(1) Hawaii Archives Holds Mystery Lincoln Document - Associated Press
(2) Fate of Cyclorama Suit Unclear - Gettysburg Times
(3) Civil War Battlefields Must Be Protected as Signs of American Bravery - U.S.News & World Report
(4) Concerns Rise over Roper's Knob - Nashville Tennessean
(5) Candidates Weigh In on Wilderness Walmart - Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
(6) Three Minute Interview: Jim Lighthizer - Washington Examiner
(7) Dreyfuss Promotes a Return to Civility, Civics - Associated Press
(8) Civil War Battlefield Recovering After Hurricanes Rita, Ike - Associated Press
(9) Scientists Do Preliminary Work to Uncover Civil War Naval Yard - Media General News Service
(10) Church Holds Treasure of Civil War Graffiti - Times-West Virginian
(11) Vermont's Civil War Past Gains Protection - Vermont Times Argus
(12) New Battle Mounted Over Civil War Ground - ABC News
(13) Civil War Sites Facing Development Danger - Knoxville News Sentinel
(14) Civil War-era Soldier's Entire Body Recovered at Construction Site - Williamson Herald
(15) Morgantown Walk Through History - WBOY-12 TV
--(1) Hawaii Archives Holds Mystery Lincoln Document -----------------------------------------------------
Hawaii Archives Holds Mystery Lincoln Document
By Herbert A. Sample
6/9/2009
Associated Press
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/06/09/national/a044253D78.DTL&type=health
Documents bearing signatures of U.S. presidents have turned up
in a lot of unexpected places: Attics, libraries, even thrift
stores.
But how did an innocuous Civil War-era memo bearing Abraham Lincoln's
signature end up in the state archives of Hawaii, which was still
a kingdom at the time? State researchers are trying to find out.
The memo dated Sept. 22, 1862, orders the secretary of state at
the time to affix the U.S. seal to a separate piece of paper,
a proclamation dated the same day.
That proclamation was the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation,
Lincoln's official warning to rebellious Southern states to return
to the Union within three months or face military emancipation
of their slaves.
Hawaii records indicate they've had the memo - but not the proclamation
- for at least 74 years.
"We knew we had it," said Luella Kurkjian, chief of
the archives' historical records branch. "Quite frankly,
we didn't know what it was. There was no documentation with it."
Hawaii's archives also contain one letter each from Lincoln to
King Kamehameha IV and to his brother, King Kamehameha V, and
a note from Lincoln appointing a new U.S. consul, Alfred Caldwell,
to the Kingdom of Hawaii.
"Those three all make sense to be in the Hawaii State Archives,"
said Daniel Stowell, director of the Papers of Abraham Lincoln,
a part of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
in Springfield, Ill.
"This one is a fish out of water," Stowell said of the
1862 memo. "I mean, it doesn't fit. Why is it here?"
Officials are following a couple of clues.
Back in the 1920s and '30s, the archives received several donations
from a collector named Bruce Cartwright Jr., grandson of Alexander
Joy Cartwright, considered by sports historians to be the inventor
of baseball.
One of those donated items was the Lincoln-signed note announcing
Caldwell's appointment, Kurkjian said.
"It's my guess that (Cartwright) is the donor" of the
proclamation memo "and for whatever reason it wasn't properly
documented," she said.
"I can't prove it. I've been trying," she said.
"It's an interesting mystery," Stowell said.
--(2) Fate of Cyclorama Suit Unclear -----------------------------------------------------
Fate of Cyclorama Suit Unclear
By Scott Andrew Pitzer
6/8/2009
Gettysburg Times (PA)
http://www.gettysburgtimes.com/articles/2009/06/08/news/local/doc4a2cf14342961399724825.txt
Now that a preservation group and the National Park Service have
rendered opinions in the Cyclorama case, the federal lawsuit is
likely to head in one of three directions, according to Gettysburg
Battlefield Supt. John Latschar.
"The district court judge has the option of adopting the
magistrate's recommendations as the court decision, or changing
those recommendations, or of sending the case back to the magistrate
with further instructions," explained Dr. Latschar.
"Obviously," Latschar continued, "I have no idea
which of those three will happen. Only time will tell."
The 2.5-year-old lawsuit concerns whether the park's decision
to demolish the Cyclorama building complied with procedural requirements
set forth in the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.
Magistrate Judge Alan Kay ruled in favor of conserving the 47-year-old
building in March 2009, although he also partially sided with
the Park Service, opposing the preservation group's stance that
the park violated the National Historic Preservation Act.
Objections to the ruling were due May 18, and since then, no additional
paperwork has been filed in federal court.
Presiding Judge Thomas Hogan has the final say in the case.
If Kay's opinion is adopted by the high court, the park will have
to perform an environmental assessment of the proposed demolition,
and also study alternatives, such as relocation.
"That's when we'd figure out the costs of the project,"
Latschar told the park's Advisory Commission in April.
A preservation group, The Recent Past Preservation Network, wants
to protect the building, while the park wants to tear it down,
and return that portion of the Civil War battlefield to its 1863
appearance.
The park's General Management Plan - adopted in 1999 - calls for
the removal of the building from Ziegler's Grove, which was the
scene of Pickett's Charge during the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.
But the preservation group has argued since Dec. 2006 that the
park failed to comply with federal code, by not considering alternatives
to demolition.
"The law clearly requires federal agencies to consider the
environmental consequences of their proposed actions and potential
alternatives to those actions," said Recent Past Preservation
Network Attorney Matthew Adams.
Federal attorneys believe that a six-year statute of limitations
to file a civil suit expired before Dec. 2006, when the preservation
group took the park to court.
The park contends that the statute triggered in 1999, coinciding
with the park's adoption of its General Management Plan.
The cylindrical structure once housed a 370-foot long painting
depicting Pickett's Charge. It opened in 1962, designed by internationally-renowned
architect Richard Neutra, and his partner Robert Alexander. Neutra's
son, Dion, is a plaintiff in the case along with the Recent Past
Preservation Network.
The painting underwent a $16 million renovation, in a project
that launched about five years ago, and the artwork was moved
to a new $103 million Battlefield Visitor Center. Subsequently,
the old Cyclorama Center closed two years ago, and awaits its
fate.
The Park Service, which awarded Neutra the design commission
in 1958 under the federal "Mission 66" program to improve
national park facilities, wants to tear down the building as part
of plans to reconstruct the landscape of Ziegler's Grove to an
1863 appearance.
It has agreed to hold off on demolition until the lawsuit is resolved.
--(3) Civil War Battlefields Must Be Protected as Signs
of American Bravery -----------------------------------------------------
Civil War Battlefields Must Be Protected as Signs of American
Bravery
By John Aloysius Farrell
6/8/2009
U.S.News & World Report
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/john-farrell/2009/06/08/civil-war-battlefields-must-be-protected-as-signs-of-american-bravery.html
As most of the Western world honored the warriors who died on
June 6, 1944, on that great sweep of beaches along the coast of
Normandy, I was standing on a Pennsylvania hillock Saturday, looking
at a farmer's field.
In the summer of 1863, John Rose had a fine crop of grain growing
on those 20 acres when, on the evening of July 2, the second of
three days of fighting around the town of Gettysburg, the Union
and Confederate armies collided there. This small plot of land
became known forever as "the Wheatfield."
I don't mean to, nor could I, take anything away from the men
who fought on Utah and Omaha beaches on D-Day. If you have walked
those golden sands, and looked up at the bluffs they had to take,
and the commanding position of the German gun emplacements, you
recognize bravery.
But you don't have to go to France to witness American courage.
Indeed, America suffered greater casualties in two hours at the
little Wheatfield than on all the beaches at Normandy during all
the fighting on D-Day. Imagine that. Imagine the carnage brought
to the screen in Saving Private Ryan, and think of it happening
in two hours, on just 20 acres, here in the U.S. of A.
Because the Civil War pitted American against American, I am counting
casualties from both sides at the Wheatfield, and only our soldiers
at Normandy. But then the Wheatfield was just a corner of the
great battle that also made Devil's Den and Little Round Top and
the Peach Orchard famous, and culminated the next day with Pickett's
Charge up Cemetery Hill.
I was at Gettysburg as a guest of the Civil War Preservation Trust,
a nonprofit organization that rescues Civil War battlefields from
bulldozers. Last weekend was the annual four-day conference of
this group of tens of thousands of Americans, from North and South,
who chip in each year to save "hallowed ground" from
development.
The Trust uses that money to qualify for federal and state matching
funds, and lures Hollywood and literary stars (Richard Dreyfuss,
Robert Duvall, Jeff Shaara) to help publicize the cause, but it
and other preservation groups are running a losing race against
rising property values in the exurbs of Washington, D.C., Richmond,
Atlanta, and other cities. Capitalism is remorseless. A few weeks
back, I wrote here about the CWPT and the uphill, ongoing struggle
to try and stop Wal-Mart from building a shopping center on the
Wilderness battlefield in Virginia.
It is an interesting mix of people who choose to spend their money
buying land they will never own, and saving it for the rest of
us. Most are military history buffs. Most are guys. Many are veterans.
The old soldiers know their stuff, and mix easily with the nerds.
There were a surprising number of Marines, when one considers
that the corps played such a negligible role in the Civil War.
(I am being deliberately provocative. What is a good Civil War
discussion without a controversy? Your turn, leathernecks.)
The highlights of the CWPT conference are the guided tours. Among
historians, there are eminent scholars who can't talk, and some
great talkers who don't do the history. A great guide is a bit
of both; Gettysburg has some of the best in the business, and
the CWPT brought in others. If you go to the battlefield-which
has just opened a new multimillion-dollar visitors' center in
time for the 150th anniversary of the war in 2011-invest the time
and money to hire one of the licensed guides. Garry Adelman, Timothy
Smith, and Charles Fennell (to whom I am indebted for the D-Day
and Wheatfield comparison) were my tour guides, and I recommend
them all.
The guides spend a large part of their time taking junior high
and middle school classes through the battlefield, and so they
have to be sharp, funny, and entertaining to keep the interest
of our jaded youth. They are anything but dull. Fennell led us
for eight hours on Friday, through seven or eight miles of mud,
swollen streams, soggy weeds and woods, in a steady downpour,
and suffered only 10 percent casualties.
--(4) Concerns Rise over Roper's Knob-----------------------------------------------------
Concerns Rise over Roper's Knob
By Kevin Williamson
6/8/2009
Nashville Tennessean (TN)
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090608/COUNTY090101/906080308/1327/Concerns+rise+over+Roper+s+Knob
The prospect of a new public road at the intersection of Cool
Springs Boulevard and Mack Hatcher Parkway has stirred questions
among Franklin leaders and put a developer at odds with local
preservationists.
Developer Charles "Mickey" Mitchell, who owns land at
that intersection and around Roper's Knob, can legally build a
new road that would, in essence, extend Cool Springs Boulevard
beyond the point it intersects with Mack Hatcher.
Mack Hatcher Parkway itself is owned by the state, where Department
of Transportation officials have been working with Mitchell on
these road design plans for months.
"This is more than a driveway," said B.J. Doughty, TDOT
spokeswoman. "This is a new road that (the city of Franklin)
would be responsible for."
But adding that road means a rocky portion of the bluff facing
the road would be demolished and it might also open the Mitchell's
property for new development. Some fear the road would have a
negative impact on the hill, known as Roper's Knob, which was
a Union Army signal station during the Civil War and still has
earthworks onsite.
The city and the state own a portion of the Roper's Knob hill.
"Roper's Knob's geographical makeup is fragile," said
Mary Pearce, executive director of the Heritage Foundation of
Franklin and Williamson County. "If you're having to blast,
that's going to be hard on Roper's Knob."
Confusion, criticism abound
This proposal is Mitchell's second one to city leaders since December.
Late last year, he offered to pay for the $1.4 million estimated
cost of adding the new road, but city leaders had no interest
in the road project then.
Mitchell, who owns La Vergne-based grading company CBM Enterprises
Inc., owns the Refuge property along Franklin Road, where he keeps
farm equipment. He bought land along Roper's Knob in 1991.
He could not be reached to comment for this story.
For years, Mitchell, to the chagrin of state and city officials,
has been using an unpaved access road running off Mack Hatcher
to transport the equipment to his property.
Tom White, Mitchell's attorney, said TDOT leaders approached Mitchell
months ago to tell him to stop using the access road because of
concerns about its condition.
As an alternative, TDOT officials and Mitchell discussed building
a road that would connect to the Mack Hatcher/Cool Springs intersection
as an alternative to the unpaved access road.
"They're the one who suggested it," White told aldermen.
"My client has concurred."
Mitchell spent $50,000-$60,000 on his road plans and had several
meetings with city and state officials about the matter, White
said. But TDOT planners told Mitchell that Franklin leaders must
give a final sign-off to the project because the road might eventually
be a public road.
Doughty said the city of Franklin must eventually make an application
to TDOT for Mitchell's proposed road.
"There is a right-of-access guaranteed to this property owner,
and the city of Franklin is also involved," Doughty said.
"This would potentially be a new road in the city."
While in the past they seemed to be uniformly against Mitchell's
proposal, aldermen want to learn more about the project and its
impacts.
"We're trying to make sure that we know where TDOT stands
on this," said Mayor John Schroer. "If TDOT says it's
fine and it's been designed and worked right, it's their road.
They ought to be able to say whether there ought to be access
there or not."
Alderman Dan Klatt said he was "disappointed" in TDOT
officials on this project and said he would never support Mitchell's
plans.
"I don't think there's any reason that the city needs a road,
wants a road or wants responsibility for a road through there,"
Klatt said.
Klatt voiced concerns that the new road would create new development,
though White countered that any rezoning must get approval from
city aldermen.
He also cited how the plan would go against the work completed
by the Mack Hatcher Citizens' Design Team for conceptual design
features for the existing portion of the parkway and its future
extension.
Doughty said TDOT was "very cognizant" of the recommendations
for the intersection.
More debate on the matter is ahead. At their May 26 meeting, aldermen
voted to defer a vote until their Tuesday meeting this week.
City spokeswoman Milissa Reierson said discussion likely would
be again deferred as city staff is still gathering information
about the project.
--(5) Candidates Weigh In on Wilderness Walmart-----------------------------------------------------
Candidates Weigh In on Wilderness Walmart
By Clint Schemmer
6/6/2009
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star (VA)
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/062009/06062009/471567
Virginia's gubernatorial candidates commented yesterday on the
Wilderness Wal-Mart development proposed in Orange County.
The trio competing in Tuesday's Democratic primary took stands
for preservation, while the GOP nominee expressed confidence that
Orange officials will find a middle ground in the land-use controversy.
Democrat Creigh Deeds' campaign released a letter he wrote Michael
T. Duke, president and CEO of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., imploring
him to move the retailer's Supercenter away from the Civil War
battlefield.
Noting that Orange County derives tax revenue from tourism to
its historic sites, which include the Wilderness battlefield,
the state senator said "the history and economic interests
of Orange County demand that the site be preserved."
" The opponents of the proposed project have identified [alternative]
sites within two or three miles of the current site," he
wrote Duke.
"With this compromise, we can continue to preserve the land
and history of the Wilderness battlefield while still providing
your company a location for a store."
During a swing through downtown Fredericksburg yesterday afternoon,
Deeds said he wrote Duke about six weeks ago.
Some individuals from Orange County "alerted me to the issue,
and I thought it was worth pursuing," he said.
"What we have here is something that no one else has. History
tourists spend more per capita than any other tourists.
"We're coming up on the 150th anniversary of the Civil War,
which is going to be huge," Deeds said. "I predict it
will be bigger than the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown settlement."
"I considered it an obligation," he said of writing
Duke.
Terry McAuliffe, a former Democratic National Committee chairman,
also wrote Wal-Mart's CEO.
He asked Duke to "consider moving the Wal-Mart a little ways
down the road so that we can preserve this historic site. The
Wal-Mart you are building could potentially jeopardize the most
popular tourist attraction in Orange County."
McAuliffe noted Gov. Tim Kaine's effort to protect 400,000 acres
of historically and environmentally significant land during his
term in office.
"[Kaine] has made tremendous progress in this area--including
preservation of many battlefields, and if I'm elected governor,
I hope to continue this progress," he wrote Duke.
esse Ferguson, press secretary for former Del. Brian Moran, said
the Northern Virginia Democrat "has been, and continues to
be, a strong supporter of land preservation. He's fought to expand
preservation tax credits and clean up the environment. But we
would have to look at the specific details before weighing in
[on Wal-Mart]."
Republican gubernatorial nominee Bob McDonnell "believes
the [Orange] planning board should seek a location that both preserves
the Wilderness battlefield, a cherished Virginia historical site,
while also allowing for the commercial development that will create
new jobs and lead to economic growth in the county," press
secretary Crystal Cameron said.
The Orange Planning Commission, which held a public hearing May
21 on the proposal, is scheduled to meet Thursday to consider
the site developer's request for a special-use permit for the
138,000-square-foot Wal-Mart store and other retail sites.
--(6) Three Minute Interview: Jim Lighthizer -----------------------------------------------------
Three Minute Interview: Jim Lighthizer
By David Sherfinski
6/4/2009
Washington Examiner (DC)
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/46998712.html
James Lighthizer is president of the Civil War Preservation Trust,
as well as a former Anne Arundel county executive and member of
the Maryland legislature. Since Lighthizer took the reins at the
trust in 1999, the group has saved more than 18,000 acres and
now boasts 70,000 members nationwide.
What do you think about getting actors like Robert Duvall and
Richard Dreyfuss and renowned authors like James McPherson to
lobby for preservation efforts?
It obviously is a good thing - they have clearly recognizable
images, and being positively recognized enhances one's cause.
It's important to note that Jim McPherson is a renowned historian
as well. On balance, it's a very big plus.
Can you talk a little bit about the upcoming annual conference
at Gettysburg on June 6 and 7?
The interesting thing is in a very difficult economy, it's going
to be our biggest one ever. It doesn't hurt that it's at the Kentucky
Derby of Civil War battlefields, but it's an encouraging sign.
What do you miss about being in Maryland politics?
I loved it, but I'm happily in my current post. I'm doing what
I'd most rather do in the whole wide world. I'm incredibly blessed
- I would literally do it for free if I could afford it. To get
paid doing something you love is one of life's great swindles.
An April 2005 National Geographic article described you as
the Robert E. Lee of battlefield preservation - a strategist who
time and time again snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.
Your thoughts?
Well, like Robert E. Lee, we don't win them all. Obviously, it's
an overly generous view. But politics prepared me well for the
battles we're in. Unhappily, we lose some of them. ... Even if
we lose, we leave plenty of blood on the floor.
--(7) Dreyfuss Promotes a Return to Civility, Civics-----------------------------------------------------
Dreyfuss Promotes a Return to Civility, Civics
By Steve Szkotak
6/2/2009
Associated Press (NAT)
http://www.kansascity.com/412/story/1228839.html
Of all the causes actors have chosen to champion, Richard Dreyfuss
admits his passion lacks, well, a certain pizazz: Civics.
"Don't call it 'civics' because 'civics' is easily the most
boring word in America," Dreyfuss says. "Call it what
it is: political power."
Dreyfuss brings an actor's dramatic pacing and a historian's licks
to his cause, erasing any notion that this lesson will be boring.
He's bombastic, predictably brash and yet professorial during
a 90-minute interview in a bland hotel suite in this seaport,
where he was honored at a film festival earlier this year.
Kicked out of college for confronting a professor who criticized
Marlon Brando's performance in "Julius Caesar," Dreyfuss
recently studied at St. Antony's College at the University of
Oxford to develop a curriculum for U.S. public schools.
Called The Dreyfuss Initiative, the curriculum would use scholarly
presentations in videos and the Oscar-winning actor "as a
storyteller, to engage, enlighten and empower students of all
ages in an entertaining way," according to an outline. Dreyfuss
said he would work with civic and educational groups to promote
the teaching tools.
While the program has not been used in any classroom yet, Dreyfuss
has launched a fundraising campaign to produce videos and the
curriculum.
"I've got a very simple thing here," Dreyfuss said.
"I've got a nonprofit initiative to get K-12 grades back
to civics, to give our children real-world knowledge and hopefully
wisdom about how to run this complex governance system. That's
it. That's enough."
These days, Dreyfuss devotes most of his public appearances addressing
the origins of our nation and lamenting a citizenry that he believes
has lost its way.
"I stopped defining myself as an actor and I went to Oxford
because I believe that America is a miracle," Dreyfuss said.
"And I think that there is nothing easier in the world than
for us to lose this miracle and to be reduced to words on paper."
Dreyfuss fears just that - that future generations will view our
freedoms as a fairy tale.
"It'll break my heart, and it should break yours," he
said.
Dreyfuss, 61, blames a lack of civil discourse, the din of television
and any number of distractions for moving us away from understanding
our origins as a nation.
Dreyfuss is comfortable discussing the sweep of human history,
but he's especially drawn to the drama of the Civil War.
In March, he was the star attraction at a Washington, D.C., event
for the Civil War Preservation Trust, which annually releases
a report on endangered battlefields. His interest in the Civil
War goes way back, and he was recruited as a re-enactor at the
battle of Cedar Creek, in northern Virginia, while filming "What
About Bob?," which was set at New Hampshire's Lake Winnipesaukee
but filmed at Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia.
Dreyfuss won an Oscar at 29 for "The Goodbye Girl,"
making him then the youngest male lead to win the trophy. He said
the honor wasn't necessarily a good thing.
"I was too young," he said. "I didn't know until
later that I am built to be in pursuit. I am not built to have
achieved. I'm happiest when I'm on the hunt."
The Dreyfuss Initiative has put the actor back in the hunt - for
a Nobel peace prize.
"Not to be glib about it, because nothing about this is glib,
but I'm going for the Nobel," he said. "If I before
I get it, I'd rather have a lofty ambition."
--(8) Civil War Battlefield Recovering After Hurricanes
Rita, Ike -----------------------------------------------------
Civil War Battlefield Recovering After Hurricanes Rita, Ike
By Michael Graczyk
5/30/2009
Associated Press (NAT)
http://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/WireHeadlines/2009/05/31/civil-war-battlefield-recovering-after-h-65.php
The bronze likeness of Confederate Lt. Dick Dowling has survived
two hurricanes in the last five years, as against the odds as
the few dozen rebel Texas soldiers he led to victory against a
huge Union force almost 150 years ago.
But the double whammy of 2005's Hurricane Rita and last year's
Ike left the Sabine Pass Battleground Park in shambles. Trees
were toppled and ripped out. Historical markers were snapped off
and creature comforts for visitors were swept away in one of Texas'
few Civil War battlefield sites.
The 57-acre park on the coastal Texas-Louisiana border is considered
one of the nation's most threatened Civil War battlefields by
the Civil War Preservation Trust. Now after a healthy dose of
tender loving care from the man who alone oversees park maintenance,
and a $600,000 rebuilding program directed by the Texas Historical
Commission, the battlefield site is on track to reopen near the
end of summer.
For the nearby tiny town of Sabine Pass, where new mobile homes
dot the coastal landscape amid the remains of broken structures
mangled by the two storms, the park's reopening would mark another
step in recovery.
"I think it would mean a great deal," said Kellie Brown,
who works at Tammie's Diner, a mobile food truck that just opened
in May, giving folks here now two places to eat outside of home.
"That's been here long before we were and it's part of why
we're here."
The park is adjacent to offshore oil supply yards still scarred
by debris and a few blocks from town, where the Sabine Pass school,
the biggest building around, was among the few places relatively
unscathed by Ike. Crews are repaving the main street, which should
go to Galveston about 70 miles to the southwest but in reality
has been wiped out west of town for years by recurring storms.
--(9) Scientists Do Preliminary Work to Uncover Civil War
Naval Yard -----------------------------------------------------
Scientists Do Preliminary Work to Uncover Civil War Naval Yard
By Jamie Rogers
5/26/2009
Media General News Service (NAT)
http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2009/may/26/scientists-do-preliminary-work-to-uncover-civil-wa/news-regional/
Archaeologists recently took the first step in uncovering what
life was like for people living near a historic Civil War naval
yard where a famous warship was launched more than 100 years ago.
University of South Carolina archaeologists and students used
sophisticated tools to begin surveying and mapping the Mars Bluff
Confederate Naval Yard on the Marion County bank of the Great
Pee Dee River.
The deep waters of the river near the naval yard are thought to
be the final resting place of three large cannons from the CSS
Pee Dee, a 170-foot gunboat built at the naval yard and launched
in 1865.
The vessel was ordered scuttled after returning from an assignment
and the naval yard was to be destroyed before Union troops arrived.
The three cannons were thrown into the river, but the exact location
of the dump site hasn't been clear until now.
Jonathan Leader, a state archaeologist with USC, said that scientists
are interested in life at the naval yard.
The site is private property.
"We have a lot of lumps and bumps. There were 14 buildings
out here that have been referenced," Leader said.
Leader's archaeological geophysics students from USC used resistivity
devices to determine what's in the ground. Scientists also used
a magnetometer.
Data from both are combined to produce a 3-D image of what lies
below the surface of the former naval yard, Leader said.
"We basically paint pictures as to what's under the ground,"
he said.
Depending on what the images reveal, the land might be excavated
at a later date.
Team members from East Carolina University could conduct shovel
tests later.
The archaeological survey and excavation work of the land part
of the naval yard is expected to take about a year.
The project is a collaboration of USC, ECU and Francis Marion
University. The data will support stewardship and preservation
of the area around the naval yard and the river, which is chock
full of history, Leader said.
"You have the Indian history, the colonial experience, the
enslaved African, the free African -- you have the American Revolution,
the Civil War and on and on and on," he said.
--(10) Church Holds Treasure of Civil War Graffiti-----------------------------------------------------
Church Holds Treasure of Civil War Graffiti
By Naomi Smoot
5/25/2009
Times-West Virginian (WV)
http://www.timeswv.com/westvirginia/local_story_145214634.html?keyword=secondarystory
Paint flaked away from the walls of a former Berkeley County church,
and suddenly, history emerged.
W. Michie Klusemyer, bishop of West Virginia's Episcopal Diocese,
said workmen were called in recently to help renovate a Bunker
Hill church known as the Morgan Chapel. What they found, he said,
was beyond anyone's expectations.
"I believe it's quite a find," he said.
As workmen scraped the walls, paint pealed away in chunks, revealing
what appeared to be graffiti left behind by soldiers from the
Civil War. The more they scraped, the more writings appeared.
The graffiti appears to have been left behind by both Northern
and Southern troops who served during the Civil War, he said.
It covers much of the inside of the building.
"It appears to be as high as people could reach," Klusemyer
said. "It's down low. It's up high. It's just everywhere."
Many of the writings were simply names with dates scribbled nearby.
Klusemyer said the dates hailed from the days of the Civil War
and they were accompanied by the artists' regiments.
Other comments that lined the walls were more extensive, he said.
Klusemyer said one soldier wrote, "I should not have written
on the walls of the house of God. I would not have done so if
it had not already been marked up." Another stated, "It's
not our rebellion," and a third comment read, "Down
with traitors, treason and copperheads."
Klusemyer said some were written by those who appeared to have
believed that they might not live much longer. The individuals
left behind requests for prayers written on the church's walls.
The writings were accompanied by drawings of pigs, flowers and
even a woman being chased by a man with horns, Klusemyer said.
The church building was already known to have ties to local history.
The church was established in 1740 and served as the family chapel
of Morgan Morgan, a man reputed to be the first white settler
in West Virginia.
Graffiti was previously found inside a smaller room of the chapel,
but no one had considered the possibility that it could be scrawled
throughout the entire church, Klusemyer said.
Several years ago a historic survey was conducted of the building.
Even then, he said no one thought to consider the possibility
that the entire building could be covered in graffiti.
"We knew about the writing in the back. We did not know about
the writing in the front of the church," he said. "No
one thought to consider it."
Some say it makes the church, which has been closed to the public
for nearly eight years, a bit of a treasure.
"To me that's very significant. You've got something that
was done during the war itself by the people who were there,"
said Don C. Wood, president of the Berkeley County Historical
Society.
Wood said he knows of no other buildings in the area that are
lined with graffiti from that period, although several others
also were used by troops who were looking for places to use as
barracks, hospitals and offices.
He said a Catholic church in downturn Martinsburg was occupied
by troops during the war.
"It (was) not unusual to use the churches. That was one of
the main things they used for hospitals during the Civil War,"
he said.
Not all churches were used for this purpose. Wood said a United
Methodist church in Bunker Hill became a place for soldiers to
stable their horses.
Graffiti has not been found inside any of these other churches,
he said, although he noted that Civil War soldiers who occupied
the Berkeley County Courthouse did leave behind some markings.
He said soldiers from Pennsylvania wrote down their names, rank
and the dates when they were there in three books that remain
at the Courthouse.
Still, the Morgan Chapel appears to be the largest local find
of this kind. It's something that Wood said is "wonderful."
"It's a very outstanding building," he said. "That
should be a tourist place."
Klusemyer said the diocese is continuing to evaluate what to do
with the property. When renovations first got under way on the
structure, he said the plan was to open it up as a historic site
that could be used as a wedding chapel. Those plans are being
re-evaluated.
"Now we've discovered history," he said. "I see
this as a valuable treasure for Civil War documentation for the
state of West Virginia."
Klusemyer said he has talked with a variety of individuals involved
in historic preservation, including the National Park Service.
The diocese has yet to determine whether it will retain ownership
of the structure, or hand it over to someone else in light of
the historic find, he said.
Work on the building has ceased until a way can be found to continue
removing the paint without damaging the writings.
--(11) Vermont's Civil War Past Gains Protection-----------------------------------------------------
Vermont's Civil War Past Gains Protection
By Louis Porter
5/25/2009
Vermont Times Argus (VT)
http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090525/NEWS01/905250331/
A portion of one of the battlefields of greatest importance to
Vermont's Civil War history will be protected with money secured
by former U.S. Sen. James Jeffords.
The fight at Cedar Creek was significant for the Union - the Shenandoah
Valley was called the breadbasket of the Confederacy because of
its significance for supplies and a potential staging area for
an attack on Washington, D.C. But it was also one of the most
important points in the war for Vermont.
A Vermonter, Col. Stephen Thomas, was among the first to realize
a Confederate attack was under way on Oct. 19, 1864. Thomas, who
had been a Vermont legislator before going to war, also led the
rear guard that delayed the Confederate attack - which sustained
one of the highest casualty rates of the Civil War. Of the 159
or so members of the Eighth Vermont that were there at the start
of the fight, 100 were shot or captured.
It was in part the battle of Cedar Creek that got Jeffords interested
in the Civil War and Vermonters' part in it, said Howard Coffin,
a historian and former Jeffords staffer.
Now Cedar Creek is one of the most threatened of the Civil War
battlefields, according to the Civil War Preservation Trust, in
part because permission has been granted to owners of a nearby
limestone mine to expand onto the site.
In 2005 Jeffords, then still a senator, was successful in including
$2 million for preserving a part of the battlefield where the
Vermonters made their stand - and where a monument to them has
stood since soon after the war.
Under the rules governing the Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National
Historical Park, the land for the site must be acquired from willing
sellers. So since Jeffords included the money in a federal highway
bill, the Civil War Preservation Trust has been working to buy
the land near the Vermont monument, long accessible only by crossing
private property.
Now that purchase is happening, said Mary Koik, spokeswoman for
the trust.
"We have bought land that was involved in the Vermont position
and their fight," she said. "We are in the process of
doing the transaction now."
The patch of land under the Vermont monument - raised by veterans
of the engagement after the war - is not part of the transaction,
Koik said. But the land that is being bought - and for which the
trust is still raising the last $50,000 - is quite close to it,
she said. About $1.2 million of the funding for the purchase is
federal money secured by Jeffords. Another quarter-million dollars
is a state grant from Virginia and the remainder to purchase the
49 acres will be raised privately, she said.
Koik said that the trust will continue working towards buying
the land directly under the Vermont monument. Given the pressure
on the site, the purchase now being made is an encouraging sign
for a battlefield that hasn't had one recently, she added.
"Frankly this is sort of some of the first good news we have
had out of Cedar Creek in a while," Koik said.
Getting access to the Vermont monument has meant arranging permission
from landowners - and sometimes dodging a bull that lived there,
Coffin said.
Jeffords spent years to secure the Cedar Creek site where the
Vermonters fought, Coffin said.
"It's a tremendously important site," he said. "This
is a big one for Vermont."
In 1863, before the battle at Cedar Creek, Thomas, who had been
a Democratic legislator in Vermont, was clear about why he was
returning to the war, he said in the Vermont Statehouse during
a temporary return from the front.
"If it shall be my lot never to enter this hall again, let
it be remembered that it is my highest hope (save that of a hold
upon eternity) that this infamous rebellion is destined to a certain
and everlasting overthrow," Thomas said, according to a contemporary
newspaper account. "And that with it, by the blessing of
God, the institution of human slavery in the United States goes
down forever!"
It was a year later that Thomas led the Vermonters and others
on top of the bare hill at Cedar Creek.
--(12) New Battle Mounted Over Civil War Ground-----------------------------------------------------
New Battle Mounted Over Civil War Ground
By John Herndon
5/24/2009
ABC News (NAT)
http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/story?id=7666961&page=1
The Civil War battlefield where Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant first
faced Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee is once again the site of
a titanic struggle between powerful forces.
On one side is Wal-Mart, which plans to build a superstore near
the park's entrance.
On the other side are preservationists, led by actor Robert Duvall,
a Virginian and descendant of Lee who played him in the film,
"Gods and Generals."
"Wal-Mart with their deep pockets full o' cash. I mean if
they have that much money they can move down the road a couple
of miles because I believe they'd have the money to do that, I
mean I would think. I certainly believe in capitalism, but I believe
in capitalism coupled with sensitivity," Duvall said recently
during a news conference at the battlefield. "Whatever we
can do to help we'll help. But we'll help first by graciously
chasing out Wal-Mart."
Opponents want Wal-Mart to move down the road, but while the site
near the battlefield is zoned for commercial development, the
other options are largely zoned agricultural and would require
time-consuming changes before Wal-Mart could locate there.
"We've gone to great lengths to try to work with residents,
county planners, state officials to come up with a very unique
design that fits within the unique character of Orange County
Wilderness. And we've built the store to be furthest back from
the site as possible. You won't be able to see it from any of
the battlefield park," said Keith Morris, Wal-Mart's public
affairs director.
The only option for stopping the project now appears to be to
appeal to Orange County supervisors or to Wal-Mart itself. A planning
board will offer its recommendation in June. The county board
of supervisors, now leaning in favor of approving the project,
is expected to vote this summer.
The Wilderness battle marked a crucial yet little-known point
in the Civil War. Some 180,000 Union and Confederate troops faced
off at Wilderness -- more Americans than are now in Iraq and Afghanistan
combined.
"The Wilderness battle fought in May 1864 was really a turning
point in the Civil War, in a lot of ways possibly more important
than Gettysburg because it was there that the Union determined
that it was not going to let up," said Jim Campi, government
relations director of the Civil War Preservation Trust.
The two-day battle left a staggering 29,000 dead and wounded.
When it was over, Lee never held the offensive again.
"This was really the beginning of the end for the Confederacy,"
said Russ Smith, superintendent of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania
National Military Park. With a massive Wal-Mart complex at the
crossroads where Union and Confederate troops camped, "this
area loses the sense of place. It just becomes any other place
in the country, and we want to maintain that special atmosphere
for visitors to understand and enjoy this place."
Craig Raines was drawn to the area from Arkansas to live near
those historical ties.
"This is going to destroy that rural vision that we have.
Wal-Mart's going to be open 24 hours a day," Raines said.
But some of his neighbors want the jobs, tax money and one-stop
shopping Wal-Mart would bring.
"We need it. It's that simple," said Wayne Phillips,
who says he drives 20 minutes to shop now. "Anybody who doesn't
think we need it, there's something wrong with them."
Development is also gaining ground at Gettysburg, Fort Gaines,
Ala., and dozens of other historic sites. One preservation group,
the Civil War Preservation Trust, estimates 30 acres of battlefields
disappear each day. Only 14 percent of the Wilderness battlefield
is protected from development, the trust says.
At the Wal-Mart site there is already a strip mall and a four-lane
highway.
"There's a 7-11, McDonald's, shopping centers all along the
entrance to the battlefield park already, much closer than we
are," Kmart's Morris said.
However, the Wal-Mart site would dwarf the existing development.
"We're very proud of our battlefields. That doesn't mean
we can't also have the commercial growth that we so desperately
need," said Barbara Banner, executive director of the Orange
County Chamber of Commerce. "Right now we are driving 20,
25 miles to get the same type of service products. It means 300
jobs and about half a million dollars in tax revenue. For a small
county, 300 jobs are a lot of jobs, particularly in today's job
market."
--(13) Civil War Sites Facing Development Danger-----------------------------------------------------
Civil War Sites Facing Development Danger
By John Shearer
5/25/2009
Knoxville News Sentinel (TN)
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/may/25/civil-war-sites-facing-development-danger/
Residents of the Friendsville area of Blount County were reportedly
involved in the 19th century Underground Railroad efforts to help
slaves escape north.
"In Friendsville, they just stayed in homes and did start
hiding out in cellars and attics," said George Henry, a Friendsville
historian.
Other tangible reminders of the Civil War era exist in the area.
Caves in Blount County and elsewhere were also apparently used
to hide both slaves and Union soldiers when the Confederates controlled
East Tennessee during the war.
And in Knoxville, plenty of Civil War earthworks remain, and many
of the hilltops marked on war maps have changed little.
While all these places preserve memories of the war, they are
not ensured of preservation themselves, as many are in private
hands and could be developed.
Actually, not even the protected war sites in Tennessee are enjoying
an existence satisfactory to some preservation advocates.
A study released last week by the National Parks Conservation
Association found that four national parks encompassing former
Civil War battlefields in Tennessee are under a modern-day assault.
The survey - released by the association's Southeast Region office
in Knoxville - found that Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Stones River,
and Chickamauga and Chattanooga are suffering from encroaching
development around them.
Also, staffing and federal funding shortfalls are causing challenges
in maintaining the protected land, the study said.
According to Joan Markel, the Civil War curator at the University
of Tennessee's McClung Museum, preserving such sites is not easy.
"Once something is preserved, it has to be maintained and
made accessible," she said.
However, she would love to see some of the Knoxville war sites
set aside as a national park.
"These other parks are preserved because they were the scenes
of large battles and had large losses of lives," she said.
"Here in Knoxville, what we had was a brilliant engineer
who used many different strategies. The defenders were very intelligently
protected."
She said that because of Union engineer Orlando Poe's earthworks
at Fort Sanders, Union Gen. Ambrose Burnside's men had suffered
only 13 casualties, compared to 813 by the attacking Confederates
under Gen. James Longstreet in the November 1863 battle in Knoxville.
Henry would love to see some sites around Friendsville protected
as well.
The Cudjo cave in the community is one such place. Owner Charlene
Patterson said her mother told her that Union soldiers hid there
and then were transferred to ships on the Tennessee River.
However, she is not interested in seeing her land turned into
a park.
"We wouldn't sell," she said. "This is the third
generation to own the land."
Don Barger, the regional director of the National Parks Conservation
Association in Knoxville, said parallels can be found between
the four protected national park battlefields and places around
Knoxville that some would like to see preserved.
"It shows that we are at the point of last chances to save
some of the places," he said. "And areas that are not
currently protected areas are in even more danger."
--(14) Civil War-era Soldier's Entire Body Recovered at
Construction Site-----------------------------------------------------
Civil War-era Soldier's Entire Body Recovered at Construction
Site
By Mindy Tate
5/21/2009
Williamson Herald (TN)
http://www.williamsonherald.com/home?id=64505
The entire body of a Civil War-era soldier discovered last week
by a construction worker digging on a Columbia Avenue construction
site has been recovered, according to local sources.
"They found the entire body," said Sam Gant, commander of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War Fort Donelson Camp # 62, headquartered in Franklin.
The discovery was made on Thursday, May 14, by a worker digging a trench on the former Through the Green site on Columbia Avenue near Southeast Parkway. The land has been sold for commercial, office and residential development.
"The worker was digging a hole when he saw what he thought was human remains," Deputy Chief David Rahinsky said that day. "Fortunately, he had the sense to stop digging and call us."
Gant has been an interested observer as work progressed.
"Among the items initially recovered from this grave were pieces of skull, a jawbone with teeth missing, a single tooth, an arm bone, numerous other bone fragments, five buttons and a Minie ball," Gant said. "This blunted Minie ball was presumably the one that took the young man's life. Later excavation uncovered the rest of the skeleton. This body of a tall man, clad in a long military coat, evidently had been buried in a wooden coffin."
Police called Carnton Plantation Thursday and asked for officials from there to come to the site. Eric Jacobson, historian at Carnton Plantation and a Civil War expert, came quickly, along with Lotz House owner J.T. Thompson and David Fraley of The Carter House.
Franklin officials immediately place a stop work order on a two-acre portion of the site, which has since been lifted, Gant said.
Jacobson said Wednesday during further excavation, more bones were found, as well as nails, apparent evidence of a makeshift coffin.
"I think everything points to him being a Union soldier," Jacobson said. "We will probably never know, but will always be guesswork."
Jacobson believes the soldier did not die during the Nov. 30, 1864, Battle of Franklin, but a few weeks later when Union soldiers were chasing retreating Confederate forces from Nashville and skirmished with them in the area.
"They concluded that in all likelihood this soldier was killed on Dec. 17, 1864, as the Union soldiers battled with the rear guard of Hood's army in their retreat from the Battle of Nashville," Gant wrote to SUVCW members, citing Jacobson and other historians. "In this area, a few hundred yards north of Winstead Hill, began a skirmish that carried on down Columbia Pike to the West Harpeth toward Spring Hill."
"It just gives you chills really," said Margie Thessin, interim director at Carnton, which saw use as a hospital following the Battle of Franklin, fought on Nov. 30, 1864. "It really brings the battle home."
While working to further identify the soldier, Gant and others are also working to see if the remains can be reinterred in a local historic cemetery, such as Rest Haven Cemetery on Fourth Avenue.
The property owner has released any claim to the remains, Gant said, who is now working with Third Ward Alderman Mike Skinner and the Board of Mayor and Aldermen to move quickly to remove any roadblocks to reinterment once the bones are released by Franklin Police and then the state.
"The bones will then be returned to the state archeologist who will turn them over to a forensic anthropologist for evaluation before their being reinterred," Gant said. "The state archeologist stated that the preferred option for reinterring the soldier is to return the contents of his grave to the original burial site which means that his grave would be a 2'x 6' plot in the commercial section of a mixed-use development.
"A burial site in a cemetery would be a much preferred location to give proper honor to the soldier lost in battle so far from home," Gant said. "The Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War, Fort Donelson Camp # 62 wishes for the soldier's remains to be re-interred in Rest Haven Cemetery in Franklin."
While some might think the soldier might be overwhelmed by Confederates, Gant said this cemetery also contains the remains of Union officers, Brig. Gen. James Brownlow and Lt. Col. George Grummond.
For Jacobson, the idea of gathering DNA and further researching the soldier's identity is intriguing.
"We are going to take DNA," Jacobson said Wednesday. "I have some ideas of the units and who it could be and we are going to see if any we can find any descendants. It's a long shot."
--(15) Morgantown Walk Through History-----------------------------------------------------
Morgantown Walk Through History
By Macall Allen
5/3/2009
WBOY-12 TV
http://www.wboy.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=58137
Kati Singel and Lauren Thompson are designing a podcast tour of
Civil War Morgantown.
In preparation for the podcast, the graduate students took about
two dozen people on a history tour Saturday.
They say there is more to the Civil War then just battles and
the military. They plan to tell the untold story of the people
on the home front in Morgantown.
"When we went through the archives we saw that there was
a ton of history, it's unwritten, it's a forgotten story of the
city," says Graduate Student Lauren Thompson.
"And what we're here to do is to tell that story to the people.
So, for those who aren't from Morgantown can take that story and
apply it to their own town."
"At the same time, when they drive through High Street or
across the Westover Bridge they may think a little bit differently
about the history that happened here," said Thompson.
The podcast history tour will be available to download on your
ipod for free.
They plan to have their finished podcast available on the History
department's website by mid May.