Monocacy Battlefield threatened

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.

Montpelier redone

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:

Wal-Mart Supercenter on the Wilderness battlefield planned

CWPT Leads Effort To Stop Wal-Mart At The Wilderness
By Deborah Fitts

 

THE WILDERNESS, Va. — Plans for a Wal-Mart Supercenter on the Wilderness battlefield have prompted a coalition of preservation groups to deliver a shot across the mega-store’s bow.

The 145,000-square-foot facility would be sited on a 55-acre tract in Orange County, north of the intersection of routes 3 and 20. The site lies immediately across Route 3 from Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park.

 In hopes of warning off Wal-Mart, the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT)has rallied a coalition of groups to send a joint letter citing their opposition to the plan. Trust spokesman Jim Campi said the letter was mailed on the July 4 weekend.

“It’s the opening round,” said Campi of the letter. “It’s to put Wal-Mart and county officials on notice that we’re going to oppose this.”

Campi said of the Supercenter, “This is just going to be a magnet for sprawl.” Besides the Wal-Mart itself, he said there are plans for a large parking area and “two baby box stores” on the site.

The letter, sent to Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott Jr. in Bentonville, Ark., asserts that the store “would pave the way for desecration of the Wilderness with unnecessary commercial growth. Such a large-scale development is inappropriate next to a national park.”

The letter also warned that such major development “would impair the rural nature of the area and would increase traffic dramatically.” In fact, the store would boost pressure to expand Route 20 to four lanes through the Wilderness battlefield, the letter states. “That expansion is unacceptable to this coalition.”

Leading the charge against the Wal-Mart plan are CWPT and the Warrenton-based Piedmont Environmental Council. Their “Wilderness Battlefield Coalition” also includes the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Parks Conservation Association, Friends of the Wilderness, and Friends of the Fredericksburg Area Battlefields. Representatives of all six organizations signed the letter.

Campi cited “significant” local opposition as well. Orange County has long indicated a desire to block major development in this area, he said. Although the land was zoned for commercial development back in the 1970s, “quite a few elected officials think that was a mistake.”

Spotsylvania County, meanwhile, right next door, “is trying to keep commercial development east of Chancellorsville.” (And in Appomattox County Wal-Mart is on track for a 26-acre project near the national park.)

The letter states that the battle of the Wilderness, fought May 5-6, 1864, “marked the first clash between legendary Civil War generals Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant.” More than 160,000 troops were engaged and nearly 29,000 were casualties.

The battle initiated Grant’s Overland Campaign, “that exhausted both armies and took the Union forces to the gates of Richmond.”

The letter also notes that the park protects 2,773 acres of the Wilderness battlefield. Although the park boundary does not encompass the Wal-Mart site, the land “is within the historic limits of the battlefield.”

Campi said Wal-Mart will need a special use permit in order to go ahead, and that will entail public comment. As of mid-July no dates had been set for a hearing.

Campi said CWPT members will be kept apprised of the Wal-Mart project on the Trust’s Web site, civilwar.org.

Please also see this excellent article, which has a map of the proposed desecration.

Saving Virginia’s Land

From the Daily News Record: 

STAUNTON – Timothy M. Kaine told land conservationists on Thursday that their help has helped his administration to be slightly ahead of a pace to permanently set aside 400,000 acres of open space during his four-year term.

Speaking at the Virginia Union Land Trust conference at the Stonewall Jackson Hotel & Conference Center, Kaine said between 260,000 and 270,000 acres would be conserved by mid-July.

The General Assembly appropriated $30 million for the program, although Kaine asked for $50 million.

Open-space efforts also will be aided, he said, by the state agreeing to match funding from the Civil War Preservation Trust, Kaine said.

The trust has agreed to match the $5 million state funding 2-to-1, providing a total of  $15 million for preserving Civil War sites in Virginia.

The council is a private, nonprofit organization that shares responsibility for preserving 14,000 acres of open space in a region that extends from Frederick and Warren counties in the north to Botetourt County in the south.

NC Preservation

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.

New world heritage sites named

UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee on Sunday added three new sites to its heritage list, including a former slave hideout in Mauritius, the Nabataean archaeological site in Saudi Arabia, and China’s Fujian Tulou earthen houses.

 See more details here.

Additionally, The Armenian Monastic Ensembles in Iran, in the north-west of the country, were also added to the list.  They consist of three monastic ensembles of the Armenian Christian faith: St Thaddeus and St Stepanos and the Chapel of Dzordzor. These edifices – the oldest of which, St Thaddeus, dates back to the 7th century – are examples of outstanding universal value of the Armenian architectural and decorative traditions. They bear testimony to very important interchanges with the other regional cultures, in particular the Byzantine, Orthodox and Persian. Situated on the south-eastern fringe of the main zone of the Armenian cultural space, the monasteries constituted a major centre for the dissemination of that culture into Azerbayjan and Persia. They are the last regional remains of this culture that are still in a satisfactory state of integrity and authenticity. Furthermore, as places of pilgrimage, the monastic ensembles are living witnesses of Armenian religious traditions through the centuries.

The oldest Christian church

This is a wonderful story about the oldest Christian church to be discovered.  Most US sources had scant info on this find, and no photos, but the Telegraph has more details and a picture.  It is located in Jordan.

“We have uncovered what we believe to be the first church in the world, dating from 33 AD to 70 AD,” Abdul Qader al-Husan, head of Jordan’s Rihab Centre for Archaeological Studies, said.

 

 

Saving 173 acres at Bentonville

From the battlefield preservation front:

The Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT), the nation’s largest nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving Civil War battlefield land, has announced a fundraising campaign to save 173 acres of hallowed ground at Bentonville [N.C.].Bentonville is frequently referred to as the Confederate army’s famed “last stand in the Carolinas.” This latest opportunity at the Johnston County battlefield will increase the amount of land protected through CWPT efforts at the site to 953 acres.

 

The total purchase price for the acreage comes to $772,500. However, by securing several matching grants through the federal government’s Civil War Battlefield Preservation Program and the State of North Carolina, CWPT and its members are left with just 13 percent of the purchase price to raise.

You can donate to this cause by clicking here.

Little Bighorn Visitor Center Plans Spark Opposition

A plan to build an expanded visitor center at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana has sparked heated opposition from historians, two former park superintendents and conservation groups. As recently as last year, the National Park Service itself conceded that the project would have an “adverse impact” on the battlefield but reversed that finding without explanation.  In addition, according to a legal analysis by PEER, the plan appears to be at odds with the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Historic Preservation Act and the Service’s own Management Policies. 

Read more at Civil War Interactive, which has a daily does of news reports related to Civil war history.

New Va. Historical Markers Dedictated

Eleven new highway markers that point out
events, people and places significant to Virginia’s history will
soon join more than 2,000 roadside narratives already in place.
The markers recognize:
- Amaza Lee Meredith, a Lynchburg native who was one of the
nation’s few black female architects. Meredith, who died in 1984,
founded the fine arts department at Virginia State University and
designed many houses.
- Civilian Conservation Corps Company 1371, which was staffed
with black workers. They built more than 20 miles of trails and did
other work at First Landing State Park, under the New Deal’s CCC
program. The marker will be erected in the Virginia Beach park.
- Studley Beacon, which dates to the days when flashing airway
beacons guided pilots on airmail routes. The Studley Beacon,
erected in 1927 in the crossroads community of Studley in Hanover
County, was one of 50 in Virginia on the Atlanta-New York Civil
Airways Corridor. The beacon was dismantled in the mid-20th
century.
- Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley, a Dinwiddie County native who was
enslaved in Virginia and North Carolina before she bought her
freedom in 1855 and relocated to Washington. There she became the
seamstress, personal maid, and confidante to Mary Todd Lincoln,
President Abraham Lincoln’s wife.
- The Hampton Indian Program, which began at Hampton Institute
in 1878, with U.S. government-recruited American Indian students,
who were admitted to the program in an attempt to “civilize”
them. About 1,388 students participated in the program, which ended
in 1923, according to the state Department of Historic Resources.
- Peace Meeting Poisoning, which recalls the 1623 meeting
between English soldiers from Jamestown and Indian leaders, who
were returning English prisoners taken during fighting in 1622.
“At the meeting, the English called for a toast to seal the
agreement, gave the Indians poisoned wine, and then fired upon
them, felling as many as 150, including the chief of the
Kiskiack,” according to a Department of Historic Resources
description.
- Zenda and Long’s Chapel, a black community in Rockingham
County and a chapel built in 1870 by formerly enslaved people.
Zenda grew to 17 households of 80 people by 1900, providing a place
where “blacks freely exercised new rights to worship, marriage,
education, property, and burial in a marked gravesite.”
- NASA Wallops Flight Facility, one of the oldest launch sites
in the world, built to conduct aeronautical research using
rocket-propelled vehicles. The first rocket, the Tiamat, was
launched there on July 4, 1945. The center is located in Accomack
County.
- St. Joseph Catholic Church, the first known congregation
organized for black Roman Catholics in Virginia. The Richmond
church and a school, were closed in 1969.
- Sappony Baptist Church, an 18th-century church where half of
congregants were enslaved people. The church was also the site of a
Civil War battle in 1864 and served as a hospital during the
skirmish, which left cannonball holes in the front of the church.
It is located in Stony Creek in Sussex County.
- Sir William Berkeley, who was Virginia’s governor when it
changed from a colonial outpost to a center of agriculture and
commerce. Berkeley established the bicameral General Assembly. The
marker will be erected near the location of Berkeley’s Green Spring
estate in James City County.
The Historic Resources Board of the Department of Historic
Resources approved the 11 markers during its quarterly board
meeting in late March.
The Virginia Department of Transportation installs and maintains
most of the 2,000-plus official state markers.

Civil War Sites in VA

From the WaPo:

Virginia’s governor is proposing to spend $5 million to preserve several sites where armies of the North and South clashed nearly 150 years ago, including such renowned battlefields as Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Cold Harbor.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s proposal would provide funding over the next two years for the endangered Civil War sites.

In support of historic preservation

From historian D.C. Watt:

“To destroy the relics of the past is, even in small things, a kind of amputation, a self-mutilation not so much of limbs as of the memory and imagination.”

(Quoted in Alan Kramer’s Dynamic of Destruction, Oxford, 2007, p. 2)