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Public gets preview of 'Slaughter Pen'
Public to get a look at Slaughter Pen Farm; dignitaries to talk about Civil War site's fundraising efforts
By RUSTY DENNEN
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
October 10, 2006
Residents will get a chance to walk a Civil War battlefield where the fighting was so intense that it became known as the "slaughter pen."
The Civil War Preservation Trust, which purchased the 208-acre Slaughter Pen Farm in June for a record $12 million, is holding a news conference there Monday at 10:45 a.m., followed by the first public tour of the property.
The Washington-based trust will talk about how its fundraising efforts are going. The farm sits along Tidewater Trail, east of Shannon Airport in Spotsylvania County, adjacent to part of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.
Speakers will include U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, Bill Howell, R-Stafford, speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, and state Sen. Edd Houck, D-Spotsylvania, all longtime proponents of battlefield preservation.
Howell and Houck were instrumental in the creation earlier this year of the Virginia Civil War Sites Preservation Fund. Some money from that fund will be used for the purchase of the farm.
After the speeches, Frank O'Reilly, a historian with the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, will conduct a walking tour of the land, a crucial component of the December 1862 Battle of Fredericksburg.
CWPT has been in full-scale fundraising mode since June when it acquired Slaughter Pen, also known locally as the Pierson Farm. Tricord Inc., Spotsylvania-based home builder, bought the acreage when it came on the market and sold it to the trust at cost.
Mary Goundrey, spokeswoman for the CWPT, said yesterday that the organization is getting a lot of financial help.
"This is above and beyond anything that's happened before" in the annals of raising money for the purchase of privately held battlefield land, she said.
"Everything we do is a partnership because these properties are becoming so expensive."
Many of the trust's 70,000 members sent in donations.
"When we told our members just how important this property was, they responded," Goundrey said. "It is amazing the outpouring of support." They've pledged just under $1 million.
Money has also come from other preservation groups such as the Fredericksburg-based Central Virginia Battlefields Trust, which pledged $1 million, and the Rappahannock Valley Civil War Roundtable, $3,000.
Some large grants are anticipated from state and federal agencies.
The CWPT took out a bank note to pay for the land. SunTrust Bank gave the organization favorable terms for the purchase.
The $12 million is the highest price the trust has ever paid for a piece of Civil War battlefield. To put that sum in perspective, the trust spent $13 million in 2005 for all its acquisitions nationwide.
The trust plans to come up with an interpretive plan for Slaughter Pen, similar to what's planned for a portion of the former Mullins farm on State Route 3. Last year, the CWPT purchased 140 acres of the Chancellorsville battlefield in Spotsylvania County outside the National Park Service boundary from Tricord, which bought it from Toll Brothers.
Last December, Toll Brothers asked for a rezoning that would save an additional 74 acres of battlefield in exchange for permission to build 33 more homes on the Mullins farm property.
The trust hopes to build several miles of trails and interpretive signs and exhibits to provide details about the battle and explain the significance of the Chancellorsville site.
Slaughter Pen earned its name during the war because of the carnage there.
Approximately 5,000 men met their fate where Confederate Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's 2nd Corps battled Union Gen. William Franklin's Left Grand Division. Five Union soldiers earned the Medal of Honor on Slaughter Pen's undulating fields.
Eric
Public to get a look at Slaughter Pen Farm; dignitaries to talk about Civil War site's fundraising efforts
By RUSTY DENNEN
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
October 10, 2006
Residents will get a chance to walk a Civil War battlefield where the fighting was so intense that it became known as the "slaughter pen."
The Civil War Preservation Trust, which purchased the 208-acre Slaughter Pen Farm in June for a record $12 million, is holding a news conference there Monday at 10:45 a.m., followed by the first public tour of the property.
The Washington-based trust will talk about how its fundraising efforts are going. The farm sits along Tidewater Trail, east of Shannon Airport in Spotsylvania County, adjacent to part of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.
Speakers will include U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, Bill Howell, R-Stafford, speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, and state Sen. Edd Houck, D-Spotsylvania, all longtime proponents of battlefield preservation.
Howell and Houck were instrumental in the creation earlier this year of the Virginia Civil War Sites Preservation Fund. Some money from that fund will be used for the purchase of the farm.
After the speeches, Frank O'Reilly, a historian with the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, will conduct a walking tour of the land, a crucial component of the December 1862 Battle of Fredericksburg.
CWPT has been in full-scale fundraising mode since June when it acquired Slaughter Pen, also known locally as the Pierson Farm. Tricord Inc., Spotsylvania-based home builder, bought the acreage when it came on the market and sold it to the trust at cost.
Mary Goundrey, spokeswoman for the CWPT, said yesterday that the organization is getting a lot of financial help.
"This is above and beyond anything that's happened before" in the annals of raising money for the purchase of privately held battlefield land, she said.
"Everything we do is a partnership because these properties are becoming so expensive."
Many of the trust's 70,000 members sent in donations.
"When we told our members just how important this property was, they responded," Goundrey said. "It is amazing the outpouring of support." They've pledged just under $1 million.
Money has also come from other preservation groups such as the Fredericksburg-based Central Virginia Battlefields Trust, which pledged $1 million, and the Rappahannock Valley Civil War Roundtable, $3,000.
Some large grants are anticipated from state and federal agencies.
The CWPT took out a bank note to pay for the land. SunTrust Bank gave the organization favorable terms for the purchase.
The $12 million is the highest price the trust has ever paid for a piece of Civil War battlefield. To put that sum in perspective, the trust spent $13 million in 2005 for all its acquisitions nationwide.
The trust plans to come up with an interpretive plan for Slaughter Pen, similar to what's planned for a portion of the former Mullins farm on State Route 3. Last year, the CWPT purchased 140 acres of the Chancellorsville battlefield in Spotsylvania County outside the National Park Service boundary from Tricord, which bought it from Toll Brothers.
Last December, Toll Brothers asked for a rezoning that would save an additional 74 acres of battlefield in exchange for permission to build 33 more homes on the Mullins farm property.
The trust hopes to build several miles of trails and interpretive signs and exhibits to provide details about the battle and explain the significance of the Chancellorsville site.
Slaughter Pen earned its name during the war because of the carnage there.
Approximately 5,000 men met their fate where Confederate Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's 2nd Corps battled Union Gen. William Franklin's Left Grand Division. Five Union soldiers earned the Medal of Honor on Slaughter Pen's undulating fields.
Eric