Civil War News Roundup - 8/28/2009
Courtesy of the Civil War Preservation Trust
(1) Editorial: Sacrificing History for the Sake of Convenience - Culpeper Star-Exponent
(2) Foes Urge Wal-Mart to Reconsider - Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
(3) Officials OK Wal-Mart near Virginia Battlefield - Associated Press
(4) Joint Effort Lands Montpelier Permanent Protection - Charlottesville Daily Progress
(5) Battle Joined for Tourist $$ - Charleston Post and Courier
(6) Wal-Mart Permit Backed by Orange Planners - Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
(7) Saving a Floridian Civil War Site - Associated Press
(8) Area Planning for Anniversary - Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
(9) Park Power Lines Going Underground - Gettysburg Times
(10) Unity to Be Part of Events Honoring Civil War's 150th Anniversary - Associated Press
(11) Battlefield Gets $440,000 Grant for Preservation - Richmond Register
(12) A New Fight for Civil War Site - Los Angeles Times
(13) Fitts Honored with Fund - Loudoun Times-Mirror
(14) Civil War Battlefield Gets Preservation - Jackson Sun
(15) Trust Buys Battlefield Land - Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
--(1) Editorial: Sacrificing History for the
Sake of Convenience -----------------------------------------------------
Editorial: Sacrificing History for the Sake of Convenience
Culpeper Star-Exponent
8/27/2009
Culpeper Star-Exponent (VA)
http://www2.starexponent.com/cse/news/opinion/op_ed/article/our_view_sacrificing_history_for_the_sake_of_convenience/42201/
We are extremely disappointed in this week's news that Walmart
has been approved to build near the Wilderness battlefield.
The Orange County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 in the early
morning hours Tuesday to allow a Walmart Super Center to be built
across the road from the Wilderness Civil War battlefield.
It makes our stomachs churn.
Many Orange County residents pointed to the need for shopping
outlets, new jobs and tax dollars that would remain in local coffers
- all legitimate needs, just not at the expense of the
hallowed ground where Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant first
met in a horrific battle that saw tens of thousands killed or
wounded.
While it appears to be a done deal and construction could begin
in a matter of months, we stand with local, state and national
preservation groups whose new focus is to put pressure to Walmart
headquarters to abandon plans for the store.
Will that work?
We can only hope.
Somehow, someone must convince the corporate giant to abandon
this site and relocate a mile west, closer to the coveted population
center at Lake of the Woods.
If Walmart proceeds with plans to build at the intersection of
routes 3 and 20, however, we implore the company to keep its word
and do everything possible to minimize sight lines.
Unfortunately, little can be done regarding traffic flow and the
sprawl that will eventually overtake the serene battlefield area.
Kudos to Teri L. Pace, the only supervisor who voted no.
--(2) Foes Urge Wal-Mart to Reconsider -----------------------------------------------------
Foes Urge Wal-Mart to Reconsider
By Clint Schemmer
8/27/2009
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star (VA)
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/082009/08272009/489694
As they indicated earlier this week, preservationists fighting
a Walmart in the Wilderness battlefield area aren't crying uncle.
Late yesterday afternoon, they fired off a letter to Wal-Mart
Stores Inc.'s new CEO, Michael Duke, urging him to reconsider
the location its regional executives chose for a Supercenter in
eastern Orange County.
Wal-Mart and its real-estate partners--JDC Ventures of Vienna
and 3 & 20 Limited Partnership of Burke--were granted a special-use
permit for a 240,000-square-foot retail center Tuesday by the
Orange County Board of Supervisors. The site is a quarter-mile
from Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.
Eight private groups, called the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition,
say the development and traffic it will bring will mar park visitors'
experience and destroy scenic vistas.
Yesterday, the coalition wrote Duke asking him "in the strongest
possible terms" to find another site that would "that
would not be so damaging to the county's most-visited tourist
attraction and one of the most important Civil War battlefields
in the nation."
The coalition offered to collaborate with company and Orange County
officials to pick a location farther from the battlefield that
would suit the retailer's needs. It said it is open to endorsing
a rezoning for a new site. "Our coalition has stated from
the beginning that we would welcome a new Walmart to Orange County
at a less historically sensitive location," the groups told
Duke, "[We] would be willing to consider supporting a rezoning
at a location farther from the battlefield, and are eager to work
with the county and Wal-Mart to help identify an alternate location."
The groups urged Wal-Mart "to take advantage of the generous
offer" that Gov. Tim Kaine and House Speaker Bill Howell
made last month to provide state assistance toward selecting an
alternate site. Wal-Mart's regional spokesman, Keith Morris, has
previously said the Wilderness tract is the only Orange site that
meets the corporation's requirements. "We are committed to
our current site, which is zoned and master-planned specifically
for the use we have proposed," Morris said yesterday.
In its letter to Duke, the coalition said the planned retail center
anchored by Walmart "is nearly quadruple the existing development
at the Route 3 and Route 20 intersection. "In addition, building
on the battlefield and at the gateway to the national park would
be incompatible with this unique and historic place," the
letter said.
The May 1864 Battle of the Wilderness pitted 160,000 troops against
one another in the first clash between generals Robert E. Lee
and Ulysses S. Grant. Some 29,000 Americans were killed, wounded
or captured in the two-day battle, which historians regard as
a turning point in the war.
The letter was signed by the leaders of the Fredericksburg-based
Central Virginia Battlefields Trust, Civil War Preservation Trust,
Friends of Fredericksburg Area Battlefields, Friends of Wilderness
Battlefield, National Coalition for History, National Parks Conservation
Association, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Piedmont
Environmental Council, and Preservation Virginia. Copies were
sent to Kaine, Howell, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, members
of Virginia's congressional delegation, and others.
Rob Nieweg, director of the National Trust's Southern field office,
said the coalition will keep pressing Wal-Mart to protect the
battlefield and the park. "Wal-Mart is not obligated to build
on the approved site simply because Orange County has given them
a green light by approving the special-use permit. Big-box construction
on this site would harm the battlefield and radically urbanize
the gateway to the national park. Ultimately, the fate of this
historic place is in Wal-Mart's hands."
--(3) Officials OK Wal-Mart near Virginia Battlefield
-----------------------------------------------------
Officials OK Wal-Mart near Virginia Battlefield
By Steve Szkotak
8/25/2009
Associated Press (NAT)
http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/131184/
Local officials early today approved a Walmart Supercenter near
one of the nation's most important Civil War battlefields, a proposal
that had stirred opposition by preservationists and hundreds of
historians.
The Orange County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to grant the
special permit to the world's biggest retailer after a majority
of more than 100 speakers said they favored bringing the Walmart
to Locust Grove, within a cannonball's shot from the Wilderness
Battlefield.
Historians and Civil War buffs are fearful the Walmart store will
draw traffic and more commerce to an area within the historic
boundaries of the Wilderness, where generals Ulysses S. Grant
and Robert E. Lee first met in battle 145 years ago and where
145,000 Union and Confederate soldiers fought and more than 29,000
were killed or injured. One-fourth of the Wilderness is protected.
But they could not sway supervisors, who said they didn't see
the threat.
"I cannot see how there will be any visual impact to the
Wilderness Battlefield," Supervisor Chairman Lee Frame said,
casting a vote for the special use permit the store needs to build.
"I think the current proposal ... is the best way to protect
the battlefield."
The retailer said construction could begin in a year.
Nearly 400 people crowded into Orange County High School to attend
the board's hearing. Some came dressed in period costume, including
a dead ringer for Lee, and one speaker ended his remarks with
a rendition of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."
Many residents cited three reasons for supporting the Walmart
proposal: jobs, tax revenue and a cheap shopping option for the
32,000 residents of this farming community about 60 miles southwest
of Washington.
"I know we've been referred to as ignorant shoppers,"
said Barbara Wigger. "I feel bad about that but I'll live
with it. Let us have our Walmart and let us stop the battle."
Speakers who urged the board to reject the special permit said
they were not anti-Walmart, but simply worried about the sanctity
of the Wilderness.
"This is a major battlefield," said Charles Seilheimer
Jr. "It may not be Gettysburg but it's pretty close. The
Civil War experts say this is part of the battlefield. I believe
them."
Charles Edge said supervisors should not allow the retailer to
build on ground "marked by the blood of the fallen."
"The establishment of a retail chain makes a mockery of that
sacrifice," he said.
Supervisor Teri Pace, who cast the lone dissenting vote, suggested
an alternative site, and said the county's historic attractions
were the key to its economic future.
"This difficult economy will not be solved by Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart
is only part of the equation," she said.
In a state with more key Civil War battlefields than any other,
the company's plan to build near the Wilderness had mobilized
historians, preservationists and politicians.
Opponents include 253 historians such as David McCullough and
James M. McPherson, filmmaker Ken Burns, actor Robert Duvall,
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, and congressmen from Vermont and Texas,
states that lost many men at the Wilderness.
Preservationists could not make the case to the board and many
residents said a Walmart would not diminish an area that already
is home to two strip malls and about 20 retail shops, including
a McDonald's.
Supervisor Mark Johnson, who supported the special permit, berated
some members of the preservation community who he said had "twisted
the truth" on the historic significance of the site. He argued
that history is more than the contours of a battlefield and granite
monuments.
"It's the deeds and the lives that our ancestors lived, the
sacrifices they made," he said.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which has 8,000 stores worldwide and adds
about 240 each year, countered that the site is zoned for commercial
use and the store will not be within sight of the battlefield's
2,700 protected acres.
The retailer has also said the store will create hundreds of jobs
and generate $800,000 in tax revenue for Orange County.
People streamed into the meeting wearing their allegiances on
their lapels: the store's signature smiley faces representing
store supporters, and green stickers on those seeking a site farther
away from the Wilderness Battlefield. A small army of re-enactors
and historic interpreters, such as Al Stone of Hinton, W.Va.,
who represented Lee, spoke against the store.
--(4) Joint Effort Lands Montpelier Permanent
Protection -----------------------------------------------------
Joint Effort Lands Montpelier Permanent Protection
Charlottesville Daily Progress
8/25/2009
Charlottesville Daily Progress (VA)
http://www2.dailyprogress.com/cdp/news/local/article/joint_effort_lands_montpelier_permanent_protection/44443/
More than 700 acres at James Madison's Montpelier became permanently
protected Monday through a public-private partnership.
The Piedmont Environmental Council collaborated with the Virginia
Department of Historic Resources and the Virginia Outdoors Foundation
to purchase conservation easements from the National Trust for
Historic Preservation and the Montpelier Foundation.
"We are thrilled to work with the Montpelier Foundation and
the National Trust to protect this critical historic resource,"
said Chris Miller, president of the Piedmont Environmental Council.
"Everyone involved felt it was important to move forward
with these conservation easements as soon as possible. Montpelier
is one of America's most important and best preserved historic
sites, a place that inspired Madison and his thoughts about the
Constitution and the future of the United States."
The easements will protect four chunks of the fourth president's
estate. The East Woods, a 200-acre forested tract is adjacent
to the "Landmark Forest," a nationally recognized old-growth
Piedmont forest that is already protected by an easement. Also
conserved is Chicken Mountain, a 245-acre forested tract in the
Somerset area.
The historic Gilmore Farm, a 19-acre parcel, will be protected
as well. The parcel is the site of the restored home of George
Gilmore, a former slave at Montpelier who lived there with his
wife, Polly, and their family.
A large Civil War encampment site, adjacent to the Gilmore Farm,
was occupied during the winter of 1863-64 by Confederate troops
before they fought the Battle of the Wilderness.
"These four easements at Montpelier, protecting streams,
forests, a Civil War encampment and the home of one of James Madison's
former slave, George Gilmore, demonstrate the power of collaboration
between conservationists and preservationists," said Richard
Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
"We hope these easements will spur additional protection
around James Madison's Montpelier and serve as a model for other
projects."
--(5) Battle Joined for Tourist $$ -----------------------------------------------------
Battle Joined for Tourist $$
By Brian Hicks
8/24/2009
Charleston Post and Courier (SC)
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/aug/24/battle-joined-for-tourist/
very day, Charleston honors, idealizes and trades on its key role
in what many locals refer to as The War.
Not only are old times here not forgotten -- they're profitable.
But now, as the 150th anniversary of the Civil War approaches,
just about every state in the old Confederacy is trying to horn
in on what is one of South Carolina's biggest tourism draws.
Georgia plans to spend $5 million refurbishing its battlefields
and historic sites. Virginia has put $4 million into its sesquicentennial
tourism campaign. Tennessee, North Carolina, Alabama and even
Maryland have started heritage events.
In South Carolina, more than a dozen public agencies and private
boards and groups are working on plans for five years' worth of
events to mark everything from the state's secession to the firing
on Fort Sumter and the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation
in Charleston. The state has set up a War Between the States Heritage
Trust Commission, but it has not yet met.
So far, South Carolina has put no money into any of these efforts.
"I hope we don't let other states surpass us," said
Randy Burbage, South Carolina division commander of the Sons of
Confederate Veterans. "It could be a huge economic success,
if we do it right."
State officials say it's still early and money could materialize,
but it's a tough sell in a world of budget cuts, layoffs and record-high
unemployment.
For now, local groups are handling most of the planning. The Fort
Sumter/Fort Moultrie Trust is coordinating local events for the
sesquicentennial. Right now, there are plans for a December 2010
event at The Citadel which will recall the state's secession with
lectures from leading war scholars.
Like most states, South Carolina's plans are meant to be inclusive
and touch every demographic. There are plans for exhibits on the
role of women in the war, the plight of African-Americans and
the ways that the war manifested itself in art and music.
"This is a commemoration, not a celebration," said Robert
Rosen, a local attorney and president of The Fort Sumter/Fort
Moultrie Trust. "We need to remember it in ways that are
positive for all parts of the community."
Charleston is a natural focal point for the war's anniversary.
South Carolina seceded from the Union in December 1860 in a meeting
that took place in the city. Shots were fired on the Star of the
West steamship by Citadel cadets in January 1861, and the war
began with the bombardment of Fort Sumter in April 1861. Charleston
fell and Columbia was burned in the early months of 1865, just
before the war ended that April.
Already, a good number of the tourists who visit Charleston come
for that history. At the Confederate Museum in the Market, director
June Murray Wells says there has been a steady increase in visitors
over the past few years. They flock to the museum, where they
can find some of the most amazing artifacts of the war in this
city: the first Confederate flag to fly over Fort Sumter, the
first rifled cannon made in the south, a lock of Robert E. Lee's
hair.
"I think we are having more people now than ever before,"
Wells said. "I don't think the sesquicentennial will have
very much effect."
The museum will offer special exhibits during the five years of
the anniversary, but is not coordinating with other groups. Many
other agencies also are acting solo but expect the state commission
to put them under one umbrella to better market the state. Most
events are still in the planning stage; specific dates are not
set. State officials note that South Carolina is a year away from
the budget that would include money for tourism campaigns.
"People are just beginning to wake up to the fact that it's
a year away," said Marion Edmonds, communications director
for the state Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.
State Sen. Glenn McConnell, president pro tem of the Senate and
chairman of the state Hunley Commission, said South Carolina's
budget has been too tight of late to include any money for a marketing
campaign. But there may be ways to benefit the state's commemoration
in the coming legislative session. Perhaps, he said, the Legislature
could direct some of the Parks, Recreation and Tourism marketing
budget toward anniversary events.
"The only way to make a case for that is to show that it's
advantageous for the state," McConnell said. "Put aside
historical arguments, we have an opportunity to out-perform other
states for a great many tourism dollars. Interest is going to
be very high for five years, and we've got to look for ways to
leverage that for economic development."
In the meantime, Rosen said the Fort Sumter/Fort Moultrie Trust
will ask Charleston, North Charleston and Mount Pleasant for some
accommodations tax money to help pay for some events.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans plans to contribute to the state's
efforts of their own accord. Right now the group is working on
a brochure that will direct folks to significant historical sites
in each South Carolina county. The group will also sponsor its
own seminar in January 2011 on the legalities of secession and
plans to release information on where each of the 170 signers
of the Ordinance of Secession are buried.
The group also will coordinate re-enactors who will camp at Fort
Moultrie and Fort Sumter in the days leading up to the firing
on the fort, but members aren't sure they will be able to pull
off a re-enactment of the actual bombardment.
But Burbage says once again, South Carolina will be home to a
shot heard 'round the world.
"It's such a part of our history," he says, "We
can't let it pass by."
--(6) Wal-Mart Permit Backed by Orange Planners -----------------------------------------------------
Wal-Mart Permit Backed by Orange Planners
By Robin Knepper
8/22/2009
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star (VA)
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/082009/08222009/488500
Last night the Orange County Planning Commission voted for the
third time on the special-use-permit application for a proposed
Walmart Supercenter near the Wilderness Battlefield.
The vote was 5-1 to recommend approval of the permit to the Board
of Supervisors, which will hold a public hearing on the matter
Monday.
On Thursday night, the Planning Commission held its second public
hearing on the permit application and afterward voted 4-4 on a
motion to recommend approval. It had advertised a meeting for
last night in case it needed the extra time to consider the permit.
The tie vote was considered a defeat for the motion to recommend,
according to the commission's bylaws. However, those bylaws are
not consistent with state law that states, "no action of
the local Planning Commission shall be valid unless authorized
by a majority vote of those present and voting."
Since the tie vote was not a majority vote, it was, in effect,
no vote at all and the result would be no recommendation from
the Planning Commission to the Board of Supervisors.
"It's absolutely a procedural problem not to have a recommendation
coming from the Planning Commission," said County Attorney
Sharon Pandak. "But it's vastly advantageous that there's
some time before the Board of Supervisors takes it up for the
commission to pass a motion either recommending approval or denial."
"Since it's not gone to the Board of Supervisors," she
told the commissioners, "you have the opportunity to determine
if you want to take official action on this."
"We want it clean," said Chairman Will Likins. "There's
no doubt whatsoever that what we've been doing is incorrect. It's
best for the county to get this right tonight."
Six members of the Planning Commission were present. Commissioners
Donald Brooks, Cory Redifer, Dave Kovarik, Elliot Fox and Likins
voted to send the recommendation for approval.
Commissioner Nigel Goodwin voted against the recommendation.
Likins noted for the record that "every single commissioner
has voted at least once" on the permit. "No one has
changed his vote; it's always been three-fifths in favor and two-fifths
against."
The differences in the three votes the commission has taken are
the result of members being absent when votes were taken. All
10 members of the commission were never present at the same time
to vote.
The first vote, taken on June 25 was 5-4 to recommend approval
of the permit to the Board of Supervisors. However, the failure
of the local weekly newspaper to properly advertise the public
hearing nullified the hearing and the vote. The supervisors are
not bound by the commission's recommendation and three of the
five have said they will vote to approve the permit.
Walmart wants to build a 138,000-square-foot store on a 51-acre
site a quarter-mile north of the intersection of State Routes
3 and 20 and the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military
Park.
Historic preservationists have mounted a national campaign against
the project, which also calls for 98,750 square feet of additional
retail development. Opponents say the traffic and road improvements
the retail center would bring would damage the Civil War battlefield,
and want the store in another location.
Walmart officials have countered that no other commercially zoned
and properly configured property with suitable traffic access
is available in the area.
Supporters of the Walmart proposal say the store will bring needed
jobs and tax revenue to the rural county.
The Board of Supervisors will hold its public hearing on Walmart
Monday night beginning at 6 p.m. in the Orange County High School
auditorium, 201 Selma Rd., Orange.
--(7) Saving a Floridian Civil War Site -----------------------------------------------------
Saving a Floridian Civil War Site
By Ron Word
8/19/2009
Associated Press (NAT)
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090819/ARTICLE/908191040
History and nature have combined in a little-known park which
was once the major Confederate military base in north Florida
near the end of the Civil War.
In 1864, Camp Milton was a key Confederate installation aimed
at blocking Union advances toward Baldwin, a supply center and
rail head. Florida was a big supplier of cattle, salt and other
goods to the Confederate army.
Although no major battles were fought on the grounds, Camp Milton
served as a base for skirmishes between the 8,000 Confederate
troops and 12,000 Union soldiers in Jacksonville, about a dozen
miles to the east.
Soldiers and slaves had built massive wooden defenses.
Less than a decade ago, this 124-acre park on the far western
edge of Jacksonville was destined to become a sludge dump, until
city and state agencies stepped forward to purchase the land.
Now the park is home to towering pines, magnolias, saw palmettos
and blackberries, plus foxes, bobcats, snakes, deer, armadillos,
opossums and red-shouldered hawks.
Youngsters skipping down a boardwalk into the woods on a recent
summer day to see the remains of earthworks built in 1864 were
thrilled when they saw a small snake slithering up a tree.
Period re-enactors dressed in long, flowing dresses taught the
children about life in Jacksonville in 1864, describing laundry,
basket-weaving, spinning and toys. Some 1,750 children have visited
the preserve this summer.
Dressed as a Union soldier in military wool from his underwear
to his outer blouse, Michael Meek, 24, described the life of a
soldier in the waning days of the Civil War near Jacksonville.
Meek described his muzzle-loading rifle, complete with bayonet,
to the children while they peppered him with questions.
"It's an honor to talk to the little kids about their history,"
said Meek, who has learned that he is descended from a Union soldier
who spent time at Camp Milton.
Although Milton was built as a Confederate camp, Union forces
from Jacksonville invaded and then abandoned Camp Milton four
times before it closed in July 1864.
The camp was named for Florida's Civil War Gov. John Milton, who
committed suicide on April 1, 1865, when he realized the South
had lost the war.
Designed by Gen. Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, a specialist
in defensive fortifications, the earthworks at Camp Milton were
built of wood instead of coquina rock or brick.
"These things were very tough to build. You can imagine what
these guys went through, the humidity and the heat," said
Fred Singletary, an amateur historian and historical re-enactor.
The park is a mostly undiscovered jewel. There are no signs directing
visitors from nearby Interstate 10 and it is not advertised in
city tourism brochures.
Each year in February, the park holds a re-enactment of the events
leading up to the Battle of Olustee with soldiers and women dressed
in period garments.
The fact that the Camp Milton Historical Preserve exists is a
testament to the work of amateur historians and sympathetic city
and state lawmakers.
Their dreams came to fruition in September 2006, when Camp Milton
opened to the public.
But there are other Civil War locations across the South, including
some in north Florida, which are being lost to development.
"We believe that the ultimate fate of nearly all Civil War
battlefield land will be decided in the next decade," said
Jim Campi, a spokesman for the Civil War Preservation Trust.
Camp Milton was saved using a combination of about $1.7 million
in city and state matching grants to purchase land and fund amenities.
--(8) Area Planning for Anniversary -----------------------------------------------------
Area Planning for Anniversary
By Clint Schemmer
8/17/2009
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star (VA)
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/082009/08172009/487095
Just as armies converged again and again on the Fredericksburg
area during the Civil War, so, too, will the region be in the
bull's-eye during the sesquicentennial of the nation's bloodiest
conflict.
Local organizers are still firming up their plans, but it's clear
the public will have much to choose from among the special programs
envisioned here for the 150th anniversary.
Since the war ran from 1861 to '65, the sesquicentennial will
begin in 2011.
Already, Virginia's sesquicentennial commission has provided a
grant to support The Crossing, events focused on the 10,000 slaves
who crossed the Rappahannock River to freedom as the Union army
arrived here in 1862. Fredericksburg slave John Washington, one
of the first to escape bondage during that exodus, left a poignant
memoir of his experience that was recently published in two books.
Spotsylvania County, the first Virginia locality to form a sesquicentennial
planning group, is laying the groundwork for a future Civil War
Ball by offering 19th-century dance lessons every third Friday
at the Spotsylvania Courthouse area's Marshall Center.
Next month, Spotsylvania will kick off its observances with an
1859 County Fair in the courthouse area, said Russell Seymour,
the county's director of economic development. Politicians will
debate the hot topics of that pre-war year, a medicine show will
mix banjo music and cure-alls, a historian will explain gospel
songs' hidden meanings, photographers will demonstrate wet-plate
techniques of the time, and players will compete in a period-style
baseball game.
Fredericksburg and Stafford County have their own planning group,
and its programs are going to touch on almost everything--including
hospitals, civilians and slaves--said the group's chairman, John
Hennessy.
Plans include a History Alive series of interactive, first-person
participatory programs; candlelit illuminations of the Spotsylvania
Court House and Fredericksburg battlefields; songs from home,
field and hearth; talks by first-rate historians; and programs
on local churches, wartime experiences and the stories of descendants
of soldiers, civilians and slaves. "We want to create a new
understanding and appreciation of a time when the Fredericksburg-Stafford-Spotsylvania
area was a focal point of the American experience," said
Hennessy, who is also chief of interpretation at Fredericksburg
and Spotsylvania National Military Park.
Virginia is in the vanguard of the nation's sesquicentennial observances.
It was the first state to establish a commission to coordinate
150th-anniversary events, and is being praised for the breadth
and depth of its programs. The panel is co-chaired by House of
Delegates Speaker Bill Howell, R-Stafford, and former state Sen.
John Chichester, who lives in the Northern Neck.
Chief among the commission's statewide efforts is a series of
annual conferences that will bring leading historians to Virginia
universities to focus on one year of the war. The first such session,
in April of this year, brought nearly 2,000 people to the University
of Richmond's Robins Arena.
The Virginia panel is also participating in 2009 events that focus
on another run-up to the war: John Brown's 1859 raid on the federal
arsenal at Harpers Ferry.
Locally, Hennessy will discuss the effect of Brown's raid on our
area in a Sept. 13 talk to the Fredericksburg Civil War Round
Table.
Virginia and other states, of course, hope their sesquicentennial
plans will boost heritage tourism.
"Virginia is a repository of dramatic personal stories of
soldiers and leaders, of nurses and war correspondents, of civilians
caught in the war's wake, and of enslaved Virginians yearning
for and, in some cases, fighting for freedom. And those types
of stories can be found aplenty in the Fredericksburg area,"
said Richard Lewis, spokesman for the Virginia Tourism Corp.
--(9) Park Power Lines Going Underground -----------------------------------------------------
Park Power Lines Going Underground
By Scott Andrew Pitzer
8/17/2009
Gettysburg Times (PA)
http://www.gettysburgtimes.com/articles/2009/08/17/news/local/doc4a893a7c81b18164532007.txt
There are more than 6,000 feet of power lines standing atop Gettysburg
National Military Park, that officials hope to lodge underground
some day.
The unsightly lines are scheduled to be buried as part of an ongoing
quest to restore the battlefield to its Civil War era appearance.
"We've realized that we have some pretty historic-looking
roads, fields, hills and orchards, except for all of those power
lines," said GNMP Supt. John Latschar. "So we want to
put them underground."
But before the project occurs, the park's fundraising partner
- the Gettysburg Foundation - must raise about $500,000.
According to foundation spokeswoman Dru Neil, the project aims
to eradicate utility poles from three sections of the battlefield.
The lines that currently feed Devil's Den, as well as the Althoff
and Weikert farmsteads, will be removed as part of the project.
"It really makes a difference, by opening up view-sheds,
and removing those intrusions from the battlefield," said
Neil.
According to Latschar, Met-Ed recently completed engineering studies
for the projects.
"Due to the rocky conditions down there (at Devil's Den)
and the need to perform underground drilling to avoid wetland
impacts, the cost of this project is almost a half-million dollars,"
said Latschar.
Neil calls the Devil's Den utilities "probably the most visible
power lines on the battlefield."
"They really stick out, so they're a priority at this point,"
said Neil.
Overall, the park and foundation hope to place about 1.25 miles
of overhead powerlines underground in the southern end of the
battlefield.
Proper permitting, added Latschar, has already been received,
"so we're ready to go to work as soon as the foundation can
raise the money."
The foundation, per Neil, has raised more than $200,000 for the
project.
Additionally, John Nau, Chairman of the Advisory Council on Historic
Preservation, has pledged $200,000 in support of the project as
a challenge match.
Local preservation groups have had previous success in burying
battlefield lines, including the Friends organization, which merged
with the foundation in 2006.
Power lines were previously moved underground along Emmitsburg
and Mummasburg roads.
The Emmitsburg Road project alone, according to Neil, cost about
$1 million a mile.
"That project really put the Friends on the map," said
Neil.
Taneytown Road is also lined with utility poles, stretching from
the old Visitor Center to a GNMP maintenance complex, but officials
predict that those lines won't be removed until a later date.
That project is likely to be a part of the Ziegler's Grove restoration,
the final phase of the park's General Management Plan of 1999.
--(10) Unity to Be Part of Events Honoring Civil
War's 150th Anniversary -----------------------------------------------------
Unity to Be Part of Events Honoring Civil War's 150th Anniversary
By Phillip Rawls
8/14/2009
Associated Press (NAT)
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20090814/NEWS02/908140321/Unity+to+be+part+of+events+honoring+Civil+War+s+150th+anniversary
To mark the Civil War's centennial 50 years ago, some whites donned
Confederate uniforms or hoop skirts and paraded to sentimental
notions of the Old South, partly in answer to the civil rights
struggle exploding around them. Blacks quietly met apart to celebrate
the Emancipation Proclamation.
In Alabama, whites held beard-growing contests and mixed in speeches
defying the federal government's push for integration.
"It was a safe haven to get nostalgic about the past,"
said Kristopher Teters, author of "A Contested Path: Commemorating
the Civil War in 1960s Alabama."
Half a century later, commemorations of the war's 150th anniversary
are shaping up to be multicultural and inclusive as the country
takes new stock of its greatest domestic conflict.
Fought from 1861 to 1865, the Civil War pitted northern and southern
states against each other over slavery in the South and other
issues.
During the war, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation
Proclamation, which declared slaves in the South free.
In planning for observances starting this year and continuing
for at least two years, historians, scholars, artists and writers
are reassessing the war with zeal, inviting fresh viewpoints on
the reasons for the country's harrowing slide into a conflict
that dragged on for years, claiming more than 1 million lives.
Witness the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, the state's official
theater, which has commissioned two plays for the 150th -- one
by a white female playwright from the South and one by a black
male Northerner.
Geoffrey Sherman, producing artistic director at the festival,
is himself an Englishman who knew little about the Civil War until
he began gathering information for the two playwrights. He said
both will use identical material about Montgomery in that period
to produce their own take on those times.
"They'll write their own view of that material and of those
people and then we are going to produce those plays back to back,"
Sherman promised.
In Virginia, more than 1,000 scholars and others have launched
a series of historical conferences to scrutinize the war. Little-heard
perspectives are welcome and no subject is barred.
One conference scheduled for next year: "Race, Slavery and
the Civil War: The Tough Stuff of American History."
That more thoughtful approach will distinguish the state's commemorations
from those it held 50 years ago, said House Speaker William J.
Howell, the chairman of Virginia's Civil War Sesquicentennial
Commission. A college student during the centennial observances,
Howell said he recalls hearing the cannons during a re-enactment
of the Battle of Manassas.
"There's an awful lot more to the war than just that,"
Howell said.
In Maryland, Bill Pencek, the director of heritage tourism, said
sesquicentennial events will highlight diverse viewpoints on the
war, a departure from centennial observances that mainly honored
Confederate veterans.
First activities will commemorate an event that helped ignite
the war -- John Brown's raid on the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry
-- launched from a farmhouse near Dargan, Md.
Plans in South Carolina, where the war began, call for re-enacting
the bombardment of Fort Sumter and also for the reading of the
Emancipation Proclamation to free local slaves when Beaufort was
occupied by federal troops.
Fifty years ago, Alabama's Legislature created the Alabama Civil
War Centennial Commission to organize celebrations. That commission
sidestepped the issue of slavery, Teters said, and presented a
romanticized version of the Civil War that hailed Southern troops
as brave souls who soldiered on outnumbered and ill-equipped.
People filled a large rodeo arena in Montgomery for a weeklong
program recreating the birth of the Confederacy and Jefferson
Davis' inauguration as president there 100 years earlier.
Those festivities came the same year white Southerners beat Freedom
Riders for trying to desegregate buses across the region.
With the 150th anniversary, many of the activities planned will
acknowledge the 50th anniversary of the civil rights movement.
"The focus should be more on understanding how these events
made us what we are today," Alabama State Archivist Ed Bridges
said.
--(11) Battlefield Gets $440,000 Grant for Preservation
-----------------------------------------------------
Battlefield Gets $440,000 Grant for Preservation
By Brittany Davenport
8/13/2009
Richmond Register (KY)
http://www.richmondregister.com/localnews/local_story_225073837.html
The Battle of Richmond Preservation Project on Wednesday was granted
$440,000 to improve and revitalize Battlefield Memorial Park.
The funds were part of $51.9 million appropriated by Gov. Steve
Beshear to advance community projects across the Commonwealth
through three federal funding programs - Transportation Enhancement,
Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality and Safe Routes to Schools.
"These projects will help revitalize and improve quality
of life in neighborhoods throughout Kentucky," Beshear said
in press release. "It's particularly important to support
community development projects when local governments are struggling
in a harsh economic climate."
The county and those involved with the park were very hopeful
that they would be selected for the grant, said Phillip Seyfrit,
Madison County's historic properties director.
"But, with the way economic things have been, we wouldn't
have been surprised if it didn't happen," he said.
The grant primarily will be used for much-needed interior renovations
of the Pleasant View Home, Seyfrit said. The remainder will be
used for other park needs and improvements, such as historic reproduction
of artillery pieces.
"It just seems like good things just keep happening for the
county and for Battlefield Memorial Park," said Kent Clark,
Madison County judge/executive. "We are very excited,"
he said.
Of the $51.9 million, $29 million was appropriated for Transportation
Enhancement projects, $19.3 million for Congestion Mitigation
and Air Quality projects and $3.57 million for Safe Routes to
Schools projects.
"These federally funded investments allow communities to
move forward with projects that will make a positive impact for
local residents," said Transportation Secretary Joe Prather.
"We were ecstatic. We were afraid that many of our plans
would either be curtailed or put on hold due to the economic climate,"
Seyfrit said of the news. "Now, the momentum that we've gotten
can continue for several years."
Seyfrit said he hopes restoration of the Pleasant View Home and
other improvement will be completed by 2012, in time for the 150th
anniversary of the Battle of Richmond.
--(12) A New Fight for Civil War Site -----------------------------------------------------
A New Fight for Civil War Site
By Faye Fiore
8/13/2009
Los Angeles Times (CA)
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-hometown-virginia13-2009aug13,0,3666660.story
One hundred and forty-five years after Gen. Ulysses S. Grant first
fought Gen. Robert E. Lee, another conflict is brewing on the
Wilderness Battlefield: whether to let Wal-Mart build a superstore
where 29,000 soldiers were wounded or killed.
To stand on the battlefield at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains
in rural central Virginia is to go back in time. It looks almost
as it did on May 5, 1864, when 160,000 troops clashed over two
bloody days -- a tangle of woods that trapped men in brutal, hand-to-hand
combat and gave the field its name. The farmhouse that served
as a Confederate hospital stands restored. Lt. Gen. Thomas "Stonewall"
Jackson's amputated arm is buried at the battlefield.
Across the street is where Wal-Mart wants to build its big-box
store, about a quarter mile from the part of the battlefield that
is today a national park.
Some famous names have lined up in opposition: Actor Robert Duvall,
a self-described descendant of Lee; the state's Democratic governor
and its top Republican lawmaker; 253 historians and several preservation
groups.
They say they have nothing against another Wal-Mart (there are
already four in a 20-mile radius), just not one so close to a
national shrine.
In a letter rallying his troops, O. James Lighthizer, president
of the Civil War Preservation Trust, envisioned "cars full
of people who probably could not care less that one of history's
most monumental battles was fought there" and "an explosion
of sprawl that could engulf the existing battlefield."
But some would welcome a little sprawl. Orange County, where the
battlefield sits southwest of Washington, is a sleepy piece of
countryside with one high school, a couple of wineries, some cattle
ranches, a bunch of sheep, a handful of restaurants and not very
many jobs.
Agriculture is the biggest industry. Low-income work supplements
farming -- like the farmer's wife who drives a school bus.
Unemployment has shot from 3% to 8%, and Wal-Mart is promising
300 more jobs in a county of 35,000 people. It is all but certain
that more businesses will follow.
"I hope one of those would be a good restaurant. There's
not a steakhouse in the county. No Red Lobster. You have to go
to Fredericksburg or Culpeper for that," said Zack Burkett,
69, a member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors that is
to decide Wal-Mart's fate Aug. 24. He says board members are leaning
yes.
"Telling private business what they can and can't do doesn't
work very well. It's called fascism. I looked it up in my old
Funk and Wagnalls," he said.
But if there is an issue as emotional as the ailing economy in
Virginia, it's the Civil War.
The county planning commission endorsed the project in May with
200 mostly unhappy people in attendance; Alexander Hays IV --
descendant of Union Gen. Alexander Hays, killed at Wilderness
-- came all the way from Ohio.
Rep. Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat and Wal-Mart foe, flew in
recently to remind folks that the deadliest day in his state's
history took place in their backyard. He read a letter written
by a private with Vermont's 3rd Brigade: "Most of my friends
lay dead or wounded, scattered in the field somewhere."
Scenes like that are common in Virginia, site of more major Civil
War battles than any other state.
As suburbs sprawl out to meet the countryside, battlefields once
considered remote are prime targets for developers. More than
40% of the hallowed ground has been paved over in Virginia; about
13% is protected, according to the National Park Service. Much
of the rest is in private hands.
Efforts to save the surviving land have met mixed results.
In 1994, the Walt Disney Co. met a public backlash so fierce it
dropped its plan to build a historical theme park near Manassas,
Va. An effort to build a Formula One racetrack at Brandy Station,
Va., site of the war's biggest cavalry fight, was defeated in
2005. And a proposed gambling casino for Gettysburg, Pa., was
beaten back in 2006.
But at Salem Church near Chancellorsville, Va., an 800-acre battlefield
has been reduced to 2 acres by strip malls and asphalt.
A corporate spokesman said Wal-Mart was trying to cooperate, toning
down the parking lot lights and erecting a more fitting stone
sign instead of the usual giant pole. Alternative locations farther
from the battlefield were offered; the company says they're too
small.
"There's a void," Wal-Mart spokesman Keith Morris said.
"People tell us they can't buy general necessities and back-to-school
items inside the county."
The land is zoned commercial, and if Wal-Mart doesn't go in something
else will, Burkett said. "If some guy wants to build a porno
shop, if it's under 60,000 feet, we can't say no."
Preservationists warn the county is overlooking the financial
value of a battlefield frozen in time. Civil War tourism is big
business in Virginia; visitors spend on average $71 a day.
They come to stand where the soldiers stood, to imagine the smell
of gunpowder, the blast of cannon fire, the clack of bayonets,
the morning-after cries of the wounded. In a setting so pristine,
it isn't hard.
--(13) Fitts Honored with Fund -----------------------------------------------------
Fitts Honored with Fund
Loudoun Times-Mirror
8/12/2009
Loudoun Times-Mirror (VA)
http://loudountimes.com/news/2009/aug/12/fitts-honored-fund/
he Land Trust of Virginia has created a new fund, called the Deborah
Whittier Fitts Battlefield Stewardship Fund, as a means of recognizing
and providing financial support for landowners interested in protecting
properties where Civil War battles took place.
A longtime professional journalist who reported for the Loudoun
Times-Mirror and the Civil War News, Fitts was considered by many
to be the nation's leading journalist covering Civil War preservation
issues.
For more than a decade, Fitts wrote eloquently about the struggle
to protect Virginia's hallowed Civil War landscape.
She covered many major Civil War preservation battles that made
national headlines, such as the proposed Disney theme park near
Manassas and the successful preservation of Brandy Station, as
well as many other nationally significant Civil War battlefield
preservation efforts.
Last year, the Civil War Preservation Trust honored Deborah's
memory by posthumously giving her the Lifetime Achievement Award
bestowed for journalistic excellence in educating her readers
about the fragile status of the nation's battlefields.
Grants from the Deborah Whittier Fitts Battlefield Stewardship
Fund will be used to offset some of individual landowner's expenses
associated with putting battlefield acreage under easement.
The Land Trust of Virginia holds easements on 25 Civil War battlefield
properties covering more than 1,500 acres, including 912 acres
of the Battle of Upperville, 517 acres of the Battle of Unison,
70 acres of the Battle of Aldie, and 33 acres of the Battle of
Middleburg.
LTV's board of directors anticipates that LTV will pursue and
accept even more easements on Civil War sites as the Deborah Whittier
Fitts Battlefield Preservation Fund becomes more widely known.
The Civil War Preservation Trust board of trustees also voted
in June 2009 to give a $30,000 grant to the Land Trust of Virginia
for the purpose of inaugurating the Deborah Whittier Fitts Battlefield
Stewardship Fund.
Another $15,000 has already been pledged, bringing the total fund
to $45,000.
--(14) Civil War Battlefield Gets Preservation -----------------------------------------------------
Civil War Battlefield Gets Preservation
Jackson Sun
8/12/2009
Jackson Sun (TN)
http://www.jacksonsun.com/article/20090812/NEWS01/908120317/Local-briefs--Stabbing--Liberty-transfers--Bob-Corker--Battlefield
Davis Bridge Battlefield will receive 650 more acres in Pocahontas,
according to a news release from the Civil War Preservation Trust.
The preservation trust is one of the largest nonprofit organizations
focused on protecting historic landscapes at Civil War battlefields.
This purchase is a way to protect the landscape of one of the
significant battles of the Civil War, the release said. The Oct.
5, 1862, battle was the final combat around Corinth, Miss., and
the final Confederate offensive in Mississippi.
This battle was the second largest Civil War battle fought in
Tennessee, the release said. There were about 1,000 casualties.
"While Davis Bridge may not be the most famous battle of
the war, this land is critically important to telling the story
of operations in the Western Theater," said James Lighthizer,
preservation trust president. "We are looking to purchase
the entire battlefield east of the Hatchie River, land that retains
a high degree of integrity and its war-time appearance."
The purchase of this land is about $1.9 million with the help
of the state and federal grants. The Civil War Preservation Trust
have to contribute $166,400. The Tennessee Heritage Conservation
Trust fund has pledged $864,000 toward the effort that will be
added to the trust's portion to help against a $948,600 matching
grant form the federal American Battlefield Protection Program.
The Tennessee Wars Committee is also going to create a Davis Bridge
Battlefield welcome center near the battlefield.
--(15) Trust Buys Battlefield Land -----------------------------------------------------
Trust Buys Battlefield Land
By Clint Schemmer
8/7/2009
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star (VA)
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/082009/08072009/484991/index_html?page=1
One of Fredericksburg's home-grown preservation groups has just
secured rights to buy a key portion of the Wilderness battlefield.
The Central Virginia Battlefields Trust acquired an option on
about 93 acres of historic ground in Spotsylvania County near
the intersection of State Routes 3 and 20.
"This land looks much as it did in 1864, but we needed to
move quickly to be able to afford to keep it that way," trust
president Erik Nelson said.
The property, owned by the Atkins and Link families, is adjacent
to the site of Wilderness Tavern south of Route 3, where the arm
of Confederate Lt. Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was
amputated after the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863.
A year later, thousands of Union troops crossed the farm on the
Germanna Plank Road as Gen. Ulysses S. Grant pressed the army
of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee south after the Battle of the
Wilderness.
"The ground preserved by CVBT is the historic gateway to
the Wilderness," Nelson said.
Traces of the historic roads that the troops trod remain well-preserved
on the Link-Atkins tract, visible today to any visitor.
Purchase of the property will help preserve the nearby spot where
the Plank Road and Orange Turnpike met near Wilderness Run, south
of the modern-day intersection of Routes 3 and 20, Nelson said.
The state highway department created that crossroad in the 1920s.
CVBT had been eyeing the tract for years but was spurred to act
by the controversial proposal for a 240,000-square-foot retail
center, anchored by a Wal-Mart Supercenter, near the northwest
corner of the intersection. The Orange County supervisors will
hear public comment on the proposed development Aug. 24.
Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park lies within
a quarter-mile of the proposed Wal-Mart site, which has aroused
national opposition from historians, lawmakers and thousands of
others.
The park owns a swath of land at the southwest corner of Routes
3 and 20, adjoining the Link-Atkins property. On the west side
of Route 20, near the intersection, the CVBT owns 19 acres in
the vicinity of where Union commanders Grant and George Gordon
Meade had their headquarters during the Wilderness battle.
The sellers of the Link-Atkins tract, two of whom live in the
Fredericksburg area, were pleased that their farmland won't be
developed, CVBT officials said.
Fredericksburg-area residents Johnny Mitchell and Enos Richardson,
founding members of CVBT, negotiated with the family members on
the deal.
The trust will pay $10,000 per acre for the parcel.
Part of the land is within the congressional authorized boundary
of the park, which allows the National Park Service to buy the
property.
Eventually, the protected terrain could provide an option for
a new entry into the national park's part of the Wilderness battlefield
that avoids the 20th-century intersection, CVBT said.
The Park Service has no plans for a new entrance there, park Superintendent
Russ Smith said. "However, we just started our update to
the park's general management plan, so now is the time to discuss
such possibilities," he said.
An entrance near the Wilderness Tavern site would present major
engineering issues but is worth considering, Smith said.
"If we could get visitors down into the historic intersection
area, there certainly would be some interesting interpretive possibilities,
as well as access alternatives for Ellwood," he said.
Ellwood, a nearby historic home off Route 20, functions as a de
facto visitor center for the Wilderness battlefield.
The 350-acre Lyons Farm, next to Ellwood and the Link-Atkins parcel,
is also historically significant and forms the scenic "viewshed"
for visitors to Ellwood.
The national Civil War Preservation Trust praised CVBT and the
Atkins family for their actions.
"The Central Virginia Battlefields Trust has once again demonstrated
its unique ability to work with local landowners to preserve hallowed
ground," CWPT spokesman Jim Campi said yesterday. "This
latest acquisition underscores the preservation community's commitment
to working with willing sellers to protect the Wilderness battlefield."
The national trust will provide CVBT with technical and financial
support to seek federal and state grants that could help pay for
the tract.