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Trust buys battlefield land
Central Virginia Battlefields Trust buys 93 acres of Wilderness battlefield, site of Grant's Overland Campaign
Date published: 8/7/2009
By CLINT SCHEMMER One of Fredericksburg's home-grown preservation groups has just secured rights to buy a key portion of the Wilderness battlefield. The Central Virginia Battlefields Trust acquired an option on about 93 acres of historic ground in Spotsylvania County near the intersection of State Routes 3 and 20. "This land looks much as it did in 1864, but we needed to move quickly to be able to afford to keep it that way," trust president Erik Nelson said. The property, owned by the Atkins and Link families, is adjacent to the site of Wilderness Tavern south of Route 3, where the arm of Confederate Lt. Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was amputated after the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863. A year later, thousands of Union troops crossed the farm on the Germanna Plank Road as Gen. Ulysses S. Grant pressed the army of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee south after the Battle of the Wilderness. "The ground preserved by CVBT is the historic gateway to the Wilderness," Nelson said. Traces of the historic roads that the troops trod remain well-preserved on the Link-Atkins tract, visible today to any visitor. Purchase of the property will help preserve the nearby spot where the Plank Road and Orange Turnpike met near Wilderness Run, south of the modern-day intersection of Routes 3 and 20, Nelson said. The state highway department created that crossroad in the 1920s. CVBT had been eyeing the tract for years but was spurred to act by the controversial proposal for a 240,000-square-foot retail center, anchored by a Wal-Mart Supercenter, near the northwest corner of the intersection. The Orange County supervisors will hear public comment on the proposed development Aug. 24. Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park lies within a quarter-mile of the proposed Wal-Mart site, which has aroused national opposition from historians, lawmakers and thousands of others. The park owns a swath of land at the southwest corner of Routes 3 and 20, adjoining the Link-Atkins property. On the west side of Route 20, near the intersection, the CVBT owns 19 acres in the vicinity of where Union commanders Grant and George Gordon Meade had their headquarters during the Wilderness battle.
Date published: 8/7/2009
Sorry Wonderful
(posted by
wideopenspace
, Aug. 8, 2009 5:03 pm)
but it's the truth. Either do a study or give the land to someone who actually cares about that parcel of land and will do studies on it. What's so wrong with my comment? Because it's the same thing you and the preservationists have been asking OC to do? Don't like it when the same line can be used in reverse?
Yeah, what he said
(posted by
spotsylady
, Aug. 8, 2009 11:07 am)
Ditto Larry.
virtually all land has "history".. whether it
(posted by
larryg
, Aug. 8, 2009 10:09 am)
be civil war, rev war or just the folks who lived and worked
there years ago ..like some of the historic properties in and
around Spotsy and Fredericksburg.
the key is to preserve the most significant and sometimes us
non-historians don't know the facts and we see them all as
the same when they are not.
Parks are for people - for remembering history but for also
having parcels that are not developed and will remain so.
The folks who donate money for preservation - as well as
the folks who donate land..
I liken myself to SpotsyLady in her sentiments
(posted by
larryg
, Aug. 8, 2009 10:06 am)
but I also understand Glamourcide's view though I think it
shortsighted... as all of us know about places we should
have preserved but did not and all of us know about places
we did preserve but many of us take for granted.
How many who comment have never been to a battlefield
park and object to any/all on the grounds given my
Glamourcide?
I think most folks want a balance. To preserve the most
important places with significance and to let other places
be developed. Every single acre of land
Wideopenspace
(posted by
MrWonderful
, Aug. 7, 2009 8:14 pm)
Does your screen name describe the area between your ears?
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