Camp Boone - KY Orphan Brigade muster ground - development threat!!!!

[scone]

Got this in a email thought i would pass it along..


<center>Camp Boone - KY Orphan Brigade muster ground - development threat!!!! <center>

Folks,

If you're interested in preservation and the Orphan Brigade, please read below and take the time to send an email or make a phone call to let our local county commissioners know that people care about preserving our history!

Thank you!

Karel Lea Biggs
Clarksville, TN CWRT
* * * * * *
June 30, 2004

Dear fellow Clarksville CWRT members, Gracey SCV Camp members, and interested parties of history,

Cleo Hogan, a Clarksville attorney, with intense interest in the preservation and promotion of historical sites in Montgomery County, TN. and Clarksville, called me this afternoon with some disturbing news. The site of the training/mustering camp of the famous Kentucky Orphan Brigade, one of the most famous fighting units of the American Civil War, just north of Clarskville on Hwy. 70 (the road to Guthrie, KY), is under threat of development.

Please read his email, as follows:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>
Gregg, the land upon which this muster ground is located is up for rezoning to a category that will allow truck stops, and many other uses. It was tried 2 yrs ago, and defeated, as I recall, altho the County Commissioner for that District, Cissy Rankin (920-1505) will know more accurately than I.

Mr. Hooks, the owner has partnered with a Nashville developer, and I don't have the details.

This camp was the site of mustering by hundreds, if not thousands of Kentuckians AND Tennesseeans on horseback, taking more than a few acres along Spring Creek for bathing, watering horses, and drilling over several acres. (NOTE: The KY Orphan Brigade was several infantry regiments who would be mountd in 1864.)

The Historic Highway Marker was placed near the Mimms/Rawlins house for security, but the muster ground was further West, on the banks of the creek, according to now deceased Norman Rawlins, Jr, a charter member of SCV Camp 225, Clarksville when it was reorganized about 1992.

In an era of "Historic Tourism" development, we wouldn't have to fabricate a WBTS site--it is largely undisturbed until now, covered with large trees, where Mr. Rawlins related the relic hunters used to find coins and harness relics many years ago. If this is rezoned and developed, without reserving 2 to 5 acres for a historic site, another site will be lost to future
citizens.

The Regional Plannning Commission has recommend approval of the rezoning request without objection of any public, and that recommendation is set for informal hearing before the full County Commission at 7pm on Thursday, July 8; and final approval on Monday, July 12, also at 7pm, I believe.

Ms. Rankin, an attorney is the elected councilperson for that district, and she can be heard, if any affected residents oppose the rezoning.

Call me if you want to go out there.

Cleo Hogan
hogan@clarksvillelaw.net
cdmhogan@usit.net
931-572-0700
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

We need to move on this now! The first zoning meeting is Thursday, July 8th with the second on the 12th as detailed above. We need to get dozens of supporters there to help save this historic site. We need to let the County Commission know that people in the area support historic preservation and that such sites are part of our history. These sites are also of great interest to tourists who come through this area to visit Civil War sites. Tourists mean money to our area too as they stay in motels, eat in restaraunts and shop local stores.

Just today, members of the Clarksville CWRT and the Gracey SCV Camp met with members of the Clarksville Customs House Museum to discuss two local Civil War history projects, one of which is the definitive Civil War driving tour map of all the related sites in Montgomery County. This would entail the sites of training camps, forts, battles, historic homes, cemetaries, etc., oriented for the tourists that come through the area, but also of great interest to current county residents. The Orphan Brigade site was a pivotal part of this planned map tour. I know of two CWRT's from Ohio and Indiana that have been to this site in the last two months, one as recently as this past Saturday, and both were very excited to see it! They well know the history of this famous fighting command!

None of us wishes to prevent new jobs from coming to our community, but there is a way that the developer can have their site and we historians can have our's. It just takes some cooperation and planning to make this happen. This has been successfully done in several Civil War areas of Virginia and Georgia, where the developers incorporated Civil War sites into their development. Both sides win in that scenario - and that can happen here!

PLEASE - show up at these meetings on the dates mentioned above. This is especially important for our Kentucky members. As I get them I will forward the directions to the County Commission meeting site. We need numbers to show up or the other side wins completely! Many commissioners think that the historians do not care so let's prove them wrong!

Please pass this around to all interested parties that you know. Send to other historians, other CWRT's, SCV camps - anyone that might care who would come and support us next week! Please also call Commissioner Rankin and let her know that you support her efforts to help preserve this property! I have already placed a call to her as of this writing.

Thanks for reading - now let's make this happen and save that property for all time!

Greg Biggs
President,
Clarksville Civil War Roundtable