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Confederate Gen. Thomas J. 'Stonewall' Jackson launched his surprise flank attack from this location near Chancellorsville.
Placid scenes like this in Spotsylvania Court house battlefield are becoming rare as development overtakes open land outside the parks. The Civil War Preservation Trust placed all of Spotsylvania County on its sprawl-threatened list.
Preservationists hope to purchase and save land adjacent to the four battlefields and related Civil War sites in fast-growing Spotsylvania County. This view is at the Spotsylvania Courthouse battlefield. |
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.
Still, he praised the listing as an eye-opener and said the current Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors has made efforts to control sprawl as the county's population balloons to 112,000.
"I look at this in a positive light--that you can grow a county and do the right thing at the same time as far as preserving history and natural resources," he said.
Connors agreed with the trust's assessment that Spotsylvania is "ground zero" in a national effort to protect battlefields from development.
"People are expecting us to preserve these resources and to manage growth better. No one's saying stop growth, only to be smarter."
State Sen. Edd Houck, D-Spotsylvania, applauds those efforts.
"For more than 20 years, I've been advocating better land-use measures that produce smart transportation solutions and smarter growth policies. I don't look at this designation as a threat, but rather as an opportunity to partner with local officials in Spotsylvania County to implement policies that allow for better managed growth while preserving our historic treasures," Houck said.
Other Virginia battlefields on the trust's most-endangered list:
Bermuda Hundred, which has already succumbed to sprawl around Richmond. The land, which juts into the James River, was the site of a series of inconclusive battles from May 6, 1864, until the war's end the following April. Ware Bottom Church, the site of fighting on May 20, 1864, is the most threatened, according to the trust.
Manassas, the site of two crucial battles during the summers of 1861 and 1862. The trust says the battlefields are becoming a "green island in a sea of sprawl" and that commuter traffic within the park has become a major concern.
The trust will release a complete, national list of endangered battlefields at a news conference scheduled for 10 a.m. today.
To reach RUSTY DENNEN: 540/374-5431 rdennen@freelancestar.com
