I wanted to add another writing sample to the blog. This was a great opportunity to spend couple of days on a bus tour of Civil War battlefield sites in the Shenandoah Valley when the commission designing a new national historic park was added to my beat. And we are nearing the anniversary date of its first publishing.
Daily News-Record (Harrisonburg, VA) - Monday, June 22, 1998
The Big Picture
Battlefield Commission Tours Sites To Be Preserved
By CHARLES PANNUNZIO News-Record Staff Writer The federally-appointed group charged with creating a plan to protect Civil War battlefields in the Shenandoah Valley got a close- up look at the size of its task over the weekend.
The Shenandoah Valley National Battlefield Commission toured sites in four counties and the city of Winchester Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
It was an effort to give commission members, many who own land on battlefields or have extensive knowledge of the war, a feel for the vastness of the district and its value as an educational and cultural resource, said Dennis Frye, president of the Association for the Protection of Civil War Sites.
"No book can ever replicate a battlefield , no matter how graphic the description or how well- written," he said. "No prose can duplicate the ground where these men fought. When you stand upon the ground, many of your senses are stimulated. . . . The battlefield is the theater, it is the stage where the act occurred. No actor or player can get his point across without the stage."
Frye made a similar plea to commission members and guests on the Field of Lost Shoes at the New Market Battlefield Saturday morning. During a walk across the Field of Lost Shoes, he noted that Confederate soldiers were able to close in on Union troops on a hill by disappearing from sight of cannons.
A day earlier, commissioners got a look at what has the potential to be preserved and what is already lost. They spent Friday morning looking battlefields south of Winchester, including an extensive tour of land owned by the Glass- Glen Burnie Foundation at Rose Hill. Portions of a stone wall from the March 1862 Battle of Kernstown remain, although they are hidden by brush most of the year. The battlefield from First Winchester, meanwhile, is hidden by a maze of hotels and restaurants on a hill where Interstate 81 now intersects U.S. 17, U.S. 50 and U.S. 522.
In the afternoon, the tour stopped at unmarked battlefield sites from Second Winchester and Third Winchester.
Following New Market, the tour stopped Saturday at APCWS- owned property at Fishers Hill. It, as well as part of the Cedar Creek battlefield owned by the Belle Grove Foundation and Cedar Creek Foundation, are maintained to a certain extent by farmers who lease the land to graze cattle. The commissioners met a group of cyclists visiting battlefields throughout Virginia and Maryland when they stopped at Cedar Creek Saturday afternoon, and wrapped up the day at Toms Brook, where Shenandoah County already owns much of the battlefield .
Sunday's stops included McDowell in Highland County and Cross Keys and Port Republic in Rockingham County.
Historian Joseph W.A. Whitehorne, vice-chairman of the battlefield commission, said much of the battlefield land still survives, but its future could be of concern.
"Some other things are surviving, in part because they are not near, let's call it the economic cutting edge yet," said Whitehorne, who teaches Civil War history at Lord Fairfax Community College and has written a number of books and tours of the Valley. "One of the reasons why so much more of the real estate in the northern part of the Valley seems to be coming under threat is that it's near the metro area, it's more desirable land. So, as a consequence, it is under a great deal more pressure.
"I have great sympathy for the guy who owns land and it's the equivalent of his stock portfolio," Whitehorne added. "You just can't go waltzing in there and say you're going to preserve this viewshed for historical reasons. You have to come up with a balance that works for the mutual benefit of both."
Whitehorne pointed at the Fishers Hill and Cedar Creek arrangements.
"That's, really when you think of it, one of the natural uses of the land," he said. "Another thing is quality of life. People come out here, retire here . . . because it's pretty, and it's nice. They sure aren't going to come here if it transforms too radically. It's the equivalent of say Ocean City paving its beach for more parking. You just wouldn't do that, because your natural resources are your greatest assets."
The commission's management plan is to be submitted to the Department of Interior by November 2000.
"The biggest enemy of the commission and of Civil War history is time," said Frye. "Every day that passes represents a lost opportunity to save hallowed ground. So time is difficult to concur. It requires time to develop a plan, but each day you plan could represent the loss of what you're trying to preserve. It presents a difficult dilemma."
"It is a challenging prospect," Whitehorne said. "You're talking multiple jurisdiction, many non- profits that have a vested interest that want it done right, but at the same time they don't want their positions undercut. . . . It's a very large task, and most of it is getting to be known and, I hope, being seen as part of the solution, and not part of the problem."
