I just published two new articles in the same week, last week:
“‘Too Grievous for a People to Bear’: Impressment and Conscription
in Revolutionary North Carolina,” The Journal of Military History, 73 #4, October, 2009.
and
“The Greatest Terror Imaginable: Cornwallis Brings his Campaign to Goochland, 1781,” Goochland County Historical Society Magazine, Vol. 47, October, 2009.
On January 21, I will be speaking to the Richmond American Revolution Roundtable at the Univ. of Richmond, in Richmond, VA. My topic will be “Who Lost the Battle of Camden, August 1781?”
More information is available here:
http://arrt-richmond.org/2.html
The PATH of least resistance
Originally published September 09, 2008
Recently, Allegheny Power unveiled details of the Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline, a large project to reinforce the electrical infrastructure to the eastern U.S.
The project intends to link a substation in Bedington, W.Va., to another in Kemptown using two sets of high-power lines running independently through Frederick County. The project’s filing date by late 2008 makes it no less than a “run-away train.” Decisions on where to locate these two giant-scale lines scarring the county’s landscape and history are being made as you read this piece and will be completed before we have a chance to offer much input.
Understanding this project’s scale and the unavoidable fact that the lines eventually will go into someone’s property, it becomes imperative that the routing process be transparent and in the best interest of future generations. Among the many riches of Frederick County, its proud American Civil War history and its beautiful farming landscapes are unique. In this context, we take this opportunity to voice concerns about a potential segment of the PATH Project in Southern Frederick County.
This segment overbuilds smaller lines traveling over the northern part of Historic Buckeystown before crossing the Monocacy River. In the Urbana district, it traverses Baker Valley and the Hope Hill neighborhood; it follows Park Mills Road until crossing I-270, where it heads south along I-270 to and through the township of Urbana.
Should this segment be used by the PATH Project, an irreparable injury of the region would occur with a price to be paid by this and future generations as we all will stare at a desecrated historic and agricultural landscape dominated by high-power electrical towers.
Amongst the most important historical landmarks impacted by this line segment is the Monocacy Battlefield. The National Park Service, at significant cost to taxpayers (all of us), has purchased land, restored property and created networks of trails over Brooks Hill east of the Worthington Farm.
Brooks Hill is a small range separating the Monocracy River from Baker Valley. Wave after wave of Confederate troops advanced on the side of this hill about 150 years ago after crossing the Monocacy River to attack Union troops positioned between the Worthington and Thomas farms. This same range could now be the site for intrusive high-power towers placed on the adjacent Snow Hill Farm, degrading the view shed and historic value of the park and limiting any potential for future improvement or expansion.
The Snow Hill Farm itself has its own historic value, serving as encampment grounds to Gen. Ricketts’ retreating Union troops. The property is under easement by the Maryland Historic Trust by a grant from the Civil War Preservation Trust calling for the restoration of the property to conditions circa the Battle of the Monocacy (1864) and to protect the rural character of Baker Valley. To allow deployment of such power lines will set a dangerous precedent, diminishing future assurances for protection of any property entrusted to a state or federal agency.
Several properties listed in the Maryland Historic Trust will also be impacted by the project, including the David O. Thomas Farmstead, the Hope Hill Methodist Church, and the two-classroom African-American School, the Hampton School and Hope Hill Cemetery. The cemetery remains a testimony to the segregated nature of the original Hope Hill church by the concentration of African-American family names in the northeast corner of the lot.
AP claims their mission is to keep the electricity flowing. We are troubled to say that in AP’s corporate environment, where decisions are made at levels far removed from the ground, outsourced to out-of-state contractors or guided by time and budget constraints, what we value as our history might register to AP executives as noise.
We urge readers to visit the park and see the wonders of this unique piece of American history and visit the PATH website (www.pathtransmission.com) and voice opposition to attempts to degrade its quality and future. To state and federal officials, custodians of our natural resources and history, we urge them to execute their duties by protecting this unique piece of land and history on behalf of future generations.
Donalda & Camilo Toro write from Frederick.
I am very excited about the renovation done to Montpelier, James and Dolley Madison’s home in Orange Co., Va. I saw it twice back in the early 1990s, and look forward to going again to see the changes. There’s a USA Today story about it here, and I post a photo below. “Restorers have lopped off two wings, obliterated 14 bathrooms, re-created two staircases and, overall, reduced by more than half the size of Montpelier, President James Madison’s lifelong home here in the lush foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.”
Prior to renovations: 
The program will consist of lectures and a bus tour on Tarleton’s Charlottesville Raid of 1781, part of the British campaign in Virginia in June 1781 from Hanover County to surprise and capture the Virginia legislature then meeting at Charlottesville. The guided tour will visit several sites associated with Tarleton’s Raid, including Boswell’s Tavern in Louisa Co; Castle Hill, in Albemarle Co.; The Farm in Charlottesville; and the city’s court square. All sites were visited by Tarleton and his command as they rode west to capture the state’s assembly. The cost of the bus tour will be $30 for ACHS members and $40 for non-members. Lunch available for purchase.
Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society
Attn: Keri
McIntire Building
200 Second St., NE
Charlottesville, VA 22902-5245
434-296-1492
Visit the website at http://www.albemarlehistory.org/
My article, “‘The Cure for all our Political Calamities’: Archibald Maclaine and the Politics of Moderation in Revolutionary North Carolina,” is due to appear in the July issue of the North Carolina Historical Review, Vol. 85, #3. The issue will come out in 3 weeks or so.
Those interested in obtaining a copy can contact the NCHR here:
North Carolina Historical ReviewHistorical Publications Section Office of Archives and History4622 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-4622
919-733-7442
919-733-1439 (fax)
The National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program recently released its “Report to Congress on the Historic Preservation of Revolutionary War and War of 1812 Sites in the United States.”
Trading Ford was included in the survey, along with other historic sites that comprise the “Race to the Dan River,” which is included in the “Roads, Trails and Waterways Needing Further Study” section of the report.
Realizing that many historic sites of the Revolutionary War and War of 1812 were at risk from rapid urban and suburban development, Congress authorized the study in 1996. More on the significance of Trading Ford is here.
From the Washington Post:
On a swath of land overlooking the Rappahannock River 50 miles south of the District, archaeologists have unearthed a site that provides what they call the most detailed view into George Washington’s formative years: his childhood home.
The announcement of the find today comes after seven years of digging and several disappointments.
The nation’s Revolutionary War hero and “father of the country” spent his formative years at Ferry Farm, his family’s property on the Rappahannock River in southern Stafford. He moved there at age 6, inherited the property five years later when his father died, and continued to live there until he was 20.
The foundation owns the 113-acre site, along with Kenmore, a 1770s mansion in Fredericksburg built by planter Fielding Lewis for his wife, Betty, George Washington’s sister; and Accokeek Furnace, an iron-smelting operation in Stafford operated by George’s father Augustine.
See a related article in Slate about this event.
Word comes from HNN that noted historian of early America Don Higginbotham has died. No more details available right now.
This Jeff Davis birthday stuff is really nutty. I think it is OK to recall the man and his place in history, as long as it is done objectively, authentically, and in historical context. But the stuff we see in the South not only glorifies a traitor, it is just twisted. One article will illustrate this point.
For instance, in Alabama folks just marked the JD birthday with festivities including a period ball. No problem there, it may be a fun way to observe an historical event. But JD’s great-grandson had this to say about his ancestor:
“His contributions to this country and the leadership that he personifies place Jefferson Davis as one of the most influential statesmen and leaders of his time,” in a message printed in the event’s official program.
Contributions to this country? I wonder which country he meant–the USA or the CSA? And I like his statement that Davis was a leader. If that means leading several states out of the union to defend slavery and thus provoke a war that killed 600,000 men, then yes, he is a leader. But if leadership means successfully working out political solutions to avoid civil war, then JD is a flat failure.
We also learn in the article that during a program at the Capitol auditorium, emcee Tyrone Crowley of Prattville called Davis “one of the great Americans of all time.” Again, what the hell is he called great for? He was an absolute failure at the helm of the CSA, and in his relations with most of his generals he was petty, self-righteous, vindictive, stubborn… What makes him a great American? One of the participants in all of this commemoratin’ stated that several people “were unhappy about the size of the crowd and wondered why more weren’t on hand to honor Davis.”
Gee, I wonder why…..
The Trading Ford area along the Yadkin River has been identified by the National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program as a site at risk from rapid urban and suburban development.
The park service released its “Report to Congress on the Historic Preservation of Revolutionary War and War of 1812 Sites in the United States” last week.
The Trading Ford was included in the survey along with other historic sites that comprise the “Race to the Dan River.” A linear resource, the inclusive “Race to the Dan River,” is listed in the “Roads, Trails, and Waterways Needing Further Study” section of the report. These are resources that due to their size and complexity had no equivalent survey methodology that allowed them to be represented in an equitable manner.
Article is here.
“The 200th birthday of the only president of the Confederate States of America is Tuesday, and it will pass with little notice.
A few modest ceremonies and a historians’ symposium are planned this month, and there will be a festival next weekend at Davis’ hometown of Fairview in Todd County. That’s where a 351-foot concrete obelisk was built to his memory in the early 1900s by old men of the Lost Cause.”
