Endangered history
Entire county of Spotsylvania listed on Civil War Preservation Trust annual report on sprawl-endangered battlefields
By RUSTY DENNEN
Date published: 2/24/2005
By RUSTY DENNEN
Battlefields in Spotsylvania County are again in the national spotlight because they could be gobbled up by sprawl.
Only this time, the entire county is listed in the Civil War Preservation Trust's annual "History Under Siege" report, to be released this morning in Washington.
The national preservation group intends to buy whatever it can of the remaining important properties here in private hands.
"Our logic is that there are a couple of key sites we would still like to be preserved," said Jim Campi, spokesman for the trust. "And it's no secret that we've been trying to negotiate deals as we speak with landowners, but they are all expensive properties."
Campi said the most endangered land includes about 1,000 acres scattered around the four battlefield parks in the county. Much of Spotsylvania was a battleground during the war, and only a small portion of the land has been protected by the National Park Service or preservation groups.
Four of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War were fought in and around Spotsylvania between December 1862 and May 1864--at Chancellorsville, Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House and Fredericksburg.
"Today, [Spotsylvania] is ground zero in the fight to save America's remaining Civil War battlegrounds," the trust report said. "With a growth rate that has made the county one of the fastest growing in the nation, its historic battlefields are under constant threat."
Chancellorsville made the trust's endangered list last year as efforts were under way to secure some or all of a parcel owned by local businessman John Mullins.
Last December, Tricord Inc. bought 227 acres of Mullins' land, part of which was connected to first-day fighting at Chancellorsville on May 1, 1863.
Tricord, in turn, sold 140 acres along State Route 3 to the trust, which plans to create a 1,000-foot conservation buffer between the highway and an active-adult subdivision that Tricord plans to build on the remaining 87 acres.
Preservationists are increasingly working with developers to set aside or sell historic sites for posterity.
The trust last year also listed the Spotsylvania Court House battlefield as "at risk."
"I think it's a dubious distinction, though it was a long time in coming," Spotsylvania Supervisor Hap Connors said of today's report.
Date published: 2/24/2005
|
Star Directory
