(1) Battlefield Park Preserved - Northern Virginia Daily
(2) Third Winchester Battlefield Land Secured - Washington Post
(3) Preserving a Piece of History - WHSVABC3 Winchester
(4) Officials Say Civil War Means Business - Dalton Citizen
(5) A Less Commercialized Future for Willow Run - Culpeper Star-Exponent
(6) Preparing to Bury the Past - Williamson Herald
(7) Divers Survey Wreckage of Civil War-era Boat in Tampa - Tampa Tribune
(8) Graffiti House Displays Unique 1861 Flag - Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
(9) Re-enactors March to Preserve Farmland - Frederick News-Post
(10) Opinion: Walmart's Rueful Victory at the Wilderness -Washington Post
(11) Virginia Wind Power Project Draws Flack from Across the Border - Charleston Gazette
--(1) Battlefield Park Preserved -----------------------------------------------------
Battlefield Park Preserved
By Garren Shipley
9/19/2009
Northern Virginia Daily (VA)
http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2009/09/battlefield-park-preserved.php
One of the region's most significant Civil War battlefields has
been preserved through a cooperative effort of government and
the private sector.
The Huntsberry Farm, a large part of the Middle Field of the Third
Battle of Winchester, has been purchased and made part of a 567-acre
battlefield park just outside Winchester.
Federal, state and local officials along with nonprofit agencies
gathered on the site Friday to officially recognize the purchase
of the land.
The $3.35 million purchase adds 209 acres to existing preservation
parcels in the area, creating a unified 567-acre battlefield park.
Congress set aside $1.23 million for the project, with the balance
coming from state and local funds and funding from the Shenandoah
Valley Battlefields Foundation and the Civil War Preservation
Trust.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Jim Webb said the battlefield purchase keeps
faith with history and keeps "it alive in ways that reflect
our responsibility as stewards of the history of this country,"
he said.
Current generations have an obligation to "make sure that
generations that are now coming of age and generations that will
be around after we're gone understand the struggles that the country,"
Webb said.
Civil War preservation has its critics, he said.
"Why put so much energy into preserving a place where people
killed each other and had such violent activities?" Webb
said.
The simplest explanation, he said, can be found on the Confederate
memorial in Arlington National Cemetery.
"Not for fame or reward, not for place or for rank, not lured
by ambition or goaded by necessity, but in simple obedience to
duty as they understood it. These men suffered all sacrificed
all dared all and died," he said.
"What better way to say it," he said. "This is
a great place to come and remember what sacrifice is, and what
it means."
Third Winchester marked the turning point of Gen. Philip Sheridan's
campaign to take the Shenandoah Valley and destroy the Confederacy's
agricultural heartland.
In September 1864, Confederate Gen. Jubal Early's forces were
spread thinly in a line stretching from Martinsburg to far up
the valley. When Sheridan learned of the weak force protecting
Winchester, he immediately made for the southern stronghold.
But Union forces had difficulty navigating through narrow Berryville
Canyon -- the current route of Va. 7 from Interstate 81 to Clarke
County.
The delay gave Early's forces time to prepare for the assault.
The result was one of the most blood-soaked battles of the war.
Some 9,000 men fell during the battle.
--(2) Third Winchester Battlefield Land Secured -----------------------------------------------------
Third Winchester Battlefield Land Secured
By Linda Wheeler
9/18/2009
Washington Post (DC)
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/house-divided/2009/09/3rd_winchester_battlefield_sec.html
A small army of preservation group representatives, Virginia government
officials and Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va) stood on the very ground where
some of the fiercest fighting of 3rd Winchester took place on
Sept. 19, 1864, and declared victory in saving a piece of that
battlefield.
Although the purchase of the 209-acre Huntsberry Farm was announced
last year, settlement did not take place until August, when the
funding of the $3.35 million purchase was in place.
"As someone with ancestors who fought on both sides of the
American Civil War, the preservation of these battlefields has
personal significance," Webb told a small crowd of reporters,
re-enactors and school children.
"This is a grand place," he said. "People will
come here to remember the sacrifice to duty made here. It is a
wonderful gift."
Webb and others spoke of the close cooperation between government
and private organizations that made the purchase possible.
Webb's support of the legislation that became the Civil War Battlefields
Preservation Program, that makes grants available for battlefield
purchase, was key to closing the deal with the Kingsberry family,
according to those involved. The Preservation Program gave a $1.23
million matching grant to the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation
and the Civil War Preservation Trust, the nonprofits making the
purchase.
The Virginia Land Conservation Foundation contributed $1 million
to the effort and Frederick County, where the battlefield is located,
donated $112,000 to help pay for the land.
This purchase is considered particularly important because it
links two other parcels already preserved from development. Together,
the three properties equal 567 acres of battlefield park land.
Although the sound of traffic on I-81 can be heard, the land looks
much as it did in 1864, when Union Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan launched
his destructive Valley Campaign across the farm fields of Frederick
County. Shortly after the war, the land resumed its agricultural
character. Even today, the fields are covered with a stubble left
from the last crops, and dirt roads are the only way to cross
the land.
--(3) Preserving a Piece of History -----------------------------------------------------
Preserving a Piece of History
By Chanel Caraway
9/18/2009
WHSV ABC3 Winchester (VA)
http://www.tv3winchester.com/home/headlines/59784502.html
One hundred, forty-five years ago, The Third Battle of Winchester
was fought on what is now an historic site.
More than 8-thousand lives were lost, but the bloodshed and self-sacrifice
is not forgotten.
United States Senator Jim Webb along with state and local politicians
gathered on the battlefield vowing to preserve the war torn land.
"History really still does live. It's important to keep it
alive in ways that reflect our responsibility as stewards of the
history of this country," he says.
Webb says he is not glorifying war or the causalities that come
with, but it offers a glimpse of history.
"There are few places where you can understand the impact
of historical decisions more clearly than on a battlefield".
Thousands of acres of battlefield have been preserved across the
Shenandoah Valley with the help of preservation groups, but there
is still work to be done.
"Battlefield protection is more than institutionalized land
protection. We have preserved over 6,000 acres to date in the
Shenandoah Valley. We have over 14,000 acres that have not been
protected, much of which is headed for development if we do not
act within the next few years," says W. Denman Zirkle, Executive
Director of Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation.
Third Winchester Battlefield is one of only 45 sites the National
Park Service credits with having a direct impact on the course
of war. It also includes a 5 mile educational walking and biking
trail.
--(4) Officials Say Civil War Means Business -----------------------------------------------------
Officials Say Civil War Means Business
By Charles Oliver
9/18/2009
Dalton Citizen
http://www.northwestgeorgia.com/local/local_story_261190723.html
More than 1,100 schoolchildren from Whitfield County and Bradley
County, Tenn., stared wide-eyed at Civil War re-enactors as guns
cracked around them Friday. They came to learn more about the
Civil War from the men who will recreate the Battle of Tunnel
Hill Saturday and Sunday.
And about a dozen business and political leaders came to the Tunnel
Hill battlefield Friday for another matter.
"If you want to see the value of our historical artifacts
and areas in Whitfield County, just look around," said Whitfield
County Board of Commissioners chairman Mike Babb. "Our heritage
is very important to us. But today, we are not here to talk about
history. We are here to talk about business."
Babb and others unveiled a new driving tour of Whitfield County's
Civil War sites that they hope will bring more tourists to the
area.
"In the state of Georgia, heritage tourism brings in more
than $450 million a year. We want to make sure here in Dalton
and Whitfield County we get our just and fair share," Babb
said.
He noted that Tunnel Hill was not only a site of battle as Union
Gen. William Sherman prepared for his Atlanta campaign, but that
the nearby railroad tunnel has a lot of history as well.
"When it first opened (in 1850), it was one of the engineering
marvels of the world. And more than 10 years later, it played
a role in what was called the Great Locomotive Chase," Babb
said.
That was when Union soldiers stole a train near present-day Kennesaw
and drove it north towards Chattanooga, trying to do as much damage
to the railroad as they could on the way.
The sites on the driving tour are marked by special signs, and
a book and CD package will be sold at the Tunnel Hill Heritage
Center and at the Dalton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau's
visitors center for $15, which will direct travelers to the sites
and tell the stories behind them. Other places where the package
can be found will be listed on the CVB's Web site, http://www.visitdaltonga.com/.
"All the money goes back into advertising and marketing the
area," said Babb.
Whitfield County administrator Bob McLeod said the idea to do
a driving tour came up about 14 months ago when local tourism
officials were talking about ways to market the area.
"Hopefully, this is just the first step. There will be other
projects coming along," McLeod said.
Dalton Mayor David Pennington said the driving tour is just the
first of several planned projects to draw attention to Whitfield
County's historic sites in preparation for the sesquicentennial
of the Civil War, which starts in 2011.
"This is something that a lot of hard work has been put into,"
said CVB board chairman John Davis. "The folks who put this
together did a good job gathering a lot of hard facts."
Ken Sumner, one of the re-enactors gathered for the weekend, praised
local leaders for helping to preserve local historic sites and
bringing them to the attention of visitors.
"The driving tour will get people off I-75," he said.
--(5) A Less Commercialized Future for Willow Run
-----------------------------------------------------
A Less Commercialized Future for Willow Run
By Rob Humphreys
9/17/2009
Culpeper Star-Exponent (VA)
http://www2.starexponent.com/cse/news/local/article/a_less_commercialized_future_for_willow_run/43469/
Willow Run, billed three years ago as a massive retail destination
planned for eastern Culpeper County, has fallen victim to the
recession.
Instead, 442 acres of the property along U.S. 29 will likely transfer
into a conservation easement with the Virginia Department of Historic
Resources.
A separate piece of nearby land at Beverly's Ford - arguably the
Civil War's most fought-over river crossing - could also be preserved
through the DHR.
Both properties are on the agenda for today's joint meeting of
the State Review and Historic Resources boards in Richmond.
"We won't know for a while" whether the easement application
goes through, said Chuck Gyory, who owns the Willow Run property
along with his brother Pete. "It's a very complex process."
When landowners agree to easements with the state, they retain
their property but forfeit development rights in return for tax
credits. Future owners must follow the same rules.
In this case, the easements are significant for two reasons:
- Land could be saved that witnessed heavy troop movements and
fighting during the Battle of Brandy Station and several other
Civil War skirmishes.
- In a more modern context, it shows just how far the local economy
has plummeted.
The Gyory property
Willow Run, which supports a commercial greenhouse operation and
sits southeast of Culpeper Regional Airport, made headlines three
years ago as "the next big thing" in commercial real
estate.
In August 2006, Fairfax-based USA Development Inc. submitted plans
to the county that would have transformed Willow Run into more
than 3 million square feet of retail space - rivaling Fredericksburg's
Central Park.
Site plans included: shops, gas stations, 16 restaurants, a movie
theater, ice-skating facility, three hotels, 300-loft style apartments,
office space, a lighted golf course, retirement center, water
park, equestrian village, private school and 9,078 parking spaces.
At the time, Culpeper County's planning director said it would
be one of the largest commercial developments in the state. Bill
Chase, who represents the Stevensburg District on the Board of
Supervisors, had called it "the right thing for the right
place."
Proffers to the county would have included road improvements,
$8,000 per residential unit, and construction of a large-scale
water and sewer system along Mountain Run.
The plans, of course, never materialized. When the real estate
market crashed, Willow Run - for many years the site of Culpeper
Fest - became just another piece of open farmland.
"We realized it wasn't going to be viable about a year ago,"
Chuck Gyory said, "and the developer just couldn't do it,
which is understandable."
Gyory, 66, president of the Culpeper Chamber of Commerce in the
early 1990s, has mixed emotions about the turn of events.
"I think that property was ideally suited for a spectacular
development," he said. "It's also ideally suited as
a farm for scenic value."
Gyory's family, which sold the nursery in 2006, will still own
the Willow Run property, which is being used to make hay. The
greenhouse's current owners are moving to another location in
October, so Gyory is trying to find a business that will occupy
the industrial buildings already on site.
As for why the family decided to apply for a historical easement,
Gyory pointed to a combination of reasons.
"It's time to retire," he said, "and I know the
economic situation is not going to improve for quite a few years.
It just makes sense, and we'll be able to keep our very pretty
farm."
The Stilwell property
The Stilwell family owns a large piece of property just north
of Willow Run, at the confluence of the Hazel and Rappahannock
rivers.
Their 208 acres is the second tract up for consideration at today's
state board meeting.
Contacted by phone Wednesday, Bill Stilwell chose not to comment
for this story, only saying that the easement deal has yet to
go through.
The Stilwell property is especially important for preservation
purposes, according to historian Clark "Bud" Hall, because
it embraces Beverly's Ford, a strategic point where Union and
Confederate soldiers repeatedly crossed the Rappahannock.
"The Gettysburg campaign," Hall said, "opened at
Beverly's Ford when Federal cavalry attacked on the morning of
June 9, 1863," during the Battle of Brandy Station.
The battle saw considerable cavalry fighting in the area of both
the Stilwell and Gyory properties. Six months later, that area
of the county housed 20,000 troops from the Union's Sixth Corps
during the winter encampment of 1863-64.
Both properties are "extraordinarily significant," and
keeping them free from development is a "huge plus,"
said Hall, a founding member of the Civil War Preservation Trust
and the Brandy Station Foundation. Hall, a retired Marine and
former FBI manager, is considered the leading historian on Culpeper's
role in the Civil War.
Preservation
Much of the Brandy Station battlefield, which incorporates a wide
geographic area, has been preserved through land acquisitions
by the CWPT and BSF.
In the past 20 years, both organizations have pushed to save parts
of the battlefield that have been threatened by development -
specifically, residential housing, a corporate office complex
and a proposed Formula One racetrack.
And while a campaign was never waged to fight the Willow Run retail
development, preservationists like Hall are happy with the result.
"This is a really big deal," he said. "If, in fact,
these easements go through, major historic resources of Culpeper
County will be protected in perpetuity. It benefits all of us,
and the landowners are to be heartily commended for seeking easements
on their magnificent properties."
--(6) Preparing to Bury the Past -----------------------------------------------------
Preparing to Bury the Past
By Mindy Tate
9/17/2009
Williamson Herald (TN)
http://www.williamsonherald.com/home?id=66283
Like a jigsaw puzzle with so many pieces, preparations for the
Oct. 8-10 ceremony surrounding the reburial of a Civil War-era
soldier discovered in May on a Columbia Avenue construction site
are continuing.
Tuesday, crews assembled what will become the monument at the
final resting place of Franklin's Unknown Soldier in the city's
Rest Haven Cemetery. Pieces of the original columns of the Tennessee
State Capitol, which have been resting in a reliquary behind the
old Tennessee State Prison, organizers told aldermen a few weeks
ago.
Three sections of the Tennessee limestone columns were arranged
and then cap pieces added to create the monument, under the direction
of Robin Hood, a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer who lives
in Franklin and serves on the city's Battlefield Task Force.
"William Strickland did not know the Tennessee limestone
columns were not as impervious to weather and would not have known
100 years later they would need to be replaced," Hood said
Tuesday, referring to a 1955 restoration of the Capitol in which
all the columns were replaced with Indiana limestone.
The pieces were hand selected by Hood and other members of the
task force, who take seriously the charge of giving Franklin's
Unknown Soldier a proper burial, one that is expected to attract
national media attention.
The Oct. 10 burial will be the final event in a three-day ceremony
being planned by the city's Battlefield Preservation Task Force
and a subcommittee created for ensuring the proper reburial of
the remains, discovered May 14 on a construction site on Columbia
Avenue.
The initial discovery May 14 of bones and buttons related to a
Union soldier, further excavation led to the discovery of the
soldier's entire skeleton, a makeshift casket and a minie ball
in the pocket of a coat.
While first labeled as a Union soldier, historians have since
backed off, describing the soldier instead as "Franklin's
Unknown" due to the fact of markers from both sides of the
conflict.
Also completed has been a handmade coffin to house the soldier's
remains, built by Van Baron, a self-employed handyman. He used
the Internet to research the "toe pincher" coffin design,
which tapers at the foot and is made of spruce.
"It took about six hours," Baron said of the project,
which has now been turned over to task force members. Wolfe Fields
Development Co., owners of the former Through the Green site where
the remains were found, is paying all costs associated with reinterment,
including the purchase of the vault and materials for the coffin.
Williamson Memorial Funeral Home has agreed to dig the grave at
no cost, according to organizers.
The three-day ceremony for the reinternment begins by the soldier
lying in state at St. Paul's Episcopal Church on Oct. 8-9 before
a 10 a.m. ceremony on Saturday, Oct. 10. His casket will be borne
from the church by Union and Confederate uniformed pallbearers
by a horse-drawn caisson through a processional along Franklin's
Main Street to Rest Haven Cemetery.
"This ceremony we are planning is not a Confederate event.
It is not a Union event. It is an American event," Hood told
aldermen last month.
"I think it is going to be significant, not just for people
who are interested in history or reenactors," Hood said.
"I think it will be a significant event for Franklin and
all of Tennessee. I think the long-range return for our investment
in this event, it is immeasurable. It will be a catalyst for future
events and recognition of Franklin as a historic tourism destination."
Crews from the city's Streets and Parks departments have been
working with Battlefield Task Force members on plans for the monument
and were on hand to guide the columns into place as a huge crane
from McCord Equipment moved them.
"The unknown soldier has really brought the entire community
of Franklin together. So many people have donated their time or
money to make the October ceremony possible," said Milissa
Reierson, city communications manager. "The Board of Mayor
and Aldermen and entire city staff are working together also to
make this event successful and create a suitable resting place
for this soldier."
Rest Haven is the final resting place of many Civil War-era veterans
- Union and Confederate - and at least one soldier who died
during the Nov. 30, 1864, Battle of Franklin - Capt. Tod Carter,
who died a few days after the battle at his family's home on Columbia
Avenue.
For the Oct. 10 processional, West Main Street from Seventh Avenue
to Five Points and Main Street from Five Points to Second Avenue
will be closed from midnight to noon on Oct. 10. Third Avenue
from the Square to North Margin and North Margin from Fifth to
Second Avenue will be closed from 11 a.m. until noon Oct. 10.
The Five Points intersection will be closed to all traffic from
approximately 10:45 a.m. until 11:15 a.m. Oct. 10 while the processional
occurs.
--(7) Divers Survey Wreckage of Civil War-era Boat
in Tampa -----------------------------------------------------
Divers Survey Wreckage of Civil War-era Boat in Tampa
By Keith Morelli
9/15/2009
Tampa Tribune (FL)
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/sep/15/151631/divers-survey-wreckage-civil-war-era-boat-tampa/news-breaking/
Amid the flotsam drifting lazily down the Hillsborough River just
north of downtown are four bobbing floats that are indistinguishable
from the rest of the garbage: two bright yellow squares, an empty
Dasani water bottle and a white crab trap buoy.
But those markers, tethered to the bottom at precise locations,
are more than just garbage. They float above what is thought to
be Tampa's most significant submerged historical find: the Scottish
Chief.
A Civil War-era wooden steamship that smuggled cotton and cattle
hides to Cuba, the Scottish Chief also returned with ammunition
and guns for Confederate troops and Cuban cigars and fine wine
for a deprived city in the grips of a strangling Union blockade.
The wreckage was found three weeks ago, and researchers and archaeological
divers with The Florida Aquarium are just plain giddy about it.
They have plunged into the murky Hillsborough River in the shadow
of the Interstate 275 downtown bridge for three weeks, making
exact measurements and plotting how the hull lies, mostly by feel.
Visibility there, clouded by tannin and silt, is extremely poor.
The wreckage is thought to be the second Confederate blockade
runner discovered over the past three years in waters around Tampa
Bay as part of an underwater mapping project conducted by the
aquarium.
Chief researcher John William Morris said the dimensions of the
wreck are within inches of that of the Scottish Chief, and it's
in a spot where the vessel was believed abandoned by Confederate
troops after Tampa's one and only Civil War skirmish. He said
three archaeologists and four maritime historians have been consulted
and all conclude that this almost certainly is the Scottish Chief.
"This is a fairly major find," said Morris, sitting
in the back of a boat floating above the wreck this morning. "This
is a major component in the history of this area."
The 124-foot oak and pine steamer that was built in North Carolina
in 1855 was towed downstream from where it was heavily damaged
in a Yankee raid in 1863, where all the engine workings and anything
else that was salvageable was taken. The hull was abandoned there,
he said. It sank and that's where it sits today.
"It's buried to the gunwales and the preservation factor
is pretty high," he said. The muck mostly is anaerobic, meaning
the hull may have withstood decomposition and be fully intact.
Last year, divers mapped and surveyed the wreck of the Kate Dale,
a blockade runner found in the Hillsborough River near Lowry Park.
Much speculation surfaced about the location of the Scottish Chief.
Both vessels were owned by James McKay, Tampa maritime pioneer
and Confederate smuggler and the man for whom McKay Bay is named.
Six times, McKay successfully ran the blockade of Tampa Bay, slipping
by Union warships patrolling near Egmont Key. Stealth was a matter
of life or death on those runs, according to an account of era
in "The River of the Golden Ibis" by Gloria Jahoda,
and McKay typically ordered his sailors on nighttime runs not
to light cigars or pipes to avoid detection.
But the Yankees learned of the runners and where they were docked
and staged an attack on Oct. 17, 1863.
Under the cover of darkness, Union gunships opened fire on Fort
Brooke in downtown Tampa, but the shelling was just a diversion
for about 100 troops to slip ashore and make their way north some
six miles along the river's edge to what is now the Lowry Park
area. There, they attacked and set fire to the Kate Dale, a schooner
known for its speed. The wooden ship burned to the water line
and sank on the spot.
The Union soldiers were pursued to Ballast Point, where a skirmish
ensued. Three Union soldiers and 12 Confederates were killed.
Initially, reports said that both the Kate Dale and the Scottish
Chief were burned at the dock, but the Scottish Chief, damaged
in the attack, likely was towed by Confederates downriver to a
spot across from what is now Blake High School, where it was stripped
of anything useful and abandoned in about 15 feet of water.
The third vessel moored near the Kate Dale near Lowry Park that
night was the Noyes, a barge that was later moved by Confederate
troops and set on fire to keep it from falling into the hands
of the Yankees. The location of the Noyes wreck remains a mystery,
although it is thought to be in the river between downtown and
Lowry Park, possibly about 150 yards north of where the Scottish
Chief lies.
The fourth Civil War vessel sunk in Tampa Bay waters is a Union
tugboat that was damaged by a mine in the August 1964 Battle of
Mobile Bay and was en route to New York to be decommissioned when
a combination of rough weather and shallow water planted it permanently
on a shoal under 15 feet of water near Egmont Key.
"While Tampa's role in the Civil War may have been minor,"
Morris said, "it was a colorful and fascinating time in the
early development of Tampa's history. James McKay was certainly
the father of Tampa's maritime industry, and his ships were the
focal point of the skirmish at Ballast Point, Tampa's only battle
of the Civil War."
Archaeologists likely won't raise the Scottish Chief, even though
it appears to be intact. Rather, they will survey and plot its
position to recreate the wreckage in an exhibit. Some artifacts,
if there, may be collected, but the collection of historical data
is more important and less costly than trying to bring the hull
to the surface, Morris said.
"Recovering the vessel this significant and preserving it,"
he said, "would break the budget of most countries."
Casey Coy, the aquarium's director of diving operations, has been
scuttling around shipwrecks since 2005 and said this particular
project "is really exciting."
Before the discovery of the wreckage three weeks ago, researchers
only had an idea of where it was, and during off hours Coy and
other divers would drop into the water all along the river's shoreline
between downtown and Lowry Park looking - well, more like feeling
- around for the wreckage.
"To find this," he said, "is extremely rewarding."
"To get your hands on it and to know about how it was built
and how it was sunk," he said, "it is a personal connection.
I would love to raise it up and take a look at it. But the archaeologists
say it is important to leave it where it is."
In the past, locations of historically significant wrecks were
kept secret, but now archaeologists say it's important to share
finds with the public.
Divers can go look at it, and if the public is aware of what's
there they will help protect it, said aquarium dive training coordinator
Mike Terrell.
"It's amazing what happens when you get the public involved,"
he said. "People will watch out for it. They are appreciative
of this being in their back yard."
--(8) Graffiti House Displays Unique 1861 Flag -----------------------------------------------------
Graffiti House Displays Unique 1861 Flag
By Clint Schemmer
9/14/2009
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/092009/09142009/493439
"Unique" is a much overused word, cheapened by publicists
and Madison Avenue hucksters. But it could hardly be more appropriate
than when applied to the rare artifact now displayed at Culpeper
County's Graffiti House.
"This is just glorious," visitor Floyd Houston said
of the banner as it was unveiled Saturday inside the historic
home at Brandy Station. "It is in glorious shape."
Houston, a Marine from Burke, stood with two dozen others and
admired the one-of-a-kind U.S. flag, hand-sewn at the conflict's
start by a 75-year-old widow whose kinfolk went off to war--and
wound up at Brandy Station.
The banner has come to Culpeper through a partnership between
Brandy Station Foundation, a nonprofit group preserving acreage
where the Civil War's largest cavalry battle was fought, and the
Neversink Valley Area Museum in Cuddebackville, N.Y. It was discovered
in spring 2005 by Juanita Leisch Jensen, a Neversink board member.
Jensen "was poking around in the hot attic of the museum,
up in the eaves, and saw a small box," recounted Bob Luddy,
former president of the Brandy Station Foundation. "Written
on top of it was 'American flag.' She opened it up and took it
out, and realized this was far more than just an American flag."
The only clue to the flag's history was in a handwritten note
sewn into one of its white stripes:
"This flag was made by Liana Austin Dolson in 1861 when she
was over seventy years of age. She was a daughter of Doctor Eusebus
Austin who was in the Revolutionary War."
Within a year of her making it, three of Dolson's family members
would enlist in the Union Army.
Genealogical research continues, Luddy said, but it appears that
at least three Dolsons served in the 124th New York Volunteer
Infantry, known as the Orange Blossom Regiment. Theophilus Dolson,
18, probably Liana's grandson, was in Company D of the 124th.
The Orange Blossoms were on the field for the Battle of Brandy
Station on June 9, 1863, and camped there with the Army of the
Potomac from November 1863 through May 1864. It's thought that
Liana Dolson's creation was a "homefront" flag, hung
in a window or on a wall of her Wallkill, N.Y., house as a reminder
of the young men from Orange County, N.Y., serving in the Union
Army, Luddy said.
A flag expert examined it and found no evidence of soot or smoke,
indicating it probably wasn't hung in a regimental camp or taken
into battle, Luddy said. Sometimes, homefront flags were carried
to the front by individual soldiers.
The 124th took part in many of the war's key battles, suffering
heavy casualties.
Theophilus Dolson, who rose from corporal to first sergeant, participated
in all of the regiment's major engagements: Chancellorsville,
Brandy Station, Gettysburg, Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court
House.
In another link to the Fredericksburg area, he was involved in
Confederate Brig. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry raid at Hartwood
Church in Stafford in February 1863, precipitating the Battle
of Kelly's Ford in Culpeper on March 17, 1863, in which famed
Confederate artillerist John Pelham was killed.
The Dolson flag is highly unusual for reasons other than its mere
survival, immaculate condition and ties to Culpeper.
Made of cotton, it has a double-sided canton, or blue field. Seen
from the front, 21 stars are arranged as an exploding galaxy.
Viewed from the reverse, one sees 13 stars arranged in a St. Andrew's
cross.
One theory is that Dolson designed the flag to acknowledge the
secession of states loyal to the Confederacy as opposed to those
states remaining loyal to the Union, Luddy said.
Another idea is that the stars' arrangement represents the 13
original states and the Union's later growth into the 21 states
that formed the nation in 1861.
A Brandy Station Foundation board member chanced upon the flag
this June while at the Gettysburg Civil War Show, and realized
its significance to Brandy Station and Culpeper County history.
Talks with its stewards, the Neversink Valley Area Museum, led
to its coming here for a temporary exhibition.
Next month, on the weekend of Oct. 17-18, re-enactors from the
124th New York Infantry will set up camp at the Graffiti House--so
named for the amazing graffiti left inside it by soldiers during
the war. The house will be open from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. both
days.
The Dolson Flag will be on display at the Graffiti House until
mid-November.
-(9) Re-enactors March to Preserve Farmland -----------------------------------------------------
Re-enactors March to Preserve Farmland
By Karen Gardner
9/13/2009
Frederick News-Post (MD)
http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?StoryID=95191
Civil War re-enactors from several states marched from Middletown
to the Reno Monument on South Mountain on Saturday to protest
a gas compression station planned on the property of the former
Fox's Tavern near South Mountain State Battlefield.
Fox's Tavern is on Marker Road and dates to the 1790s. Now a farmhouse,
the stone building once hosted George Washington and other Colonial
luminaries, and later served as a hospital following the battles
of South Mountain and Antietam.
Historians say the Battle of South Mountain on Sept. 12, 1862,
paved the way for the better known Battle of Antietam three days
later. Since that battle, the area has remained mostly rural farmland,
and much of the area is preserved through agricultural and historical
preservation programs.
Dominion Transmission owns a gas pipeline through the area, and
wants to build a gas compression station on the farmland surrounding
Fox's Tavern. Company representatives did not attend Saturday's
event, but have said that the compression station will be in keeping
with the surrounding area.
"Dominion's original plan was to start construction in 2012,
the 150th anniversary of the battle," said Rich Maranto,
president of Citizens for the Preservation of Middletown Valley,
an organization fighting the proposed compression station. A company
spokesman said in July that the project has been suspended pending
the review process.
"This is one of the Civil War Preservation Trust's top 10
endangered battlefields," Maranto said. The list, released
earlier this year, names Civil War battlefields across America
being threatened by development.
Re-enactors in Saturday's march represented the 30th Ohio, known
as the Kanawha Regiment. The re-enactors traced the same five-mile
route of the original regiment. They marched up Fox's Gap, one
of four gaps along South Mountain, which saw most of the action
during the battle.
"The Battle of South Mountain had 5,000 casualties, as many
as First Manassas," said Audrey Scanlan, a re-enactor from
Middletown and a member of the preservation group.
The re-enactors paused at the farm of Ned and Carolyn Hallein
to speak to supporters. They camped at the farm Friday night in
traditional Civil War-style tents before beginning their walk
from Middletown .
The path the re-enactors followed was once called the Old Sharpsburg
Road, according to Curt Older, a descendant of the Fox family
and a historian. During the Civil War, he said, "Federal
troops would have passed the inn and attacked at Fox's Gap."
President Abraham Lincoln later visited the area, traveling over
Fox's Gap to get to the site of Antietam. "It was because
of the two battles (South Mountain and Antietam) that Lincoln
decided to issue the Emancipation Proclamation," Older said.
"That's some tremendous history going through there."
"I think industrial facilities ought to be in industrial
areas," Hallein said. "Local citizens have provided
a number of industrial sites they (Dominion) have rejected out
of hand."
--(10) Opinion: Walmart's Rueful Victory at the Wilderness
-----------------------------------------------------
Opinion: Walmart's Rueful Victory at the Wilderness
By Robert McCartney
9/10/2009
Washington Post (DC)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/09/AR2009090902563.html?hpid=news-col-blog
In the hierarchy of Civil War engagements, the Battle of the Wilderness
doesn't quite make the A-list. Although it ranks in the top 10
by the grisly measure of total casualties, it doesn't enjoy the
fame of Gettysburg or Antietam. Wilderness doesn't even get top
billing in its own national park, which includes four major battlefields
and is named for Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania.
Given such shaky status, it's little surprise that Wilderness
has lost to Wal-Mart Stores in the latest encounter in the nation's
conflict between developers and the robust Civil War preservationist
community. Unless final appeals soften its corporate heart, Wal-Mart
will build a Supercenter right at the edge of the densely thicketed
area in Virginia, 60 miles south of Washington, where 160,000
Americans fought for two bloody days in 1864.
That's frustrating, because a reasonable compromise has long been
within reach. The preservationists say it's fine with them if
Wal-Mart builds the store a few miles up the road. It would be
a hassle, and costly, to find another piece of land and get it
rezoned. But there's lots of empty forest there, and the company
and authorities in Orange County should do it.
Otherwise, the new store and the additional development it will
attract will destroy the mostly woodsy ambience at a crossroads
once defended by Union troops where most visitors now enter the
battlefield. Wal-Mart and its supporters make some good arguments
but can't justify permanently defacing the entrance to a historic
national site.
"Our main concern is what happens to that gateway,"
said Russ Smith, superintendent of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania
National Military Park. "We're hoping that Wal-Mart will
show itself a good corporate citizen" by moving the site,
he said.
The struggle between strip malls and hallowed ground crops up
regularly in our region, the richest in the nation in Civil War
history. The debate over Wilderness has been shaped significantly
by preservation guidelines issued in 1993 amid bitter tussles
over development around the two battlefields in Manassas.
At Wilderness, as elsewhere, the tug of war pits property rights
against community rights. The Orange County supervisors, who voted
4 to 1 last month to approve the store, stressed that the 50-acre
site had been zoned commercial for decades. That means the owner,
an outside investor, has been paying higher taxes than if the
site were zoned for homes or farming, so supervisors said he should
have the right now to cash in. They also say the county needs
the jobs, close-to-home shopping and half-million dollars in annual
tax revenue that the project will generate.
The larger community also has rights, though, and in this case
the community is the entire nation. In two years, the United States
will mark the 150th anniversary of the nation's bloodiest conflict,
whose impact we still feel today. Before the Civil War, most Americans
the race of our current president were slaves. We should honor
that history by making extra efforts to preserve the places that
trigger memories of the brutal price paid for national unity and
the end of slavery.
Wal-Mart and its supporters dismiss such opposition as exaggerated,
because the store would not sit directly on parkland or on what
is known as the core battlefield, where the most intense fighting
took place. Instead, the site is in what was the Union rear. They
point out that a Sheetz gasoline station and McDonald's are already
at the intersection and that Wal-Mart has promised to take steps
to minimize the store's visibility, such as leaving some trees
between it and the road.
That's not quite the full story. The Wal-Mart would be well inside
the battlefield's "historic boundary," according to
historians chartered by Congress in 1993 to make such distinctions.
That means it's an area that doesn't need absolute protection
but should be treated with sensitivity. More important, though,
the site would be four times the size of the commercial development
that's already there and is universally expected to attract still
more stores.
Teri Pace, the only supervisor who voted against Wal-Mart, called
the store "a huge economic mistake," adding, "If
you want to capitalize on tourism, you don't do that by building
the kind of commercial retail that people are trying to escape."
Most outsiders have agreed. A bipartisan roster of Virginia's
top politicians expressed opposition to the plan before the supervisors'
vote. The list included Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D), House of Delegates
Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) and both candidates for
governor. More than 250 prominent Civil War historians signed
a letter of protest. The supervisors have received more than 3,500
e-mails urging them to put the store somewhere else.
Although it is little remembered and ended in a draw, Wilderness
has the distinction of being the first encounter between the war's
two best-known generals, Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee. It
was also the first battle in the 11-month Union campaign that
ultimately captured Richmond and ended the war. Wal-Mart should
move up the road. It has lots of stores. There's only one Wilderness.
--(11) Virginia Wind Power Project Draws Flack from
Across the Border ---------------------------------------------------
Virginia Wind Power Project Draws Flack from Across the Border
Wherever that Is
By Rick Steelhammer
8/29/2009
Charleston Gazette (WV)
http://www.sundaygazettemail.com/News/200908290366
As a 19-tower wind turbine project nears the construction stage
in Highland County, Va., just across the state line from Pocahontas
County, it faces a whirlwind of objections from both sides of
the border -- including a dispute about just where the border
lies.
The project also has drawn fire from Civil War battlefield preservation
groups for the negative effects the wind farm would have on West
Virginia's Camp Allegheny, one of the nation's most pristine battlefields,
located within a mile of the project.
Built by Confederate soldiers in the summer of 1861 along a stretch
of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike, Camp Allegheny was the site
of a battle in December of 1861 in which 1,200 troops from Georgia
and Virginia fought off an attack by about 1,900 Union troops.
At 4,400 feet, it was the highest Civil War battleground east
of the Mississippi.
According to a description of the Civil War encampment by the
Monongahela National Forest, which manages a portion of the Camp
Allegheny site, the battlefield today "looks much like it
did in 1861, consisting mainly of open sheep pasture."
Trenches, bunkers, and other earthworks are still clearly visible
on private land now grazed by cattle, while the foundation stones
and hearthstones for at least 35 cabins can be seen on the national
forest's segment of the battlefield.
In a 2006 letter to Virginia's State Corporation Commission, the
National Park Service's American Battlefield Protection Program
predicted that the Highland wind farm project "would have
a dramatic impact on the visual setting of the Camp Allegheny
battlefield, a historic property listed in the National Register
of Historic Places."
In a follow-up letter sent to the SCC last week, American Battlefield
Protection Program chief Paul Hawke wrote that while the former
Confederate encampment and battle site "lies in Pocahontas
County, West Virginia, it is no less significant and will be no
less impacted than if it were located in Virginia."
Hawke recommended that a professional visual impact assessment
be completed before final site plans are approved "to avoid
or mitigate negative effects to the Camp Allegheny battlefield."
In December 2007, Highland New Wind Development (HNWD) received
conditional approval from Virginia's State Corporation Commission
to build up to 20 400-foot-tall wind turbines on Allegheny Mountain's
Red Oak Knob and Tamarack Ridge.
Among the conditions set forth in the approval order was one requiring
HNWD to consult with Virginia's Department of Historic Resources
to identify historic sites in the vicinity of the project, and
evaluate what effect the wind power development would have on
them.
While the wind farm developer did initially consult with the Virginia
historic agency, "it has not undertaken identification studies
to the standards recommended as appropriate," wrote Kathleen
S. Kilpatrick, director of the Virginia DHR, in an Aug. 19 letter
to the SCC.
Kilpatrick added that HNWD has made no apparent efforts to minimize
any adverse effects to historic sites, "and has instead terminated
consultation with this agency. Accordingly, we believe that the
HNWD has failed to comply with either the letter or the spirit
of the order."
The Virginia Department of Historic Resources consulted the West
Virginia Department of Culture and History on the wind farm's
impact on Camp Allegheny.
"We realize the viewshed would be affected, and it would
change the character of the historic landscape," said Jacqueline
Proctor, Culture and History's deputy director.
On Wednesday, the Virginia SCC ordered that a public hearing be
held in Richmond Sept. 23 to address whether HNWD sufficiently
evaluated the wind farm's effects on nearby historic resources.
On Thursday, Rep. Nick Rahall sent a letter to the Virginia SCC
praising it for holding the public hearing and urging it to "fully
investigate the issues raised by the Department of Historic Resources
and the National Park Service" regarding the wind farm's
impact on Camp Allegheny.
"As the chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, which
has jurisdiction over the National Historic Preservation Act,
please know that I take serious any threat to a valued and noteworthy
historic resource such as the Camp Allegheny Battlefield,"
Rahall added.
Border dispute
While the wind farm's proximity to the battlefield has generated
a share of controversy, a new wrinkle surfaced earlier this month,
after Pocahontas County commissioners reviewed the final site
maps for the project.
A new survey commissioned by HNWD showed a delineation of the
Virginia-West Virginia border that differed from the official
U.S. Geological Survey maps, according to County Commission President
Martin Saffer.
"In other words, they are trying by survey to take back a
small part of the State of West Virginia and give it to Virginia,"
said Saffer. "Individual surveyors can't do that. Any new
boundary changes have to be officially recognized.
"The governor has to appoint a boundary commission to work
in conjunction with representatives of the bordering state. There
needs to be a legal and official dialog to determine where the
line is," he said.
HNWD officials have maintained in published reports that the survey
painstakingly charted the crest of Allegheny Mountain, which demarks
the state boundary near the area in question, using GPS technology
to connect a series of high-point readings along the ridgeline
for a more precise alignment of the border.
While the new map drawn by HNWD shows that the wind turbines will
all be in Virginia, the U.S. Geological Survey map shows that
one and possibly two the 400-foot towers would actually be located
in West Virginia, Saffer said. If those turbines were built on
West Virginia soil, they would first be subject to approval by
West Virginia regulatory agencies, including the Public Service
Commission.
Saffer contacted West Virginia University law professor
Robert Basstress, who agreed to advise the Pocahontas County Commission
on what legal avenues to pursue in settling the state boundary
issue.
In addition to the wind farm's potential impact on Camp Allegheny
and the boundary issue, the project's effect on Pocahontas County's
tourism-based economy should also be taken into account, Saffer
said.
"Those towers will be 400 feet tall -- the tallest ever built
in West Virginia," said Saffer, and will likely be visible
for miles.
Richard Laska, whose property borders the Camp Allegheny site,
relies on a pair of wind turbines to help supply the power needs
for his off-the-grid home.
While he and his wife, Marcia, appreciate the value of wind power,
they oppose the HNWD project because its industrial scale "will
ruin the views that make Pocahontas County so attractive to visitors,"
he said. "These new turbines are bigger than an 18-wheeler.
They will tower 400 feet above the highest hills in Virginia,
right on the state line. And once the skyscraper turbines are
built, no more jobs."
"Large wind turbines are being planned all along the Allegheny
Front," said Marcia Laska. "Soon, any bird trying to
cross will have no safe route through. It will be like trying
to fly through a food processor."
"The tallest building in Marlinton is three stories,"
Saffer said. "This kind of architectural statement is not
something we're used to."
The debate over the wind turbine project, Saffer said, "is
a great opportunity for our county to discuss where our future
is going. This is going to be a teaching moment, as Barack Obama
would say."