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Civil War News Roundup - 05/13/2004
Courtesy of the Civil War Preservation Trust
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(1) Golfers vs. preservationists at Franklin – Nashville Tennessean
(2) Reenactment boosts Spotsy tourism – Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
(3) Charleston museum chronicles Civil War siege – Associated Press
(4) Editorial: Save site of Buckland Races - Fauquier Times-Democrat
(5) Reenactors sacrifice for cause – Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
(6) Civil War a vital element of Shenandoah heritage – Baltimore Sun
(7) Development erodes many battlefields – Baltimore Sun
(8) Editorial: Pushing to preserve CW sites – Nashville City Paper
(9) Effort to expand Carnton Plantation – Nashville Tennessean
(10) Spotsylvania event to boost preservation – Richmond Times-Dispatch
(11) Editorial: Franklin more than battlefield – Franklin Review-Appeal
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Battle of Franklin: golfers vs. preservationists
By MITCHELL KLINE, Staff Writer
05/13/2004
Nashville Tennessean
http://www.tennessean.com/williamsonam/archives/04/05/51247311.shtml?Element_ID=51247311
FRANKLIN — County Club of Franklin members have launched an attack on the plan of a group of Civil War preservationists to turn their golf course into a battlefield park.
A throng of more than 50 club members converged on City Hall Tuesday night during Franklin's Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting, criticizing city leaders for supporting a plan to restore the golf course adjacent to Carnton Plantation to its antebellum appearance.
They said little, if any, actual fighting occurred on the 108-acre golf club property during the Battle of Franklin. They said the 36-year-old country club provides tax revenue for the city, jobs for residents and a social and recreational outlet for more than 350 families.
''Any alderman who votes for (the purchase of the country club) can be assured 350 families and their friends will campaign against them,'' club member Jan Trischman told the board.
Last month the board approved a resolution declaring the city's intent to borrow $10 million to purchase and preserve ''green space.'' Aldermen said the money could be used to buy Harlinsdale Farm and the country club.
Franklin Mayor Tom Miller issued a challenge to the community and preservationists, saying the city could fund half of the country club's purchase if someone else comes up with the other $2.5 million.
''The city is very much interested in acquiring battlefield property for protection from development,'' Miller said yesterday. ''The only piece of property for sale that we are aware of is the country club.''
Rod Heller — a descendant of the McGavock family, which at one time owned the Carnton Plantation — purchased the country club last year for $5 million. He said he bought the land to protect it from being turned into a housing development. Country club members had 10 days to come up with $5 million to buy the property themselves but didn't.
Heller has indicated he would sell the property to the city or a preservation group for $5 million. A stipulation on the sale would be that the land has to be preserved and turned into a battlefield park.
A group of preservationists and community leaders who call themselves the Coalition for Preservation of Historic Open Space want to see the golf course restored to the way it looked in the 1860s. Coalition member Robert Hicks said he can empathize with the club members, but he wants to see the property become a battlefield park. Hicks said the group approached Heller when they learned a developer was planning to buy the property and build more than 54 homes.
''It was going to happen,'' Hicks said.
He read the board a letter written by Ed Bearss, chief historian of the National Park Service, which stated, ''The ground embraced by the County Club of Franklin played a crucial role in the Battle of Franklin. It was across this very land that A. P. Stewart's Corps advanced from the south and east toward the Union lines, all the time receiving enemy fire as they charged.''
Mike Benton, a country club member, pulled out an 1864 map showing forts, hospitals and battle locations. He pointed out that most of the golf course was off the map.
''We don't think the real issue is about preservation of battlefield, but preservation of land in front of Carnton Plantation,'' Benton said. ''They want to turn this into pastoral land between two subdivisions. It shouldn't have trench works or stone walls because none of that was ever here. There was no real significant action here.''
Miller said there ''undoubtedly was significant activity there,'' but he wasn't sure if any actual fighting took place on the golf course. Alderman Ernie Bacon said he is seeking clarification on where fighting actually took place.
Club members said they didn't think it was right to use public money to fulfill Heller's request. Bill Lee said the $2.5 million could be better spent developing property the city already owns into parks. Miller said there is $750,000 allocated to construct a bicentennial park, which the city broke ground on in 1999. Aldermen haven't identified funds to complete construction of Liberty Park, nor to develop the Durango Boot factory property and junkyard the city owns on North Margin Street.
Club members Bob and Deborah Ferris said they moved into their house in the Heath Place subdivision near the golf course three days before it was announced that Heller was buying the country club. They see no reason to tear the clubhouse down and turn the golf course into a battlefield park.
''I'm sure Civil War soldiers camped in my back yard too,'' Bob Ferris said. ''Are they coming after it next?''
--(2)-----------------------------------------------------
Battle a boon to tourism
Re-enactments give boost to Spotsylvania tourism
By LAURA MOYER
05/13/2004
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
http://my.customscoop.com/reports/viewclips/reportview.cfm?z=z&kw=Civil%20War%20AND%20history&first=31
Even as a storm roared through the re-enactment camp at Belvedere Plantation, the phones wouldn't stop ringing Friday night at the Spotsylvania County office where tickets were being sold.
The clamor for advance tickets to the weekend's Battle of Spotsylvania 140th Anniversary Re-enactment was so intense, in fact, that tourism officials stayed in the office till after 9 that night.
And initial estimates are that spectator attendance the next day exceeded 10,000.
Attendance was significantly lower on the event's first and third days, Friday and Sunday, but organizers said they're pleased with how things went overall.
And Deputy County Administrator Doug Barnes said yesterday that the successful partnership among Spotsylvania County, Belvedere Plantation and a third organizer, Wide Awake Films, bodes well for the future of heritage tourism events.
Barnes, who was on the scene almost continuously from Thursday until Sunday afternoon, said everyone's response to Friday's storm tells the story. As soon as the winds died and the lightning dimmed to a flicker, organizers and camping re-enactors starting fixing weather damage.
A rumor that the event might be canceled was stamped out immediately. And by the time the gates opened on a cool, sunny Saturday morning, spectators couldn't detect anything amiss.
One popular draw for re-enactors and spectators alike was a quarter-mile-long, 5-foot-deep trench county workers dug for the event. By Sunday afternoon, after re-enactors had camped in it all weekend, it looked as if it really might have withstood a battle.
Of the actual remaining Civil War trenches in Spotsylvania and elsewhere, most have been worn down by the elements over the years. And because of their historic significance, they're off-limits for walking or up-close exploring.
So the chance to stand or sleep in the deep trench at Belvedere was a new experience for many Civil War fans.
"This might be the impetus to create permanent breastworks in the county" so residents and visitors can have a more interactive experience, Barnes said.
Organizers say the response from re-enactors was so positive they'll consider doing a similar event in the next few years, as yet another preliminary to a planned re-enactment in 2014, 150 years after the fighting at Spotsylvania Court House in May 1864.
Several re-enactors at the weekend's event told organizers afterward that they'd never seen such a well-run event, said John Cummings of the Spotsylvania Courthouse Tourism and Special Events Commission.
"The feedback is that this was the most efficiently run event they have ever been through," he said.
The county budgeted about a quarter of a million dollars for the event, Barnes said, and revenue numbers are still being crunched. Proceeds came from advance ticket sales, gate admissions, re-enactor registration, sutler fees and merchandise sales.
Good publicity from the event is important, too. National Geographic had a photographer and reporter on the field, and Barnes said he talked to reporters from as far away as Ireland.
"I think there's a long-term effect here," Barnes said. "We've raised awareness about our history and culture in the county that maybe we didn't have before."
--(3)-----------------------------------------------------
Museum exhibit chronicles Civil War siege
05/12/2004
Associated Press Newswires/USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2004-05-12-charleston-civil-war_x.htm
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — The towering steeple of Second Presbyterian Church was used by Union batteries to sight the guns that lobbed shells into Charleston during a 587-day Civil War siege.
And now in its building nearby, the Charleston Museum has mounted its first permanent exhibit of those days of war and deprivation.
Although technically not a siege — the rail lines to the west still operated although tenuously toward war's end — the Union blockade put a stranglehold on Charleston, which refused to surrender.
The new exhibit in the nation's oldest museum shows how the city weathered the conflict that opened with the Confederate bombardment on Fort Sumter in the harbor in 1861.
The fort surrendered after that opening battle. The Confederates occupied it and later found themselves in turn under siege from Union forces. Historians say the fort has been shelled more than any other site in the Western Hemisphere.
"It is to describe not the Civil War in general or the Civil War nationally but how it affected Charleston," said John Brumgardt, the museum's director. "It was pretty grim on the home front."
Grim meant drinking acorn coffee instead of the real stuff; setting up relief houses so passing soldiers could get a meal; rushing to the docks when a blockade runner managed to sneak through with a supply of clothing or sugar.
The exhibit includes the chairs from Institute Hall where delegates signed the Articles of Secession by which South Carolina became the first state to leave the Union.
Here, too, is a pair of wedding slippers, with a price tag of $100 Confederate, that likely would have cost only $5 before the war. Inflation was an ever-worsening problem in Charleston where residents dealt with the psychological stress of shells falling every day.
"A spool of thread that cost 5 cents at the beginning of the war might cost 80 cents by 1862 and over $1 by the end of the war," Brumgardt said.
The city was never overrun, but Confederate troops evacuated as Sherman's army advanced in 1865.
The exhibit also includes a spray of flowers that decorated the flag pole at Fort Sumter when the Union flag was raised again at war's end.
The Civil War was not the first time this coastal city was under siege; the British captured Charleston, then the nation's fourth-largest city, after a six-week Revolutionary War siege in 1780.
During the Civil War, city institutions closed and the collection from the museum, which was founded in 1773, was taken by the curator to Aiken for safekeeping.
"They were found by invading Union troops who thought they were worthless and left them alone, thankfully," Brumgardt said.
The display includes the uniform of a Confederate soldier who fell during the Battle of Secessionville, an unsuccessful 1863 Union attempt to breach Charleston's defenses. The jacket is stained with blood near a bullet hole.
Other items in the display were found after Hurricane Hugo smashed the coast in 1989, uncovering buried Union artifacts on Folly Beach.
Perhaps the most unusual artifact in the exhibit is a wooden hand made for Confederate Col. Peter Gaillard, later mayor of Charleston, whose left wrist and hand were shattered defending Battery Wagner on Morris Island in 1863. The battery was the scene of the attack by the black Union 54th Massachusetts regiment chronicled in the movie "Glory."
"Reportedly the hand was whittled by one of his own soldiers," said museum curator J. Grahame Long.
Below the index finger, the hand has a small flathead screw that apparently was used to attach a utensil such as a fork. Artificial hands and legs are rare, although thousands of wounded soldiers likely were fitted with them after the war. Most were likely used and worn out, Long said.
The museum has had temporary Civil War exhibits, but no permanent ones, in the past. Many people long associated Charleston with America's colonial era.
Brumgardt said he wanted to see Civil War sites when he first visited Charleston 34 years ago but the only sites were Fort Sumter and what was then the display for the Confederate submarine Hunley. There is now substantial interest in both eras, he said.
The Hunley was the first sub in history to sink an enemy warship. A replica of the vessel, which now sits in a courtyard outside the museum, had been displayed in the basement of a building in the historic district when Brumgardt first visited.
The actual Hunley was raised from the Atlantic four years ago and eventually will go on display in a museum in North Charleston.
--(4)-----------------------------------------------------
EDITORIAL/OPINION
Save Buckland
05/11/2004
Fauquier Times-Democrat
http://www.timescommunity.com/site/tab2.cfm?newsid=11631368&BRD=2553&PAG=461&dept_id=506071&rfi=6
Neighbors who own about 1,000 acres of land around Buckland Farm met last week with Fauquier and Prince William county leaders, state representatives, and preservation experts in a first public move toward preserving this historic area from the intense development marching westward from nearby Gainesville.
Even as the group talked in the pastoral open countryside, the roar of traffic on nearby U. S. 29 -- called the Warrenton Turnpike in earlier days -- filled the air with a thunder different from the roar of cannons and clash of sabers of the Civil War battle known as "The Buckland Races" fought there 141 years earlier.
The group met in the c. 1774 main house at Buckland Farm, a remarkably preserved structure with a long history of its own.
It became clear at this conference that Buckland is entirely worthy and capable of being preserved. Representatives of several state and national preservation groups have studied the village of Buckland -- which lies along Broad Run in Prince William County -- noting that the largely-original settlement provides a unique window into the 18th century. Others have called it "the best example of an old Piedmont town."
The village and surrounding area that make up the "cultural landscape" can be saved through a practical combination of open space easements, national landmarks status, planned growth under the comprehensive plans of the two counties.
It has also been suggested that by incorporating the village, those wishing to protect Buckland could to take on much of the future responsibility of the area.
Buckland is a historic, architectural and archaeological national treasure. But as a natural site today for sprawling development, it is also a ticking time bomb.
--(5)-----------------------------------------------------
Re-enactors sacrifice for their cause
Life on the front line, even faux battle, is full of hardships, comaraderie and high spirits
By ROB DAVIS
05/10/2004
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2004/052004/05102004/1356300
Editor's Note: Staff writer Rob Davis spent two days in uniform with the men of the 4th Georgia, bunking down with them overnight as they re-enacted 1864's fighting at Spotsylvania Court House.
IN THE TRENCHES WITH THE 4TH GEORGIA INFANTRY--Fires dot the earthen landscape, creating an orange constellation that flickers against the evening's chill.
Down the smoky embankment, a Confederate soldier is playing harmonica. Serenity, after a day of booming cannons.
From across the moonlit battlefield, three rifle blasts crackle through the Confederate army's hushed camp.
"You're next, Johnny!" comes a distant shout.
There is laughter, cursing and an eventual rebel's yell: "Whatever!"
It is sometime late Saturday. There are no clocks here on the first full day of the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House re-enactment.
After an arduous day, the Confederates are settling into camp. Out there through the night, Union soldiers do the same.
The 38 men of the 4th Georgia Infantry encircle small fires, pits carved into the trench wall. Black powder coats one man's chin. Tobacco spit froths at the corners of another's mouth.
Bored, they sit and talk. Childhood buddies from Pennsylvania make promises to eat dinner together when they return home. A father and son share salted beef.
Craig Hoffeditz, a 31-year-old Maryland man, runs his fingers over rocks on the ground. Tonight, this is his bed.
Forget the fighting, the acrid smell of gunpowder, the screaming and yelling and horns urging you to charge. That's not why Hoffeditz and his friends came to re-enact battle scenes this weekend.
For many men in the 4th Georgia, it is these little moments. They make a connection. They link present to past, father to son, friend to friend.
"This. This right here," Hoffeditz says, gesturing at his dirt-covered world. "This is the daily life of the soldier."
And that routine meant sacrifices. For better and worse, the 4th Georgia tries to recreate them accurately.
While thousands of re-enactors sleep inside tents on a grassy field, the men of the 4th Georgia and about 75 others are out here in the open. They have little more than a wool blanket for shelter.
"It's more just kind of an existence than sleep," explains Willie Mangum, a 32-year-old museum curator from North Carolina.
Throughout Saturday night, mini-landslides sent piles of dust careening down the trench walls. Sleep was intermittent. Ever wonder if the Confederates snored? They did. So did the men portraying them this weekend.
And those are just the challenges of resting.
Leading up to the event, John Pagano, a Richmond historian, didn't wash his hair for how long? The 34-year-old wonders aloud, and remembers. Monday. Yep, going on six days. Event organizer Robert Hodge gave up beer for four months--and dropped 12 pounds.
When cannons pound and troops march, all those details are set in motion. The ripe shirt that hasn't been washed since 1995. The swish of 1860s-style boots through uncut grass.
A museum in miniature.
Anticipating the assault
Somewhere across the field, fifes tweet and snare drums rattle. The Union army is out there, ready to launch Upton's Assault--an attack on the Confederates' entrenched position.
Here, though, there are no pep talks, no nervous soldiers.
The men of the 4th Georgia have been waiting for hours. It's late afternoon, and the advance is due. Some rest against the trench walls, their heads half-cocked.
Kevin Hershberger plays fashion consultant. The 30-year-old Richmond man critiques the rebels mustering behind him.
"That's the worst hat I've ever seen," he says of one. "Ever."
The veterans may no longer shake with anticipation, but some admit they did as first-timers.
Chris Semancik, a 33-year-old museum curator from Pennsylvania, was nervous at his first re-enactment. He leveled his musket, pointed it at a charging soldier, and--boom!--the man went down.
"I thought I killed him," Semancik said.
Semancik and fellow re-enactors hunker down when Upton's Assault is launched. It begins with thunder: Tooth-rattling artillery blasts are unleashed, 3-foot-wide smoke rings billow through late-day sunlight.
Then, lightning. Rifle blasts volley between North and South.
There is confusion, and the attack doesn't go as planned. There's no Union breakthrough.
Later, the men will sulk and joke, criticizing the re-enactment's authenticity. But they will also agree on one point.
The Union stormed the trench in a whirl of screams and gunfire. Comrades lay dead. Others were captured.
For an instant, the men of the 4th Georgia found that moment.
The connection.
Up before dawn
Like ghosts, soldiers emerge from the battlefield's dewy shadows. The morning is still dark. A gibbous moon hangs low, casting its glow over weary troops.
They awake before birds are chirping. No time is wasted. Packs are packed, fires are fanned for coffee. Through the darkness comes the advancing snap of Confederate snare drums. Men fall in--omnisciently expecting the Union's surprise attack.
It caught Robert E. Lee's men off-guard 140 years ago, when about 25,000 Federal troops attacked through an early morning fog. It was an attempt to break Lee's lines.
Trenches filled with blood. Thousands died. The site of the 22-hour fight became known simply as the Bloody Angle.
Yesterday, the Confederates knew what was coming. Still, the blue outlines bounding across the field catch them off guard. Union skirmishers.
Forget the coffee. The Feds fight on empty stomachs.
In the distance, Union artillery opens fire. A flash, smoke, a delay, then BOOM.
Anxiety grabs the rebels. A hodgepodge of muskets fire. Their lieutenant halts it.
Drawing closer, the men can hear the Union soldiers shouting. Across the field, spectators' camera flashes pop. Here in the trench, it's the Fourth of July. From both sides, muzzles spew orange sparks.
"Fire!" the lieutenant screams to his waiting men. "Fire at will!"
At once, they respond with a unified volley, a solid whip-crack. Gunshots echo, the sound ricocheting off trees.
The barrage seems unending. Behind the trench, a horn unleashes a charge. A Confederate battle flag is waving, gold tassels flapping alongside. Confederate reinforcements--more than 1,000--pour in.
"Push 'em back, boys," comes a shout. Clouds of burnt black powder have engulfed the soldiers.
Through the chaos, more hollering: "Push 'em! Drop the hammer on 'im!"
Cartridge paper covers the red soil like confetti.
But it is not all death and destruction. In the midst of the męlee, one friend turns to another and asks, "Whaddayaknow, Bob?"
With the Union nearing, a man fires a shot at a Yankee soldier, then lets out a schoolgirl giggle.
Again, the Union doesn't break through. The Confederates have accidentally repulsed the violent attack in a matter of minutes. This is not how the Bloody Angle got its name.
Bobby Diehl, a 50-year-old Pennsylvania man, arches his neck and peers out.
Across the battlefield, smoke is blowing and the morning mist still hangs. Union soldiers are walking away.
"I think," Diehl says, "we've just changed history."
--(6)-----------------------------------------------------
Civil War history is a vital element of Shenandoah heritage
By Christine DelliBovi, Sun Staff
05/09/2004
Baltimore Sun
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/harford/bal-ha.nm.town09may09,0,1351238.story?coll=bal-local-harford
To some, the town of New Market, in the middle of Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, might seem an unlikely place for a Civil War battle. But 140 years ago, its residents were put in the forefront of the South's struggle against the Union forces. Today, New Market is a place where the past and present continue to blend.
The name New Market comes from a town in England of the same name, the location of a famous racetrack. New Market had its own racetrack during its founding years, traces of which can still be seen, according to Arthur L. Hildreth's 1964 study, A Brief History of New Market and Vicinity.
The town was established by law in 1796, Hildreth said, and by 1835, New Market had a population of 700, as well a printing press and a large number of merchants and churches.
The Smith Creek Baptist church, which was torn down in 1918, served as an operating room and hospital for wounded Union soldiers after the Battle of New Market in May 1864, according to Hildreth.
The Shenandoah Valley weekly newspaper was started in New Market beginning in 1868. The printing plant was started by Ambrose Henkel in 1808, and the Henkel Press, as well as The Shenandoah Valley, thrived throughout the 19th century, Hildreth said. The Shenandoah Valle, continued circulation until sometime in the 1930s or 1940s, according to Scott Harris, director of the New Market Battlefield State Historical Park.
The New Market battlefield, which has also been known as the Field of Lost Shoes because many of the Virginia Military Institute cadets' shoes were pulled off their feet in the thick mud, is one of the most prominent pieces of New Market's rich history.
Several old buildings also survive, as well as the town water pump and library, all of which serve as artifacts of New Market's Civil War era.
Some New Marketers, like New Market native and VMI alumnus John Crim, have a strong family heritage tied to New Market. Crim's great-grandmother was one of many New Marketers who tended to the wounded soldiers after the battle.
"After the battle, as it was in many towns, porches, houses, barns, sheds -- anything that could house the wounded was used. In my great-grandmother's house, one of the VMI soldiers died," Crim said.
The battlefield, VMI and the town itself have a history that is still widely celebrated almost a century and a half later.
Although New Market's Civil war history is a large part of its identity today, there is more to the town that just its historical significance.
New Market's population is at about 1,700, according to Mary Alice Burch, president of the Chamber of Commerce. Despite being a small town, New Market has its own airport, as well as a baseball field and a 27-hole golf course.
Besides the yearly re-enactment of the battle, New Marketers also boast a large Fourth of July celebration. "We have one of the best July Fourth celebrations around, and people come from all over. This year we hope to have more concessions, things for children to do, games, and so on," Burch said.
New Market has an aesthetic draw as well.
"There are some beautiful older homes and antiques shops. New Market is a very pretty place to live," Burch said. New Market, along with many towns in the Shenandoah Valley, relies largely on agriculture and tourism. Visitors come to the valley for its physical beauty as well as its historical significance. The support of the tourism industry has helped the valley maintain its historic feel.
"It's my personal opinion that if the Civil War hadn't been as devastating as it was, perhaps the Shenandoah would have become more manufacturing-oriented," said Crim.
Though New Market has moved on to become a modern town, its past still makes up a large part of its present. Crim explained why New Marketers are proud of their history.
"Just the fact that you have this solid 140-year-old connection between a small school and a small town, and people still come from all over just to see the battlefield for that event. There has never been a time that New Market hasn't been proud of its place in history."
--(7)-----------------------------------------------------
Development erodes many battlefields
Chancellorsville tops trust fund's list of endangered sites
From Wire Reports
05/09/2004
Baltimore Sun
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/harford/bal-ha.nm.sites09may09,0,5043120.story?coll=bal-local-harford
The Civil War battlefield at New Market benefits from the community's sense of its heritage and its respect for the past, but many other fields, even in the Northern Virginia region, are not so fortunate.
Two Virginia battlefields sitting just outside designated protected land were named recently by the Civil War Preservation Trust as among the country's most endangered Civil War battlefields.
The battle of Chancellorsville is noted among military historians as a masterful execution of a daring Confederate plan, but one that cost the South one of it's most valuable leaders, Lt. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson.
Today a 790-acre chunk of the battlefield, about halfway between Richmond and Washington, is the focal point of a modern-day struggle pitting the demands of suburban sprawl against preservationists trying to keep as much of the land empty as possible.
Farther to the south and east, the 7,800-acre Henrico County site of the 1862 battle of Glendale saw some of the war's worst hand-to-hand combat, as well as about 6,500 casualties as Union soldiers retreated. It also faces the possibility of development.
In nearby Maryland, the trust said, South Mountain, particularly the eastern side near Burkittsville, has become a "bedroom community" for Washington commuters. That makes the area a hotspot for development, and key portions of the mountain are not protected.
South Mountain, straddling Washington and Frederick counties, was the site of three Civil War battles in the fighting leading up to Antietam in 1862.However the battlefields might vanish unless federal and state governments step up preservation efforts, the trust said.
Although the trust said Maryland has generally done "a laudable job" preserving acreage at Antietam, Monocacy, Turner's Gap and even portions of South Mountain, much remains to be done.
A congressional survey of Civil War sites in 1993 found that 384 important battlefields were in danger of disappearing. By the time Congress issued a report on its survey, 20 percent of those battlefields were gone, said trust President James Lighthizer, in a prepared statement.
Each year, 4 percent to 5 percent of that land, or as much as 10,000 acres, is lost. By contrast, the trust manages to save about 1 percent per year, or 3,000 acres at most, Lighthizer said.
Since 1987, the trust has saved more than 18,000 acres at 87 battlefields across the country with private donations, state and federal grants and conservation easements.
Other sites designated on the Civil War Preservation Trust's top 10 endangered list are Fort Donelson and Franklin in Tennessee; Wilson's Creek, Mo.; Morris Island, S.C.; New Bern, S.C.; Mansfield, La.; and the "Hell Hole" northwest of Atlanta.
The group selected the sites based on geography, military significance and the immediacy of the development threat.
--(8)-----------------------------------------------------
EDITORIAL
Nonprofit pushes to preserve Civil War sites
05/05/2004
Nashville City Paper
http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index.cfm?section=38&screen=news&news_id=32845
We'll bet many Nashvillians have never ventured the 14 miles or so to Franklin to visit the Carnton Plantation, Carter House or other Civil War sites.
The Battle of Franklin was one of the bloodiest of the war, but it is no Gettysburg, and for several reasons.
Gettysburg, Pa., and Franklin have much in common. They were small towns when the battles were fought. In both towns, the post-battle landscape was bleak. Homes, churches and other public buildings were filled with wounded soldiers. The townspeople had to live with the memories of horror.
But then something different happened that spelled the preservation of the Gettysburg battlefield and the virtual obliteration of the Franklin battle site.
In 1895, the U.S. Congress signed legislation to establish the Gettysburg National Military Park. Today, the park boasts nearly 6,000 acres, 26 miles of park roads and more than 1,400 monuments and memorials.
Today, almost the entire battle site in Franklin has been turned into housing developments and businesses. There are several reasons why that was allowed to happen.
One is that the people of Franklin were anxious to obliterate the terrible memories of the war and wanted to return to normal as soon as possible.
Another story we've heard through the years is that the federal government considered Franklin for a national battle park but that the idea of the Union establishing a memorial in the cradle of the South was not embraced by the local citizenry.
Today the site is listed as one of the 10 most endangered Civil War battlefields in the nation. The nonprofit Save the Franklin Battlefield Inc. is joining with other nonprofits to raise money to buy as many parcels of former battlefield land as it can. And a study financed by the National Park Service is currently under way to draw up a battlefield preservation plan.
Unfortunately we can't reclaim history. But it would be encouraging if some visionary thinking and serious money could reclaim part of the Franklin battlefield to preserve for future generations.
--(9)-----------------------------------------------------
Work is on to expand Carnton beyond war site
By PEGGY SHAW, Staff Writer
05/04/2004
Nashville Tennessean
http://www.tennessean.com/williamsonam/archives/04/04/50726975.shtml?Element_ID=50726975
FRANKLIN — Preservation efforts are back on the agenda in local governments, including an initiative that could expand the area at Historic Carnton Plantation used to help interpret the Battle of Franklin.
But there's also an initiative to show what life was like at Carnton long before the battle.
Some $650,000 has been raised to recreate the original building at Carnton, and construction is expected to begin by the end of the year, said Angela Calhoun, Carnton's executive director. The building, believed to have been a kitchen, was destroyed in a 1909 storm.
Financial support has come primarily from Valerie Fleming, of Palm Beach, Fla., in memory of her late husband, Sam. And plans are to use the original wing for a multipurpose facility that would help interpret the plantation home, best known as having been used as the primary hospital after the Nov. 30, 1864, Battle of Franklin.
The new building will have museum display cases, a large room for events such as lectures, children's education and mini-conferences, and possibly public restrooms and a warming kitchen.
''It will be a historic skin on a very modern, adaptable space,'' said Robert Hicks, co-chair of the fund-raising campaign. ''The interior won't look it at all because we don't know what it looked like, and it's not fair to try to do a Colonial revival thing. It will be a very modern space, very clean.''
Archaeological research done in 2002 unearthed stone foundations for the early building, a root cellar and artifacts, such as a tortoise-shell hair comb, the torso of a china doll and clay marbles. Archaeologists also found evidence of steps coming out from Carnton that would have connected to the kitchen.
Carnton supporters are also seeking funds these days to help preserve the 100-plus-acre Country Club of Franklin property adjacent to Carnton, Kay and J. Roderick Heller III recently paid $5 million for the land, but consider themselves to be only ''banker-donors'' who will hold the land for repurchase by a preservation group.
Carnton is Rob Heller's ancestral home, and the Washington, D.C., businessman hopes to see the entire site eventually returned the site to its mid-19th-century appearance, when his great-great-grandparents, John and Caroline McGavock, lived there.
The Franklin city government has been discussing funding half the repurchase, and officials from the Civil War Preservation Trust have said they will contribute.
As executive director of Carnton, Calhoun has guided a complete refurbishing of the house, the 2002 archaeological dig and the creation of a 19th-century garden. She spoke to Williamson A.M. about the site and its future:
Q: What was Carnton like in 1977 when the Historic Carnton Plantation Association was formed?
A: It was a dilapidated old house in the middle of a big field. There were chickens and goats in the parlor, motorcycle parts on the third floor, and an apartment had been carved out of the dining room.
Q: What improvements have been made since then?
A: Outbuildings have been restored, the historic house has been restored on the exterior, an anonymous donor has nearly completed furnishing the interior of the house, and an 1847, one-acre garden has been created. The 19th-century landscaping has been restored, and the archaeology has been completed on the first house at Carnton.
Q: What building projects are going on now?
A: We have a construction project on the original house, built there in about 1815, that should begin before the end of the year. We have conceptual drawings, a partial photograph taken about the turn of the century, a ''shadow'' of the first house still existing on the big house that's still there, and the archaeology.
Q: What other changes are taking place at Carnton?
A: We're expanding our educational programs, expanding our marketing efforts to group tour operations on a national basis, and our attendance continues to increase. More than 25,000 visitors now come annually to hear the moving story of this place, and we interpret plantation life to more than 5,000 students in the county who visit.
Q: What's happening with the land next door that preservationists purchased last year?
A: Rod and Kay Heller bought the community time to preserve it as the eastern flank of the battlefield. (Franklin Mayor) Tom Miller has pledged $2.5 million toward the project and has challenged the community to come up with the other half, and efforts are well on the way to raising that money. I haven't heard an official announcement yet from the Civil War Preservation Trust, but it looks as if they will be contributors.
Q: What other changes do you see in Carnton's future?
A: You can always set new goals for a historic site, new programming, new special events, new ways to involve the visitors in what you're doing, new things to add to the grounds, to the house. A good historic site is always growing, changing, looking to see how it can better relay its history.
Q: Characterize your part in Carnton's growth.
A: Carnton has had a long history, and I'm just a blip on the timeline here. I think the bottom line for me is that if it hadn't been for the grassroots efforts of the community to save this incredible piece of American history, it would have slid into obscurity. And that's what it takes. It takes all of us.
--(10)-----------------------------------------------------
Battle re-enactment may help new fight
Preservationists hope Spotsylvania event will boost their cause
BY KIRAN KRISHNAMURTHY, TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
05/03/2004
Richmond Times Dispatch
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArti cle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031775225916&path=%21news&s=1045855934842
SPOTSYLVANIA - Civil War preservationists are gearing up for another battle in this fast-growing county. This time they are armed with sabers and cannons, not pickets and petitions.
More than 3,000 re-enactors are expected to descend on Spotsylvania County this weekend as the Battle of Spotsylvania is dramatized 140 years after the bloody confrontation.
The genesis for the event is a more recent battle, one that pitted preservationists against a Northern Virginia developer who wanted to build 2,000 homes on land adjoining Chancellorsville National Battlefield.
Preservationists had argued that saving historic lands could, in the long run, generate tourism dollars while houses would drain the county's coffers.
The Board of Supervisors turned down the developer in March 2003, although a smaller subdivision is still planned there.
In an effort to capitalize on the oft-mentioned tourism angle, the county has now put $200,000 toward the re-enactment.
"It's not only a way to use our cultural resources for educational purposes but as an economic engine," said Henry Connors, a member of the Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors.
Organizers are hoping 15,000 to 20,000 spectators will turn out for the three-day event that begins Friday. It marks the first time the battle has been re-enacted in Spotsylvania since the centennial anniversary in 1964. The event will be held at Belvedere Plantation off U.S. 17.
Robert Lee Hodge, one of the principal organizers, said he hopes the event teaches children about the war, and, in doing so, about the need to preserve historic land.
"It's a challenge to make history cool," said Hodge, who was named after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Hodge, an Ohio native with Southern roots, is convinced that children will be engaged by the music of fife and drum and the sight of galloping horses, exploding cannons and clashing swords.
The re-enactment will depict three major battles at the actual times of day when the confrontations occurred in May 1864. Event organizers have built a quarter-mile trench, five feet deep and shored up with timber.
Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant tried for two weeks to deliver crushing blows to Lee's troops during the battles of Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House. Lee's troops repeatedly repelled Union assaults in fighting that resulted in 18,000 Union and 10,000 Confederate casualties.
Connors said the re-enactment could go a long way toward preserving land in Spotsylvania. He said spectators can contribute to a fund the county has set up for future land acquisition. And the event could be repeated in a few years, he said, leading up to a 150th anniversary re-enactment in 2014.
Although the outcome of the battle was uncertain in the grisly days of May 1864, Connors is confident about the results this time around.
"This is the trial but we expect it to be successful," he said.
--(11)-----------------------------------------------------
EDITORIAL
Franklin offers much more than battlefield
05/02/2004
Franklin Review-Appeal
http://reviewappeal.midsouthnews.com/news.ez?viewStory=21446
The portrayal of Franklin in Friday’s edition of The New York Times painted a fairly narrow view of the job which has been done in saving this area’s historic sites.
Most certainly, the article was correct in saying most of the field where a historic Nov. 30, 1864, Civil War battle took place has been lost. It poked fun at the fact that Jell-O was on the vegetable list at a local restaurant, but for the most part told the story of dedicated and passionate volunteers who want to see Franklin’s battlefield reclaimed. Current efforts to reclaim bits of the battlefield are to be applauded, but sweeping statements that without the battlefield, tourists won’t come to Franklin are incorrect.
Already, tourists come to Franklin, marketed in tourism circles as a city “15 miles and 100 years down the road from Nashville.” Tourists come to see the restored five-block Main Street and the eclectic mix of shops which line it. Visitors come to revel in the history which has been so lovingly preserved in places like Carnton Plantation and The Carter House, the central point of the Battle of Franklin.
When they visit, they can see one of the few antebellum courthouses remaining in the state. Just one example of the area’s rich architecture, it is just steps away from dozens of historic homes on either side of tree-lined residential streets in the original 16-block area of downtown.
As these tourists drove into town perhaps they looked up and saw Roper’s Knob, the Union signal post purchased several years ago by the Heritage Foundation to protect it from development. Perhaps they will visit The Factory at Franklin, which was given a new life by entrepreneur Calvin LeHew as a shopping destination instead of seeing it lost to a bulldozer.
Franklin and all of Williamson County are not unlike many small towns wrestling with their past, parts of which have been lost through carelessness and others through direct effort. The good news is that Franklin and Williamson County have done better than many small but growing Southern towns which must now give directions by buildings or historic sites that used to be there.
Should Franklin reclaim its battlefield or is the battlefield’s significance lost under years of houses and businesses, streets and cars? Are the histories of the lives lived on the site of any less value than that of those who died there? That is the debate, along with where the money comes from and how much taxpayers and private entities are willing to spend to reclaim the land, clear of its present use and restore it to its past.
While it isn’t a battlefield, the proposal to preserve the luscious green space of Harlinsdale Farm as you enter into Franklin is an example of an effort which appears reasonable and achievable. Franklin officials have announced a $10 million bond issue for the joint purchase of that site along with a site which served as the eastern flank of the Franklin battlefield.
County officials, expected to go 50/50 on the Harlinsdale project, are now appearing skittish regarding the details rather than the concept. Their concerns center mainly around issues which could translate to getting the cart before the horse. Unfortunately, these concerns may signal an end to the project, which if it is lost, would be another chance to start giving directions by things lost rather than things preserved.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Campi, Policy and Communications Director
Civil War Preservation Trust
1331 H Street NW, Suite 1001
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: (202) 367-1861 ext. 205
Fax: (202) 367-1865
http://www.civilwar.org
http://www.chancellorsville.org
Courtesy of the Civil War Preservation Trust
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(1) Golfers vs. preservationists at Franklin – Nashville Tennessean
(2) Reenactment boosts Spotsy tourism – Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
(3) Charleston museum chronicles Civil War siege – Associated Press
(4) Editorial: Save site of Buckland Races - Fauquier Times-Democrat
(5) Reenactors sacrifice for cause – Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
(6) Civil War a vital element of Shenandoah heritage – Baltimore Sun
(7) Development erodes many battlefields – Baltimore Sun
(8) Editorial: Pushing to preserve CW sites – Nashville City Paper
(9) Effort to expand Carnton Plantation – Nashville Tennessean
(10) Spotsylvania event to boost preservation – Richmond Times-Dispatch
(11) Editorial: Franklin more than battlefield – Franklin Review-Appeal
--(1)-----------------------------------------------------
Battle of Franklin: golfers vs. preservationists
By MITCHELL KLINE, Staff Writer
05/13/2004
Nashville Tennessean
http://www.tennessean.com/williamsonam/archives/04/05/51247311.shtml?Element_ID=51247311
FRANKLIN — County Club of Franklin members have launched an attack on the plan of a group of Civil War preservationists to turn their golf course into a battlefield park.
A throng of more than 50 club members converged on City Hall Tuesday night during Franklin's Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting, criticizing city leaders for supporting a plan to restore the golf course adjacent to Carnton Plantation to its antebellum appearance.
They said little, if any, actual fighting occurred on the 108-acre golf club property during the Battle of Franklin. They said the 36-year-old country club provides tax revenue for the city, jobs for residents and a social and recreational outlet for more than 350 families.
''Any alderman who votes for (the purchase of the country club) can be assured 350 families and their friends will campaign against them,'' club member Jan Trischman told the board.
Last month the board approved a resolution declaring the city's intent to borrow $10 million to purchase and preserve ''green space.'' Aldermen said the money could be used to buy Harlinsdale Farm and the country club.
Franklin Mayor Tom Miller issued a challenge to the community and preservationists, saying the city could fund half of the country club's purchase if someone else comes up with the other $2.5 million.
''The city is very much interested in acquiring battlefield property for protection from development,'' Miller said yesterday. ''The only piece of property for sale that we are aware of is the country club.''
Rod Heller — a descendant of the McGavock family, which at one time owned the Carnton Plantation — purchased the country club last year for $5 million. He said he bought the land to protect it from being turned into a housing development. Country club members had 10 days to come up with $5 million to buy the property themselves but didn't.
Heller has indicated he would sell the property to the city or a preservation group for $5 million. A stipulation on the sale would be that the land has to be preserved and turned into a battlefield park.
A group of preservationists and community leaders who call themselves the Coalition for Preservation of Historic Open Space want to see the golf course restored to the way it looked in the 1860s. Coalition member Robert Hicks said he can empathize with the club members, but he wants to see the property become a battlefield park. Hicks said the group approached Heller when they learned a developer was planning to buy the property and build more than 54 homes.
''It was going to happen,'' Hicks said.
He read the board a letter written by Ed Bearss, chief historian of the National Park Service, which stated, ''The ground embraced by the County Club of Franklin played a crucial role in the Battle of Franklin. It was across this very land that A. P. Stewart's Corps advanced from the south and east toward the Union lines, all the time receiving enemy fire as they charged.''
Mike Benton, a country club member, pulled out an 1864 map showing forts, hospitals and battle locations. He pointed out that most of the golf course was off the map.
''We don't think the real issue is about preservation of battlefield, but preservation of land in front of Carnton Plantation,'' Benton said. ''They want to turn this into pastoral land between two subdivisions. It shouldn't have trench works or stone walls because none of that was ever here. There was no real significant action here.''
Miller said there ''undoubtedly was significant activity there,'' but he wasn't sure if any actual fighting took place on the golf course. Alderman Ernie Bacon said he is seeking clarification on where fighting actually took place.
Club members said they didn't think it was right to use public money to fulfill Heller's request. Bill Lee said the $2.5 million could be better spent developing property the city already owns into parks. Miller said there is $750,000 allocated to construct a bicentennial park, which the city broke ground on in 1999. Aldermen haven't identified funds to complete construction of Liberty Park, nor to develop the Durango Boot factory property and junkyard the city owns on North Margin Street.
Club members Bob and Deborah Ferris said they moved into their house in the Heath Place subdivision near the golf course three days before it was announced that Heller was buying the country club. They see no reason to tear the clubhouse down and turn the golf course into a battlefield park.
''I'm sure Civil War soldiers camped in my back yard too,'' Bob Ferris said. ''Are they coming after it next?''
--(2)-----------------------------------------------------
Battle a boon to tourism
Re-enactments give boost to Spotsylvania tourism
By LAURA MOYER
05/13/2004
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
http://my.customscoop.com/reports/viewclips/reportview.cfm?z=z&kw=Civil%20War%20AND%20history&first=31
Even as a storm roared through the re-enactment camp at Belvedere Plantation, the phones wouldn't stop ringing Friday night at the Spotsylvania County office where tickets were being sold.
The clamor for advance tickets to the weekend's Battle of Spotsylvania 140th Anniversary Re-enactment was so intense, in fact, that tourism officials stayed in the office till after 9 that night.
And initial estimates are that spectator attendance the next day exceeded 10,000.
Attendance was significantly lower on the event's first and third days, Friday and Sunday, but organizers said they're pleased with how things went overall.
And Deputy County Administrator Doug Barnes said yesterday that the successful partnership among Spotsylvania County, Belvedere Plantation and a third organizer, Wide Awake Films, bodes well for the future of heritage tourism events.
Barnes, who was on the scene almost continuously from Thursday until Sunday afternoon, said everyone's response to Friday's storm tells the story. As soon as the winds died and the lightning dimmed to a flicker, organizers and camping re-enactors starting fixing weather damage.
A rumor that the event might be canceled was stamped out immediately. And by the time the gates opened on a cool, sunny Saturday morning, spectators couldn't detect anything amiss.
One popular draw for re-enactors and spectators alike was a quarter-mile-long, 5-foot-deep trench county workers dug for the event. By Sunday afternoon, after re-enactors had camped in it all weekend, it looked as if it really might have withstood a battle.
Of the actual remaining Civil War trenches in Spotsylvania and elsewhere, most have been worn down by the elements over the years. And because of their historic significance, they're off-limits for walking or up-close exploring.
So the chance to stand or sleep in the deep trench at Belvedere was a new experience for many Civil War fans.
"This might be the impetus to create permanent breastworks in the county" so residents and visitors can have a more interactive experience, Barnes said.
Organizers say the response from re-enactors was so positive they'll consider doing a similar event in the next few years, as yet another preliminary to a planned re-enactment in 2014, 150 years after the fighting at Spotsylvania Court House in May 1864.
Several re-enactors at the weekend's event told organizers afterward that they'd never seen such a well-run event, said John Cummings of the Spotsylvania Courthouse Tourism and Special Events Commission.
"The feedback is that this was the most efficiently run event they have ever been through," he said.
The county budgeted about a quarter of a million dollars for the event, Barnes said, and revenue numbers are still being crunched. Proceeds came from advance ticket sales, gate admissions, re-enactor registration, sutler fees and merchandise sales.
Good publicity from the event is important, too. National Geographic had a photographer and reporter on the field, and Barnes said he talked to reporters from as far away as Ireland.
"I think there's a long-term effect here," Barnes said. "We've raised awareness about our history and culture in the county that maybe we didn't have before."
--(3)-----------------------------------------------------
Museum exhibit chronicles Civil War siege
05/12/2004
Associated Press Newswires/USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2004-05-12-charleston-civil-war_x.htm
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — The towering steeple of Second Presbyterian Church was used by Union batteries to sight the guns that lobbed shells into Charleston during a 587-day Civil War siege.
And now in its building nearby, the Charleston Museum has mounted its first permanent exhibit of those days of war and deprivation.
Although technically not a siege — the rail lines to the west still operated although tenuously toward war's end — the Union blockade put a stranglehold on Charleston, which refused to surrender.
The new exhibit in the nation's oldest museum shows how the city weathered the conflict that opened with the Confederate bombardment on Fort Sumter in the harbor in 1861.
The fort surrendered after that opening battle. The Confederates occupied it and later found themselves in turn under siege from Union forces. Historians say the fort has been shelled more than any other site in the Western Hemisphere.
"It is to describe not the Civil War in general or the Civil War nationally but how it affected Charleston," said John Brumgardt, the museum's director. "It was pretty grim on the home front."
Grim meant drinking acorn coffee instead of the real stuff; setting up relief houses so passing soldiers could get a meal; rushing to the docks when a blockade runner managed to sneak through with a supply of clothing or sugar.
The exhibit includes the chairs from Institute Hall where delegates signed the Articles of Secession by which South Carolina became the first state to leave the Union.
Here, too, is a pair of wedding slippers, with a price tag of $100 Confederate, that likely would have cost only $5 before the war. Inflation was an ever-worsening problem in Charleston where residents dealt with the psychological stress of shells falling every day.
"A spool of thread that cost 5 cents at the beginning of the war might cost 80 cents by 1862 and over $1 by the end of the war," Brumgardt said.
The city was never overrun, but Confederate troops evacuated as Sherman's army advanced in 1865.
The exhibit also includes a spray of flowers that decorated the flag pole at Fort Sumter when the Union flag was raised again at war's end.
The Civil War was not the first time this coastal city was under siege; the British captured Charleston, then the nation's fourth-largest city, after a six-week Revolutionary War siege in 1780.
During the Civil War, city institutions closed and the collection from the museum, which was founded in 1773, was taken by the curator to Aiken for safekeeping.
"They were found by invading Union troops who thought they were worthless and left them alone, thankfully," Brumgardt said.
The display includes the uniform of a Confederate soldier who fell during the Battle of Secessionville, an unsuccessful 1863 Union attempt to breach Charleston's defenses. The jacket is stained with blood near a bullet hole.
Other items in the display were found after Hurricane Hugo smashed the coast in 1989, uncovering buried Union artifacts on Folly Beach.
Perhaps the most unusual artifact in the exhibit is a wooden hand made for Confederate Col. Peter Gaillard, later mayor of Charleston, whose left wrist and hand were shattered defending Battery Wagner on Morris Island in 1863. The battery was the scene of the attack by the black Union 54th Massachusetts regiment chronicled in the movie "Glory."
"Reportedly the hand was whittled by one of his own soldiers," said museum curator J. Grahame Long.
Below the index finger, the hand has a small flathead screw that apparently was used to attach a utensil such as a fork. Artificial hands and legs are rare, although thousands of wounded soldiers likely were fitted with them after the war. Most were likely used and worn out, Long said.
The museum has had temporary Civil War exhibits, but no permanent ones, in the past. Many people long associated Charleston with America's colonial era.
Brumgardt said he wanted to see Civil War sites when he first visited Charleston 34 years ago but the only sites were Fort Sumter and what was then the display for the Confederate submarine Hunley. There is now substantial interest in both eras, he said.
The Hunley was the first sub in history to sink an enemy warship. A replica of the vessel, which now sits in a courtyard outside the museum, had been displayed in the basement of a building in the historic district when Brumgardt first visited.
The actual Hunley was raised from the Atlantic four years ago and eventually will go on display in a museum in North Charleston.
--(4)-----------------------------------------------------
EDITORIAL/OPINION
Save Buckland
05/11/2004
Fauquier Times-Democrat
http://www.timescommunity.com/site/tab2.cfm?newsid=11631368&BRD=2553&PAG=461&dept_id=506071&rfi=6
Neighbors who own about 1,000 acres of land around Buckland Farm met last week with Fauquier and Prince William county leaders, state representatives, and preservation experts in a first public move toward preserving this historic area from the intense development marching westward from nearby Gainesville.
Even as the group talked in the pastoral open countryside, the roar of traffic on nearby U. S. 29 -- called the Warrenton Turnpike in earlier days -- filled the air with a thunder different from the roar of cannons and clash of sabers of the Civil War battle known as "The Buckland Races" fought there 141 years earlier.
The group met in the c. 1774 main house at Buckland Farm, a remarkably preserved structure with a long history of its own.
It became clear at this conference that Buckland is entirely worthy and capable of being preserved. Representatives of several state and national preservation groups have studied the village of Buckland -- which lies along Broad Run in Prince William County -- noting that the largely-original settlement provides a unique window into the 18th century. Others have called it "the best example of an old Piedmont town."
The village and surrounding area that make up the "cultural landscape" can be saved through a practical combination of open space easements, national landmarks status, planned growth under the comprehensive plans of the two counties.
It has also been suggested that by incorporating the village, those wishing to protect Buckland could to take on much of the future responsibility of the area.
Buckland is a historic, architectural and archaeological national treasure. But as a natural site today for sprawling development, it is also a ticking time bomb.
--(5)-----------------------------------------------------
Re-enactors sacrifice for their cause
Life on the front line, even faux battle, is full of hardships, comaraderie and high spirits
By ROB DAVIS
05/10/2004
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2004/052004/05102004/1356300
Editor's Note: Staff writer Rob Davis spent two days in uniform with the men of the 4th Georgia, bunking down with them overnight as they re-enacted 1864's fighting at Spotsylvania Court House.
IN THE TRENCHES WITH THE 4TH GEORGIA INFANTRY--Fires dot the earthen landscape, creating an orange constellation that flickers against the evening's chill.
Down the smoky embankment, a Confederate soldier is playing harmonica. Serenity, after a day of booming cannons.
From across the moonlit battlefield, three rifle blasts crackle through the Confederate army's hushed camp.
"You're next, Johnny!" comes a distant shout.
There is laughter, cursing and an eventual rebel's yell: "Whatever!"
It is sometime late Saturday. There are no clocks here on the first full day of the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House re-enactment.
After an arduous day, the Confederates are settling into camp. Out there through the night, Union soldiers do the same.
The 38 men of the 4th Georgia Infantry encircle small fires, pits carved into the trench wall. Black powder coats one man's chin. Tobacco spit froths at the corners of another's mouth.
Bored, they sit and talk. Childhood buddies from Pennsylvania make promises to eat dinner together when they return home. A father and son share salted beef.
Craig Hoffeditz, a 31-year-old Maryland man, runs his fingers over rocks on the ground. Tonight, this is his bed.
Forget the fighting, the acrid smell of gunpowder, the screaming and yelling and horns urging you to charge. That's not why Hoffeditz and his friends came to re-enact battle scenes this weekend.
For many men in the 4th Georgia, it is these little moments. They make a connection. They link present to past, father to son, friend to friend.
"This. This right here," Hoffeditz says, gesturing at his dirt-covered world. "This is the daily life of the soldier."
And that routine meant sacrifices. For better and worse, the 4th Georgia tries to recreate them accurately.
While thousands of re-enactors sleep inside tents on a grassy field, the men of the 4th Georgia and about 75 others are out here in the open. They have little more than a wool blanket for shelter.
"It's more just kind of an existence than sleep," explains Willie Mangum, a 32-year-old museum curator from North Carolina.
Throughout Saturday night, mini-landslides sent piles of dust careening down the trench walls. Sleep was intermittent. Ever wonder if the Confederates snored? They did. So did the men portraying them this weekend.
And those are just the challenges of resting.
Leading up to the event, John Pagano, a Richmond historian, didn't wash his hair for how long? The 34-year-old wonders aloud, and remembers. Monday. Yep, going on six days. Event organizer Robert Hodge gave up beer for four months--and dropped 12 pounds.
When cannons pound and troops march, all those details are set in motion. The ripe shirt that hasn't been washed since 1995. The swish of 1860s-style boots through uncut grass.
A museum in miniature.
Anticipating the assault
Somewhere across the field, fifes tweet and snare drums rattle. The Union army is out there, ready to launch Upton's Assault--an attack on the Confederates' entrenched position.
Here, though, there are no pep talks, no nervous soldiers.
The men of the 4th Georgia have been waiting for hours. It's late afternoon, and the advance is due. Some rest against the trench walls, their heads half-cocked.
Kevin Hershberger plays fashion consultant. The 30-year-old Richmond man critiques the rebels mustering behind him.
"That's the worst hat I've ever seen," he says of one. "Ever."
The veterans may no longer shake with anticipation, but some admit they did as first-timers.
Chris Semancik, a 33-year-old museum curator from Pennsylvania, was nervous at his first re-enactment. He leveled his musket, pointed it at a charging soldier, and--boom!--the man went down.
"I thought I killed him," Semancik said.
Semancik and fellow re-enactors hunker down when Upton's Assault is launched. It begins with thunder: Tooth-rattling artillery blasts are unleashed, 3-foot-wide smoke rings billow through late-day sunlight.
Then, lightning. Rifle blasts volley between North and South.
There is confusion, and the attack doesn't go as planned. There's no Union breakthrough.
Later, the men will sulk and joke, criticizing the re-enactment's authenticity. But they will also agree on one point.
The Union stormed the trench in a whirl of screams and gunfire. Comrades lay dead. Others were captured.
For an instant, the men of the 4th Georgia found that moment.
The connection.
Up before dawn
Like ghosts, soldiers emerge from the battlefield's dewy shadows. The morning is still dark. A gibbous moon hangs low, casting its glow over weary troops.
They awake before birds are chirping. No time is wasted. Packs are packed, fires are fanned for coffee. Through the darkness comes the advancing snap of Confederate snare drums. Men fall in--omnisciently expecting the Union's surprise attack.
It caught Robert E. Lee's men off-guard 140 years ago, when about 25,000 Federal troops attacked through an early morning fog. It was an attempt to break Lee's lines.
Trenches filled with blood. Thousands died. The site of the 22-hour fight became known simply as the Bloody Angle.
Yesterday, the Confederates knew what was coming. Still, the blue outlines bounding across the field catch them off guard. Union skirmishers.
Forget the coffee. The Feds fight on empty stomachs.
In the distance, Union artillery opens fire. A flash, smoke, a delay, then BOOM.
Anxiety grabs the rebels. A hodgepodge of muskets fire. Their lieutenant halts it.
Drawing closer, the men can hear the Union soldiers shouting. Across the field, spectators' camera flashes pop. Here in the trench, it's the Fourth of July. From both sides, muzzles spew orange sparks.
"Fire!" the lieutenant screams to his waiting men. "Fire at will!"
At once, they respond with a unified volley, a solid whip-crack. Gunshots echo, the sound ricocheting off trees.
The barrage seems unending. Behind the trench, a horn unleashes a charge. A Confederate battle flag is waving, gold tassels flapping alongside. Confederate reinforcements--more than 1,000--pour in.
"Push 'em back, boys," comes a shout. Clouds of burnt black powder have engulfed the soldiers.
Through the chaos, more hollering: "Push 'em! Drop the hammer on 'im!"
Cartridge paper covers the red soil like confetti.
But it is not all death and destruction. In the midst of the męlee, one friend turns to another and asks, "Whaddayaknow, Bob?"
With the Union nearing, a man fires a shot at a Yankee soldier, then lets out a schoolgirl giggle.
Again, the Union doesn't break through. The Confederates have accidentally repulsed the violent attack in a matter of minutes. This is not how the Bloody Angle got its name.
Bobby Diehl, a 50-year-old Pennsylvania man, arches his neck and peers out.
Across the battlefield, smoke is blowing and the morning mist still hangs. Union soldiers are walking away.
"I think," Diehl says, "we've just changed history."
--(6)-----------------------------------------------------
Civil War history is a vital element of Shenandoah heritage
By Christine DelliBovi, Sun Staff
05/09/2004
Baltimore Sun
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/harford/bal-ha.nm.town09may09,0,1351238.story?coll=bal-local-harford
To some, the town of New Market, in the middle of Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, might seem an unlikely place for a Civil War battle. But 140 years ago, its residents were put in the forefront of the South's struggle against the Union forces. Today, New Market is a place where the past and present continue to blend.
The name New Market comes from a town in England of the same name, the location of a famous racetrack. New Market had its own racetrack during its founding years, traces of which can still be seen, according to Arthur L. Hildreth's 1964 study, A Brief History of New Market and Vicinity.
The town was established by law in 1796, Hildreth said, and by 1835, New Market had a population of 700, as well a printing press and a large number of merchants and churches.
The Smith Creek Baptist church, which was torn down in 1918, served as an operating room and hospital for wounded Union soldiers after the Battle of New Market in May 1864, according to Hildreth.
The Shenandoah Valley weekly newspaper was started in New Market beginning in 1868. The printing plant was started by Ambrose Henkel in 1808, and the Henkel Press, as well as The Shenandoah Valley, thrived throughout the 19th century, Hildreth said. The Shenandoah Valle, continued circulation until sometime in the 1930s or 1940s, according to Scott Harris, director of the New Market Battlefield State Historical Park.
The New Market battlefield, which has also been known as the Field of Lost Shoes because many of the Virginia Military Institute cadets' shoes were pulled off their feet in the thick mud, is one of the most prominent pieces of New Market's rich history.
Several old buildings also survive, as well as the town water pump and library, all of which serve as artifacts of New Market's Civil War era.
Some New Marketers, like New Market native and VMI alumnus John Crim, have a strong family heritage tied to New Market. Crim's great-grandmother was one of many New Marketers who tended to the wounded soldiers after the battle.
"After the battle, as it was in many towns, porches, houses, barns, sheds -- anything that could house the wounded was used. In my great-grandmother's house, one of the VMI soldiers died," Crim said.
The battlefield, VMI and the town itself have a history that is still widely celebrated almost a century and a half later.
Although New Market's Civil war history is a large part of its identity today, there is more to the town that just its historical significance.
New Market's population is at about 1,700, according to Mary Alice Burch, president of the Chamber of Commerce. Despite being a small town, New Market has its own airport, as well as a baseball field and a 27-hole golf course.
Besides the yearly re-enactment of the battle, New Marketers also boast a large Fourth of July celebration. "We have one of the best July Fourth celebrations around, and people come from all over. This year we hope to have more concessions, things for children to do, games, and so on," Burch said.
New Market has an aesthetic draw as well.
"There are some beautiful older homes and antiques shops. New Market is a very pretty place to live," Burch said. New Market, along with many towns in the Shenandoah Valley, relies largely on agriculture and tourism. Visitors come to the valley for its physical beauty as well as its historical significance. The support of the tourism industry has helped the valley maintain its historic feel.
"It's my personal opinion that if the Civil War hadn't been as devastating as it was, perhaps the Shenandoah would have become more manufacturing-oriented," said Crim.
Though New Market has moved on to become a modern town, its past still makes up a large part of its present. Crim explained why New Marketers are proud of their history.
"Just the fact that you have this solid 140-year-old connection between a small school and a small town, and people still come from all over just to see the battlefield for that event. There has never been a time that New Market hasn't been proud of its place in history."
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Development erodes many battlefields
Chancellorsville tops trust fund's list of endangered sites
From Wire Reports
05/09/2004
Baltimore Sun
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/harford/bal-ha.nm.sites09may09,0,5043120.story?coll=bal-local-harford
The Civil War battlefield at New Market benefits from the community's sense of its heritage and its respect for the past, but many other fields, even in the Northern Virginia region, are not so fortunate.
Two Virginia battlefields sitting just outside designated protected land were named recently by the Civil War Preservation Trust as among the country's most endangered Civil War battlefields.
The battle of Chancellorsville is noted among military historians as a masterful execution of a daring Confederate plan, but one that cost the South one of it's most valuable leaders, Lt. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson.
Today a 790-acre chunk of the battlefield, about halfway between Richmond and Washington, is the focal point of a modern-day struggle pitting the demands of suburban sprawl against preservationists trying to keep as much of the land empty as possible.
Farther to the south and east, the 7,800-acre Henrico County site of the 1862 battle of Glendale saw some of the war's worst hand-to-hand combat, as well as about 6,500 casualties as Union soldiers retreated. It also faces the possibility of development.
In nearby Maryland, the trust said, South Mountain, particularly the eastern side near Burkittsville, has become a "bedroom community" for Washington commuters. That makes the area a hotspot for development, and key portions of the mountain are not protected.
South Mountain, straddling Washington and Frederick counties, was the site of three Civil War battles in the fighting leading up to Antietam in 1862.However the battlefields might vanish unless federal and state governments step up preservation efforts, the trust said.
Although the trust said Maryland has generally done "a laudable job" preserving acreage at Antietam, Monocacy, Turner's Gap and even portions of South Mountain, much remains to be done.
A congressional survey of Civil War sites in 1993 found that 384 important battlefields were in danger of disappearing. By the time Congress issued a report on its survey, 20 percent of those battlefields were gone, said trust President James Lighthizer, in a prepared statement.
Each year, 4 percent to 5 percent of that land, or as much as 10,000 acres, is lost. By contrast, the trust manages to save about 1 percent per year, or 3,000 acres at most, Lighthizer said.
Since 1987, the trust has saved more than 18,000 acres at 87 battlefields across the country with private donations, state and federal grants and conservation easements.
Other sites designated on the Civil War Preservation Trust's top 10 endangered list are Fort Donelson and Franklin in Tennessee; Wilson's Creek, Mo.; Morris Island, S.C.; New Bern, S.C.; Mansfield, La.; and the "Hell Hole" northwest of Atlanta.
The group selected the sites based on geography, military significance and the immediacy of the development threat.
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EDITORIAL
Nonprofit pushes to preserve Civil War sites
05/05/2004
Nashville City Paper
http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index.cfm?section=38&screen=news&news_id=32845
We'll bet many Nashvillians have never ventured the 14 miles or so to Franklin to visit the Carnton Plantation, Carter House or other Civil War sites.
The Battle of Franklin was one of the bloodiest of the war, but it is no Gettysburg, and for several reasons.
Gettysburg, Pa., and Franklin have much in common. They were small towns when the battles were fought. In both towns, the post-battle landscape was bleak. Homes, churches and other public buildings were filled with wounded soldiers. The townspeople had to live with the memories of horror.
But then something different happened that spelled the preservation of the Gettysburg battlefield and the virtual obliteration of the Franklin battle site.
In 1895, the U.S. Congress signed legislation to establish the Gettysburg National Military Park. Today, the park boasts nearly 6,000 acres, 26 miles of park roads and more than 1,400 monuments and memorials.
Today, almost the entire battle site in Franklin has been turned into housing developments and businesses. There are several reasons why that was allowed to happen.
One is that the people of Franklin were anxious to obliterate the terrible memories of the war and wanted to return to normal as soon as possible.
Another story we've heard through the years is that the federal government considered Franklin for a national battle park but that the idea of the Union establishing a memorial in the cradle of the South was not embraced by the local citizenry.
Today the site is listed as one of the 10 most endangered Civil War battlefields in the nation. The nonprofit Save the Franklin Battlefield Inc. is joining with other nonprofits to raise money to buy as many parcels of former battlefield land as it can. And a study financed by the National Park Service is currently under way to draw up a battlefield preservation plan.
Unfortunately we can't reclaim history. But it would be encouraging if some visionary thinking and serious money could reclaim part of the Franklin battlefield to preserve for future generations.
--(9)-----------------------------------------------------
Work is on to expand Carnton beyond war site
By PEGGY SHAW, Staff Writer
05/04/2004
Nashville Tennessean
http://www.tennessean.com/williamsonam/archives/04/04/50726975.shtml?Element_ID=50726975
FRANKLIN — Preservation efforts are back on the agenda in local governments, including an initiative that could expand the area at Historic Carnton Plantation used to help interpret the Battle of Franklin.
But there's also an initiative to show what life was like at Carnton long before the battle.
Some $650,000 has been raised to recreate the original building at Carnton, and construction is expected to begin by the end of the year, said Angela Calhoun, Carnton's executive director. The building, believed to have been a kitchen, was destroyed in a 1909 storm.
Financial support has come primarily from Valerie Fleming, of Palm Beach, Fla., in memory of her late husband, Sam. And plans are to use the original wing for a multipurpose facility that would help interpret the plantation home, best known as having been used as the primary hospital after the Nov. 30, 1864, Battle of Franklin.
The new building will have museum display cases, a large room for events such as lectures, children's education and mini-conferences, and possibly public restrooms and a warming kitchen.
''It will be a historic skin on a very modern, adaptable space,'' said Robert Hicks, co-chair of the fund-raising campaign. ''The interior won't look it at all because we don't know what it looked like, and it's not fair to try to do a Colonial revival thing. It will be a very modern space, very clean.''
Archaeological research done in 2002 unearthed stone foundations for the early building, a root cellar and artifacts, such as a tortoise-shell hair comb, the torso of a china doll and clay marbles. Archaeologists also found evidence of steps coming out from Carnton that would have connected to the kitchen.
Carnton supporters are also seeking funds these days to help preserve the 100-plus-acre Country Club of Franklin property adjacent to Carnton, Kay and J. Roderick Heller III recently paid $5 million for the land, but consider themselves to be only ''banker-donors'' who will hold the land for repurchase by a preservation group.
Carnton is Rob Heller's ancestral home, and the Washington, D.C., businessman hopes to see the entire site eventually returned the site to its mid-19th-century appearance, when his great-great-grandparents, John and Caroline McGavock, lived there.
The Franklin city government has been discussing funding half the repurchase, and officials from the Civil War Preservation Trust have said they will contribute.
As executive director of Carnton, Calhoun has guided a complete refurbishing of the house, the 2002 archaeological dig and the creation of a 19th-century garden. She spoke to Williamson A.M. about the site and its future:
Q: What was Carnton like in 1977 when the Historic Carnton Plantation Association was formed?
A: It was a dilapidated old house in the middle of a big field. There were chickens and goats in the parlor, motorcycle parts on the third floor, and an apartment had been carved out of the dining room.
Q: What improvements have been made since then?
A: Outbuildings have been restored, the historic house has been restored on the exterior, an anonymous donor has nearly completed furnishing the interior of the house, and an 1847, one-acre garden has been created. The 19th-century landscaping has been restored, and the archaeology has been completed on the first house at Carnton.
Q: What building projects are going on now?
A: We have a construction project on the original house, built there in about 1815, that should begin before the end of the year. We have conceptual drawings, a partial photograph taken about the turn of the century, a ''shadow'' of the first house still existing on the big house that's still there, and the archaeology.
Q: What other changes are taking place at Carnton?
A: We're expanding our educational programs, expanding our marketing efforts to group tour operations on a national basis, and our attendance continues to increase. More than 25,000 visitors now come annually to hear the moving story of this place, and we interpret plantation life to more than 5,000 students in the county who visit.
Q: What's happening with the land next door that preservationists purchased last year?
A: Rod and Kay Heller bought the community time to preserve it as the eastern flank of the battlefield. (Franklin Mayor) Tom Miller has pledged $2.5 million toward the project and has challenged the community to come up with the other half, and efforts are well on the way to raising that money. I haven't heard an official announcement yet from the Civil War Preservation Trust, but it looks as if they will be contributors.
Q: What other changes do you see in Carnton's future?
A: You can always set new goals for a historic site, new programming, new special events, new ways to involve the visitors in what you're doing, new things to add to the grounds, to the house. A good historic site is always growing, changing, looking to see how it can better relay its history.
Q: Characterize your part in Carnton's growth.
A: Carnton has had a long history, and I'm just a blip on the timeline here. I think the bottom line for me is that if it hadn't been for the grassroots efforts of the community to save this incredible piece of American history, it would have slid into obscurity. And that's what it takes. It takes all of us.
--(10)-----------------------------------------------------
Battle re-enactment may help new fight
Preservationists hope Spotsylvania event will boost their cause
BY KIRAN KRISHNAMURTHY, TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
05/03/2004
Richmond Times Dispatch
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArti cle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031775225916&path=%21news&s=1045855934842
SPOTSYLVANIA - Civil War preservationists are gearing up for another battle in this fast-growing county. This time they are armed with sabers and cannons, not pickets and petitions.
More than 3,000 re-enactors are expected to descend on Spotsylvania County this weekend as the Battle of Spotsylvania is dramatized 140 years after the bloody confrontation.
The genesis for the event is a more recent battle, one that pitted preservationists against a Northern Virginia developer who wanted to build 2,000 homes on land adjoining Chancellorsville National Battlefield.
Preservationists had argued that saving historic lands could, in the long run, generate tourism dollars while houses would drain the county's coffers.
The Board of Supervisors turned down the developer in March 2003, although a smaller subdivision is still planned there.
In an effort to capitalize on the oft-mentioned tourism angle, the county has now put $200,000 toward the re-enactment.
"It's not only a way to use our cultural resources for educational purposes but as an economic engine," said Henry Connors, a member of the Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors.
Organizers are hoping 15,000 to 20,000 spectators will turn out for the three-day event that begins Friday. It marks the first time the battle has been re-enacted in Spotsylvania since the centennial anniversary in 1964. The event will be held at Belvedere Plantation off U.S. 17.
Robert Lee Hodge, one of the principal organizers, said he hopes the event teaches children about the war, and, in doing so, about the need to preserve historic land.
"It's a challenge to make history cool," said Hodge, who was named after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Hodge, an Ohio native with Southern roots, is convinced that children will be engaged by the music of fife and drum and the sight of galloping horses, exploding cannons and clashing swords.
The re-enactment will depict three major battles at the actual times of day when the confrontations occurred in May 1864. Event organizers have built a quarter-mile trench, five feet deep and shored up with timber.
Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant tried for two weeks to deliver crushing blows to Lee's troops during the battles of Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House. Lee's troops repeatedly repelled Union assaults in fighting that resulted in 18,000 Union and 10,000 Confederate casualties.
Connors said the re-enactment could go a long way toward preserving land in Spotsylvania. He said spectators can contribute to a fund the county has set up for future land acquisition. And the event could be repeated in a few years, he said, leading up to a 150th anniversary re-enactment in 2014.
Although the outcome of the battle was uncertain in the grisly days of May 1864, Connors is confident about the results this time around.
"This is the trial but we expect it to be successful," he said.
--(11)-----------------------------------------------------
EDITORIAL
Franklin offers much more than battlefield
05/02/2004
Franklin Review-Appeal
http://reviewappeal.midsouthnews.com/news.ez?viewStory=21446
The portrayal of Franklin in Friday’s edition of The New York Times painted a fairly narrow view of the job which has been done in saving this area’s historic sites.
Most certainly, the article was correct in saying most of the field where a historic Nov. 30, 1864, Civil War battle took place has been lost. It poked fun at the fact that Jell-O was on the vegetable list at a local restaurant, but for the most part told the story of dedicated and passionate volunteers who want to see Franklin’s battlefield reclaimed. Current efforts to reclaim bits of the battlefield are to be applauded, but sweeping statements that without the battlefield, tourists won’t come to Franklin are incorrect.
Already, tourists come to Franklin, marketed in tourism circles as a city “15 miles and 100 years down the road from Nashville.” Tourists come to see the restored five-block Main Street and the eclectic mix of shops which line it. Visitors come to revel in the history which has been so lovingly preserved in places like Carnton Plantation and The Carter House, the central point of the Battle of Franklin.
When they visit, they can see one of the few antebellum courthouses remaining in the state. Just one example of the area’s rich architecture, it is just steps away from dozens of historic homes on either side of tree-lined residential streets in the original 16-block area of downtown.
As these tourists drove into town perhaps they looked up and saw Roper’s Knob, the Union signal post purchased several years ago by the Heritage Foundation to protect it from development. Perhaps they will visit The Factory at Franklin, which was given a new life by entrepreneur Calvin LeHew as a shopping destination instead of seeing it lost to a bulldozer.
Franklin and all of Williamson County are not unlike many small towns wrestling with their past, parts of which have been lost through carelessness and others through direct effort. The good news is that Franklin and Williamson County have done better than many small but growing Southern towns which must now give directions by buildings or historic sites that used to be there.
Should Franklin reclaim its battlefield or is the battlefield’s significance lost under years of houses and businesses, streets and cars? Are the histories of the lives lived on the site of any less value than that of those who died there? That is the debate, along with where the money comes from and how much taxpayers and private entities are willing to spend to reclaim the land, clear of its present use and restore it to its past.
While it isn’t a battlefield, the proposal to preserve the luscious green space of Harlinsdale Farm as you enter into Franklin is an example of an effort which appears reasonable and achievable. Franklin officials have announced a $10 million bond issue for the joint purchase of that site along with a site which served as the eastern flank of the Franklin battlefield.
County officials, expected to go 50/50 on the Harlinsdale project, are now appearing skittish regarding the details rather than the concept. Their concerns center mainly around issues which could translate to getting the cart before the horse. Unfortunately, these concerns may signal an end to the project, which if it is lost, would be another chance to start giving directions by things lost rather than things preserved.
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Jim Campi, Policy and Communications Director
Civil War Preservation Trust
1331 H Street NW, Suite 1001
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: (202) 367-1861 ext. 205
Fax: (202) 367-1865
http://www.civilwar.org
http://www.chancellorsville.org