Motors, whose Saturn plant first spurred growth in Spring Hill.
It would also erase what some consider to be a historic treasure.
What's more important right now is debatable.
The Spring Hill battlefield extends from Kedron Road to Main Street. It is where, on Nov. 29, 1864, troops from Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood failed to stop Union forces from retreating to nearby Franklin, where the bloody Battle of Franklin was fought the next day.
For now, development of that land remains on hold, and the Washington, D.C.-based Civil War Preservation Trust wants to keep it that way.
"If anything, it means it's still a danger, or we wouldn't be putting it on the list," said Jim Lighthizer, president of the Civil War group. "In this case, the development pressure continues to stay on the battlefield."
The trust has owned about 110 acres of battlefield land along Kedron Road since the 1990s.
Meanwhile, General Motors owns a little more than 500 acres around the 1850s-era former plantation, and last year the automaker entered into a contract with SLF Acquisitions to develop the project.
SLF Acquisitions is still interested in buying and developing the land, said its attorney, Randy Hardison of Columbia. According to SLF's figures, the development would generate an estimated $1.9 million in adequate facilities taxes for Spring Hill. In addition, it would bring the city nearly $1.4 million in property taxes and $5.9 million in sales taxes each year.
Hardison said SLF has the money to buy the land now, but doesn't mind waiting, either, since an improved economy would make the development more marketable. Initially, plans were to stretch development out over 20 years.
"The longer we can keep the money in our pockets, the better off we will be while we wait for the economy to improve," he said, declining to say how much SLF had offered for the land.
Significance questioned
As a condition of the sale, GM required SLF to donate nearly 100 acres around the former plantation to Rippavilla Inc., the nonprofit entity responsible for its care. GM also agreed to pay the entity $1 million over a 10-year period.
But Pam Perdue, executive director of Rippavilla Plantation, wants an additional 85 acres adjacent to Rippavilla, between the plantation and Saturn Parkway, preserved. She says she can prove the land has historic value.
"There were soldiers camped there," Perdue said. "There was gunfire exchanged there as people were marching northward."
But Hardison contends the land SLF wants to buy is not historically significant.
"This is not really a battlefield," Hardison said. "It was the missed opportunity to be a battlefield that ended up happening in Franklin. The Union troops just tiptoed by them. How much historical significance does that give to this property? What actually occurred, occurred behind where Target is, and that's gone."
But Lighthizer remained firm: "As a general rule, land speculators and agents for land speculators don't necessarily make the best historians."
Despite work to preserve the battlefield, Perdue concedes that most of the GM land will likely be sold. She just wants to see the most important kept for posterity.
"I'm not against development," she said. "I understand that we cannot preserve all the land. I'm OK with them selling 300 acres to the south of us and developing it."
Lighthizer and Dan Brown, executive director for the Tennessee Preservation Trust, contend the economic benefits to land preservation can pay off for a city with historic tourism.
"Tourism creates jobs," Lighthizer said, "and it's a renewable resource in the sense that you don't have to use it up or ever exhaust it."
Brown cited the battle's importance to the scope of the Civil War as proof of the land's importance and why it should be saved for others to appreciate.
"This is not some secondary, unrecognized site," Brown said. "There's plenty of room around Spring Hill (for development). ... We're not saying we're against development. We're just saying we can co-exist."
--(6) Fort Gaines Listed Among Nation’s Top 10 Endangered Civil War Sites -----------------------------------------------------
Fort Gaines Listed Among Nation’s Top 10 Endangered Civil War Sites
By David Ferrara
3/19/2009
Mobile Press-Register (AL)
http://www.al.com/news/press-register/metro.ssf?/base/news/1237454240167310.xml&coll=3
Fort Gaines on Dauphin Island has been listed as one of the nation's 10 most endangered Civil War battlefields, according to a report released Wednesday.
That designation could draw national attention to the fort and help facilitate an effort to stabilize eroding shores on the barrier island, Dauphin Island Mayor Jeff Collier said.
In the Civil War Preservation Trust's 2009 report, "History Under Siege," the site on the east end of the island was listed as one of the most threatened and most historically significant battlegrounds among the top 10.
"It is definitely a plus when it comes to the fort itself," Collier said. "It validates the importance and the historical significance of Fort Gaines in the war and the importance of it being protected and preserved for future generations. It will bring a heightened level of awareness that the fort is being threatened."
Constructed in the mid-1800s, the pentagon-shaped fort was seized by Union troops in August 1864 during the Battle of Mobile Bay.
Collier said Dauphin Island leaders are trying to secure an engineering plan to replenish the beaches on the east and west ends, and he hopes to use this week's report to leverage support in funding such a project.
Mike Henderson, director of the Dauphin Island Park and Beach Board, said that recent efforts to protect the fort are "Band-Aids" that will not last.
The report, he said, shows that erosion is "a real problem. It's not just a few people on Dauphin Island dreaming things up."
Collier said the work must be done soon.
"The wild card here is the fact that nobody knows when the next hurricane is going to come," he said. "If we were to have a major storm, we don't know what would happen. The fort is an integral part of the island ... and we need it and we need to preserve it."
--(7) Gettysburg Again Makes Endangered List -----------------------------------------------------
Gettysburg Again Makes Endangered List
By Erin James
3/19/2009
Hanover Evening Sun (PA)
http://www.eveningsun.com/ci_11943835
Gettysburg National Military Park has yet again been named to the Civil War Preservation Trust's annual Top 10 list of America's most endangered Civil War battlefields.
Since the organization first released its annual History Under Siege report in 2001, Gettysburg has made regular appearances on the list. As for the reasons behind Gettysburg's enduring endangered status, CWPT spokeswoman Mary Koik said the explanation is fairly simple.
"Honestly, Gettysburg is kind of the perfect example of this attitude people have about Civil War battlefields," Koik said. "They assume they're protected."
In Gettysburg, the reality is quite different, however. Of the nearly 6,000 acres within the park's Congressionally-designated boundary, more than 1,000 are not owned by the park and are therefore not protected from development, said Gettysburg National Military Park spokeswoman Katie Lawhon.
Because of those 1,000 acres, Lawhon said the park does not dispute the CWPT's designation of Gettysburg as endangered.
That fact has remained relatively constant since the annual report got its start, but this year the CWPT cited two new "threats" as reasons for labeling Gettysburg endangered.
One is the ongoing construction of a Comfort Suites hotel on Baltimore Pike in Cumberland Township. The property closely borders the Evergreen Cemetery, and park officials objected to the construction during the planning phases on the grounds that the larger hotel - which replaces the former Econo Lodge - would be visually intrusive on the battlefield.
Township zoning laws allowed the project to move forward, however.
Koik said that preservationists are concerned similar development will threaten the Baltimore Pike corridor, located near the new location of the park's museum and visitor center.
"That particular hotel is pretty much a done deal," she said. "It's kind of an illustration of something preservationists and people have been worried about for years. This is what we need to watch out for and what we need to be weary of."
The second "threat" cited by the CWPT's report is the property of the Gettysburg Country Club, the ownership of which was recently transferred to the bank after the club fell into financial distress. The property, located on Route 30, was the site of significant fighting during the Battle of Gettysburg.
Koik said preservation groups, including the CWPT and the National Park Service, attempted to purchase the property and protect it from development, but the bank's asking price is too high.
"We need to see the price come down a little bit," she said.
The other parks included in the Top 10 list are battlefields at Monocacy, Md., Cedar Creek, Va., Fort Gaines, Ala., New Market Heights, Va., Port Gibson, Miss., Sabine Pass, Texas, South Mountain, Md., Spring Hill, Tenn. and Wilderness, Va.
--(8) Wilderness Makes “Endangered” List -----------------------------------------------------
Wilderness Makes “Endangered” List
By Clint Schemmer
3/19/2009
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star (VA)
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/032009/03192009/453325
It shared billing with 24 other battlefields, but the Wilderness got plenty of play yesterday as preservationists spotlighted America's most endangered Civil War sites.
The battlefield in Orange and Spotsylvania counties was mentioned several times as the Civil War Preservation Trust briefed the media on its 2009 "History Under Siege" report at a National Press Club news conference headlined by Oscar-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss.
It was the first historic site that CWPT President James Lighthizer named as he released the trust's yearly top-10 list of the nation's most threatened battlefields. The trust also announced 15 "at-risk" battlefields.
Wilderness exemplifies how some national battlefield parks face grave challenges from outside their boundaries, Lighthizer said. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. proposes to build a 138,000-square-foot Supercenter on commercially zoned land within a quarter-mile of the Wilderness battle sites preserved by Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.
The trust and its allies say the Wal-Mart, anchoring other retail projects, will encourage sprawl at the gateway to the park and pour heavy traffic onto State Route 20, the heart of the battlefield.
"[The Wilderness] was a horrific battle, with tremendous slaughter, and yet the Wal-Mart corporation proposes building a monstrosity of a big box on the battlefield, though it's not on National Park Service land," Lighthizer told the standing-room-only crowd. "At the very least, it's going to denigrate that battlefield. And at the very worst, it's going to destroy part of it. Something proposed even on the outside of land already preserved can be a serious threat."
Maryland's Monocacy national battlefield, threatened by a proposed waste incinerator and its 200-foot-tall smokestack, falls in the same category, Lighthizer said.
But Dreyfuss stole the show, as the trust's chief readily admitted.
"This is like a parallel universe for me because I love history as much as I love acting," Dreyfuss said. "Had I not been an actor, I would have been a history teacher, and that's that."
Best known for films such as "American Graffiti," "Jaws" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," he waxed eloquent about the need for Americans to better understand their heritage--to know where they come from, and why. "I don't think there's an aspect of the war, militarily, strategically or otherwise, that doesn't fascinate me," Dreyfuss said. "I've re-created the Battle of Cedar Creek, marching in the First Virginia Infantry. And I'm a Unionist, so that was tough."
Having been involved in numerous documentaries, including "Lincoln" and the Smithsonian Institution's series "The Great Battles of the Civil War," he pitched an idea for a new one.
Dreyfuss said he'd like to make a TV documentary on the Civil War that depicts many battlefields just as they are today, consumed--or nibbled away at--by suburban sprawl and homogenous chain-store development.
"Visually, it would go from Foster's Freeze to Foster's Freeze, to Wal-Mart to Barnes & Noble, and show this is where Nathan Bedford Forrest did this and where Lee did that and where Grant did this. You'll hear it. You won't see it, because we eat our history.
"I think that would go a long way toward reminding us of how valuable it is that we do not eat--should not, ever--eat our history."
Libby O'Connell, chief historian at History, formerly The History Channel, stressed the economic benefits that heritage tourism brings to communities that save and care for historic sites. "I want to go on record here as saying the trust is not saying 'No development, everything has to stay the same.' We know that's not going to work," said O'Connell, who serves on CWPT's Board of Directors.
"What we're talking about here is smart development intelligent planning with community stakeholders, so that people can understand the long-term goal of serious preservationists is to make it work for all of us."
Culpeper County resident Zann Miner, president of the Friends of Wilderness Battlefield, said the local group appreciates the trust's continued focus on the problems that large-scale commercial development pose for the historic site.
The Battle of the Wilderness, one of the Civil War's largest and most important conflicts, was the first clash between Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. The May 5-6, 1864, battle began Grant's grueling Overland Campaign, which drained both armies and eventually brought Union troops to the gates of Richmond.
Two other Virginia battlefields--New Market Heights and Cedar Creek--also made the trust's top-10 list.
At New Market Heights in Henrico County south of Richmond, new subdivisions and growing traffic congestion confront the battlefield. Despite being of national significance, no portion of the land is protected by any preservation organization.
A gutsy Union assault there by African-American troops on Sept. 29, 1864, resulted in 14 black soldiers being awarded the congressional Medal of Honor--the highest military decoration awarded by the U.S. government.
At Cedar Creek, between Middletown and Strasburg in the Shenandoah Valley, expansion of neighboring limestone quarries threatens the Oct. 19, 1864, battlefield.
After yesterday's news conference, Dreyfuss, Lighthizer and O'Connell traveled to Washington's Shaw neighborhood--named after Robert Gould Shaw, the martyred Union officer portrayed in the movie "Glory."
Visiting the African American Civil War Memorial at 10th and U streets, they joined black Civil War re-enactors to honor the courage and sacrifice of the 200,000 black troops who fought for the Union.
Frank Smith, director of the nearby African American Civil War Memorial and Museum, gave Dreyfuss a tour of the monument. Then, as dozens of students from D.C. schools looked on, the dignitaries laid a wreath at its base.
--(9) Monocacy, South Mountain Battlefield Parks Make Most Threatened List ----------------------------------------------------
Monocacy, South Mountain Battlefield Parks Make Most Threatened List
By Karen Gardner
3/19/2009
Frederick News Post (MD)
http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?StoryID=87876
For the second year in a row, the Monocacy National Battlefield near Frederick has the dubious honor of making the Civil War Preservation Trust's list of top 10 endangered battlefields.
Another Frederick County site, South Mountain Battlefield, also made this year's list.
The Civil War Preservation Trust is the largest nonprofit battlefield preservation organization in the United States. It acts as a watchdog for development around battlefields across the nation.
The battlefield is directly across the Monocacy River from a site the Frederick County Commissioners are considering for a proposed waste-to-energy trash incinerator. The incinerator would require a smokestack of up to 350 feet tall. Park officials said it would be seen from most points on the battlefield.
"We're very pleased to be on the list, because it helps us gain more attention for the park," said Cathy Beeler, chief of resource education and visitor services at Monocacy. "It creates a greater awareness."
South Mountain Battlefield, near Middletown , may one day overlook a natural gas compression station. Virginia's Dominion Transmission proposed building the compressor within sight of the battlefield last year, but withdrew the proposal after public outcry.
But Dominion bought land near Middletown for $2.4 million earlier this year. That move raised concerns the company could locate the compression station in an area that Frederick County wants preserved for its historical and agricultural heritage.
The Battle of Monocacy, fought in 1864, is known as the battle that saved Washington. A group of inexperienced Union soldiers met a much larger group of Confederate soldiers at the Monocacy railroad junction. The Union soldiers, outnumbered three to one, suffered heavy casualties. Still, in defeat, they bought valuable time and troops were brought in to reinforce the capital.
"It's a double-edged sword," Beeler said about Monocacy's presence on the list. "Our visitation in the past year has tripled. A lot more people are becoming aware of Monocacy. It's good, because they want to know more about the battle."
"We've tried to work within the community and be a good park neighbor," she said.
The park staff recycles and visitors are asked to carry their trash out with them. Park roads are kept to a minimum. Visitors are encouraged to see the park on foot, along a network of trails, instead of by car.
"We've tried to be an example of how to do that," Beeler said.
South Mountain battlefield is the site of a battle fought three days before the Battle of Antietam in 1862. Outnumbered Confederate troops fought to defend three gaps along South Mountain. The Confederate troops were part of Gen. Robert E. Lee's first assault on the North.
The battlefield is threatened because so much of it is privately owned, said Al Preston, park manager at Herrington Manor State Park. He is the former assistant park manager at Greenbrier State Park, which includes South Mountain State Park.
Preston became an expert on the Battle of South Mountain during his 10-year tenure at the park. He left six months ago for Herrington Manor, but follows developments regarding the battlefield.
Some of the area has been preserved through the state's Rural Legacy program. Dominion has proposed building the compressor station along Marker Road. Frederick County officials want to see that entire area preserved. U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-6th, also asked the company to consider building on another site.
--(10) Dreyfuss Calls Attention to Neglected Battlefields -----------------------------------------------------
Dreyfuss Calls Attention to Neglected Battlefields
By Kamala Lane
3/18/2009
Associated Press (NAT)
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/233/story/605824.html
Oscar-winner Richard Dreyfuss visited the nation's capital on Wednesday to call attention to the most endangered Civil War battlefields.
The actor joined the Civil War Preservation Trust as the group released its annual report on 10 battlefields that it says are deteriorating due to neglect, land development and other threats.
At a news conference, Dreyfuss said his interest in preserving Civil War battlefields grew out of his love for history and the significance of the war.
"We are the consequences of that war and the more we know about our past, the better," said Dreyfuss, who won an Academy Award for "The Goodbye Girl" and also portrayed Vice President Dick Cheney in Oliver Stone's "W".
The Washington-based preservation group issues the "History Under Siege" report annually. The sites on this year's list include Gettysburg, Pa.; South Mountain and Monocacy in Maryland; Cedar Creek, New Market Heights, and Wilderness in Virginia; Fort Gaines, Ala.; Port Gibson, Miss.; Sabine Pass, Texas; and Spring Hill, Tenn.
The Monocacy battlefield along the Monocacy River in Maryland is where Confederate General Jubal A. Early and his troops were stopped from taking Fort Stevens in Washington. According to the report, the site stands to lose open space and clean air because Frederick County officials may build an incinerator there with a 350-foot smokestack.
The battle of the Wilderness opened the Union's offensive against the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. After the fighting ended, more than 25,000 troops had been killed. Today, it may become the site of a Wal-Mart Supercenter, which opponents fear will bring an overwhelming amount of traffic and encourage other retailers to encroach on the area.
The sites were nominated by the members of the group and then selected for the list by board members.
James Lighthizer, president of the preservation trust, said other Civil War battlefields also face deterioration but didn't make the list.
"They're all threatened by destruction, and with destruction a portion of our national memory is destroyed and that's a tragedy," Lighthizer said Wednesday.
The report also lists natural disasters as a danger.
In 2008, Hurricane Ike stopped efforts to reopen Sabine Pass, Texas - a site already recovering from a direct hit by Hurricane Rita in 2005. At the battlefield, Union troops prevented Confederates from establishing a trade route through Mexico. It's now undergoing repairs and is expected to reopen this year.
Dr. Libby O'Connell, chief historian for the History Channel, presented the trust with a donation of $80,000 on Wednesday. She said 30 acres of "hallowed ground" are lost every day.
"Once we lose these places we can't get them back," she said.
--(11) Gettysburg Again Among Most Endangered Sites -----------------------------------------------------
Gettysburg Again Among Most Endangered Sites
By Linda Wheeler
3/18/2008
Washington Post (DC)
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/house-divided/2009/03/gettysburg_again_among_most_en.html#more
Battlefields in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, Texas, Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi are in the top 10 most endangered in the country, according to the Civil War Preservation Trust which released the names at a press conference at 10 a.m. this morning.
Although being named most endangered might be considered a negative, it actually is embraced by the various sites because the Trust has a proven ability to bring media attention to what are often little known sites or unrecognized threats. A place on the annual list also means the Trust will most likely help raise huge amounts of money in an effort to rescue a battlefield.
Gettysburg, the best known of the country's battlefields, has often been on the Trust's list and each time the threat has either been removed or reduced.
The Trust does not rank the list; the threat follows the name of each site:
Gettysburg, Pa: expanding commercial development including hotels.
Wilderness, Va: proposed Wal-Mart super center.
New Market Heights, Va: none of the land is protected by any preservation group.
Cedar Creek, Va: approval of expanded limestone mining operations.
Monocacy, Md: proposed trash facility.
South Mountain, Md: proposed construction of natural gas compression plant.
Sabine, Texas: damage from two hurricanes and lack of state money for repair
Fort Gaines, Al: land erosion by Gulf of Mexico
Spring Hill, Tn: commercial development
Port Gibson, Ms: proposed road widening through center of the town
The Trust built a handy map of the sites (view it at: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=103279418116730179390.0004635b809514a5d6690&t=p&source=embed&ll=48.341646,-85.78125&spn=39.781656,79.101563&z=4)
The Trust, headquartered in Washington, is the largest nonprofit battlefield preservation organization in the country with 60,000 members. It has helped to protect more than 25,000 acres of battlefield land at close to 100 sites in 19 states.
--(12) Civil War Battlefields at Risk, Preservationists Warn-----------------------------------------------------
Civil War Battlefields at Risk, Preservationists Warn
cnn.com
3/18/2009
CNN (NAT)
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/18/battlefields/index.html?iref=newssearch
Development threatens to engulf Civil War battlefields, a preservationist group said as it released its annual list of endangered battle sites on Wednesday.
"In town after town, the irreplaceable battlefields that define those communities are being marred forever," said James Lighthizer, the head of the Civil War Preservation Trust.
"As we approach the sesquicentennial of the bloodiest conflict in our nation's history, we need to be more aware than ever of the importance of preserving these sacred places for generations to come."
The group says it has helped save more than 25,000 acres of Civil War battlefields in 18 states.
Topping the 2009 list of endangered battlefields is Monocacy, Maryland, where the Preservation Trust wants to prevent a trash-processing facility with a 350-foot smokestack from being built nearby.
In Virginia, the group is fighting to keep a Wal-Mart Supercenter from going up on the edge of the Wilderness Battlefield, which also is on this year's list. On that site, 160,000 Union and Confederate troops fought a two-day battle in 1864.
"These hallowed battlegrounds should be national shrines, monuments to American valor, determination and courage," actor Richard Dreyfuss said in prepared remarks. "Once these irreplaceable treasures are gone, they're gone forever." Dreyfuss has been involved in a pair of Civil War documentaries.
Rounding out the group's Top 10 list of endangered battlefields are:
# Port Gibson, Mississippi
# Cedar Creek, Virginia
# Fort Gaines, Alabama
# Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
# New Market Heights, Virginia
# Sabine Pass, Texas
# South Mountain, Maryland
# Spring Hill, Tennessee
---------------------------------------------------------
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