Tweet
SVBF to Begin Planning Trails at Fisher’s Hill Battlefield
Project Will Connect Fisher’s Hill to Strasburg and National Park
For immediate release—July 21, 2009
Contacts: Elizabeth Paradis Stern/SVBF (540-740-4545)
John Hutchinson/SVBF (540-292-0396)
NEW MARKET, Va.—Even before the Shenandoah Valley was settled by Europeans, the Valley Pike—once a footpath, then a wagon road and a turnpike, and now US 11—was a vital transportation route for the people moving through the region. It carried new settlers to the western areas of the Virginia colony. Union and Confederate armies moved along it during the Civil War as did tourists and commerce throughout the 20th century.
In the coming years, the Valley Pike could add a new distinction to its long history by becoming part of a new trail system in northern Shenandoah County connecting the Fisher’s Hill battlefield with the town of Strasburg and the Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park .
Preservation to Interpretation
Sponsored by the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, the $1.3 million project is funded in part by federal transportation grants. The location of the trail network will be determined over the next year via a public planning process involving local residents, landowners, partner organizations, and county and town officials as well as a team of experts in historic resource management and recreational planning.
Initial construction of the trail is expected to begin next year on properties owned by the Battlefields Foundation.
“This project represents the next phase in our mission,” said W. Denman Zirkle, the Foundation’s executive director. “Preserving the battlefields is the first task; interpreting those newly preserved areas is an important next step. The Valley Pike / Fisher’s Hill project will serve as a model for us as we begin to work with partners to interpret other battlefields throughout the Valley.”
The Battlefields Foundation protects a total of 312 acres at Fisher’s Hill. In the 1990s, the former Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites purchased more than 194 acres there. A local Sons of Confederate Veterans camp—the Strasburg Guards—developed a walking trail and interpretation at the site before it was deeded to the Foundation in 2007. The Foundation has protected an additional 118 acres at the battlefield since 2001.
Planning Team Being Assembled
To lead the planning and management of this substantial project, the Battlefields Foundation has hired certified planner John Hutchinson. From 2001 to 2007, Hutchinson managed the Foundation’s land and conservation easement acquisition efforts and is now a planning consultant. Hutchinson will coordinate the project under the guidance of a management team that includes Pam Sheets , the director of Shenandoah County Parks and Recreation; David Ruth, superintendent of Richmond National Battlefield Park; Joanna Wilson, an archeologist with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources; and Sarah Mauck, Strasburg town councilor.
“This team is absolutely top-notch,” said Zirkle. “The depth of experience and expertise they bring will ensure that residents, visitors, and future generations of Americans will benefit from this trail and learn about the important history that took place here.”
“The project is really in its very early stages at this point,” said Hutchinson . “We are working now to engage residents and landowners in the area and to complete the consulting team. We are committed to doing this in a way that benefits the neighborhoods in the project area and enhances the properties through which the trail will pass. To do that we have to speak with and listen to a lot of people. That’s what we are doing now.”
The Battle of Fisher’s Hill
The Battle of Fisher’s Hill (22 September 1864) was one of the last major battles in the Shenandoah Valley . In the fall of 1864, Union commanders sent Gen. Philip H. Sheridan to the Valley to bring a final end to Confederate control of the region. After delivering a crushing defeat at Winchester on 19 September, Sheridan faced Confederate Gen. Jubal Early just south of Strasburg at Fisher’s Hill. Although firmly lodged in earthworks above the Valley Turnpike, Early’s diminished forces were not able to fully cover the Valley’s span. As a result, the Federals routed the thinned Confederate lines along Fisher’s Hill. Seeing that they had been flanked, the Southerners were forced into a hasty retreat along the Valley Turnpike towards Woodstock.
In its 1992 survey of the Valley’s Civil War battlefields, the National Park Service noted the significance of the Battle of Fisher’s Hill.
“Confederate defeat at Fisher's Hill…opened the Shenandoah Valley to a advance that reached beyond Staunton ,” the report said. “When Sheridan withdrew during the first part of October, his army systematically burned mills, barns, crops, and forage, and ran off livestock. By implementing this strategy of ‘total warfare,’ Sheridan felt that he accomplished the primary objective of his campaign--to deprive the Confederacy of the agricultural abundance of the Valley.”
--------------------------------
As authorized by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation serves as the non-profit manager of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District, partnering with local, regional, and national organizations and governments to preserve the Valley’s battlefields and interpret and promote the region’s Civil War story.
Created by Congress in 1996, the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District encompasses Augusta, Clarke, Frederick, Highland, Page, Rockingham, Shenandoah, and Warren counties in Virginia and the cities of Harrisonburg, Staunton, Waynesboro, and Winchester . The legislation authorizes federal funding for the protection of ten battlefields in the District: Second Winchester, Third Winchester, Second Kernstown, Cedar Creek, Fisher’s Hill, Tom’s Brook, New Market, Cross Keys, Port Republic , and McDowell.
--------------------------------
ON THE WEB:
Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation and
Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District:
National Park Service 1992 study of the Shenandoah Valley’s Civil War battlefields:
Battle of Fisher’s Hill: http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp/...h/svs3-13.html
Online at: http://www.shenandoahatwar.org/news/...php?news_ID=96
Project Will Connect Fisher’s Hill to Strasburg and National Park
For immediate release—July 21, 2009
Contacts: Elizabeth Paradis Stern/SVBF (540-740-4545)
John Hutchinson/SVBF (540-292-0396)
NEW MARKET, Va.—Even before the Shenandoah Valley was settled by Europeans, the Valley Pike—once a footpath, then a wagon road and a turnpike, and now US 11—was a vital transportation route for the people moving through the region. It carried new settlers to the western areas of the Virginia colony. Union and Confederate armies moved along it during the Civil War as did tourists and commerce throughout the 20th century.
In the coming years, the Valley Pike could add a new distinction to its long history by becoming part of a new trail system in northern Shenandoah County connecting the Fisher’s Hill battlefield with the town of Strasburg and the Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park .
Preservation to Interpretation
Sponsored by the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, the $1.3 million project is funded in part by federal transportation grants. The location of the trail network will be determined over the next year via a public planning process involving local residents, landowners, partner organizations, and county and town officials as well as a team of experts in historic resource management and recreational planning.
Initial construction of the trail is expected to begin next year on properties owned by the Battlefields Foundation.
“This project represents the next phase in our mission,” said W. Denman Zirkle, the Foundation’s executive director. “Preserving the battlefields is the first task; interpreting those newly preserved areas is an important next step. The Valley Pike / Fisher’s Hill project will serve as a model for us as we begin to work with partners to interpret other battlefields throughout the Valley.”
The Battlefields Foundation protects a total of 312 acres at Fisher’s Hill. In the 1990s, the former Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites purchased more than 194 acres there. A local Sons of Confederate Veterans camp—the Strasburg Guards—developed a walking trail and interpretation at the site before it was deeded to the Foundation in 2007. The Foundation has protected an additional 118 acres at the battlefield since 2001.
Planning Team Being Assembled
To lead the planning and management of this substantial project, the Battlefields Foundation has hired certified planner John Hutchinson. From 2001 to 2007, Hutchinson managed the Foundation’s land and conservation easement acquisition efforts and is now a planning consultant. Hutchinson will coordinate the project under the guidance of a management team that includes Pam Sheets , the director of Shenandoah County Parks and Recreation; David Ruth, superintendent of Richmond National Battlefield Park; Joanna Wilson, an archeologist with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources; and Sarah Mauck, Strasburg town councilor.
“This team is absolutely top-notch,” said Zirkle. “The depth of experience and expertise they bring will ensure that residents, visitors, and future generations of Americans will benefit from this trail and learn about the important history that took place here.”
“The project is really in its very early stages at this point,” said Hutchinson . “We are working now to engage residents and landowners in the area and to complete the consulting team. We are committed to doing this in a way that benefits the neighborhoods in the project area and enhances the properties through which the trail will pass. To do that we have to speak with and listen to a lot of people. That’s what we are doing now.”
The Battle of Fisher’s Hill
The Battle of Fisher’s Hill (22 September 1864) was one of the last major battles in the Shenandoah Valley . In the fall of 1864, Union commanders sent Gen. Philip H. Sheridan to the Valley to bring a final end to Confederate control of the region. After delivering a crushing defeat at Winchester on 19 September, Sheridan faced Confederate Gen. Jubal Early just south of Strasburg at Fisher’s Hill. Although firmly lodged in earthworks above the Valley Turnpike, Early’s diminished forces were not able to fully cover the Valley’s span. As a result, the Federals routed the thinned Confederate lines along Fisher’s Hill. Seeing that they had been flanked, the Southerners were forced into a hasty retreat along the Valley Turnpike towards Woodstock.
In its 1992 survey of the Valley’s Civil War battlefields, the National Park Service noted the significance of the Battle of Fisher’s Hill.
“Confederate defeat at Fisher's Hill…opened the Shenandoah Valley to a advance that reached beyond Staunton ,” the report said. “When Sheridan withdrew during the first part of October, his army systematically burned mills, barns, crops, and forage, and ran off livestock. By implementing this strategy of ‘total warfare,’ Sheridan felt that he accomplished the primary objective of his campaign--to deprive the Confederacy of the agricultural abundance of the Valley.”
--------------------------------
As authorized by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation serves as the non-profit manager of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District, partnering with local, regional, and national organizations and governments to preserve the Valley’s battlefields and interpret and promote the region’s Civil War story.
Created by Congress in 1996, the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District encompasses Augusta, Clarke, Frederick, Highland, Page, Rockingham, Shenandoah, and Warren counties in Virginia and the cities of Harrisonburg, Staunton, Waynesboro, and Winchester . The legislation authorizes federal funding for the protection of ten battlefields in the District: Second Winchester, Third Winchester, Second Kernstown, Cedar Creek, Fisher’s Hill, Tom’s Brook, New Market, Cross Keys, Port Republic , and McDowell.
--------------------------------
ON THE WEB:
Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation and
Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District:
National Park Service 1992 study of the Shenandoah Valley’s Civil War battlefields:
Battle of Fisher’s Hill: http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp/...h/svs3-13.html
Online at: http://www.shenandoahatwar.org/news/...php?news_ID=96