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By Clint Schemmer/The Free Lance-Star
The Civil War Trust aims to buy a Spotsylvania County parcel that could help open more of the county’s portion of the Fredericksburg battlefield to visitors.
Word of the deal came as the trust alerted its members to the chance to preserve 25 acres at Fredericksburg: “The first land we have had the chance to save there in nearly 8 years.”
The national nonprofit and local builder Lee Garrison have agreed on sale terms for the Benchmark Road site where he had planned a townhouse development, the trust said.
The land adjoins Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. Part of Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade’s Pennsylvania Reserves advanced across it in the Dec. 13, 1862, assault that penetrated Confederate defenses during the Battle of Fredericksburg.
In his fundraising appeal, Trust President James O. Lighthizer called Meade’s breakthrough of Confederate Lt. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s line “a key moment that almost turned the tide of the battle and American history.”
National Park Service historian Frank A. O’Reilly, author of the most highly-regarded tactical study of the fight, says the field’s southern portion is where the battle was won and lost—not on its more famous stretch along Marye’s Heights.
Acquisition of the tract would eventually enable visitors to walk from Pelham’s Corner at State Route 2 and Benchmark Road—where 23-year-old Confederate artillery officer John Pelham stalled the Union attack—to the stone Meade Pyramid monument in the park to the trust’s Slaughter Pen Farm, said Jim Campi, the trust’s director of policy and communications.
The nonprofit bought the 208-acre Slaughter Pen in 2006 for $12.3 million, which it says was the nation’s largest private-sector land preservation effort.
Garrison’s property is about 1,100 feet from the pyramid near the end of the park’s Lee Drive.
The property is valued at $2.59 million, but Garrison has agreed to sell it to the 55,000-member trust for $1.14 million less than its appraised value, Campi said.
The trust will pool donors’ money with federal and state grants to fund the transaction. To close on the deal by April 15, it is asking members to pony up $107,500 for a match.
To help, the Fredericksburg-based Central Virginia Battlefields Trust has applied for a $100,000 grant from the Virginia Battlefield Preservation Fund.
Campi praised the developer for his cooperation.
“We would not have this opportunity without the generosity of Lee Garrison, who agreed to sell us the property for less than the appraised value,” he said. “Lee is very preservation-minded, and had worked with us and other preservation groups on previous acquisitions in the region.”
Spotsylvania supervisors rezoned the site, on the west side of Benchmark Road near Route 2, in late 2014 to allow 98 townhouses and 23,400 square feet of offices.
“We are very excited about this opportunity to connect Benchmark Road with the Slaughter Pen Farm,” Campi said in an interview. “We envision a future walking trail that takes visitors along the entire length of the Union attack on the southern end of the battlefield.”
John Hennessy, the park’s acting superintendent, welcomed news of the deal.
“This is just further proof that protecting Civil War sites takes not just time and patience, but partners and good will,” he said. “The Civil War Trust has repeatedly entered the marketplace to forge deals that, like this one, leave everyone pleased: the landowner, the local community, and the preservation community, too.”
Clint Schemmer: 540.374-5424
cschemmer@freelancestar.com
Click Here to Read the Article at the Free Lance-Star
By Clint Schemmer/The Free Lance-Star
The Civil War Trust aims to buy a Spotsylvania County parcel that could help open more of the county’s portion of the Fredericksburg battlefield to visitors.
Word of the deal came as the trust alerted its members to the chance to preserve 25 acres at Fredericksburg: “The first land we have had the chance to save there in nearly 8 years.”
The national nonprofit and local builder Lee Garrison have agreed on sale terms for the Benchmark Road site where he had planned a townhouse development, the trust said.
The land adjoins Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. Part of Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade’s Pennsylvania Reserves advanced across it in the Dec. 13, 1862, assault that penetrated Confederate defenses during the Battle of Fredericksburg.
In his fundraising appeal, Trust President James O. Lighthizer called Meade’s breakthrough of Confederate Lt. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s line “a key moment that almost turned the tide of the battle and American history.”
National Park Service historian Frank A. O’Reilly, author of the most highly-regarded tactical study of the fight, says the field’s southern portion is where the battle was won and lost—not on its more famous stretch along Marye’s Heights.
Acquisition of the tract would eventually enable visitors to walk from Pelham’s Corner at State Route 2 and Benchmark Road—where 23-year-old Confederate artillery officer John Pelham stalled the Union attack—to the stone Meade Pyramid monument in the park to the trust’s Slaughter Pen Farm, said Jim Campi, the trust’s director of policy and communications.
The nonprofit bought the 208-acre Slaughter Pen in 2006 for $12.3 million, which it says was the nation’s largest private-sector land preservation effort.
Garrison’s property is about 1,100 feet from the pyramid near the end of the park’s Lee Drive.
The property is valued at $2.59 million, but Garrison has agreed to sell it to the 55,000-member trust for $1.14 million less than its appraised value, Campi said.
The trust will pool donors’ money with federal and state grants to fund the transaction. To close on the deal by April 15, it is asking members to pony up $107,500 for a match.
To help, the Fredericksburg-based Central Virginia Battlefields Trust has applied for a $100,000 grant from the Virginia Battlefield Preservation Fund.
Campi praised the developer for his cooperation.
“We would not have this opportunity without the generosity of Lee Garrison, who agreed to sell us the property for less than the appraised value,” he said. “Lee is very preservation-minded, and had worked with us and other preservation groups on previous acquisitions in the region.”
Spotsylvania supervisors rezoned the site, on the west side of Benchmark Road near Route 2, in late 2014 to allow 98 townhouses and 23,400 square feet of offices.
“We are very excited about this opportunity to connect Benchmark Road with the Slaughter Pen Farm,” Campi said in an interview. “We envision a future walking trail that takes visitors along the entire length of the Union attack on the southern end of the battlefield.”
John Hennessy, the park’s acting superintendent, welcomed news of the deal.
“This is just further proof that protecting Civil War sites takes not just time and patience, but partners and good will,” he said. “The Civil War Trust has repeatedly entered the marketplace to forge deals that, like this one, leave everyone pleased: the landowner, the local community, and the preservation community, too.”
Clint Schemmer: 540.374-5424
cschemmer@freelancestar.com
Click Here to Read the Article at the Free Lance-Star
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