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.
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)
Looks like there will be another “Tarleton’s Charlottesville Raid, 1781″ event in Charlotessville (Va.) at the end of Sept. I don’t have full details yet, but the plan is to have a few lectures on Saturday, Sept. 27th (incl. one by me), followed by a tour of area sites related to the operation the following morning.
Once I hear more, I will post it.
(Austerlitz)
I am pleased to note that there is a very well-done piece by John Lynn at the NAS website, entitled “Breaching the Walls of Academe: The Purposes, Problems, and Prospects of Military History.” Lynn is currently professor of history at the University of Illinois, Urbana. He served as president of the United States Commission on Military History from 2003 to 2007 and as vice-president of the Society for Military History from 2005 to 2007. His latest book is Women, Armies, and Warfare in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2008).
In the piece, Lynn considers “again the fate of military history in American academe.”
Very well worth reading…he does a nice job differentiating the (as he sees it) different genres of military history: popular, applied, and academic.
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.
145th Anniversary of the Battle of Chancellorsville National Park Service Walking Tours and Programs
May 2
“Chaos in the Night: The Wounding of Stonewall Jackson” at the Chancellorsville Visitor Center (CVC) at 8:00, 8:30, and 9:00 p.m. One hour.
May 3
“Opening Shots – Changing Tide of Battle” at the Day One Battlefield Site, north side of Route 3, 3 miles east of the CVC at 10:00 a.m. One hour.
“You Can Go Forward, Then: Jackson’s Flank Attack” at Tour Stop No. 8, north side of Route 3, 2 miles west of the CVC at 10:00 a.m. One hour. Living history soldiers performing maneuvers and firing demonstrations will supplement the tour.
“Infantry and Iron in the Wilderness: Catharine Furnace to the Unfinished Railroad” at Tour Stop No. 6, 2 miles south of the CVC at 2:00 p.m. 90 minutes.
“Courage Beyond Measure: the Fight from Hazel Grove to Fairview” at Tour Stop No. 9, 1 mile south of the CVC at 4:00 p.m. 90 minutes.
“The Wounding of Stonewall Jackson” at the CVC at 11:25, 1:25, 2:25, and 3:25. 35 minutes.
May 4
“Decoying the Yanks” at Tour Stop No. 4, McLaws Drive, 2 miles east of the CVC at 1:00 p.m. 90 minutes.
“A Soldier’s Story: The Fighting for Fairview” at Fairview, Tour Stop No.10, south of the CVC at 3:00 p.m. 90 minutes.
“The Wounding of Stonewall Jackson” at the CVC at 11:25, 1:25, 2:25, and 3:25. 35 minutes.
May 9
“Stonewall Jackson’s Final Evening” candlelight tour at 8 p.m. at the Jackson Shrine on Route 606, about 15 miles south of Fredericksburg. Take I-95 Exit 118 east.
May 10
“The Wounding of Stonewall Jackson” at the CVC at 11:25, 1:25, 2:25, and 3:25. 35 minutes.
“Stonewall Jackson’s Last Breath” program at 3:30 p.m. at the Jackson Shrine on Route 606, about 15 miles south of Fredericksburg. Take I-95 Exit 118 east.
Please call (540) 373-6122 or (540) 786-2880 for additional information.
In the NYT there’s an article with nice photos of the new $1.3M museum and visitor’s center that will open in April at Gettysburg National Military Park. Am I the only one who does not think it looks very…Civil War? Looks more like the dairy science building at a state college to me.
THE old visitor center and museum at the Gettysburg National Military Park was cramped, obsolete and a little too close to history. The brick building, built in the 1920s as a private home, was part of a complex that sat where Union lines had stood for the last two days of the most famous battle in the Civil War.
Park workers and Civil War buffs have been waiting for decades for the opening of the new center and the debut on Sept. 26 of the restored 377-foot circular “Battle of Gettysburg” mural, which was completed in 1884 by the French painter Paul Philippoteaux and 20 other artists. The new museum has been designed so that its galleries of artifacts will give visitors a better historical context for what really happened when Union and Confederate soldiers clashed in the rolling farmland of south-central Pennsylvania 145 years ago.
The twelfth biennial Stonewall Jackson Symposium sponsored by the Stonewall Jackson House in Lexington, Va. will provide an opportunity to examine the career and personality of this complex and fascinating man. The dates: April 18-19, 2008.
Lectures by historians and biographers currently involved in research will explore Thomas Jackson’s relationships with staff officers and subordinates, the origins of the Jackson mythology and his famous nick-name, the use of Jackson’s image, Jackson-related materials in important museum collections, and Jackson’s famous Valley Campaign of 1862.
The $290.00 registration fee includes all lectures, Friday evening reception following the keynote address, Saturday coffee and pastries, lunch, reception and dinner with after-dinner entertainment, and a 10% discount in the Stonewall Jackson House museum shop on April 18, 19 & 20. The fee does not include transportation, accommodations, or dinner on Friday.
For schedule and speakers, click here.
I was pleased to see the program of the 2008 meeting of the Society of Military History (in Ogden, Utah) will have several papers (mine too) on early military history, primarily in the 18th century. Kinda breaks up all the “air war” and COIN papers!
Here are the titles and presenters:
“The Critical Shift: Washington’s Fabian Strategy.” Donald Stoker, US Naval War College, Monterey Program
“Nathanael Greene’s Southern Strategy.” Michael W. Jones, US Naval War College, Monterey Program
“The Rise and Decline of the Theory and Practice of Partisan Warfare in Early Modern Europe,” George Satterfield, Hawaii Pacific University
“Using the Natives against the Natives: Indigenes as “Counterinsurgents” in the British Atlantic, 1500-1800,” Wayne E. Lee, UNC-Chapel Hill
“Exerting Limited Control with Limited Resources: Spanish Policy on the North American Frontier,” Irving Levinson, University of Texas, Pan-American
“The Politics and Philosophy in the Army of Eighteenth Century France,” Christy Pichichero, Stanford University
“For Cause and Family in the American Revolution,” Jason Palmer, United States Military Academy
“Morality and Captivity in Revolutionary South Carolina,” Paul Springer, United States Military Academy
“Troublesome Allies: The Wabanaki in King William’s War,” Jenny Hale Pulsipher, Brigham Young University
“The Protestant Assault on New France: War, Religion, and the Origins of Empire in the Colonial North East,” Owen Stanwood, Catholic University
“Cultural Exchange on the Warpath: English-Indian Cooperation and Communication in the Pequot War,1636-1638,” William Stone, University of Kentucky
“Frontier Health: British soldiers at Forts Niagara, Detroit and Michilimackinac during the American Revolution,” Tabitha Marshall, Memorial University of Newfoundland“Queen
“Against Their Will? The Recruitment of the King’s German Subsidy Troops for North America, 1776-1783,” Daniel Krebs, University of Louisville
“Oh, What a Tangled Web We Weave, When First We Practice to Recruit,” James R. McIntyre, Moraine Valley Community College
“’An Extreme Violent Spirit:’ War, Peace, and the Politics of Enmity in Revolutionary North Carolina,” John R. Maass, U.S. Army Center of Military History
“’The Virtue of Humanity was Totally Forgot’: How Britain Failed to Subdue the Southern Colonies,” Greg Brooking, Gordon College
“The Loyalist Exodus of 1778: The Mass Escape of Southern Loyalists
To Florida and Its Consequences,” Jim Piecuch, Kennesaw State University
Culloden, 1746
At this website there is an excellent article and wonderful photos of the structure Banastre Tarleton used as his HQ for one night in June 1781 during his stay in Charlottesville. This place (part of what is called The Farm) is still standing and can be seen close up from the street. It is in private hands now.
This will be one of the stops during the 2008 Tarleton Tour, leaving from Richmond, VA, and stopping at several key spots associated with BT’s raid on Charlottesville, many of which are not accessible to the public…
See link to the right for more info @ this tour.
“Did Virginia’s Paul Revere Spare Thomas Jefferson the Acquaintance of a British Hangman?” Another Tarleton’s Charlottesville Raid article is in the 2006 Colonial Williamsburg Journal. It is not footnoted, but really just goes over the basics.
