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The Pierson Farm looks much like it did in the Civil War and abuts National Park Service property.
The Pierson Farm on Tidewater Trail next to Shannon Airport is for sale. The property is zoned for industrial use, but historic preservation groups point out that the farm played a significant role in the December 1862 Battle of Fredericksburg.
The land was dubbed 'Slaughter Pen Farm' during the Battle of Fredericksburg. |
By GEORGE WHITEHURST
MARKET FORCES are about to collide with the past on Tidewater Trail.
The Pierson Farm is now up for sale.
The family of the late landowner, John W. Pierson, is asking $12.3 million for the property, which is near Shannon Airport. Its more than 200 acres are zoned for light industrial and commercial use.
But in December 1862, the land was torn asunder as Union and Confederate forces clashed during the Battle of Fredericksburg.
As a result, officials with the Civil War Preservation Trust and the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust are salivating over the property.
CWPT spokesman Jim Campi describes the ground as "really blood-soaked." Conservative estimates suggest as many as 2,500 men were killed or wounded in a few hours on the parcel, leading soldiers at the time to nickname it "Slaughter Pen Farm."
Campi adds that the property offers valuable clues on the outcome of the Battle of Fredericksburg.
"What most people know about the Battle of Fredericksburg was the fighting at Marye's Heights, which was a very one-sided affair," he said. "But in many ways, the battle was determined on and near the Slaughter Pen Farm. Unlike in front of Marye's Heights, the fighting on Slaughter Pen was very touch-and-go, and both sides suffered tremendous casualties."
Working in tandem, the two trusts have made an offer to Pierson's family.
Campi was tight-lipped about the details, other than to describe it as a "multimillion dollar offer" that would involve state and federal grants, private money and some state tax incentives. He offered a cautiously optimistic appraisal of the family's reaction.
"I think there is an interest in seeing the farm preserved, and they're considering their options," he said.
But Alex Long with Weichert Realty, who is listing the property, described the preservationists' current offer as "deficient" and "insufficient."
Nevertheless, he said Pierson's family is receptive to the groups' overtures.
"In all honesty, we'll try to work with them, but cooperation is a two-way street," Long said. "If it becomes shrill and nasty on the other side, that cooperation can be taken off the table as easily as it was put on the table. In the final analysis, it's a balancing of interests."
Donald Pfanz, a staff historian with the National Park Service, just hopes that the scale tips in favor of preservation.
He notes that most portions of the Fredericksburg Battlefield--Marye's Heights, Prospect Hill, Lee's Hill--have been developed or become heavily wooded.
"In my judgment, [the Pierson Farm] is extremely important because it is the only spot left on the Fredericksburg Battlefield where you can stand and look across a wide expanse and say, 'This is substantially what it looked like in 1862,'" he said. "That land has not changed much in 140 years. Nowhere else on the battlefield can you stand today and make that statement."
But the clock is ticking for the preservationists.
Long said the land has generated several inquiries since its public listing, but said officials from Shannon Airport haven't contacted him.
Spotsylvania Supervisor Vince Onorato, in whose district the farm falls, hopes to see the land preserved.
"I'm hopeful the landowner will do the right thing and sell it to the CVBT or to CWPT, but there's really not anything I can do to influence that," he said recently.
And the Park Service likely won't be able to help much.
Though the Pierson Farm abuts land already owned by the agency, it falls outside the boundaries of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.
Unless Congress places the farm within the boundary, the Park Service can't buy or even accept a donation of the land.
John Hennessy, chief historian of the local park, hopes preservation groups can "work out some sort of fate for the property that includes a preservation component, if not wholesale preservation."
"There's hardly a piece of property in the Fredericksburg region that's been subject to as much attention by preservation groups as the Pierson Farm," he said.
On the Web: spotsylvaniabattle fields.org and best-location.biz.
To reach GEORGE WHITEHURST:
Email: gwhitehurst@freelancestar.com
