(1) Seeking a Win-Win in Store Debate - Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
(2) Maryland Marker Celebrates City's Link to John Brown - Hagerstown Herald Mail
(3) City Ceremonies Kick off Valley's Civil War Sesquicentennial - Northern Virginia Daily
(4) Student-Produced Brown Movies Unveiled - Martinsburg Journal
(5) West Virginia Civil War Group Debuts at Harpers Ferry - Martinsburg Journal
(6) Civil War Trust Donates 176 Acres to Harpers Ferry Park - Hagerstown Herald Mail
(7) Walmart Plans at Battlefield Site Moving Forward - Associated Press
(8) Divers to Survey USS Monitor - Associated Press
(9) Preserving a Forgotten State House - Charleston Post and Courier
(10) Area Awaits Word from Confederacy Museum - Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
(11) New Mexico Opens Civil War Battlefield Trail - Associated Press
(12) Storm-Battered Fort Pike Reopens - New Orleans Times-Picayune
--(1) Seeking a Win-Win in Store Debate -----------------------------------------------------
Seeking a Win-Win in Store Debate
By Clint Schemmer
7/1/2009
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star (VA)
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/072009/07012009/476690
As the debate over a proposed Wilderness area Wal-Mart moves to
the Orange supervisors, County Administrator Bill Rolfe has quietly
thrown his ideas into the mix.
Rolfe suggests that supervisors could end the 10-month-old national
controversy by shifting the proposed retail center away from the
Wilderness battlefield and Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National
Military Park.
"The question that begs to be asked is, 'Why isn't the county
trying to broker a deal that keeps Wal-Mart in the county and
moves it further away from the congressionally approved boundary
line of the Wilderness Battlefield?' Both would be in our best
interest," Rolfe wrote the Board of Supervisors in a June
15 e-mail.
He noted three op-ed pieces, published in the June 14 Free Lance-Star's
Viewpoints section, recounting how preservationists and Wal-Mart
clashed in 1996 when the retailer planned to build a store at
George Washington's boyhood home in Stafford County. The retailer
eventually built on another site about a mile east on State Route
3.
"This is not the first time this area has had to deal with
Wal-Mart and a proposed location in close proximity to a historical
site," Rolfe wrote. "The conclusion in the Ferry Farm
case is that you can create a 'win-win' situation and the Board
of Supervisors can play a major role in making that happen."
He noted two goals--that Orange enlarge and diversify its tax
base, and not do anything that would "detract from the [Wilderness]
battlefield as a tourism destination for our community."
The crucial issue is the Wal-Mart Supercenter's location, Rolfe
wrote, referring to public testimony before the county Planning
Commission last month.
By at least a 2-1 margin, most people who testified at the hearing
opposed allowing Wal-Mart's 138,000-square-foot store at the site
proposed by JDC Ventures of Vienna along Wilderness Run at the
intersection of State Routes 3 and 20. A majority of those who
spoke were Orange residents.
Last Thursday, the Planning Commission voted 5-4 to recommend
JDC Ventures' proposal to the supervisors, with certain conditions.
The board will make the final decision on the developer's request
for a special-use
Rolfe wrote that it appears that a coalition of historic preservation
groups would support building a Wal-Mart at a location farther
from the battlefield park. He noted that the King family, which
owns 2,000 acres adjoining the 51.6-acre retail-center tract,
is "willing to work with the county and Wal-Mart."
The Kings propose a mixed-used development for their Orange property,
about 900 acres, that "seems to work within the framework
of the county's comprehensive plan," he wrote. "That
plan provided for more commercial/business/industrial base without
increasing the availability of housing in Orange County.
"Shouldn't we at least try to make this a 'win-win' for our
community?"
The King property would have to be rezoned for commercial development.
The JDC Ventures tract is already zoned commercial and the developer
needs only to secure a special-use permit under the county's "big
box" ordinance. Wal-Mart has said it wants a site already
zoned commercial.
"I thought, 'Why the hell don't we move the Wal-Mart to the
King property?'" Rolfe said in an interview Friday. "If
the citizens are happy with that, and the preservationists are
happy with that, why wouldn't we try for such a solution?"
The Board of Supervisors did not discuss the administrator's e-mail
publicly at last night's meeting.
Rolfe said supervisors' reaction to his proposal has been mixed,
with the five-member board's Wal-Mart supporters warning him against
going too far.
"From board members, I've not gotten any formal responses
that said yes, or 'How would you expect to proceed on this?' Nobody's
grabbed the idea, and said let's discuss it," he said.
In making his proposal, Rolfe said he was speaking only for himself.
"Part of this position is throwing out ideas to see if you
get any bites," the county administrator said. "I like
to go fishing once in a while."
--(2) Maryland Marker Celebrates City's Link to John
Brown -----------------------------------------------------
Maryland Marker Celebrates City's Link to John Brown
By Dave McMillion
7/1/2009
Hagerstown Herald Mail
http://www.herald-mail.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_id=226009&format=html
Harpers Ferry, W.Va., is most commonly linked to John Brown's
October 1859 raid on a federal arsenal during his failed attempt
to arm an uprising of slaves.
But Hagerstown played a part in the string of events, too, and
that moment in history was celebrated Tuesday afternoon during
an unveiling of a historical marker downtown.
From Oct. 16 to 18, 1859, Brown and others took possession of
an armory in Harpers Ferry. The raid drew militia companies and
federal troops from Maryland, Virginia and other areas.
On Oct. 18 of that year, 12 U.S. Marines broke down the door of
a fire-engine house, and Brown and his group were captured.
Brown was charged in a conspiracy case, convicted and hanged in
Charles Town, W.Va., on Dec. 2, 1859.
Brown registered at Hagerstown's Washington House Hotel on West
Washington Street on June 30, 1859, and signed an alias - I. Smith
- on a register, according to the historical marker and other
accounts.
Accompanying Brown were his sons, Owen, Oliver and Jeremiah G.
Anderson, the marker states.
Jeremiah and Oliver died in the raid, and the hotel burned in
1879, according to the marker, which is installed at the Baldwin
House, the current site of the University System of Maryland at
Hagerstown.
The marker was unveiled during a 4 p.m. ceremony attended by various
local dignitaries, including Hagerstown City Councilwoman Ashley
C. Haywood.
Whether Brown is considered a martyr or a terrorist, he was a
key player in the Civil War, Haywood said.
When Brown came to Hagerstown, he was in the process of looking
for a place to reside and later found the Kennedy farmhouse in
the southern part of the county, said Dennis Frye, chief historian
at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.
"Here's where he organized," Frye told the crowd outside
the university complex.
The marker was funded in part through a grant from the Maryland
Heritage Areas Authority and is one of 12 that have been placed
around town explaining local Civil War history, said Tom Riford,
president and chief executive officer of the Hagerstown-Washington
County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The marker shows a photograph of people milling around the outside
of the Washington House Hotel and a sign in front of the building
advertising music, Bibles and other items.
Also pictured on the marker is a copy of the register of the hotel,
which shows a listing for "I. Smith and Sons." The register
entry shows Room 6 and place of residence as New York.
The marker was unveiled as the region this year celebrates the
150th anniversary of Brown's raid.
After the unveiling, a concert featuring songs based on the story
of Brown was performed.
Historian Stephen Bockmiller was scheduled to talk about the capture
of Brown at the Academy Theatre Banquet & Conference Center
on East Washington Street at 7 p.m.
--(3) City Ceremonies Kick off Valley's Civil War
Sesquicentennial-----------------------------------------------------
City Ceremonies Kick Off Valley's Civil War Sesquicentennial
By Elizabeth Wilkerson
6/29/2009
Northern Virginia Daily (VA)
http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2009/06/city-ceremonies-kick-off-valleys-civil-w.html
A healthy crowd of history buffs -- including a few in period
dress -- gathered at Abram's Delight Museum to help kick off the
Shenandoah Valley Civil War Sesquicentennial on Saturday.
"This is a subject worth getting passionate about, Virginia's
Civil War history," said Richard Lewis, the Virginia Tourism
Corp.'s public relations manager. Saturday's event was hosted
by the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation in partnership
with the Winchester-Frederick County Convention & Visitors
Bureau.
Cissy Shull, executive director of the Winchester-Frederick County
Historical Society, said the goal Saturday was to raise awareness
of the events planned to mark the war's 150th anniversary.
"We have so much Civil War history in the area," she
said.
And the area, known by 1861 as the "Garden of Virginia,"
played a pivotal role in the conflict, said James I. "Bud"
Robertson Jr., an alumni distinguished professor at Virginia Tech
and executive director of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies.
"In short, before Robert E. Lee could be taken out of the
war, the valley had to be taken out of the war," Robertson
told the crowd Saturday.
Though Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson cleared the valley of
Union forces in 1862, Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant gave orders
in 1864 that it be destroyed, he said.
"No one paid a heavier toll in the Civil War than the honest
and hardworking folks of the Shenandoah Valley," Robertson
said. "As we start this sesquicentennial, no one should want
to perpetuate the bitterness of that war," and yet, to forget
what happened would be a "callous disregard" of the
sacrifices made during the conflict.
The point, he said, is that "the Civil War was so far reaching,
so all consuming, that 150 years later we still cannot measure
its perimeters or the depth of its cost."
One of the goals of the Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American
Civil War Commission is to "pay attention to the young"
as the conflict's 150th anniversary is marked, he said.
Cheryl Jackson, the commission's executive director, said the
group was created in 2006 and is recognized as the national leader
of the sesquicentennial's commemoration. Saturday's kickoff event
came some time before 2011, when the 150th anniversary of the
conflict begins, but the sesquicentennial is about more than battles,
she said.
"The sesquicentennial is about the causes of the Civil War,"
she said, and it'll be about the war's "enduring legacy."
The exhibits and programs being prepared will cover what happened
on the home front during the war, along with what happened on
battlefields, she said.
"It's not going to be your father's Civil War education,"
she said.
Irvin E. Hess, chairman of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields
Foundation, said the valley has "an especially rich story
to tell," and local sesquicentennial committees "are
off to a terrific start."
"The sesquicentennial is upon us, and the Shenandoah Valley
is ready," he said.
--(4) Student-Produced Brown Movies Unveiled -----------------------------------------------------
Student-Produced Brown Movies Unveiled
By Edward Marshall
6/26/2009
Martinsburg Journal (WV)
http://www.journal-news.net/page/content.detail/id/521501.html?nav=5006
A service learning project created by Harpers Ferry Middle School
students about the story of John Brown's Raid was publicly unveiled
Thursday to local, state and national officials.
"Of the Student, By the Student, For the Student" includes
student-produced mini-movies, or vodcasts, and the premiere was
part of daylong kickoff celebrations of the 150th anniversary
of the American Civil War and the upcoming anniversary of Brown's
historic October 1859 raid.
Many historians believe the raid lit the fuse that touched off
the Civil War.
"(This is) no question one of the most exciting and best
things I'll be able to say I ever did in my career," Harpers
Ferry Middle School Principal Joe Spurgas said of the project.
"It's been a wonderful experience. ... I'm very proud of
my teachers and staff that were heavily involved."
Students conceived and created six vodcasts, short downloadable
Internet videos, which interpret the history of Brown's raid from
a young person's perspective. They will be used by the National
Park Service and the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership
to help educate visitors about the significance of the raid. They
will be available on both agency's Web sites, as well as YouTube,
an online video-sharing site.
"It's a very innovative and unique approach to bringing history
to other youth. A lot of people have worked to make this possibility
occur," said Dennis Frye, chief historian of Harpers Ferry
National Historical Park.
The guest speaker at the premiere Thursday was Robert G. Stanton,
deputy assistant secretary of the Interior and the former director
of the National Park Service.
He commended those present for giving him the opportunity to personally
witness the support of so many partners in what he described as
a "noble endeavor" to preserve and share the nation's
collective heritage.
"I reserve my warmest greeting to the young people who produced
this outstanding presentation," he said. "What you have
given of yourselves toward this noble cause of preservation stands
as a hallmark, which I will ... share beyond the state of West
Virginia."
Stanton later said he will tell others that if they want to see
a model of citizen engagement and commitment to their youth, they
only have to come to Harpers Ferry.
"I'm privileged for the opportunity to join with you on such
a special occasion ...," he said. "Ladies and gentlemen,
we have some outstanding documentary filmmakers in our presence."
The project, supported by the Harpers Ferry National Historical
Park, the JTHGP and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation,
is a model intended to spur service learning at other federal,
state, tribal, community and local historic properties across
the nation. The overall program was created by the JTHGP at the
request of the advisory council, in conjunction with the park
and the school.
"The Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership is thrilled
to be part of today's vodcast unveiling," said Cate Mangennis
Wyatt, president and founder of the partnership. "(The students)
came at it with different perspectives, came at it with an enormous
amount of talent, skills and abilities. ..."
It's the first tangible result of the ACHP's Preserve America
Service Learning Project program, representatives said. It's intended
to inspire similar efforts by local schools and historic preservation
organizations to create educational efforts tied to curricula
using local heritage resources, and to help people better understand
American history.
"I'm just to delighted to be here today to see the fruits
of everybody's labor ...," ACHP Executive Director John L.
Nau said. "We can look at (this) as a model to take to states
and parks and other partners around the country."
--(5) West Virginia Civil War Group Debuts at Harpers
Ferry -----------------------------------------------------
West Virginia Civil War Group Debuts at Harpers Ferry
By John McVey
6/26/2009
Martinsburg Journal (WV)
http://www.journal-news.net/page/content.detail/id/521500.html?nav=5006
The observance of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War officially
began in Harpers Ferry and Bolivar Thursday with a joint meeting
of the West Virginia and Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American
Civil War commissions.
While the Virginia SACWC has been up and running since 2006 with
$2 million allotted to it by the Virginia General Assembly, West
Virginia's commission is only now being filled with members, some
of whom found out they had been appointed to the position at Thursday's
meeting, which was the first official gathering of the West Virginia
SACWC.
State Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley, and state Senate President
Earl Ray Tomblin, D-Logan, co-sponsored legislation this year
to establish a state commission to recognize the 150th anniversary
of the Civil War.
"The commission has three aspects," Unger explained.
"To observe the 150th anniversary of John Brown's raid, the
Civil War in West Virginia and the 150th anniversary of the creation
of West Virginia."
Oct. 16-18 will be the 150th anniversary of fanatical abolitionist
John Brown's raid on the federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry.
The four-year-long 150th anniversary of the Civil War begins in
2011.
West Virginia's 150th anniversary will be celebrated in 2013.
"The state's sesquicentennial will be held at Harpers Ferry,"
Unger said. " President Barack Obama has been invited to
attend."
Unger got $100,000 for the West Virginia SACWC, he said. He hopes
to supplement that with private donations and corporate sponsors.
The commission's members are all volunteers, he said.
Unger will serve as the state Senate's non-voting representative
on the commission. The state House of Delegates' non-voting representative
has not been named yet.
The commission will have 11 voting members. They will serve through
July 1, 2021.
Current members include Beth White and Rick Wolfe, who are citizen
members; Betty Carver, commissioner of the division of tourism;
Randall Reid-Smith, commissioner of the division of culture and
history; Kay Goodwin, secretary of the department of education
and the arts; Peter Carmichael, Ph.D., Eberly Professor of Civil
War Studies at West Virginia University and Mark Snell, Ph.D.,
director of the George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the
Civil War in Shepherdstown, who are academic-historian members.
After tours of several sites around Harpers Ferry National Historical
park in the morning, the joint meeting of the two commissions
convened at the Mather Training Center for presentations and a
panel discussion Thursday afternoon.
In his remarks, Tomblin said the sesquicentennial offers us a
better understanding of who we are as a nation and what the Civil
War means to today's social structure.
"The Civil War left us with a united nation," Tomblin
told the audience. "Just think where the world would be if
Lincoln had not stood his ground to preserve the union."
William J. Howell, the speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates
and chairman of the Virginia SACWC, congratulated West Virginia
for inaugurating its 150th anniversary commission.
"Over the next six years, we'll explore the Civil War from
the battlefront to the homefront," he said.
The sesquicentennial offers an opportunity to preserve the documents
of the Civil War, he added, and to expand the reach of history
through the use of new technologies.
Dennis Frye, HFNHP's chief of interpretation, education, cultural
resources and partnerships, presented activities planned by the
Quad-State John Brown Commemoration Committee to observe the 150th
anniversary of John Brown's Raid.
In August, Descendants' Day is planned, he said. About 400 descendants
of all the people involved in John Brown's Raid - from descendants
of Brown's raiders' to descendants of the town militia that surrounded
Brown in the federal arsenal's fire station - are expected to
attend, he said.
Frye said that on Oct. 16, the march of Brown and his men from
the Kennedy Farm in southern Washington County, Md., where he
staged the raid, to Harpers Ferry will be recreated.
"Using the original roads at the original time, 8 p.m.,"
he said. "It will be a night march."
Events will be held in Charles Town in November and December to
commemorate Brown's trial and execution, Frye said.
The Quad-State group includes 21 members representing several
different organizations from Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia
and West Virginia, he explained.
The Quad-State group formed about a year ago in Shepherdstown
because Maryland does not nor does it plan to form an American
Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission, Frye said. A native and
life-long resident of Maryland, Frye said that embarrasses him.
Frye said that during the Civil War centennial 50 years ago, John
Brown was not acknowledged as having anything to do with the Civil
War.
"The superintendent of Harpers Ferry National Historical
Park was instructed not to take part in any observation of John
Brown's Raid," he said. "Times have changed."
Cate Magennis Wyatt, president of the Journey Through Hallowed
Ground Partnership, presented her organization's plans to for
observing the Civil War's 150th anniversary.
JTHG is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising national
awareness of the history of a region that runs from Gettysburg,
Pa., to Charlottesville, Va., primarily following the U.S. 15
corridor. Historic sites in Maryland and West Virginia are included
in its promotional efforts.
Wyatt said JTHG's efforts have focused on hospitality training
and creating education opportunities for all age groups using
the latest communication technologies.
Cheryl Jackson, the executive director of the Virginia SACWC,
presented excerpts of the Fredericksburg/Spotsylvania National
Military Park's vodcast tour.
Parts of a film called "Virginia in the Civil War: A Sesquicentennial
Remembrance" were presented by James I. "Bud" Robertson
Jr., Ph.D., alumni distinguished professor at Virginia Tech.
The three-hour documentary, which is divided into nine 20-minute
segments, will be distributed to every school in Virginia this
fall, he said.
Carmichael moderated a panel discussion titled "Opportunities
of the Civil War Sesquicentennial: Understanding Our Past, Embracing
Our Future."
The panelists were Charles F. Bryan Jr., Ph.D., president emeritus
of the Virginia Historical Society; Jim Lighthizer, president
of the Civil War Preservation Trust; and Robert K. Sutton, Ph.D.,
the chief historian for the National Park Service.
Tours of Harpers Ferry and Bolivar, featuring John Brown's Raid,
Bolivar Heights and Schoolhouse Ridge Civil War battlefields,
that were conducted Thursday morning, will be featured in Saturday's
edition of The Journal.
--(6) Civil War Trust Donates 176 Acres to Harpers
Ferry Park -----------------------------------------------------
Civil War Trust Donates 176 Acres to Harpers Ferry Park
By Richard Belisle
6/26/2009
Hagerstown Herald Mail (MD)
http://www.herald-mail.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_id=225743&format=html
It's 176 acres that could well have been covered with hundreds
of houses today. Instead, it now is hallowed ground and a portal
to the past.
The land, once owned by the late Dixie Kilham, a Harpers Ferry
entrepreneur, was bought from his estate by the Civil War Preservation
Trust (CWPT) in 2002, CWPT President James Lighthizer said Thursday
morning at a ceremony officially donating the acreage to Harpers
Ferry National Historical Park.
The original acquisition was 232 acres, 56 of which were sold
to the park later in 2002 for $420,000, said Mary Koik, spokeswoman
for the trust. Money to buy the 232 acres for $1.3 million was
raised by the trust in a national fundraising campaign that included
private donations and state and federal grants.
Over the years, the trust has helped protect more than 424 acres
of battlefield land for Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.
Park historian Dennis Frye said the latest acquisition from the
trust will bring the park's total land holdings to nearly 3,500
acres.
Thursday's land transfer ceremony was held on a 56-acre tract,
now part of the park on Bakerton Road north of U.S. 340. That
tract was saved by the Civil War Trust in 1995.
The Civil War Trust, headquartered in Hagerstown, and the Association
for the Preservation of Civil War Sites in Arlington, Va., merged
in 1999 to form the Civil War Preservation Trust, the largest
nonprofit battlefield preservation organization in the country,
Koik said.
The trust has 55,000 members. Since 1987, it has saved more than
25,000 acres of Civil War battlefield lands.
Frye, in explaining the importance of the new acquisition to the
park, said the land figured heavily in the Battle of Harpers Ferry
on Sept. 15, 1862.
Confederate forces under Gen. Stonewall Jackson and his 15,000
troops launched their attack on the 14,000 Union troops holding
the high ground on Bolivar Heights from ground included in the
176 acres. The Union troops were lined up on Bolivar Heights to
defend Harpers Ferry, Frye said.
Jackson's men came down from the high ground they were holding
beyond School House Ridge, marched across Bakerton Road and headed
up the hill toward the Union forces and guns.
Jackson outfoxed the Union troops with a flanking attack and captured
the entire garrison of more than 12,000 troops, the greatest number
of American forces captured at one time until the Japanese captured
Bataan in the Philippines in World War II, according to a National
Park Service plaque.
"I guarantee you that this would not be the national park's
backyard today, but a developer's dream," Frye said. "This
is battlefield land. Men died here."
In all, about 300 soldiers lost their lives in the battle, Frye
said.
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, in anticipation of the
land's donation, already has built restrooms and a visitors parking
lot. Walking trails will be built and interpretive signs will
be installed on the new property.
--(7) Walmart Plans at Battlefield Site Moving Forward
-----------------------------------------------------
Walmart Plans at Battlefield Site Moving Forward
By Steve Szkotak
6/25/2009
Associated Press (NAT)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,529203,00.html
Actor Robert Duval, filmmaker Ken Burns and some of the nation's
most esteemed historians have defended a Civil War battlefield
against Wal-Mart's plans to build a Supercenter near its boundaries.
Now, however, star power is giving way to people with less recognizable
names: Lee Frame, Teri L. Pace and R. Mark Johnson, Orange County
supervisors who will have the final word on the big box development
near the Wilderness Battlefield.
With the endorsement of county planners, Wal-Mart's proposal to
build a 138,000-square-foot store within one mile of the battlefield
is headed to county supervisors next week, when they are expected
to schedule a public hearing. A vote will follow.
Frame, who chairs the board of supervisors, said they are not
bound to follow the planners' recommendation, but he was impressed
with their thoroughness.
"As I mentioned to the chairman of the Planning Commission
earlier, they did a very thorough job of scrubbing the issues,"
Frame said. "Many of the questions we'll be asking have already
been answered through this process."
A majority of the five supervisors is believed to support the
Wal-Mart proposal, including Johnson. He has said he's open to
persuasion.
After the Planning Commission's 5-4 vote late Thursday, Johnson
said, "Certainly nothing tonight caused me to lean the other
way."
The commission vote followed a detailed discussion about the economic
impact of the store in this county of 32,000 about 50 miles southwest
of Washington, D.C., and other issues of interest in this rural
community. The Wilderness generally took a back seat to issues
of traffic and security.
Duval, Burns, hundreds of historians and congressmen from Texas
and Vermont have rallied to the preservationists' campaign to
shield the battlefield where 29,000 Union and Confederate soldiers
were injured or killed 145 years ago. It's also the place where
Robert E. Lee first met Ulysses S. Grant in battle.
"I think it's a lousy place to put a Wal-Mart," said
Nigel Goodwin, who voted against the special use permit.
"The issue has been one thing: location, location, location,"
said Walter Smith, who also cast his vote against the permit.
But other members of the commission noted that a fast-food restaurant
and strip malls are already on Routes 3 and 20 in Locust Grove
near the battlefield entrance.
"Just from an emotional standpoint, I'd love to see history
preserved. I'd love a big gate down there," said Will Likins,
the commission chairman and one of the five votes for the permit.
"I believe you should respect the dead," he said. "But
you have to move forward."
In a statement issued after the meeting, National Trust for Historic
Preservation President Richard Moe called the commission's vote
"disappointing and very problematic."
"The Commission's approval ignores alternate available sites
in Orange County, the many local and national voices raised in
opposition, and the sanctity of this historic site," Moe
added in the statement.
A spokesman for Wal-Mart, Keith Morris, called the commission's
recommendation "very significant."
The vote, he said, "just validates the fact that we've done
everything that's been asked of us."
Pace, who opposes the Wal-Mart at the proposed location, said
she isn't about to call the battle over.
"The board certainly has disagreed with the Planning Commission's
recommendations before," she said.
--(8) Divers to Survey USS Monitor -----------------------------------------------------
Divers to Survey USS Monitor
Associated Press
6/22/2009
Associated Press (NAT)
http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-local_wires-monitor_0623jun23,0,7889824.story
Divers plan to survey the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor off the
North Carolina coast this week with high-definition cameras to
look for deterioration in the nearly 150-year-old underwater wreckage.
Expedition organizers are hoping for good weather so divers can
make maximum dives into the 230-foot-deep waters approximately
16 miles off Cape Hatteras, Jeff Johnston, of the Monitor National
Marine Sanctuary, said Monday.
Johnston said the dive is exciting to sanctuary personnel because
it will be the first time the ship will be examined using high-definition
images, which make it easier to study the wreckage.
"The camera sees so much better than the eye does,"
he said, adding that the integrity of the wreck is good. "It
allows us to have an annual record of deterioration."
Johnston said the divers don't plan to bring artifacts to the
surface.
Major artifacts like the Monitor's historic revolving turret,
its engine and propeller have been recovered and are housed at
The Mariners' Museum in Newport News. The wreck was found in 1973
and designated the first national marine sanctuary in 1975.
The ship made history on March 9, 1862, during the Battle of Hampton
Roads against the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia. The Union
vessel sank that year on Dec. 31 in a storm while being towed
to Beaufort.
However, experts say the ship's design, which included a revolving
turret and armor, helped revolutionize naval warfare.
Divers ran into tricky currents Sunday and couldn't launch a robotic
sub to survey the wreckage, and the weather might be windy and
stormy during the week, Johnston said.
The dive is under the umbrella of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration but includes private divers, New Jersey-based Deep
Explorers and a team from Rutgers University, which has the robotic
minisub.
--(9) Preserving a Forgotten State House -----------------------------------------------------
Preserving a Forgotten State House
By Robert Behre
6/22/2009
Charleston Post and Courier (SC)
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/jun/22/preserving_forgotten_statehouse86796/
South Carolina's final Statehouse during the Confederate era resembles
a Lost Cause these days.
Its sills are ridden with termites and the floor in its main parlor
has peeled away from the wall.
The once grand Federal-style house in the town of Union was chopped
into five apartments a few decades ago and then sat empty for
years.
Even the historical marker out front - the one that told how the
home's former owner Judge Thomas N. Dawkins invited his old college
friend, then Gov. Andrew Gordon Magrath, to use this home as the
state capital while Union Gen. William T. Sherman advanced on
Columbia - was carted off.
But all is not lost here, at least not yet.
The Palmetto Trust for Historic Preservation and its director
Michael Bedenbaugh have struggled to save this lesser-known chapter
of the state's history, the third site of South Carolina's statehouse
after Charleston and Columbia.
"I brought my board here, and they all looked around quietly
and they looked at me and said, 'You're an optimist, aren't you?'
" Bedenbaugh recalls. He then jokingly tells his guest, "Don't
sneeze toward the house."
Its first portions may have been built as early as the late 1700s,
but it also was expanded around 1825 and then again around 1847,
when Judge Dawkins bought it, moved a fireplace and added a library
and a simple Italianate bay window. A Victorian-themed renovation
followed a 1911 fire.
"We've got the whole story of antebellum architecture here
from the colonial times up to the Civil War," Bedenbaugh
says.
But its architectural history isn't as significant as what unfolded
here in 1865.
Magrath learned that Sherman's army was heading toward Columbia,
not Charleston, and he needed to flee, taking as much of the state
government with him as possible. Presumably, he didn't have time
to consider the irony of moving his Confederate government to
a town named Union.
Magrath set up shop in Dawkins' home in February, while other
supporting workers moved in to nearby buildings.
Magrath spent at least part of his time burning state documents
out of fear of the repercussions should they fall into Yankee
hands.
Luckily for him, the Broad River was swollen that winter, so Sherman's
troops didn't venture any further west than Chester before turning
north. Magrath hung onto power until May, when he was arrested
a month after Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Va.
Like the state it served, the house fell on tough times following
the war.
About 10 years ago, what was left was donated to University of
South Carolina-Union, whose small campus surrounds the house on
two sides. But the school struggled to find enough money for a
suitable restoration and ultimately agreed to work with Bedenbaugh
and the Palmetto Trust.
The trust then worked out a deal to sell the house for $1 and
a series of covenants that require its careful restoration.
"There's an amazing amount of good fabric here. It's beat
up as hell, but it's something to build around," Bedenbaugh
says.
Peter Triggiani, a Georgia resident who has renovated several
homes in North Carolina and Georgia, stepped up. The 38-year-old
plans to restore it and use it as his home, doing much of the
work himself.
"I was just dumbfounded that a forgotten state capital was
in such poor condition," he says.
He also is intrigued by the surviving writings of Judge Dawkins'
wife. "It's very rare that you have not only a historic house,
but also two or three books of documents to support that history,"
he says.
Its restoration would bring full circle the preservation of Magrath's
extensive role in this state's Confederate history.
A year ago, the former federal courtroom at 23 Chalmers St. in
Charleston was renovated. This is where Magrath, then a U.S. district
judge and Charleston's most prominent federal official, lamented
the election of President Abraham Lincoln, saying, "the Temple
of Justice is now closed."
If those 1860 words foretold the great conflict to come, then
surely Magrath's final months as governor in this unlikely statehouse,
tossing documents into the fire, spoke volumes about how it all
was coming to an end.
--(10) Area Awaits Word from Confederacy Museum -----------------------------------------------------
Area Awaits Word from Confederacy Museum
By Dan Tevlock
6/17/2009
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star (VA)
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/062009/06172009/473787
Museum of the Confederacy executive director Waite Rawls has his
hands full in Appomattox, where he wants to begin his system of
museums.
The negotiations in Appomattox have left Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania
County leaders a bit out of the loop. They said they haven't heard
from Rawls in months.
The private Richmond museum has the world's largest collection
of Civil War artifacts and is looking to have a location here
as well.
Fredericksburg City Councilman Matt Kelly said a meeting with
museum officials had been set, but was canceled when the city
manager resigned.
"Everything's been relatively quiet," said Kelly, who
is one of several Fredericksburg officials who discussed with
Rawls the possibly of a museum in the city's historic Princess
Anne Street courthouse.
"I know they are kind of heavy-duty into the Appomattox situation
right now," Kelly said. "I know they are still looking
at all the sites here, too. It's not just us."
With a recent request for a closed-door meeting with Appomattox
County supervisors shot down, Rawls is left trying to make his
vision fit on 4 acres near the Appomattox Court House National
Historical Park, where about 150,000 people visit a year.
Elected leaders in the town of Appomattox, east of Lynchburg,
want to make a deal, and have negotiated with a landowner to buy
the 4 acres for $325,000.
However, Appomattox County Supervisor Thomas Conrad told The Lynchburg
News & Advance that the county is not interested in buying
4 additional acres Rawls says the museum needs. Efforts to reach
Conrad for comment yesterday were unsuccessful.
To complicate matters, what was first announced as an 8,000-square-foot,
$4 million museum has now turned into a larger $8 million facility.
Rawls announced in late 2007 that he wanted to have a museum near
the Chancellorsville battlefield off State Route 3 in Spotsylvania.
But that proposal faced behind-the-scenes opposition from preservations
who fought hard to get the Mullins Farm preserved. They didn't
want someone to build on the historic land.
That's when Rawls turned his attention to Fredericksburg.
Around the same time, Spotsylvania developer W.J. Vakos made an
offer to Rawls to build a museum at the under-construction Courthouse
Village development of apartments, homes and stores near the State
Route 208 bypass.
The Civil War Life Museum near the Spotsylvania visitor center
at Massaponax also wants to relocate to the courthouse area.
Terry Thomann, the Civil War Life Museum's executive director,
had said he was hoping to work with Rawls, but Rawls wasn't interested.
Supervisor Hap Connors said the last time he had a conversation
with Rawls about a Spotsylvania museum was March 24, when Gov.
Tim Kaine visited Slaughter Pen Farm off Tidewater Trail.
Rawls is seeking government and private financial support to move
some of the artifacts in Richmond to sites in this region, Fort
Monroe and Appomattox. He began considering moving the artifacts
out of Richmond because of declining visitation as Virginia Commonwealth
University Medical Center has grown around the museum.
"We think the Vakos offer was a win-win situation,"
said Connors. "We remain open to discussing opportunities
with [Rawls], and we are very excited about it, but the ball is
in his court."
'We are still committed'
Paul Harvey, the mayor of the town of Appomattox, said he is hopeful
that they can make the museum's plans a reality. Harvey said the
town worked out an agreement with the landowner to pay for the
land in installments. The town was then going to rent the space
to the museum at less than market value.
"This is pretty big for us," Harvey said. "We are
still committed to that even though the deal has not closed on
the land."
He said the town got involved with Rawls' vision quickly because
leaders believe the project will spur economic development.
The town had hopes the museum would attract a hotel and restaurant,
thus diverting visitors heading to Lynchburg, 25 miles away. Plans
were to break ground sometime this year and finish the museum
in conjunction with the 150th anniversary of the Civil War in
2011.
Appomattox deal first
Megan Stagg, the Museum of the Confederacy's spokeswoman, said
yesterday that Rawls was in meetings and could not be interviewed.
"As of now, we are completely focused on getting the Appomattox
deal closed out," she said.
Once that is set, she said Rawls wants to then focus on the Fredericksburg
area, and then on Fort Monroe. She said the museum's fund-raising
numbers won't be available until June 30.
"The whole point is we are trying to make a purchase of land,
and it involved a lot of people, and we are just trying to get
the best deal for everyone," Stagg said about the Appomattox
negotiations.
Stagg said Rawls hopes to make an announcement in two weeks. "Everything
is still going really well."
--(11) New Mexico Opens Civil War Battlefield Trail
-----------------------------------------------------
New Mexico Opens Civil War Battlefield Trail
By Susan Montoya Bryan
6/13/2009
Associated Press (NAT)
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2009-06-13-new-mexico-civil-war-trail_N.htm
The plan was to march up the Rio Grande, capture the city of Santa
Fe and seize the thousands of rifles, dozens of cannons and other
supplies at Fort Union for a campaign that would expand the Confederacy's
borders all the way to the California Coast.
But Union soldiers stood their ground at a pinch along the Santa
Fe Trail known as Glorieta Pass, resulting in a battle that historians
often refer to as "the Gettysburg of the West."
Public access to the Civil War battlefield has been limited, but
the National Park Service is celebrating the opening of a new
trail this weekend that will allow visitors to explore the area.
The Glorieta Battlefield Trail - more than 2 miles through the
wooded and rocky hills southeast of Santa Fe - has been in the
planning stages for several years. It's aimed at educating people
about the decisive 1862 battle.
"In many ways the Civil War was a defining moment for this
country but very few people know much about this campaign,"
said Jim Houghton, a Civil War buff and president of the Glorieta
Battlefield Coalition. "Had it been successful, the outcome
of the war could have been significantly changed."
Unlike states in the East, New Mexico isn't known for its Civil
War battlefields, of which there are less than a handful. Still,
preservation of such sites is a priority for the Park Service,
said Christine Beekman, chief of interpretation and visitor services
at Pecos National Historical Park, which oversees the Glorieta
Battlefield.
The park acquired much of the land necessary for preserving the
battlefield in 1990 but it wasn't until it acquired a key piece
of property at Pigeon's Ranch - which was used during the battle
as a hospital for both Union and Confederate troops - that planning
for the trail began in earnest.
After two years of work by the park and several volunteer groups,
the trail is lined with metal signs that recount what happened
during those last few days of March 1862.
The Confederate soldiers, which had mobilized in Texas for the
mission westward, were out for supplies, weapons, sympathetic
recruits, gold and silver in Colorado and California's blockade
free ports.
By late March, they had already taken Fort Fillmore near Mesilla
and Albuquerque and were camped at the west entrance to Glorieta
Pass. On the other side was the Union.
After two days of exchanging volleys and another day of burying
the dead, the Confederate troops gained the upper hand after taking
Sharpshooters Ridge and forced the Union colonel to order his
troops to fall back.
With their attention turned to the battlefield, the Confederate
troops had no idea that another group of Union forces had circled
around and destroyed their supply train. With that, the Confederates
had to retreat without food or supplies, ending their plans to
take the West.
Houghton said the challenge at Glorieta has always been that a
state highway bisects the battlefield.
"By placing this trail on the ridge, it gives visitors an
opportunity to actually hike through parts of the battlefield
in a safe manner and it also gives them a panoramic view where
they can look down on portions of the battlefield," he said.
Beekman said it's also important for visitors to see the topography
and other obstacles at Glorieta Pass that would have hampered
the troops during battle.
Glorieta has been listed in years past as one of the most endangered
and at-risk Civil War sites in the nation by the Civil War Preservation
Trust in Washington, D.C. Trust spokeswoman Mary Koik said preservation
and interpretation of such sites is becoming more important as
development increases.
"Every day about 30 acres of Civil War battlefield get paved
over," she said. "It's certainly something that's going
at an alarming rate."
Part of the problem, she said, is people are unaware that such
historic sites can exist in their communities.
"It's sad but true," she said. "Often folks will
have this history quite literally in their backyard. You may drive
by it every day but you'll never really connect to what's there.
That's why having these trails and signs, interpretation of the
battlefield, is really important."
--(12) Storm-Battered Fort Pike Reopens-----------------------------------------------------
Storm-Battered Fort Pike Reopens
By Kia Hall Hayes
6/11/2009
New Orleans Times-Picayune (LA)
http://www.nola.com/northshore/index.ssf/2009/06/stormbattered_fort_pike_to_ope.html
The 182-year-old fortification was built to withstand invasions
from land or sea, but since Fort Pike's construction, its greatest
threat has come from the elements.
The historic site which sits on New Orleans' eastern shore near
the Rigolets had been closed for more than two years after storm
surge from Hurricane Katrina submerged the 14-foot-high structure
and left significant structural damage to the site, which has
already fallen into disrepair due to decades of neglect.
After the state completed repairs to the fortification in subsequent
years, Fort Pike reopened in May of last year, and saw about 100
visitors every weekend until it closed again in August due to
hurricanes Gustav and Ike.
The fort is reopening at 1 p.m. today in a ribbon-cutting ceremony
with Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu. On Sunday, members of the Seminole
Nation of Oklahoma will unveil a plaque honoring Huithli Emathla,
known as "Jumper," who died at the fort in 1838.
Marsh grass and other debris that inundated the area after Gustav
reached more than five feet high inside the fort's gun emplacements,
said Joseph Yarbrough, president of the Fort Pike Foundation.
"It kind of devastated us a little bit to have a setback
like that," Yarbrough said Friday.
It was the most recent of several hits, which resulted in Fort
Pike being listed in 2007 as among the 10 most endangered battlefields
in the United States. The list was compiled by the Civil War Preservation
Trust, a nonprofit group in Washington, DC.
Yarbrough said area history buffs have been eager to return to
the fort, which was home to 400 Confederate soldiers until it
was taken over by Union forces around 1862. The fort was officially
abandoned in 1890 and in 1972 was placed on the National Register
of Historic Places.
"People call me up that I don't even know wanting to know
what's going on with it," he said.
A number of improvements and repairs have taken place in recent
months to get Fort Pike ready to open. After removing the debris,
workers replaced the roof for the restrooms and built a new observation
deck on the grass-covered upper level that looks over the water.
The state hopes to complete more significant renovations to correct
decades of neglect, and is hoping the Federal Emergency Management
Agency will make good on a verbal pledge to fund the projected
$18 million to do the work, said Stuart Johnson with the state
Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism.
"We're still working with them...but they are so far not
coming through," he said.
Despite the federal funding headache, park officials eagerly anticipated
the reopening of the fort, which was abuzz with activity on Thursday
afternoon. Workers gave the sally port a fresh coat of white paint,
replacing paint that eroded after the passageway was inundated
with salty storm surge.
Construction crews are continuing to rebuild a brick walkway leading
to the fort, which will be completed this summer. Plans for later
in the year call for shoring up the exterior corners of the fort,
officials said.
"I'm ecstatic that's it opening again," said Yarbrough,
"I'm just praying this time around we don't get any hurricanes."