By RUTH FINCH and CLINT SCHEMMER
Stafford supervisors symbolically gave their blessing yesterday to a new citizens group, Friends of Stafford Civil War Sites, last night by a unanimous vote. They agreed to let it use the county seal on three historical markers that will be placed at the site of a Civil War fort and a Union Army camp near Aquia Landing.
It's the first step toward three-way cooperation between the county, builders and historians, said Glen Trimmer, a lay historian and co-founder of the group.
"The real message of the seal is that you have something that is unique to Stafford County," Trimmer said last night after making a presentation to the Board of Supervisors. "It shows that the county is committed to preserving and marking Civil War sites. And that's not a little thing."
Hartwood Supervisor Gary Snellings said at the meeting that he is descended from a Confederate soldier who crossed the Rappahannock River to fight and the soldiers wife, who stayed behind and tried to fend off the invading Union troops on the homefront.
"Both of them would look dim on me for voting today to honor those who destroyed their farm," Snellings said. "But I do think this is important. Growing up, we played in those forts. It has been disturbing to me to see a lot of this land churned up, not on purpose, but because nobody got together to try to save it."
Trimmer and D.P. Newton, who owns the White Oak Museum in southern Stafford, founded the friends group earl this year after learning that a contractor for SYG Associates Inc. of Warrenton had destroyed an earthen Civil War redoubt to make way for a new subdivision, Poplar Hills, off Brooke Road.
That event "showed that preservation of historic sites cannot be left to county officials, developers and federal and state agencies alone," Trimmer said in his presentation.
Right now, there are big holes in the county's knowledge of Civil War sites and there is quiet incentive for contractors to ignore sites that don't appear in the county's planning databases, Newton and Trimmer have said in interviews.
Newton, whose family has been exploring Stafford's Civil War sites for decades, told of recent instances in which earth-moving crews have purposefully swept away features before county engineers or other officials could become aware of them.
The friends group hopes to deliver research on some of Stafford's other major Civil War sites to county officials by the start of the year.
And, Trimmer said, he expects county leaders to refer to that research whenever they have to make planning decisions.
"We want some accountability," he told the supervisors. "We want you to be accountable, we want your historical planner to be accountable and we want developers to be accountable. We realize we can't preserve everything, but there are some things we can do to preserve our heritage and our history."
For developers, the possible benefits of working with the friends group are threefold, Newton, Trimmer and SYG attorney John McBride have said: A builder can avoid construction delays, lower its costs for archaeology and planning, and use a site's historical significance to help market houses. And those who buy their homes can enjoy the marked, preserved historical sites as a community amenity.
That's part of what is happening with SYG Associates and the friends group.
SYG has agreed to place an imposing, inscribed granite monument on the site of Redoubt No. 3, one of three large fortifications built to protect the Union port on the Potomac River. It will also put several historical markers near that site, on Brooke Road, at the nearby site of the 12th Corps winter quarters, and near Fort McLean (aka Redoubt No. 2), the last of the the three big Union redoubts in the area. Lastly, SYG will donate easements to preserve some of the 12th Corps troops' hut sites in Brookeridge subdivision.
Trimmer and SYG officials hope the historical markers will kick off a comprehensive county signage program to draw attention to Stafford's most significant Civil War sites. It would be like Virginia's Civil War Trails system or Prince William County's historical marker program, with an accompanying brochure.
For more information, write Friends Of Stafford County Civil War Sites, 65 Marlborough Point Road, Stafford, Va. 22554; or call Glenn Trimmer, 540/658-6324, and D.P. Newton, 540/371-4234.
To reach RUTH FINCH:
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Preservationists' goals Objectives of the Friends of Stafford Civil War Sites:Honor soldiers who served Help identify, preserve and mark remaining major Civil War sites in Stafford. Provide timely information to county officials and developers to allow preservation of those sites. Hold county officials and builders accountable if Civil War sites are knowingly destroyed without effort to save them. |