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Civil War News Roundup -
04/20/2009
Courtesy of the Civil War Preservation Trust
-------------------------------------------------------
(1) Protecting a City Stronghold
- Alexandria Times
(2) Civil War Museum Won
a Battle , Lost the War - Philadelphia Inquirer
(3) Test of Lincoln DNA
Sought to Prove Cancer Theory - Associated Press
(4) Orange : No to Wilderness
Gateway Study - Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
(5) Berkeley County Battlefield
Group Makes Progress - West Virginia Public Broadcasting
(6) Mill Springs Battlefield
Association Wants National Park Status - Commonwealth
Journal
(7) State Auctions Civil
War-Era Money - The State
(8) Supervisors Resist Road
Widening In Buckland - Washington Post
(9) Restoring Civil War's
Missing History - Washington Post
(10) Panel Rejects Bill
to Block Incinerator near Monocacy Battlefield - Associated
Press
(11) Wal-Mart, Wilderness
Discussion Broadens - Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
(12) Students Partner with
Park Service - Martinsburg Journal
--(1) Protecting a City Stronghold-----------------------------------------------------
Protecting a City Stronghold
By David Sachs
4/19/2009
Alexandria Times (VA)
http://www.alextimes.com/news/2009/apr/19/protecting-a-city-stronghold/
Fort Ward was so well defended during the Civil
War that Confederate General Robert E. Lee refused to attack
it. Instead of defending against rebels, protectors of the site
are more worried about invaders in a more contemporary form:
Picnickers.
Staff members from the Department
of Recreation and Cultural Activities presented the City Council
with an oral report regarding the fort's "overuse"
and subsequent marring of historically significant sites and
artifacts Tuesday, while area residents and other community members
expressed significant concerns.
The park's open-air atmosphere has
made it an ideal spot for large groups to gather, which has apparently
led to lax restrictions over the years. This has resulted in
a unique fusion of revelers (however good natured) and historical
sites, like the recently discovered marked and unmarked graves
, namely of members of a post-Civil War-era African
American community — hugged by residential areas
and sports fields.
Residents of the area often
buried deceased relatives on their property to save money, often
with unmarked graves for the same reason. Clara Adams,
body, buried in the 19th century, was actually under the park's
maintenance yard until recently.
"We're
really developing a whole new awareness of the resources of the
park that have been overlooked for many years," said Lance Mallamo of the Office of Historic Alexandria.
Officials and community members are not merely
looking to restore significant sites as they did with Freedman's
Cemetery, a burial ground for former slaves. They are looking
also to restore the fort's aura to that of a passive,
casual use more in tune with the land's
solemn history.
City staff members said permission
is required to have events at the park, acquired by the city
in the 50s and 60s and established as a historical sight in the
70s, but park-goers often fill the area beyond capacity, leading
to loud noise and alcohol consumption in a residential area.
Director of the Department of Recreation, Parks
and Cultural activities Kirk Kincannon said one group signed
up for a gathering of 35 people but materialized at about 900.
Over the past many years [ Fort
Ward ] has become a place where numbers of people go to have
large celebrations because it is a great facility,
Kincannon said. But the fact is it's
in a neighborhood and that makes it very difficult to have some
of those larger activities there.
Ideally,
the city would cut the amount of picnicking sights to about five,
Kincannon said, in which case the fort-turned-park would still
be capable of hosting 400 people. But the site's
popularity coupled with a potential personality makeover leave
the city and its residents lacking an obvious facility of similar
characteristics.
There is a need
for this type of facility that can take a lot of folks in Alexandria
because there is a big demand for that type of gathering and
function, Kincannon said. These
are the things we're struggling with —
where do we put these uses and other growth issues relative to
the park?
Staff members alluded
to Cameron Run Regional Park as a possible contingency site,
but in the meantime staff members suggested putting a moratorium
on certain events, especially alcohol-related ones, until the
upcoming summer season paints a more complete picture, leading
to change on a policy level.
Because
this is so broad and effects a lot of entities in the city, I
think the Parks Department is walking down the wrong path and
asking for trouble, Mayor Bill Euille said, emphasizing
that an official change should come from the Council.
No
official actions were taken Tuesday. It was evident, however,
that the formerly neglected Union stronghold once built to protect
Washington , D.C. , is now in need of protection itself.
"It is a treasure,"
Kincannon said. "It absolutely is one of those
places that you want to protect."
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--(2) Civil War Museum Won a Battle , Lost
the War-----------------------------------------------------
Civil War Museum Won a Battle , Lost the
War
By Stephan Salisbury
4/19/2009
Philadelphia Inquirer (PA)
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2278233/
The Civil War Museum of Philadelphia -- which state
officials once believed was so critical to the city's cultural
fabric that they waged a court fight to keep it here -- has been
refused promised capital funding by Gov. Rendell and has lost
access to its planned new home in the heart of Independence National
Historical Park .
The museum, a reconfigured
version of the Civil War Library and Museum in the 1800 block
of Pine Street for more than 80 years, has sold its old quarters
and put its unparalleled collection of artifacts and documents
in storage.
Now, officials said, the entire
cache may be lost to the city -- just a few years before a major,
long-planned regional commemoration of the Civil War sesquicentennial
is set to begin.
"We are back in a place
where there's a big question mark whether a big part of Philadelphia
's heritage is going to remain here," said Sharon A. Smith,
president and chief executive of the museum. "That's an
unpleasant place to be."
Rendell could
not be reached directly for comment, but Charles Ardo, a spokesman,
wrote in an e-mail Friday that the governor "has limited
funds available to release, has already committed to numerous
projects statewide and in the Philadelphia area, and, unfortunately,
he cannot fund every project."
Former Union
officers established the museum in 1888, and it possesses what
many scholars believe is one of the nation's finest collections
of Civil War materials -- 3,000 artifacts including Jefferson
Davis' smoking jacket; plaster casts of Abraham Lincoln's hands
and face; the first John Wilkes Booth wanted poster; weaponry
of all kinds; the stuffed head of Old Baldy, Gen. George Meade's
trusty warhorse (on long-term loan from the Grand Army of the
Republic Museum in Frankford); and an array of battle flags.
The museum ignited a furor in 2001 when it announced
that it intended to move much of its collection to a museum planned
for Richmond , Va. , capital of the Confederacy.
Descendants
of the Union officers who had donated virtually all of the holdings
were particularly upset. Then-Attorney General Mike Fisher authorized
a state suit in Orphans' Court to block the transfer, and several
powerful politicians, including State Rep. James R. Roebuck and
former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo, both Philadelphia Democrats,
crafted a plan to reconstitute the museum in the city of its
birth.
The leadership of the old library and
museum relented, and Fumo and Roebuck shepherded a $15 million
capital bill through the legislature. Then-Gov. Richard Schweiker
agreed to release the money, which would be used for conserving
the collection and housing the museum in more-visible quarters.
In 2007, the museum reached an agreement with the
National Park Service to move into the stately, neoclassical
First Bank of the United States ; restore the interior; and open
up shop at Third and Chestnut Streets in time for the sesquicentennial
in 2011.
The park service, which had been using
the building for offices and storage, agreed to lease the space
to the museum if funding was in hand by late 2008. According
to E. Harris Baum, museum board chairman, and Smith, the chief
executive, Rendell told museum officials in the spring of 2007
that money would be released when the legislature raised the
debt ceiling -- which it did last year.
Now
Rendell has declined to release the money.
Ardo,
his spokesman, said that "we've met with representatives
of this project several times and have explained" that money
is not available. He said Rendell had suggested that museum officials
work through legislative caucuses to gain access to the money.
State Sen. Lawrence M. Farnese Jr., the Democrat
who succeeded Fumo, could not be reached for comment Friday.
Dennis M. Reidenbach, director of the park service's
Northeast Region, expressed disappointment that the museum would
not be moving into the First Bank building, a National Historic
Landmark. He said the park had extended its expired agreement
with the museum in the hope that state funding would be released.
When that did not happen, park officials agreed they needed to
move forward with their own plans for the facility.
"This
was something we hated to walk away from," Reidenbach said.
Roebuck, the state representative, said he was
"very disappointed" that Rendell had declined to fund
the building.
"I don't understand the governor's
logic in this," Roebuck said. "Perhaps we should have
let the collection go to Richmond . This is the question: Sho
uld we let a vital historical collection remain in the city,
or should we let this unique collection go someplace else? Now
we're back at square one, and we never should have been there
in the beginning."
Kim Sajet, head of the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania, said that while more than
67 organizations would participate in the sesquicentennial commemoration,
only one would have both high visibility and a total focus on
the conflict -- the Civil War Museum of Philadelphia.
That
is now threatened.
"They are an unfortunate
victim of how we value our history and heritage organizations,"
Sajet said. "It's a huge loss. We have to make sure we keep
the collection in the city. Absolutely."
The
museum's Baum and Smith said they were scrambling to find another
home in the historic district.
"We are
in a serious bind," Smith said. "We closed our building
in '08. Our collection is in storage. All of the architectural
work on the First Bank, all of the planning, all of our business
plan -- those no longer have meaning."
She
wrote in an e-mail late Friday: "We never would have invested
about 3/4 million on all of the plans for the new museum if we
didn't think we had the Gov's commitment."
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--(3) Test of Lincoln DNA Sought to Prove
Cancer Theory-----------------------------------------------------
Test of Lincoln DNA Sought to Prove Cancer
Theory
By Ron Todt
4/18/2009
Associated Press (NAT)
http://wtop.com/?nid=104&sid=1652830
John Sotos has a theory about why Abraham Lincoln
was so tall, why he appeared to have lumps on his lips and even
why he had gastrointestinal problems.
The 16th
president, he contends, had a rare genetic disorder _ one that
would likely have left him dead of cancer within a year had he
not been assassinated. And his bid to prove his theory has posed
an ethical and scientific dilemma for a small Philadelphia museum
in the year that marks the 200th anniversary of Lincoln 's birth.
Framed behind glass in the Grand Army of the Republic
Civil War Museum and Library in northeast Philadelphia is a small
piece of bloodstained pillowcase on which the head of the dying
president rested after he was shot at Ford's Theater in Washington
144 years ago.
Sotos, a cardiologist and author,
is hoping a DNA test of the strip will reveal whether Lincoln
was afflicted with multiple endocrine neoplasia, type 2B. The
disorder, which occurs in one in every 600,000 people, would
explain Lincoln 's unusual height, his relatively small and asymmetric
head and bumps on his lips seen in photos, he said.
The
disorder leads to thyroid or adrenal cancer, and Sotos cites
Lincoln 's weight loss in office and an appearance of ill health
during his final months. He said a finding that Lincoln had the
genetic disorder and probably cancer could shed light on his
presidency.
"I'm not interested in how
Lincoln might have died. I'm interested in how he might have
lived," Sotos said.
Several months ago,
Sotos petitioned the museum for permission to test the pillowcase.
Gary Grove, a Civil War enthusiast who advised the museum's board
of directors, said the issue has been contentious in several
meetings.
"There are strong voices both
ways," Grove said. "It has taken up a good portion
of those board meetings."
Eric Schmincke,
president of the museum and its board, said members may decide
at a meeting May 5. They must consider not only possible damage
to the artifact but also moral issues, he said.
"You
have to look at it as questioning someone that more or less can't
defend themselves," Schmincke said.
Sotos,
while declining to discuss the proposed DNA testing, pointed
out that Lincoln has no living direct descendants who would be
affected. "Every letter he every wrote has been published,
every letter his wife wrote that we can find has been published,"
he said.
Schmincke said genetic material goes
far beyond writings.
"That's him _ that's
his blood, his brain matter that's on there," he said. Schmincke
also questioned what a positive result would mean.
"If
they find it's cancer ... it's 140-plus years later," he
said. "Would it have been different? We can only guess or
surmise."
If Lincoln was seriously ill
and knew it, Sotos said, that might explain stories of his premonitions
about death.
"I don't think it was mysticism,
I think that was him knowing what his body was telling him,"
Sotos said. "Then if you're a historian, I think you have
to say ... how does that affect how you run the war, your clemency
toward soldiers who may have deserted their post, the way you
reconcile with the South?"
One problem
with his theory, which he acknowledges: People with MEN-2B normally
die young, and Lincoln was 56 when he was shot. And the malady
is only one of several ascribed to Lincoln; researchers in the
1960s suggested another genetic disorder, Marfan syndrome, to
explain his height, and others say his clumsy gait could have
been due to spinocerebellar ataxia.
Tests have
been done on the remains of presidents to settle controversies,
most famously for evidence on whether Thomas Jefferson fathered
children of his slave, Sally Hemings, and to rule out arsenic
poisoning in the death of Zachary Taylor.
Other
museums, however, have declined to do DNA tests on Lincoln artifacts.
Grove points out that while such material could
shed light on history or answer claims of descent, it could also
lead to commercialization, perhaps through sales of jewelry or
other items embedded with famous DNA.
And while
it may be hard to say what Lincoln would have wanted, the opinion
of his surviving son seems clear. After repeated moves of Lincoln
's remains, as well as an 1876 plot to rob Lincoln 's grave,
Robert Lincoln had his father's remains interred underground
in 1901 in a steel cage encased in concrete in Springfield ,
Ill. , where they remain.
"There,"
Grove said, "we probably have the closest thing of someone
saying, from the family point of view, 'Hey, let's not do this.'"
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--(4) Orange : No to Wilderness Gateway
Study-----------------------------------------------------
Orange : No to Wilderness Gateway Study
By Robin Knepper
4/16/2009
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star (VA)
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/042009/04162009/459705
The Orange County Board of Supervisors has once
again rejected the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition's request
to join a planning study for the State Route 3 area north of
the Wilderness battlefield.
A majority of the
five supervisors have said they considered it an attempt to delay
or derail a Wal-Mart Supercenter proposed for a commercially
zoned site near the Civil War battlefield park.
In
a letter to Jim Campi , policy and communications director of
the Civil War Preservation Trust, Chairman Lee Frame reiterated
that supervisors do not reject the goals of a comprehensive planning
process for the area.
But the county will not
hold up Wal-Mart's application for a special-use permit to build
its 138,000-square-foot store while the study is done, Frame
wrote.
The letter approved by supervisors Tuesday
night is a response to an April 1 letter signed by some members
of the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition and the King family.
The family wants to build a 900-acre mixed-use development near
the proposed Wal-Mart.
That letter attempted
to address the county's concern for economic development in the
area by announcing that the family "wishes to see their
property developed in a responsible manner that benefits the
community and the National Park."
The King
family also owns more than 100 acres on the opposite side of
Route 3 that is considered part of the Wilderness battlefield
and has been approved by Congress for acquisition. Many of those
involved anticipate that the land will be part of a deal that
will put a new intersection on Route 3 and create a road that
will intersect State Route 20 near Ellwood.
The
coalition's Jan. 9 proposal says "decisions regarding these
lands must be made after the Gateway Vision process has reached
a stage where the project development has the benefit of, and
can reflect, the results."
The coalition's
original study timeline was January to June, at which time "
Orange County , developers, and Wilderness Coalition set future
phases and refine agreements."
"The
Coalition is welcome to offer recommendations without the County
committing to a cumbersome planning process at this time,"
Frame wrote.
The same message was sent by Frame
in a Feb. 26 letter to the coalition rejecting the first study
offer.
"They brought this up last year,"
said Supervisor Mark Johnson. "If they'd done [the planning
study], then it would be done by now. We never told them not
to do it."
Supervisor Zack Burkett agreed.
"If they started their study when they originally proposed
it, instead of lying to people all over the country about it,
six months would be up by now," he said.
Some
supervisors have expressed annoyance at the barrage of correspondence
they received as a result of efforts by national and local preservation
groups that oppose Wal-Mart. That annoyance peaked when the Vermont
legislature chimed in with a proclamation opposing development
near the Wilderness battlefield, which includes a monument to
Vermont soldiers.
At Tuesday's meeting, Frame
and Supervisor Teri Pace supported the planning study. But Supervisors
Teel Goodwin, Burkett and Johnson opposed it, calling it a "delaying
tactic" aimed at derailing the proposed Wal-Mart.
"It's really shortsighted of the board not to
accept this offer," Pace said. "All they're asking
is that we hold back for six months."
"If
the coalition has any information relevant to the Wal-Mart location,
they can present it at the public hearings that will be held
before the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors,"
Frame said.
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--(5) Berkeley County Battlefield Group
Makes Progress Preserving Land------------------------------
Berkeley County Battlefield Group Makes
Progress Preserving Land
By Cecelia
Mason
4/15/2009
West Virginia
Public Broadcasting (WV)
http://www.wvpubcast.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=9148
For about five years, the Falling Waters Battlefield
Association has worked to preserve as much of the battlefield
as possible.
The association acknowledges it"s
too late to preserve most of the land because shopping centers
and housing developments have sprung up over large swaths of
the battlefield.
The battlefield at Falling
Waters, also known as the Battle at Hoke's Run,
is in one of Berkeley County's fastest developing
areas.
The area is bisected by both Interstate
81 and U.S. Route 11.
Falling Waters Battlefield
Association president Gary Gimbel said Route 11 was an important
transportation artery in July of 1861.
"Civil
War battles usually at transportation intersections and that's
exactly what happened at Falling Waters," Gimbel
said. "Most battles are fought because of they're
moving on roads. And those roads were important 150 years ago
and they're important now."
The battle at Falling Waters was the first fought
in the Shenandoah Valley and historians believe it contributed
to the Confederate victory at Manassas less than three weeks
later.
About a year ago a local developer donated
about a half acre of land known as Stumpy's Hollow.
Gimbel said an interpretive sign now explains the events that
happened on the property during the battle.
"It
was at this point on July 2, 1861 that J.E.B. Stuart and some
men from the First Virginia Calvary; these were Confederates,
were able to surprise and capture about half a company of the
15th Pennsylvania Infantry," Gimbel said.
There is at least one other piece of property the
Association would like to own: an old house that sits along Route
11 and was at the center of the battle, the home of William Rush
Porterfield and his wife.
Mary Ethel Michael
is a descendant of William Rush Porterfield and a member of the
Battlefield Association. She grew up hearing stories
about the battle.
"The Union troops
had been at Williamsport for several days,æ Michael
said. "So when the Union troops did move across
the river and came here and the Confederate troops under Thomas
J. Jackson came up from Martinsburg they met and fought a battle
here. So the young wife took the four little children and went
the half mile or so over the grandma's house."
But Michael had always heard that William Rush
Porterfield stayed to witness the battle.
The
Porterfield house property is owned by the Wheeling-Charleston
Diocese of the Catholic Church and the Battlefield association
has tried unsuccessfully to buy it.
Gimbel said the Association doesn't
necessarily want to own all the battlefield land but is cooperating
with other property owners to place historical markers.
The group is currently working with the highway department
to put a sign on a piece of state-owned property where a creek
cascades over a waterfall toward the Potomac River .
"Because
a number of things happened there: One, that's the
name of this battle," Gimbel said. "But
also at that point two years later in the Civil War is where
General Robert E. Lee crossed when he was going to Gettysburg
and that's also where he crossed when he was coming
back from Gettysburg."
Gimbel
said in order to cross Lee,Äôs troops put a pontoon
bridge across the Potomac River .
For the third
year in a row, the battlefield at Falling Waters is listed on
the Civil War Preservation Trust's most endangered list. Gimbel
calls inclusion a dubious honor because it means much of the
battlefield is not preserved, but he says it has helped the Association
make progress toward commemorating the battle.
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--(6) Mill Springs Battlefield Association
Wants National Park Status-----------------------------------------------------
Mill Springs Battlefield Association Wants
National Park Status
By Heather Pyles
4/14/2009
Commonwealth Journal
(KY)
http://www.somerset-kentucky.com/local/local_story_104212700.html
Mill Springs Battlefield has long been considered
a historical landmark in Pulaski County. But sometime in the
future, it may become more than that.
Think
Mill Springs Battlefield National Park .
During
Tuesday's Pulaski County Fiscal Court meeting, Gilbert
Wilson, the director of the Mill Springs Battlefield Association,
presented Pulaski Judge-executive Barty Bullock and the magistrates
a resolution in which the court would request that the federal
government establish the battlefield as a national park.
"The county government has been really
great to us," Wilson said after the meeting. "But
we can't indefinitely depend on them to help us."
Wilson said the request comes after two or three
years of consideration over the move.
The Battlefield
Association was created in 1992 to help protect and interpret
the Mill Springs battlefield, and since then the association
has acquired more than 450 acres of battlefield land from private
owners, built a 10,000 square-foot visitors' center
and museum in Nancy and restored a preserved two Civil War-era
homes in Wayne County.
The association also
undertook the expansion of a national register boundary to create
a 10-mile corridor encompassing the entire battlefield, began
providing reenactments and educational programs for the public
and developed several miles of interpretive trails for visitors.
Despite those expansions and improvements, "the
preservation, interpretation and educational effort of the Association
has reached beyond the resources of the Association and local
government to support itself and to fulfill its original goals,"
according to the resolution.
"We
think we've got the battlefield in the position
that for the National Park Service to take it over, it'd
be pretty easy to run with it," Wilson said.
And the battlefield — marking the
site of the January 19, 1862 battle that is considered the first
major Civil War victory in the West for the Union Army — would need to be handed over should the federal government decide
to deem it a national park.
The Mill Springs
Battlefield Association would remain a friend of the Battlefield
organization after the transition.
"Mill
Springs Battlefield has grown to be a major tourist stop in southern
Kentucky and needs to take the next step in its development,"
stated a press release from the association.
Wilson
said the association is also seeking support from local organizations
and schools in taking the step toward establishing the battlefield
a national park.
"This is going
to be a four or five year process," Wilson said.
Wilson emphasized that the park became what it
is today through support from the fiscal court and other local
entities.
Still, for the park to grow, funding
that isn't possible through the association alone,
Wilson said.
"Everybody's
been real positive," Wilson said about reaction
to the resolution.
The Pulaski County Fiscal
Court approved the resolution.
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--(7) State Auctions Civil War-Era Money-----------------------------------------------------
State Auctions Civil War-Era Money
By Ron Barnett
4/13/2009
The State (SC)
http://www.thestate.com/breakingbiz/story/747984.html
The South Carolina Department of Archives and History
has enough cash stored away in cardboard boxes to make a significant
dent in the state's budget deficit.
The only
problem is, it's worthless. Or is it? The department is sorting
through 40 cubic feet of banknotes issued by the Bank of South
Carolina during the Civil War and selling them on eBay -- some
of them for dozens of times their face value.
It's
no huge moneymaker -- the state had raked in $2,200 for the 24
bills it had sold by the end of last week, according to Keith
Shirley, the state's online sales manager for surplus property.
But it's virtually free money at a time when every dollar counts.
"It's actually money that's enabling us to
continue doing what we're supposed to be doing, that we're supposed
to be getting state money for," said Rodger Stroup, director
of the Department of Archives and History.
Each
of the antique bills has been drawing 200 hits or more on eBay,
and a $4 note listed on a government surplus sales site called
govdeals.com got more than 500 visitors, Shirley said.
A minimum bid is set on each bill, ranging from $10
to $150, he said. It costs $2 to $3 to list each item on eBay,
and govdeals.com charges 7.5% of the sale price, he said.
Shirley packs the bills between pieces of cardboard
and ships them in bubble wrap envelopes marked "Do not bend."
The delivery charge is usually between $3 and $5, depending on
the amount of insurance, he said.
State law
allows the proceeds of the sales to be used only for the preservation,
conservation or enhancing of public access to historical documents
-- such as buying acid-free storage boxes, and computer equipment
for digital archives, Stroup said.
But with
a 22 percent cut in its budget since last July, that's something
the department would have had to put on hold without its rediscovered
cash cow.
The bank notes were stashed in the
basement of the Statehouse from the 1880s until the early 1960s,
when they were turned over to archives, Stroup said.
"It's
been kind of a puzzle to the staff as to what to do with them,"
he said. "They're not really documents, which is what state
archives deals with."
The notes had been
redeemed -- at a substantial loss to the owners -- in the 1880s,
when the Supreme Court ruled that the defunct state bank couldn't
declare bankruptcy, according to Dr. Jack Meyer, a retired University
of South Carolina history professor.
These are
not Confederate bills but state-issued bills, said Meyer, who
is volunteering his efforts at sorting through the cache to prepare
bills for sale. Confederate money was worthless after the Confederacy
fell, he said.
The federal government didn't
issue any paper currency from the end of the Revolutionary War
until the Civil War, so many states, in the South as well as
the North, printed paper money, Meyer said. But most of it was
destroyed when the federal government started circulating greenbacks
in 1862.
The cache of South Carolina cash was
supposed to have been destroyed as well, according to Stroup,
the archives department director.
"Some
of them were, but for some reason lots of them were not,"
he said.
Tennessee State Historian Walter T.
Durham said Confederate money circulated in Tennessee during
the Civil War had the image of the state's capitol on it, but
he doesn't know of any state-issued currency surviving the fall
of Nashville in 1862.
Matt Carrothers, a spokesman
for the Georgia Secretary of State's Office, which oversees archives,
said the Peach State is not selling any state-issued currency.
Since he started working on the project a few weeks
ago, Meyer has made it through only one box, which had bills
with a face value he estimates at "several hundred thousand
dollars." Many of them are 5, 10 and 25-cent bills.
According to Shirley, the online sales manager,
the first batch of about 100 notes sold for between $30 and $250
apiece. A $10 note went for $217, he said. Someone gave $40 for
a 5-cent note, he said.
The state has no specific
fundraising goal, Shirley said.
The state isn't
auctioning off all its historical money. One set of uncancelled
bills is being kept in the Department of Archives and History,
one set will go to the state museum and another to the Confederate
Relic Room.
And all the sales aren't being done
online, either.
"We'll sell some of the
more valuable ones in a live auction later," Stroup said.
The notes had been redeemed -- at a substantial
loss to the owners -- in the 1880s, when the Supreme Court ruled
that the defunct state bank couldn't declare bankruptcy, according
to Dr. Jack Meyer, a retired University of South Carolina history
professor.
These are not Confederate bills but
state-issued bills, said Meyer, who is volunteering his efforts
at sorting through the cache to prepare bills for sale. Confederate
money was worthless after the Confederacy fell, he said.
The federal government didn't issue any paper currency
from the end of the Revolutionary War until the Civil War, so
many states, in the South as well as the North, printed paper
money, Meyer said. But most of it was destroyed when the federal
government started circulating greenbacks in 1862.
The
cache of South Carolina cash was supposed to have been destroyed
as well, according to Stroup, the archives department director.
"Some of them were, but for some reason lots
of them were not," he said.
Tennessee State
Historian Walter T. Durham said Confederate money circulated
in Tennessee during the Civil War had the image of the state's
capitol on it, but he doesn't know of any state-issued currency
surviving the fall of Nashville in 1862.
Matt
Carrothers, a spokesman for the Georgia Secretary of State's
Office, which oversees archives, said the Peach State is not
selling any state-issued currency.
Since he
started working on the project a few weeks ago, Meyer has made
it through only one box, which had bills with a face value he
estimates at "several hundred thousand dollars." Many
of them are 5, 10 and 25-cent bills.
According
to Shirley, the online sales manager, the first batch of about
100 notes sold for between $30 and $250 apiece. A $10 note went
for $217, he said. Someone gave $40 for a 5-cent note, he said.
The state has no specific fundraising goal, Shirley
said.
The state isn't auctioning off all its
historical money. One set of uncancelled bills is being kept
in the Department of Archives and History, one set will go to
the state museum and another to the Confederate Relic Room.
And all the sales aren't being done online, either.
"We'll sell some of the more valuable ones
in a live auction later," Stroup said.
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--(8) Supervisors Resist Road Widening
In Buckland-----------------------------------------------------
Supervisors Resist Road Widening In Buckland
By Jennifer Buske
4/12/2009
Washington Post (DC)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/10/AR2009041003923_pf.html
Roads can be moved; history can't. That was the
message Buckland residents sent to the Prince William Board of
County Supervisors on Tuesday in an effort to sway the panel's
vote on a transportation plan amendment meant to preserve their
historic district.
It worked.
After
listening to a few dozen speakers, the board unanimously voted
to reduce the number of lanes the county has planned for Route
29 through the Buckland Historic Overlay District from six to
the current four. The change, which covers the strip between
the Fauquier County line and Route 15, will be made to the county's
comprehensive plan and other planning documents. Supervisors
also voted to attach language to the amendment that reiterates
the area's historical significance and ensures all parties are
involved if transportation changes occur.
"Buckland
is an important county resource, and the majority of the landowners
there support the preservation," said Supervisor W.S. Covington
III (R-Brentsville). "I'm a strong supporter of property
rights, and if the people there recognize what they have and
want to preserve it, I'm going to support them."
The
comprehensive plan, however, serves only as a guide; it is not
a legally binding document. That means the battle to protect
Buckland is not over.
Because the road is a
U.S. highway, state and federal authorities ultimately control
the road design, county planner Ray Utz said.
"We
receive mixed messages about the national and state goals for
this roadway," Utz said. "But I think it's a valuable
thing board members did. They said that historic and preservation
needs are more important and that we should look at alternate
routes to improve transportation through this area."
Mike Salmon, a spokesman for the Virginia Department
of Transportation, said the state's long-range plan does not
include widening Route 29 in Buckland. Widening is proposed in
the Gainesville area. VDOT is also conducting a Route 29 study
to evaluate transportation needs between Prince William and the
North Carolina border.
The current four-lane
road through Buckland serves about 53,000 vehicles daily and
has a service level rating of D, which is considered a nationally
acceptable standard, transportation officials said. Within the
next few years, traffic is expected to increase to about 62,000
vehicles daily. Without a widening project or alternative routes,
the service level would drop to a failing grade.
Buckland
residents and archaeologists have long battled an expansion,
fearing it would destroy the historic village they have worked
to protect.
"You have to protect this area
because once it's gone, it's gone forever," Janice Cunard,
a member of the Prince William County Historical Commission,
told the board Tuesday. "People want to be able to step
back in time and see and feel what it was like. It's impossible
to feel like you are stepping back in time when you have six
lanes of road running by you."
Buckland
was incorporated in 1798, and its location along Broad Run helped
it become a vibrant community in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The village housed mills, shops and a quarry and was frequented
by numerous famous people including George Washington, Andrew
Jackson and James Monroe.
Buckland also played
a prominent role in the Civil War. On Oct. 19, 1863, Confederate
Gen. J.E.B. Stuart staged a fake retreat in Buckland, then ambushed
Union troops, forcing them to flee toward Warrenton. The event
became known as the Buckland Races and marked one of the Confederate
cavalry's last victories of the Civil War.
Buckland
is listed on numerous state and federal historic registers and
marks the halfway point on the Journey Through Hallowed Ground,
a 175-mile stretch between Monticello and Gettysburg that was
declared a National Heritage Area by President George W. Bush
last year.
"History is better observed
than read, but in order to see it, it has to preserved,"
said John McBride, a member of the Buckland Preservation Society.
"We all know there are other ways to move the cars from
Fauquier to Fairfax ."
County planners,
who recommended that the board keep six lanes in the comprehensive
plan but note the area's historical significance, said if the
roadway is widened to six lanes, the expansion could take place
within the 150- to 170-foot right-of-way the state already owns
along Route 29.
But Buckland Preservation Society
President David Blake said doing so would pave over numerous
building foundations and artifacts.
"It's
really disheartening staff took it upon themselves to be so forthright
about this widening as if it meant nothing to the integrity of
the historic landscape," Blake said.
Several
of Buckland's original buildings remain intact, including the
Buckland Tavern, Buckland Mill and the Ned Distiller House, which
was built by a freed slave.
The preservation
society has also secured more than $1.8 million in grants for
preservation easements and restoration projects that will advance
the society's goal of turning Buckland into a tourist destination.
"I want to commend the supervisors for taking
this leadership role and doing the right thing for the commonwealth,"
Blake said. "It's wonderful to see."
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--(9) Restoring Civil War's
Missing History-----------------------------------------------------
Restoring Civil War's Missing
History
By Michael E. Ruane
4/9/2009
Washington Post (DC)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/08/AR2009040801821.html
On Sept. 29, 1864, Union Sgt. Maj. Christian A.
Fleetwood of the 4th U.S. Colored Infantry made a regular entry
in his pocket diary: "Moved out & . . . charged with
the 6th at daylight . . . got used up. Saved colors."
Fleetwood, 24, later a leading resident of the
District, couldn't go into detail about the battle at New Market
Heights , outside Richmond . There wasn't room to describe how
the exhausted black soldiers charged in the face of heavy Confederate
infantry fire or how they were cut down ("used up")
in droves.
And there was no place to describe
how, of the 12 men in the regiment's color guard, all but one
were felled, or how Fleetwood bore the flag to safety, an action
that earned him the Medal of Honor.
Although
New Market Heights was not one of the grand battles of the Civil
War, it was a place of death and valor for the soldiers who fought
there. Fleetwood's medal was one of 14 Medals of Honor earned
by black troops in the battle that day.
The
scene of their heroism has been listed by the Civil War Preservation
Trust as one of the 10 most-endangered battlefields in the country.
The site has one roadside marker describing the
battle. Little of the land on which the fighting occurred is
protected from development, officials from the trust said at
a news conference last month.
"There is
no land at New Market Heights that is owned or controlled by
a preservation organization," said Mary Koik, a spokeswoman
for the trust. Henrico County owns some of the land, she said,
but of the property in private hands, "anything could happen
to it at any time," she said.
She said
some housing has been built on the site, and more development
has been proposed.
Little attention was paid
to the battle until the 1970s, said Mike Andrus, National Park
Service supervisory ranger of the Richmond National Battlefield
Park . He said the overall battlefield is about 1,000 acres.
"It's sad but true that what it comes down
to is for a long time, [the work of black regiments] wasn't given
the credence and credit it deserves," Koik said.
Now,
she said, there is a push to recognize their deeds and preserve
the sites where the black soldiers fought.
The
Battle of New Market Heights, or Chaffin's Farm, as it also known,
was a part of the Union Army's long-term strategy in 1864 to
stretch and probe the Confederate forces around Richmond for
a breakthrough in the closing months of the war.
About
dawn on the day of the attack, Fleetwood and about 300 other
men in his regiment assaulted the well-entrenched rebels who
were also protected by palisades and lines of makeshift obstructions
called abatis.
"It was a deadly hailstorm
of bullets sweeping men down as hail-stones sweep the leaves
from trees," Fleetwood wrote after the war.
"It
was very evident that there was too much work cut out for our
two regiments," he wrote. "Strong earthworks, protected
in front by two lines of abatis, and one line of palisades, and
in the rear by a lot of men who evidently knew how to shoot,
and largely outnumbered us.
"We struggled
through the two lines of abatis, a few got through the palisades,
but it was sheer madness, and those of us who were able, had
to get out as best we could," he wrote.
"When
the charge was started, our Color guard was full; two sergeants
(carrying the Colors,) and ten corporals. Only one of the twelve
came off that field on his own feet. Most of them are there still."
Fleetwood recounted that after the battle, he was
able to gather only about 115 comrades from his regiment. Andrus
said that of the roughly 700 men in the two black regiments,
387 were casualties.
During the Civil War, Fleetwood's
rank of sergeant major was the highest rank a black soldier could
attain in the U.S. Army, the National Park Service said.
After the war, Fleetwood, a native of Baltimore
, moved to the District and worked in the War Department and
Freedmen's Bank. He helped organize and lead local high school
cadet corps and African American elements of the D.C. National
Guard, and was a fierce guardian of the legacy of the role black
soldiers played in the Civil War and previous conflicts.
"After each war," he wrote in a speech
in 1895, "history repeats itself in the absolute effacement
of remembrance of the gallant deeds done for the country by its
brave black defenders. . . .
"History further
repeats itself in the fact that in every war so far known to
this country, the first blood, and, in some cases, the last also,
has been shed" by black soldiers. "And this in spite
of all the years of bondage and oppression, and of wrongs unspeakable."
Fleetwood died Sept. 28, 1914, the day before the
50th anniversary of the Battle of New Market Heights.
In
1948, his daughter Edith donated his Medal of Honor to the Smithsonian
Institution.
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--(10) Panel Rejects Bill to Block Incinerator
near Monocacy Battlefield----------------------------
Panel Rejects Bill to Block Incinerator
near Monocacy Battlefield
Associated
Press
4/7/2009
Associated Press
(NAT)
http://www.herald-mail.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_id=220498&format=html
A state Senate committee has rejected a bill that
would have blocked construction of a proposed trash incinerator
near a Civil War battlefield just south of Frederick .
The action effectively kills an effort by local Republican
Sen. Alex Mooney to prevent Frederick County from building a
$527 million incinerator in an industrial park near the Monocacy
National Battlefield.
The incinerator would
burn trash from Frederick and Carroll counties to generate electricity
and conserve landfill space.
The bill would
have barred new, large-scale incinerators within a mile of national
parks.
The Senate Education, Health and Environmental
Affairs Committee voted 6-3 Friday to give the bill an unfavorable
report.
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--(11) Wal-Mart, Wilderness Discussion
Broadens-----------------------------------------------------
Wal-Mart, Wilderness Discussion Broadens
By Clint Schemmer
4/1/2009
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star (VA)
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/042009/04032009/456161
The dynamics of the conversation about land use
in eastern Orange County may be changing.
The
area's largest private landowner, the King family, is joining
with preservationists this week to ask the county and the retailer
it has been wooing--Wal-Mart Stores Inc.--to sit down together
and plan the future of the State Route 3 corridor.
The
Kings, who own 2,173 acres between the Wilderness battlefield
and the Rapidan River, have agreed to engage in an open-ended
effort to try balancing their interests with historic preservation
and Orange's desire for economic development in that area.
King family members and the Wilderness Battlefield
Coalition are inviting the county's elected officials to collaborate
in examining the possibilities for the "gateway" shared
by Orange and the Civil War battlefield.
The
Kings and the coalition, in a joint statement delivered late
Wednesday to Board Chairman Lee Frame and County Administrator
Bill Rolfe, said they "strongly encourage" Orange to
take part in the land-use planning process they both endorse.
That renews and expands on an offer the coalition
made in January to the county Board of Supervisors, which was
rejected by three members. The majority called it a ruse to delay
their decision on a retail center anchored by a 138,000-square-foot
Wal-Mart Supercenter proposed just north of the State Routes
3 and 20 crossroads.
Last year, the board rejected
the Kings' request to rezone 177 acres to allow commercial development
at the southwest corner of Routes 3 and 20.
Board
Chairman Lee Frame, in an interview yesterday, expressed skepticism
about the King-coalition statement. "I'm not sure this letter
offers much more than what was offered before, that it's anything
new or different," he said.
PRESERVATIONISTS LAUD KINGS' COMMITMENT
The
gateway planning effort "is very open-ended, with no preconceived
notions," said Jim Campi , spokesman for the Civil War Preservation
Trust. "We'll see what alternatives result at the end. We're
talking about a process that goes far beyond 100-foot buffers,
that involves all aspects of the planning process.
"Now
is the time to start moving forward with this. The preservation
community is committed to it, and the King family is committed
to it."
Rob Nieweg, director of the National
Trust for Historic Preservation's Southern Field Office, said
"the Kings are making it very clear that this is not a delaying
tactic; this is responsible governance."
"Preservationists
and the largest property owner in this region are asking Orange
County to live up to its obligations, under state law, to plan
for future growth and ensure heritage preservation," Nieweg
said. "Those twin goals are in the county's comprehensive
plan."
Russ Smith, superintendent of Fredericksburg
& Spotsylvania National Military Park , praised the Kings
for their willingness to work together on land-use issues.
"It's a difficult task, but well worth the
effort," Smith said. "We hope that the owners of the
Wal-Mart property will join in."
Campi
of the Civil War Preservation Trust said the coalition hopes
to discuss the joint statement soon with the world's largest
retailer. "We've had some conversations with Wal-Mart, and
the lines of communication remain open," he said.
WAL-MART WEIGHS IN
Keith Morris,
director of public affairs and government relations for Wal-Mart's
northeast region, said the retail giant shares the same goals
as the coalition.
"Through our own careful
planning, creative design, and meetings with the community, our
development is absolutely compatible with preservation of the
battlefield and national park," Morris said. "We are
glad to see the coalition recognize that carefully planned development
and preservation of the battlefield park are not mutually exclusive."
If some of the Kings' 3.4 square miles may be considered
compatible for development, Morris said, "it would be hard
to argue that our commercially zoned and comprehensively planned
site of 50 acres, where almost one-third will remain undeveloped
and preserved, is somehow not compatible."
One
group in the eight-member coalition, the Piedmont Environmental
Council, declined to sign the joint statement.
"It
seemed to go a little too far," PEC State Policy Director
Daniel Holmes said, referring to the assertion that historic-site
preservation may be in accord with what it calls "large-scale
commercial development."
"However,
the PEC supports this gateway planning process," Holmes
said. "We feel it's in the best interests of the county
to take a look at that before making any major development decisions
[along Route 3]. In that way, we do not differ at all with the
rest of the members of the coalition."
Catharine
Gilliam, Virginia program manager with the National Parks Conservation
Association, said this week's statement grew out of informal
conversations the King family had been having for months with
coalition representatives.
"The
Kings and the coalition recognized we had a lot more common ground
than had been acknowledged before, and that this planning and
visioning effort will identify where there could be consensus,"
she said.
Kenny Dotson, the King family's local
representative, agreed. "We realized that if we didn't listen
to the coalition we'd be fighting them," he said.
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--(12) Students Partner with Park Service-----------------------------------------------------
Students Partner with Park Service
By Jillian E. Kesner
3/28/2009
Martinsburg Journal (WV)
http://www.journal-news.net/page/content.detail/id/517549.html?nav=5006
HARPERS FERRY, WV - Harpers Ferry National Historical
Park was a flurry of activity Friday as 60 students from Harpers
Ferry Middle School filmed and directed scenes for a special
project tied to the 150th anniversary of John Brown's Raid.
The Park Service teamed up with Harpers Ferry Middle
School and the nonprofit Journey Through Hallowed Ground organization
to create the project, which is geared toward children and will
be unveiled in June.
HFMS students filmed scenes
Friday that will be edited into two-minute "Vodcasts,"
or video podcasts, which can be downloaded onto iPods and used
as a virtual park ranger to guide students through different
park areas.
The Journey Through Hallowed Ground
organization provided camera equipment and will edit the videos,
which will premier on June 25 in Harpers Ferry . Vodcast topics
include John Brown's children, the town's and children's perspectives
of the raid, raid member Dangerfield Newby, Hog Alley and African
American raids.
Once completed, the Vodcasts
will be available for download at the Harpers Ferry National
Historic Park Web site at www.nps.gov/hafe.
The
project idea started last year when park officials approached
HFMS Principal Joseph Spurgas about a partnership.
"
Harpers Ferry wanted to reach out to young kids," said John
Jones, director of communications for the Hallowed Ground agency.
Jones said the project is a great way for students
to create something for other children.
Prior
to this project, there was no multi-media offering for students.
"It's an opportunity to do a project with
kids, for kids and allow kids to relate to John Brown,"
said Dennis Frye, chief historian for the park.
Although
Friday was the only day students were filming, they have been
working since January on pre-production.
"The
students have been doing everything," Frye said. "Filming,
artwork, costumes, writing the script and working with park rangers
and teachers. ... They've immersed themselves in a project kids
will relate to."
The students, in grades
six through eight, went through a three-day immersion class at
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park on Brown and the Civil
War. Later, students met for a workshop to prepare for the project,
write scripts and make plans for production.
Frye
said the project has never been done before at national parks.
"This epitomizes service learning," Frye
said. "This is service learning and teaching by telling
the story of John Brown."
The project is
funded by a grant from the Civil War Preservation Trust and the
Harpers Ferry Historical Association.
Catherine
Bragaw, education director for the Park Service, said park rangers
assisted the students Friday by helping them with shots and answering
questions to make the Vodcasts as authentic as possible.
Bragaw said that while the Park Service has provided
family and youth tours in the past, this is the first time to
use audio and visual guides.
Jeremy Vile, a
seventh-grader at HFMS, said he feels good that the project will
help kids better understand Harpers Ferry's history.
"I
did this so people can learn the story of John Brown," said
Vile, who is playing the role of Brown's son Watson in the Vodcasts.
It's great to see his story continuing for future
generations," said Lauren Simpson, president of the HFMS
broadcasting club. "I think our video will create a better
opportunity for kids to enjoy it. We're trying to make it interesting
for kids."
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