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November 10, 1987
U.S. Fights a New Battle of Antietam
By PHILIP SHABECOFF, SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES
LEAD: On Sept. 17, 1862, the cornfields and wooded ridges surrounding Antietam Creek ran with blood as the Union and Confederate armies clashed in the most savage single day of fighting in this country's history. As darkness fell, 23,000 Americans lay dead or wounded in the fields and woods.
On Sept. 17, 1862, the cornfields and wooded ridges surrounding Antietam Creek ran with blood as the Union and Confederate armies clashed in the most savage single day of fighting in this country's history. As darkness fell, 23,000 Americans lay dead or wounded in the fields and woods.
Today, the Antietam battlefield, part of the National Park System, is again much like the scene described by Brig. Gen. Jacob D. Cox of the Union Army hours before the battle: ''as pleasing and prosperous a landscape as can easily be imagined.''
But, like virtually every other Civil War battlefield managed by the National Park Service, Antietam is being threatened by suburban sprawl and commercial development. While 3,200 acres of the battlefield are protected within the legislative boundaries of the park, thousands of acres more as well as the surrounding vistas are privately owned.
A television cable company is seeking to put up a relay tower on a hill overlooking the field, an action at least temporarily halted by a court order. A real-estate developer plans to build a shopping mall on the farm where Lincoln vainly urged Gen. George McClellan to pursue Gen. Robert E. Lee's depleted Army of Northern Virginia after the battle. That mall plan, too, has been tied up in the courts. Another developer envisions a row of condominum homes on a ridge commanding the battlefield, said Richard Ramsur, superintendent of the National Battlefield. Still 'Pretty Pure'
''Look,'' Mr. Ramsur said, sweeping his arm toward the panorama of the battlefield, just outside this community that retains a small-town air. ''It is still pretty much the way it was in 1862; it gives you a perspective of history.''
In terms of preserving the historical integrity of the scene, Antietam is still ''pretty pure,'' Mr. Ramsur said. But Park Service officials and private citizens interested in preservation say that virtually all of the other Civil War battlefields are under siege from urbanization and development.
The Civil War Roundtable, a private organization of students of the war, estimates that over the last 10 to 15 years more Civil War battlefield sites have been lost to housing projects, shopping malls, highways, sewer lines and other development than in all the previous years since the war.
A chief problem, it appears, is that when the protected National Battlefields were created, no one imagined how fast the nation's farmland would begin to disappear. So no special effort was made to provide protection for such land outside the battlefields' boundaries. 'Intrusion' at Gettysburg
The areas around the battlefields are particularly vulnerable, some Park Service officials say, because they attract commercial interests who hope to cash in on the large numbers of visitors to these parks.
Gettysburg National Military Park, only about 35 miles from Antietam in Pennsylvania, contains what one Park Service official called a ''classic intrusion on a historic scene.'' He referred to a 300-foot-tall sightseeing tower built by a businessman on private property within the park's boundaries.
The tower hovers like a monster from a Japanese science-fiction movie over the battlefield where the Union's Army of the Potomac, commanded by Gen. George Gordon Meade, turned back Lee's invasion of the North in a desperate three-day battle in July 1863.
The tower, visible from virtually every corner of the park, is not the only intrusion on the historic scene. Steinwehr Avenue, which borders the battlefield, is lined with fast-food restaurants, motels and souvenir stands. A blue-green water tank erected by the town of Gettysburg hunches over the military cemetery. National vs. Local Interest
''If we end up an island of green surrounded by development, a lot of what the park stands for will be lost,'' said Bob Davidson, assistant superintendent of the park. ''There are parts of the park where its integrity already has been totally compromised.''
But Mr. Davidson and other Park Service officials concede that the national interest in restricting development to retain historical integrity is not always in the local interest. David L. Sites, a real-estate agent and developer in Gettysburg, said he wanted the Park Service to keep ''beautifying'' the parks so that visitors would be attracted to the area.
''But you can't expect everybody in this county to say I am going to stop living, that I am not going to put a house up or stop providing services to people,'' he said . ''People here have the same right to economic growth as anyplace else in America.''
Under a suggestion from a Congressional subcommittee, the Park Service is re-examining what can be done to insulate the Gettysburg battlefield. Some Sites Are Worse
Park Service officials say many battlefields are in much worse shape than Gettysburg. The sites of the many battles around Richmond, Va., for example, have been largely engulfed by that city. The field at Chantilly in northern Virginia has been virtually carpeted with suburban homes and shopping centers. And the service is urgently looking for ways to keep the Manasssas battlefield from being overrun by northern Virginia's explosive growth.
Mr. Davidson said the service has a variety of tools to protect its territory. One is the outright purchase of vital land, a practice that has been growing more difficult as land values rise and as the Reagan Administration discourages it. The service can also buy easements under which the seller retains the property but agrees to keep it in its historic condition.
Another tool is local zoning laws to keep land in agriculture or otherwise bar intrusive development. Finally, he noted, other people than the Federal Government can acquire and protect the area. Why the Fuss? Why should an effort be made to preserve these fields of battle where no trumpet has sounded and no gun has fired for well over a century?
Because ''they are tangible evidence of some of the most significant events of United States history.'' said Dr. Robert Meinhard, professor emeritus of Winona College in Minnesota, at a recent meeting of the Civil War Roundtable in Gettysburg. ''Consciousness of the past is necessary to maintain our cohesive cultural identity.''
These fields, he added, ''remind us of the history of death and suffering and sacrifice that took place here.''
Correction: December 23, 1987, Wednesday, Late City Final Edition
November 10, 1987
U.S. Fights a New Battle of Antietam
By PHILIP SHABECOFF, SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES
LEAD: On Sept. 17, 1862, the cornfields and wooded ridges surrounding Antietam Creek ran with blood as the Union and Confederate armies clashed in the most savage single day of fighting in this country's history. As darkness fell, 23,000 Americans lay dead or wounded in the fields and woods.
On Sept. 17, 1862, the cornfields and wooded ridges surrounding Antietam Creek ran with blood as the Union and Confederate armies clashed in the most savage single day of fighting in this country's history. As darkness fell, 23,000 Americans lay dead or wounded in the fields and woods.
Today, the Antietam battlefield, part of the National Park System, is again much like the scene described by Brig. Gen. Jacob D. Cox of the Union Army hours before the battle: ''as pleasing and prosperous a landscape as can easily be imagined.''
But, like virtually every other Civil War battlefield managed by the National Park Service, Antietam is being threatened by suburban sprawl and commercial development. While 3,200 acres of the battlefield are protected within the legislative boundaries of the park, thousands of acres more as well as the surrounding vistas are privately owned.
A television cable company is seeking to put up a relay tower on a hill overlooking the field, an action at least temporarily halted by a court order. A real-estate developer plans to build a shopping mall on the farm where Lincoln vainly urged Gen. George McClellan to pursue Gen. Robert E. Lee's depleted Army of Northern Virginia after the battle. That mall plan, too, has been tied up in the courts. Another developer envisions a row of condominum homes on a ridge commanding the battlefield, said Richard Ramsur, superintendent of the National Battlefield. Still 'Pretty Pure'
''Look,'' Mr. Ramsur said, sweeping his arm toward the panorama of the battlefield, just outside this community that retains a small-town air. ''It is still pretty much the way it was in 1862; it gives you a perspective of history.''
In terms of preserving the historical integrity of the scene, Antietam is still ''pretty pure,'' Mr. Ramsur said. But Park Service officials and private citizens interested in preservation say that virtually all of the other Civil War battlefields are under siege from urbanization and development.
The Civil War Roundtable, a private organization of students of the war, estimates that over the last 10 to 15 years more Civil War battlefield sites have been lost to housing projects, shopping malls, highways, sewer lines and other development than in all the previous years since the war.
A chief problem, it appears, is that when the protected National Battlefields were created, no one imagined how fast the nation's farmland would begin to disappear. So no special effort was made to provide protection for such land outside the battlefields' boundaries. 'Intrusion' at Gettysburg
The areas around the battlefields are particularly vulnerable, some Park Service officials say, because they attract commercial interests who hope to cash in on the large numbers of visitors to these parks.
Gettysburg National Military Park, only about 35 miles from Antietam in Pennsylvania, contains what one Park Service official called a ''classic intrusion on a historic scene.'' He referred to a 300-foot-tall sightseeing tower built by a businessman on private property within the park's boundaries.
The tower hovers like a monster from a Japanese science-fiction movie over the battlefield where the Union's Army of the Potomac, commanded by Gen. George Gordon Meade, turned back Lee's invasion of the North in a desperate three-day battle in July 1863.
The tower, visible from virtually every corner of the park, is not the only intrusion on the historic scene. Steinwehr Avenue, which borders the battlefield, is lined with fast-food restaurants, motels and souvenir stands. A blue-green water tank erected by the town of Gettysburg hunches over the military cemetery. National vs. Local Interest
''If we end up an island of green surrounded by development, a lot of what the park stands for will be lost,'' said Bob Davidson, assistant superintendent of the park. ''There are parts of the park where its integrity already has been totally compromised.''
But Mr. Davidson and other Park Service officials concede that the national interest in restricting development to retain historical integrity is not always in the local interest. David L. Sites, a real-estate agent and developer in Gettysburg, said he wanted the Park Service to keep ''beautifying'' the parks so that visitors would be attracted to the area.
''But you can't expect everybody in this county to say I am going to stop living, that I am not going to put a house up or stop providing services to people,'' he said . ''People here have the same right to economic growth as anyplace else in America.''
Under a suggestion from a Congressional subcommittee, the Park Service is re-examining what can be done to insulate the Gettysburg battlefield. Some Sites Are Worse
Park Service officials say many battlefields are in much worse shape than Gettysburg. The sites of the many battles around Richmond, Va., for example, have been largely engulfed by that city. The field at Chantilly in northern Virginia has been virtually carpeted with suburban homes and shopping centers. And the service is urgently looking for ways to keep the Manasssas battlefield from being overrun by northern Virginia's explosive growth.
Mr. Davidson said the service has a variety of tools to protect its territory. One is the outright purchase of vital land, a practice that has been growing more difficult as land values rise and as the Reagan Administration discourages it. The service can also buy easements under which the seller retains the property but agrees to keep it in its historic condition.
Another tool is local zoning laws to keep land in agriculture or otherwise bar intrusive development. Finally, he noted, other people than the Federal Government can acquire and protect the area. Why the Fuss? Why should an effort be made to preserve these fields of battle where no trumpet has sounded and no gun has fired for well over a century?
Because ''they are tangible evidence of some of the most significant events of United States history.'' said Dr. Robert Meinhard, professor emeritus of Winona College in Minnesota, at a recent meeting of the Civil War Roundtable in Gettysburg. ''Consciousness of the past is necessary to maintain our cohesive cultural identity.''
These fields, he added, ''remind us of the history of death and suffering and sacrifice that took place here.''
Correction: December 23, 1987, Wednesday, Late City Final Edition
It really hurts a lot for me to see notyhing left of what used to be a large open or dense space that men died in.:(
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