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Richmond Times-Dispatch
Social-history focus urged for battlefield park
BY LINDSAY KASTNER
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Monday, June 28, 2004
PETERSBURG - In Civil War times Petersburg residents became masters at the art of calculating risk.
Their city was fired upon so frequently that they would estimate the trajectory of a cannon's shot and, if the estimate was in their favor, carry on with their business.
With the largest concentration of free blacks in the South, Petersburg's African-American population took on varied roles while the city was under siege. Some hustled escaped slaves through stops on the Underground Railroad. Some profited by selling goods to soldiers on the banks of the Appomattox River. Some fought in the many battles that unfolded around the city.
So did some women, marching into combat alongside the men.
These are the stories of the Siege on Petersburg.
But visit the Petersburg National Battlefield today and many of these stories are missing. The national park focuses now on bloodshed and battles fought. It tells the strategy behind the Battle of the Crater, and it shows where Gen. Ulysses S. Grant established his headquarters at City Point in present-day Hopewell.
A hallmark of the battlefield tour is a stop at the site of the Dictator, the mighty cannon that fired upon Petersburg. But the stories of the city dwellers who withstood that cannon fire for many long months are not a crucial element of the - FROM PAGE B1 tour.
Under the battlefield's General Management Plan that could well change.
The plan will guide park programming, land acquisition and resource protection for at least the next 15 years. Park officials recently unveiled a draft of the plan, which has been in the works for more than three years.
The draft offers four alternative scenarios, including one "park preferred alternative," but all four would expand the park's current interpretation to include more social history, particularly the experiences of those on the Tri-Cities home front, of women and of African-Americans.
Park Superintendent Bob Kirby said it is time to begin telling a huge number of stories "that have never been told."
"It also brings in a new audience," he said.
"There will be some objection to this - I've already heard from some folks," Kirby said in an interview last week.
In an e-mail to Kirby, a Hopewell man wrote to say he was tired of "fed propaganda" about the war.
"I would hope political correctness about the war would be overlooked and the South would be shown as fighting a very good war and protecting their homeland which was invaded," he wrote.
Then there are those who believe battlefield history should remain tied to the earthworks, the sites where the battles were won and lost.
But there's more to the siege than grassy trenches.
The role of African-Americans in the war has, in particular, been overlooked for too long, Kirby said.
"It's time now to re-energize that discussion and bring in a new segment of the population."
Kirby said some of the critics of including social history are the same people who advocate creating a park visitors center in downtown Petersburg.
But there's no reason to include downtown Petersburg in the plan if life in the city is not one of the stories told, he said. Two of the alternatives, including the preferred alternative "D," include a visitor-contact station for Old Towne Petersburg.
"We think Petersburg is to the Civil War as Williamsburg is to Colonial American history," Kirby told Petersburg City Council this month while presenting the draft plan.
Petersburg Mayor Rosalyn R. Dance said she was pleased with the plans to bring a battlefield visitors center into Old Towne.
"I think it's great," said Dance, noting that the proposed center would highlight Petersburg's history and help increase tourism and foot traffic in the city's Old Towne Historic District.
As part of a partnership between the battlefield and the city, the visitors center would be established on city property.
The various alternatives call for the preservation of thousands of acres of Civil War sites throughout the Tri-Cities area. In alternative "D" more than 7,000 acres of battlefields and other historic lands would be preserved by the park service.
Still, even if all the land in the plan were preserved, there would still be sites lost to parking lots and playgrounds.
"What we need to do is move quickly. . . . . Development is heading our way," Kirby told Petersburg City Council this month.
"We don't want to thwart development," he said. "We are actually very much in favor of development, but what we would like to do is get out ahead of development so that we can preserve our green spaces."
Acquiring all the hoped-for land could cost nearly $26 million if the National Park Service bought it outright, but because much of the property would be acquired through easements, donations and the like, the cost should be much lower.
Still, Kirby admits it's an ambitious plan and all that he hopes for may not happen. He had to aim high because, though the document is supposed to guide the park for 15 years, it could easily be 20 or 25 years before a new plan takes shape.
The public can still comment on this plan while it's in a draft state, and then the lengthy process continues. For instance, Congress must determine whether the park's boundaries may expand.
The project, Kirby said, is "almost a lifetime career."
Contact Lindsay Kastner at (804) 524-9725 or lkastner@timesdispatch.com
This story can be found at: http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArti cle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031776283570&path=!news&s=1045855934842
Social-history focus urged for battlefield park
BY LINDSAY KASTNER
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Monday, June 28, 2004
PETERSBURG - In Civil War times Petersburg residents became masters at the art of calculating risk.
Their city was fired upon so frequently that they would estimate the trajectory of a cannon's shot and, if the estimate was in their favor, carry on with their business.
With the largest concentration of free blacks in the South, Petersburg's African-American population took on varied roles while the city was under siege. Some hustled escaped slaves through stops on the Underground Railroad. Some profited by selling goods to soldiers on the banks of the Appomattox River. Some fought in the many battles that unfolded around the city.
So did some women, marching into combat alongside the men.
These are the stories of the Siege on Petersburg.
But visit the Petersburg National Battlefield today and many of these stories are missing. The national park focuses now on bloodshed and battles fought. It tells the strategy behind the Battle of the Crater, and it shows where Gen. Ulysses S. Grant established his headquarters at City Point in present-day Hopewell.
A hallmark of the battlefield tour is a stop at the site of the Dictator, the mighty cannon that fired upon Petersburg. But the stories of the city dwellers who withstood that cannon fire for many long months are not a crucial element of the - FROM PAGE B1 tour.
Under the battlefield's General Management Plan that could well change.
The plan will guide park programming, land acquisition and resource protection for at least the next 15 years. Park officials recently unveiled a draft of the plan, which has been in the works for more than three years.
The draft offers four alternative scenarios, including one "park preferred alternative," but all four would expand the park's current interpretation to include more social history, particularly the experiences of those on the Tri-Cities home front, of women and of African-Americans.
Park Superintendent Bob Kirby said it is time to begin telling a huge number of stories "that have never been told."
"It also brings in a new audience," he said.
"There will be some objection to this - I've already heard from some folks," Kirby said in an interview last week.
In an e-mail to Kirby, a Hopewell man wrote to say he was tired of "fed propaganda" about the war.
"I would hope political correctness about the war would be overlooked and the South would be shown as fighting a very good war and protecting their homeland which was invaded," he wrote.
Then there are those who believe battlefield history should remain tied to the earthworks, the sites where the battles were won and lost.
But there's more to the siege than grassy trenches.
The role of African-Americans in the war has, in particular, been overlooked for too long, Kirby said.
"It's time now to re-energize that discussion and bring in a new segment of the population."
Kirby said some of the critics of including social history are the same people who advocate creating a park visitors center in downtown Petersburg.
But there's no reason to include downtown Petersburg in the plan if life in the city is not one of the stories told, he said. Two of the alternatives, including the preferred alternative "D," include a visitor-contact station for Old Towne Petersburg.
"We think Petersburg is to the Civil War as Williamsburg is to Colonial American history," Kirby told Petersburg City Council this month while presenting the draft plan.
Petersburg Mayor Rosalyn R. Dance said she was pleased with the plans to bring a battlefield visitors center into Old Towne.
"I think it's great," said Dance, noting that the proposed center would highlight Petersburg's history and help increase tourism and foot traffic in the city's Old Towne Historic District.
As part of a partnership between the battlefield and the city, the visitors center would be established on city property.
The various alternatives call for the preservation of thousands of acres of Civil War sites throughout the Tri-Cities area. In alternative "D" more than 7,000 acres of battlefields and other historic lands would be preserved by the park service.
Still, even if all the land in the plan were preserved, there would still be sites lost to parking lots and playgrounds.
"What we need to do is move quickly. . . . . Development is heading our way," Kirby told Petersburg City Council this month.
"We don't want to thwart development," he said. "We are actually very much in favor of development, but what we would like to do is get out ahead of development so that we can preserve our green spaces."
Acquiring all the hoped-for land could cost nearly $26 million if the National Park Service bought it outright, but because much of the property would be acquired through easements, donations and the like, the cost should be much lower.
Still, Kirby admits it's an ambitious plan and all that he hopes for may not happen. He had to aim high because, though the document is supposed to guide the park for 15 years, it could easily be 20 or 25 years before a new plan takes shape.
The public can still comment on this plan while it's in a draft state, and then the lengthy process continues. For instance, Congress must determine whether the park's boundaries may expand.
The project, Kirby said, is "almost a lifetime career."
Contact Lindsay Kastner at (804) 524-9725 or lkastner@timesdispatch.com
This story can be found at: http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArti cle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031776283570&path=!news&s=1045855934842