4 Area Sites Of Civil War Battles Listed As Imperiled

[Gay Mathis]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/12/AR2008031203768_pf.html
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4 Area Sites Of Civil War Battles Listed As Imperiled
By Michael E. Ruane
Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, March 13, 2008; B03

Two famous Civil War battlefields in Maryland and two in Virginia have been placed on the Civil War Preservation Trust's annual list of endangered sites, the trust announced yesterday.

The battlefields at Maryland's Antietam Creek, near Sharpsburg, and the Monocacy River, east of Frederick, made the list along with Virginia's Cold Harbor, near Richmond, and Cedar Creek, in the Shenandoah Valley.

Antietam, site of the war's bloodiest one-day battle, is threatened by the possibility of construction of a cellphone tower that would soar 30 feet above the surrounding tree line, the trust said.

The Monocacy battlefield is threatened by, among other things, the possibility of a waste-to-energy facility being built just outside the park, the trust said. It was at that battlefield in 1864 that Union forces slowed a large Confederate raiding force headed for Washington.

At Cedar Creek, the site of the Confederacy's last major stand in the Shenandoah Valley, a limestone mine could be expanded to an area next door, according to the trust report.

And Cold Harbor, site of an especially bloody and fruitless Union assault in 1864, remains under increasing pressure from residential development, the trust said.

"When we say endangered, we don't mean lost," O. James Lighthizer, the trust president, said in making the announcement at the National Press Club in downtown Washington. "What we mean is if we don't do something fast, [if] we don't do something now, that endangered land will in fact become lost."

The trust raises money and seeks easements and partnerships to protect endangered parcels, Lighthizer said.

"We're not against growth," he said. "We are suggesting the growth has got to be rational. It's got to be sensitive. And it's got to be cognizant of the fact that this country has some precious resources, not just natural but historic."

On hand for the announcement was country music star Trace Adkins, who said his great-great-grandfather fought in the war with the Confederacy's 31st Louisiana regiment and was wounded and captured at Vicksburg, Miss.

Adkins retold the story he heard as a teenager from his grandfather in Webster Parish, La., where he grew up.

Adkins, wearing a black cowboy hat and boots and sporting a long ponytail, said he felt blessed to have heard his grandfather's account.

"I am passionate about this," he said. "We are a young country. . . . We don't have thousand-year-old castles. And years from now, we won't have thousand-year-old battlefields . . . if we keep going at the rate we're going now. We'll just pave them over . . . and nobody will have any idea."
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Gay

[M E Wolf]

Dear Gay,

I agree with Mr. Adkins. I haven't seen much 'fuss' in the News and or Paper here, in Washington, DC.

With so many foreign people coming in--they have no idea what it is 'history wise' and the costs it took to get through the Great Civil War.

Perhaps all of us can write to our Congress members, to Maryland's and Virginia's Congress members, State and Commonwealth governments.

We may not have castles but we have holy ground and perhaps unmarked resting places for those who perished--regardless if Blue or Grey.

There was an effort to spoil Manassass Battlefield and for years we have raised a lot of stink and developers went elsewhere.


Just some thoughts.

M. E. Wolf

[mt155]

I joined the Civil War Preservation Trust in 2005 and found it to be a great organization. I'm proud to say that I have made numerous donations through them to help save some of our Civil War sites. If you are not currently a member, I would highly suggest that you join in the ranks. Just google CWPT.

Mike T.

[Little Sorrel]

Hi all, indeed the CWPT is a top notch organization. If you care about your history and respect the men that fought that war, than you should become a member. Its worth it.

[gary]

I'm no member of the CWPT but I send them money every time they ask. I came to appreciate their work when I explored battlefields and saw their signs that both interpret and credit themselves with saving it.