Freeman Markers"

[CSA Today]

On regular Sunday outings, Douglas S. Freeman and J. Ambler Johnston explored the Richmond area battlefields and fortifications. They persuaded the Richmond Rotary Club to adopt a plan to identify and mark these historic sites. In September 1921, this group enlisted the aid of dozens of Confederate veterans from the Soldiers' Home in Richmond. Twenty-one cars (and a tow truck) set out to tour the proposed sites. Freeman, Johnston and others formed the Battlefield Markers Association whose purpose was to "identify points of interest on various battle fields of Virginia and to place thereon suitable markers". The association raised $10,000 and erected 59 roadside markers. Each marker consists of a cast iron plate set on a large base of concrete block. The Richmond Stove Works donated the cast iron plate, the Economy Concrete Company donated the capstones, and the Boscobel Quarries donated the rough granite. The efforts to preserve these Civil War sites continued with the establishment of the Richmond Battlefield Parks Corporation, a "non-profit organization to preserve and make accessible the battlefields around Richmond". They raised money and purchased land which they turned over to the Commonwealth of Virginia. The efforts of these pioneering preservationist made possible the formation of the Richmond National Battlefield Park in 1936. Douglas Southall Freeman wrote most, if not all, of the inscriptions for these markers. These were the first highway markers in Virginia and are today known as the "Freeman Markers."

 

[jgoodguy]

Expired Image Removed

Expired Image Removed

 

[CSA Today]

Ellerson's Mill
From this main position above Ellerson's Mill, the Federal regulars who had stopped the Confederate advance of June 26, 1862 withdrew during the night, having discovered that "Stonewall" Jackson was turning their right flank.

Beaver Dam Creek
Confederate troops pursuing Federals retreating eastward from Mechanicsville here came under heavy fire from across Beaver Dam Creek and were halted with loss in the late afternoon of June 26, 1862.

 

[matthew mckeon]

Nice post.