Trace Adkins isn't the typical, tweedy sort of fellow who often graces Civil War history events.
But this son of the South, a platinum-selling country-music star, knows plenty about what he calls the War Between the States. He brought that passion yesterday to the National Press Club to help the Civil War Preservation Trust unveil its 2008 list of the 10 most endangered battlefields.
"People say the Revolutionary War defined what we want to be," Adkins said. "I think the Civil War defined who we are, and who we want to be. That's what I'm trying to impart to my children and grandchildren."
The singer-songwriter hailed the trust's "History Under Siege" status report as "a wake-up call for all Americans who may not realize that our battlefields--once soaked with the blood of patriots--are in jeopardy."
The father of five, a native of Sarepta, La., played football at Louisiana State University, worked as a pipe-fitter on an offshore drilling rig, and wowed Texas and Louisiana honky-tonk bars before being discovered by Capitol Records' president in 1995 in a working man's bar outside Nashville. An author, he's now a contestant on Donald Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice"--and hasn't been fired yet.
Adkins said he has "been a Civil War enthusiast all my life."
His interest was ignited by his grandfather, who sat him down at age 13 to tell him about his great-great-grandfather, who served in the 31st Louisiana Infantry before being wounded and taken prisoner at Vicksburg, Miss.
Adkins recalled that when he visited the Vicksburg battlefield and stood in the trench where his ancestor had stood, tears came to his eyes.
"This is something we can all be part of," he said of battlefield preservation.
Trust President O. James Lighthizer said the trust, created two decades ago, has preserved some 25,000 battlefield acres in 18 states. He estimated that eight years is all the time that's left to save the most vulnerable remaining sites, particularly those in Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia.
Rounding out the news conference was Alexandria resident Cricket Bauer Pohanka, a CWPT trustee and key supporter of the group's annual institute for teachers.
"Preserved battlefields are not just beautiful landscapes, they are outdoor classrooms that teach us what it means to be an American," said Pohanka, the wife of the late Civil War historian Brian Pohanka, one of the trust's founders.
Adkins capped the occasion with a solemn visit to the namesake of his 2005 single "Arlington," told from the perspective of a heroic soldier about to be buried in the nation's most hallowed ground.
Accompanied by trust leaders, Adkins crossed the Potomac for a wreath-laying at Arlington National Cemetery's Civil War Unknowns monument.
Dedicated in 1866, it is less well known than the cemetery's much-later Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, but occupies a prize hilltop spot near Arlington House, former home of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
The monument stands in what was once part of Mary Lee's rose garden. After the Union Army seized Arlington, Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs ordered wartime casualties to be gathered and buried on the site, figuring the presence of graves would deter the Lee family from inhabiting their house again.
The granite tomb--final resting place of Arlington's first unknown soldiers--marks the remains of 2,111 Confederate and Union soldiers killed in the Manassas and Rappahannock campaigns.
The Fredericksburg area's four battlefields are scarcely out of harm's way, but aren't in the cross hairs of immediate threats, the trust said.
Its "History Under Siege" report lauds last year's victories at the Wilderness, where preservationists halted the four-laning of State Route 20 and persuaded Orange County to reject a 443,500-square-foot commercial development within the boundary of Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park. In December, the National Park Service bought 64 acres of the battlefield near Wilderness Corner that had been slated for development.
Trust President James O. Lighthizer made a point of praising the work of the Fredericksburg-based Central Virginia Battlefields Trust, which has partnered with the national group on preservation efforts, most notably at Chancellorsville and Spotsylvania County's Slaughter Pen Farm.
"We've done more deals with the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust than any group in America. We couldn't have come close without the CVBT. It is a great group of people."
Lighthizer said the trust is about halfway to paying off $10 million in debt for Slaughter Pen, the 208-acre heart of the Fredericksburg battlefield and his group's costliest single purchase to date.
The Central Virginia Battlefields Trust, he noted, has pledged to raise $1 million to help buy the farm--an unheard-of commitment for a local organization.
--Clint Schemmer
Antietam, Md.--Otherwise a model of preservation, the battlefield is threatened with a 130-foot-tall cell tower that would be visible from all of its most famous vantage points.
Perryville, Ky.--Development, including one for strip-mall center and high-density residential, targets the northwestern part of the battlefield.
Cold Harbor, Va.--Only 300 acres of the 7,500-acre battlefield in Richmond's suburbs are protected. A new land-use plan recently doubled the housing allowed in the area, a big challenge for preservationists.
Cedar Creek, Va.--Threatened by expansion of a limestone mining operation in the battlefield's core and an interstate highway.
Hunterstown, Pa.--This rural battlefield near Gettysburg is beset by rapid, unchecked growth of large housing tracts.
Monocacy, Md.--Site of the "battle that saved Washington," it is threatened by a proposed waste-to-energy plant with a 150-foot-tall smokestack, an interstate widening that would cut battlefield in half, and 15-story electric transmission towers.
Natural Bridge, Fla.--The 1865 battle here kept Union forces from occupying the state capital, Tallahassee. Development threatens the site; only 7 acres are protected.
Prairie Grove, Ark.--Skyrocketing population growth endangers this pristine battlefield in the state's northwestern corner.
Savannah, Ga.--New houses, suburban businesses and roads could obliterate the city's 1864 defenses against Sherman's March to the Sea.
Spring Hill, Tenn.--Rapid, unchecked development threatens the site that led to a disastrous and costly Confederate defeat in nearby Franklin, "Gettysburg of the West."
Star Directory
