Civil War News Roundup ­ 2/5/2010
Courtesy of the Civil War Preservation Trust
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  (1) Knox Greenways Donates $10,000 for Historic Bluff Conservation - WVLT-TV Knoxville

  (2) Judge Hears Challenge to Orange, Va., Walmart - Associated Press

  (3) Mother Nature was Fiercest Civil War Foe ­ Livonia Observer

  (4) Trees May Honor Civil War Dead ­ Fredericksburg Freelance Star

  (5) Metro Historical Commission Plans Civil War anniversary in Nashville - Nashville Tennessean

  (6) Opinion: Help Us Plan for Sesquicentennial - Natchez Democrat

  (7) Editorial: Preserve and Protect History - Chattanooga Times Free Press

  (8) "Missing" Appomattox Station Battlefield Discovered and Preserved - Lynchburg News & Advance

  (9) Preservationists Pan Casino Plan - Hanover Evening Sun

(10) Walmart Foes Get Reinforcements - Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star

(11) PA Civil War Flags Need Cash for Upkeep - York Daily Record

(12) Group Raising Funds to Save Portion of Gettysburg Battlefield - Hanover Evening Sun

(13) Lee Honored as leader in Civilian, Military Duties - Montgomery Advertiser

(14) A New Battle Plan for Chickamauga - Chattanooga Times Free Press

--(1)  Knox Greenways Donates $10,000 for Historic Bluff Conservation -----------------------------------------------------

Knox Greenways Donates $10,000 for Historic Bluff Conservation
By Nick Bona
2/5/2010
WVLT-TV Knoxville (TN)
http://www.volunteertv.com/knox/headlines/83620957.html

The Knox Greenways Coalition made a large donation Thursday to help make sure a historical area of South Knoxville remains undeveloped.
Fort Higley was a civil war for used as the Union Army's western base during the 17 day Siege of Knoxville and Battle of Fort Sanders. The seven acre tract is one of three civil war sites encompassed in the Legacy Parks Foundation River Bluff Preservation plan.
Developers have long eyed the bluff-top land across the river from the University of Tennessee campus for condominiums. Other parts of the original property have already been turned into upscale condos.
Knox Greenway's $10,000 donation was made to help Legacy Parks purchase property. The foundation will receive half the money as a lump sum and the other half in $1,000 installments over the next five years.
"Part of our focus is on helping purchase land for greenways," said Betty Schohl, chair of the Knox Greenways Coalition. "We made our donation to Legacy Parks to help them with the loan they took out to purchase the River Bluff Wildlife Area."
Legacy Parks has called the 70-acre parcel "the most significant green space and bluff across the driver from downtown." If they are successful in purchasing it, they hope it can plan a key role in the city's South Knoxville Waterfront redevelopment project.
They ultimately hope to preserve the three civic war sites on the land and add part of it to the more than 40 miles of greenways that already stretch across Knox County.

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--(2)  Judge Hears Challenge to Orange, Va., Walmart -----------------------------------------------------

Judge Hears Challenge to Orange, Va., Walmart
By Steve Szkotak
2/4/2010
Associated Press (NAT)
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/article/WALM03GAT_20100203-224601/322142/

After listening to more than three hours of legal wrangling today, a judge will decide whether to throw out a lawsuit opposing a planned Wal-Mart within a cannon's shot of an endangered Civil War battlefield in Virginia.
Orange County wants Circuit Court Judge Daniel R. Bouton to dismiss a challenge to an Aug. 25 decision to approve the 138,000-square-foot Supercenter within one mile of the Wilderness Battlefield.
Bouton did not indicate when he would rule.
Preservationists and some local residents contend the retail center will bring more commerce, traffic and pollution to the gateway of what is considered one of the nation's most hallowed Civil War sites.
Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and his union counterpart, Ulysses S. Grant, first met in battle at the Wilderness, where 180,000 soldiers fought and 26,000 were killed or injured 146 years ago.
More than 250 historians, celebrities such as actor Robert Duvall and Civil War preservationists have spoken out against the store and its possible impact on the battlefield. The store would be outside the limits of the protected national park but within an area where troops prepared for battle, marched, and died of their injuries.
Wal-Mart and its supporters have said the store would be in a commercial zone that is already crowded with small retail outlets, and it would provide tax revenues and jobs in this rural county of approximately 15,000.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, along with six residents who live within three miles or less of the Wal-Mart site and a group that maintains a historic estate on the battlefield, argue that the county Board of Supervisors ignored or rejected the assistance of historians and other preservation experts and brushed aside their concerns when it approved the special use permit for Wal-Mart.
Today's hearing focused primarily on the county's argument the case has no merit and should be dismissed.
An attorney for the county, Sharon Pandak, questioned whether any of the plaintiffs have legal standing to bring the lawsuit, which would require them to prove they would be harmed by the county's decision. She noted, for instance, that many live in subdivisions built upon areas of the Wilderness Battlefield.
Pandak argued that it's not enough for the plaintiffs to claim they would be harmed because they would be able to see the Wal-Mart once it is built.
The plaintiffs' lawyer said Pandak was trying to set an unrealistic bar for their claim.
"She argues for a standing that no one could ever meet," argued Robert D. Rosenbaum, representing the trust and the residents.
The arguments also went into whether a Planning Commission vote was valid, the statutory obligations of supervisors, and estimates of how many vehicles the store would draw daily.
Rosenbaum wants the judge to declare the supervisors' vote "unlawful and invalid" and to block any further county action on Wal-Mart's site plan. Construction has not begun at the site about 50 miles southwest of Washington, D.C.

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--(3)  Mother Nature was Fiercest Civil War Foe -----------------------------------------------------

Mother Nature was Fiercest Civil War Foe
By Ken Abramczyk
2/4/2010
Livonia Observer (MI)
http://www.hometownlife.com/article/20100204/NEWS10/2040597/1027/news10/Mother%20Nature%20was%20fiercest%20Civil%20War%20foe

Most Civil War buffs know that more than 200,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died in battle.
While the war itself took many young lives, the number of those battlefield deaths paled in comparison to Civil War soldiers who died from disease, totalling 224,872 Union and approximately 164,000 Confederate soldiers.
Dr. Gerald Turlo, a Livonia resident, discussed Civil War medicine at the Livonia Civic Center Library Jan. 25 to kick off the History Lives series.
Approximately 150 years ago, the country was at "war with itself," Turlo said, a war many thought at the time would last only about two years. Instead it lasted four years, and 600,000 men died.
"They not only fought each other, they fought Mother Nature, and Mother Nature's army was much larger," Turlo said.
Two of every three men who died, died from disease. The Civil War deaths were greater in number than all preceding and subsequent wars added together, Turlo said.
Turlo highlighted the diseases that killed many of the soldiers: diarrhea and dysentery, malaria, measles, tuberculosis, smallpox, typhoid fever and yellow fever. Diseases were spread in a variety of ways, through what Turlo called the four "F's" - flies, fingers, feces and food. Overcrowded camp sites, poor sanitation and poor hygiene also contributed to the poor health of the soldiers. "The biggest culprit was the housefly," Turlo said. "They carried lots of bacteria. Wherever they landed, they spread infectious diseases."
Chronic dysentery and diarrhea caused 44,000 deaths in the Union Army. Confederate deaths from disease were more difficult to track from the war, Turlo said.
Nutritional deficiencies and malnutrition contributed to many of these diseases. Doctors were limited in fighting these diseases because the medical knowledge and practice had not evolved to an understanding of how best to treat illness, Turlo said.
"They had no understanding of disease transmission," Turlo said. "They had no understanding of insects, no understanding of infectious vectors, no understanding of parasitic worms," Turlo said. "There were limited inoculations. Doctors never washed their hands as they went from case to case."
Nineteenth century germ theory was limited. "Doctors thought bacteria was part of the natural healing process so if you had a wound, it was supposed to be puffy," Turlo said. Doctors could not identify it and grow it in cultures for research purposes.
Germ theory would not be developed until the early 1900s.
Typhoid fever struck 148,631 Union soldiers, killing 34,933 of them. There was no effective treatment of that disease. Malaria struck 1.3 million soldiers and caused 10,063 deaths. It was treated with quinine water, the only drug available with curative properties. The Union army used 19 tons of the Peruvian bark to make quinine water. "The Confederate Army tried other barks, but they weren't as successful," Turlo said.
Measles afflicted 76,000 soldiers and caused 5,177 deaths in the Union Army.
Pneumonia killed another 20,000, while tuberculosis, smallpox and yellow fever took the lives of another 15,000. Some soldiers managed to protect themselves from smallpox using cowpox to inoculate themselves.
For tuberculosis, those afflicted were not placed in sanitariums. "They did not isolate people," Turlo said. "In this time of war, that didn't happen. They just did not know."
Sometimes they tried to draw out tumors through capping. "They would heat a cap and create a small blister to draw out the tumors," Turlo said.
Turlo read from the U.S. Sanitary Commission, which wrote in 1866: Disease "is now stealing through the camps, menacing our dearest treasure, the nation's youth."
Turlo concluded the program by adding: "War is bad, but diseases killed more people."
Health conditions improved. By World War I, vaccinations were starting to be developed, and for each subsequent war, fewer soldiers died from diseases like they did in the Civil War.
Turlo, who has participated in Civil War re-enactments for the past 10 years as a doctor with the 17th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment Company, also cited a Web site, 17thMiCoE.org, that has more information available, including its monthly meetings at Greenmead Historical Park.
Tom Klisz of Livonia, who retired from his job as a history teacher at St. Mary's of Redford and now substitute teaches in Livonia schools, enjoyed Turlo's presentation. "I thought it was great," Klisz said of the program. Klisz appreciates Civil War history, as he visits old battlefields and digs up bullets. Turlo also discussed how bones shattered when they were hit with bullets. Klisz always knew diseases were rampant, but never realized how extensively it killed soldiers.
"So many of the soldiers died from disease," Klisz said.
Turlo expects more events to be scheduled for Michigan's volunteer infantry as the United States approaches the Civil War's sesquicentennial between 2010 and 2015.
Carl Katafiasz, director of adult services for the Livonia library, said the History Lives series was started two years ago. "We started the program because we thought adults would enjoy this programming," Katafiasz said.
Other programs planned for this year include FDR and the Civil Rights movement on Feb. 22, the history of the Michigan military in March, Operation Barbarossa in April and a discussion on Eddie Slovik, the only American soldier to be executed for desertion, in May.

For more information, visit the city of Livonia's Web site and click on the library or call the library's reference desk at (734) 466-2490.

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--(4)  Trees May Honor Civil War Dead -----------------------------------------------------

Trees May Honor Civil War Dead
By Donnie Johnston
2/3/2010
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star (VA)
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2010/022010/02032010/525423

Planting one tree for each of the 620,000 soldiers who died during the Civil War.
That is what the Journey Through Hallowed Ground is considering as a legacy project to help commemorate the sesquicentennial of the war.
That 150th anniversary begins in 2011 and Cate Wyatt, president of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground, wants to be ready if federal dollars become available for commemorative purposes.
To that end, the Culpeper County Board of Supervisors yesterday approved a resolution giving its stamp of approval to the proposed project.
But the vote was not unanimous and several supervisors had serious reservations about the plan, which Wyatt said will cost an estimated $62 million.
Supervisor Sue Hansohn said she would not support the resolution because those trees might block the views along U.S. 15, which is the main highway along the Journey Through Hallowed Ground from Gettysburg, Pa., to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home outside Charlottesville.
Hansohn was also concerned about what hoops local and state governments might have to jump through should portions of U.S. 15 need to be widened to four lanes.
Wyatt said that the trees would be placed on private property far enough off the state right-of-way to allow for road improvements.
The "private property" issue, however, raised another question.
"Who will those trees belong to?" Supervisor Larry Aylor asked.
Wyatt gave no conclusive answer.
The trees would be on private property, but the JTHG would need to have guaranteed access to them for maintenance and replacement purposes.
After all, she said, "each represents a soldier who died in the Civil War."
She added that it was her group's hope that those trees would mature and be a part of the Civil War's bicentennial celebration in 2061.
She did not allude to what might happen should a landowner need to cut one of these trees that will likely be financed--at least in part--by federal dollars.
Those federal dollars presented another bone of contention.
Supervisor Tom Underwood--who, like Hansohn, voted against the resolution--said that while he had great respect for the Civil War, he couldn't justify asking Congress for money for tree planting when the country is already staring at a $3 trillion FY2011 budget with a huge deficit.
"I think we have much greater challenges facing our nation," Underwood said.
Wyatt said she understood the supervisor's concerns, but added that she also understood Washington.
"One day soon Congress is going to realize that the sesquicentennial is just around the corner and they are going to start throwing money around to commemorate it," she said.
"When that happens, we want to be in a position to get them to throw some of it into a project that's environmentally sound."
Several varieties of trees would be planted, including some 2,000 American chestnuts to be donated by the American Chestnut Foundation.
Wyatt, who called the Civil War "the most defining moment in our country's history," added that the JTHG has already obtained a $236,000 grant to help train some 4,000 hospitality workers (guides, etc.) and give them a better understanding of the events that transpired along the route between Gettysburg and Monticello.
Those training sessions will begin this spring, a full year ahead of an anticipated onslaught of tourists (as many as 15 million) that are expected to visit Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia during the Civil War's 150th anniversary.

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--(5)  Metro Historical Commission Plans Civil War anniversary in Nashville -----------------------------------------------------

Metro Historical Commission Plans Civil War anniversary in Nashville
By Juanita Cousins
2/2/2010
Nashville Tennessean (TN)
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20100202/DAVIDSON/100202067/1974/DAVIDSON/Metro%20Historical%20Commission%20plans%20150th%20anniversary%20of%20Civil%20War%20in%20Nashville

The Metro Historical Commission has formed a committee to gear up for the 150th anniversary of the Civil War in Nashville. 
The war began in 1861 when 11 states, including Tennessee, seceded from the United States and formed the Confederacy. The Union-seized Downtown Presbyterian Church on what is now Fifth Avenue North became a temporary military hospital.
The Battle of Nashville was fought over two days in December 1864 on land now known as Green Hills, destroying the Army of Tennessee, the second largest Confederate force.
Historical Commissioner Joan Armour said this is the commission's first attempt to observe an anniversary of the War Between the States and study its affect on Nashville.
During their Jan 25 meeting, commissioners discussed teaming with Metro Nashville Public Schools to teach students how Tennessee was instrumental in the war.
Academy at Opry Mills history teacher Mary Browning Huntington, said she would like to create a Civil War curriculum for private and public school K-12 students.
End-of-course testing covers Tennessee history, but that subject is no longer addressed in social studies classroom or textbooks in Metro Schools, she said.
"I was shocked to find out they no longer teach Tennessee history, because I taught it to seventh graders eons ago," said Armour, who is working to create a central calendar of events for the sesquicentennial. "Students need to know about their state. It's part of their history and part of who they are."
Commissioners are considering forming a group of speakers to lecture to schools, civic groups and at public events; partnering with a local theater group to present living history tours; producing public service announcements to broadcast on Metro Channel 3; and updating brochures.
Huntington said she is working with school system administrators to increase the number of field trips to local historic landmarks like Fort Negley and the Hermitage.

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--(6)  Opinion: Help Us Plan for Sesquicentennial -----------------------------------------------------

Opinion: Help Us Plan for Sesquicentennial
By Kathleen Jenkins
2/2/2010
Natchez Democrat (MS)
http://www.natchezdemocrat.com/news/2010/feb/02/help-us-plan-sesquicentennial/

At the end of this year, our nation will begin to commemorate the sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) of one of the bloodiest episodes of our history - the United States Civil War between the northern and southern states.
Even in today's contentious political environment, it is inconceivable to us that Americans took up weapons against other Americans and slaughtered one another. More than 600,000 Americans died during the Civil War - a larger number than those who died in all other American wars from the American Revolution through Vietnam combined.
The military battles started with the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor in April 1861 and lasted until after Robert E. Lee's surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia in April 1865.
The causes of war were complex. Southern states seceded from the union to protect their political rights and preserve a way of life that included an economy based on an enslaved African work force. Southern soldiers fought to protect their home states. Northern soldiers fought to preserve the united nation and protect a free work force. Emancipated slaves in the South joined the Union forces to ensure their freedom.
At that point in history, the United States of America was not the unified nation with a strong central government that we live with today. The nation was still spreading across the continent, and the federal power to tax, or the legality of spreading slavery into new territories, were still unresolved questions.
In the mid-1800s, the issue of whether a state could withdraw from the union was not yet settled.
In the mid-1800s, the issue of whether people could own one another as property was not yet decided.
The American Civil War answered these questions, and many Civil War sites have become national parks, such as the Vicksburg battlefield. Others are state historic sites, like the Grand Gulf military park. This area from Vicksburg southward played a vital role in the fight for control of the lower Mississippi River.
The Natchez area has its own rich and complicated stories to tell - of Union allegiance and Confederate sacrifice and formerly enslaved people seeking freedom.
The sesquicentennial commemoration provides an opportunity for Americans and others to wrestle once again with these historical questions and what light they shed on the world we live in today.

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--(7)  Editorial: Preserve and Protect History -----------------------------------------------------

Editorial: Preserve and Protect History
Chattanooga Times Free Press
2/1/2010
Chattanooga Times Free Press (TN)
http://www.tfponline.com/news/2010/feb/01/2-1-t2-preserve-and-protect-history/?opiniontimes

U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, a Virginia Democrat, wants to more than triple the size of his state's Petersburg National Battlefield. He's proposed legislation that would allow the National Park Service to acquire 7,200 acres to add to the nearly 2,700 acres currently at the Civil War site. Doing so, he says, will protect it from residential and commercial development. His proposal has merit.
"Petersburg saw nearly one quarter of the Civil War fought in its surrounding area, and the preservation of these battlefields is important for future generations to understand and appreciate the significance of our nation's history," Sen. Webb says. "Next year marks the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, and this legislation serves as an appropriate and timely means to commemorate this significant historical event." That's certainly so, though finding the funds to underwrite the expansion will be tough given the nation's current economic situation.
The Petersburg National Boundary Modification Act, if approved, would provide funding to purchase the additional acreage -- which includes 12 surrounding battlefields -- that is appraised at $29 million. It would also enable construction of a a new visitors center. The expanded park, Sen. Webb says, would not protect historically significant land; it would also serve as an economic engine for the area. Tourism already generates millions of dollars annually in communities near the current park, and the expansion likely would attract additional visitors and revenue.
If Sen. Webb's legislation is based on a Park Service recommendation first made in 2005. If it wins approval and if the land purchase is completed in full, Petersburg would become the largest military park in the United States. The expanded site would encompass almost 10,000 acres.
That would surpass the 9,000-plus acres of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Park located here. Local residents and officials might fret a bit about losing the designation as the nation's largest, but preservation of historically valuable land, wherever it is, should be commended.
Indeed, expansion of the nation's military and other parks is a desirable goal in general. There is historically important land from the Civil War era adjacent to portions of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga Park that could be added to current holdings. At the moment, there are no plans extant to add them to Park Service holdings. That does not mean, however, that the topic of park expansion should be forgotten.
There likely will come a time in the future when economic conditions and the legislative atmosphere allow broad and serious discussions about preserving additional historical land and scenic landscapes across the country. Planning for that possibility makes a lot of sense. It is far better to be prepared to act when and if preservation opportunities arise than to forfeit a chance to protect more of the nation's patrimony because of a lack of preparation.

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--(8)  "Missing" Appomattox Station Battlefield Discovered and Preserved -----------------------------------------------------

"Missing" Appomattox Station Battlefield Discovered and Preserved
By Duffie Taylor
1/31/2010
The Lynchburg News & Advance (VA)
http://www2.newsadvance.com/lna/lifestyles/features/article/discovery_of_appomattox_station_battlefield_provides_historical_missing_lin/23631/

Longtime Civil War historian Chris Calkins began looking for the lost battlefield of Appomattox Station in the early 1970s.
Back then, he and many other Civil War buffs feared the site of the April 8, 1865, battle was buried somewhere under asphalt in the Town of Appomattox.
"We have always assumed the battle was up near the Triangle Shopping Center (in Appomattox) and they had already bulldozed that area so we couldn't test it," Calkins said.
Still, he continued his search - first, through a store of written archives and then, on the grounds of Appomattox, with a copy of a Union soldier's sketched map and a metal detector.
Calkins' work paid off when he located the battlefield years later on a 47-acre tract owned by Jamerson Trucking Company.
Luckily, Calkins said, the site was largely undeveloped and he was able to verify his discovery through the artillery remnants that he unearthed on the property.
This month, Calkins' quest came full circle when the 47-acre tract was purchased by The Civil War Preservation Trust, a national organization devoted to preserving old battlefields.
The trust's spokeswoman, Mary Koik, said that the battlefield's preservation would not have been possible without Calkins.
"I give Chris Calkins credit for combing through that tremendous amount of information and finding the battlefield," she said. "Popular wisdom was that it had been lost."
A Detroit native, Calkins said his fascination with the Civil War began early.
At 20, he took a seasonal job in the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, where he played a Union soldier in the park's living history program.
The summer job turned into a lifelong stay when he was introduced to his future wife at the town's Dairy Queen.
"They say you're either a Virginian by birth, marriage or choice," Calkins said. "Well, I'm a Virginian by the latter two."
Calkins has since devoted his life to the study of the Civil War, with a particular focus on the war's last two battles in Appomattox.
Now the park manager of Sailor's Creek Battlefield State Park, Calkins has written several books on how the two battles shaped the war's end.
He said that discovering the battlefield of Appomattox Station provided the missing link in the events leading up to General Robert E. Lee's surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, 1865.
The battle between the Union Cavalry, led by General George Custer, and Confederate Artillery, headed by General Lindsey Walker, "was another nail in the coffin" for the Confederates and, ultimately, paved the way to the battle of Appomattox Court House and Lee's surrender the following day, he said.
Before the discovery, the story of the Civil War's end was incomplete, said Appomattox County Tourism Director Anne Dixon.
"Your visitors were missing the middle piece," she said. "This piece of the story completes it."
Calkins said that Custer's destruction of three Confederate supply trains and the battle that ensued from it were directly accountable for Lee's surrender.
"That was Lee's last chance to get out of it," he said.
Koik said that the trust eventually plans to turn over the battlefield to a steward that will maintain its preservation and spur visitors' interest in the site.
The National Park Service is a likely candidate, she said.
Securing the historical site in time for the 150th anniversary of the Civil War is an important achievement for the area, said the town's tourism director, Will Simmons.
"(It) provides a tremendous impetus for people to preserve this land while they still can," Simmons said.
"Soon, the opportunity will be gone."
****************
Chris Calkins inadvertently stumbled upon the lost battlefield of Appomattox Station while searching for what he believed was a Union army campsite.
He was led there by a sentence in the Official Report of Brig. Gen. Alfred Gibbs: "The brigade camped for a night (April 9) at a wood near Martin's house, one mile in the rear of Appomattox Court House." Calkins then referred to a 1867 topographical map of the "Appomattox Court House and Vicinity" and identified two houses next to each other, each named Martin.
Armed with this information, Calkins looked at a present-day map of the area and, surprisingly, found that the two houses were still there, tucked away behind a school and trucking company in the town of Appomattox.
Calkins then went to scout out the property with a metal detector and, to his surprise, began turning up iron canister rounds and other artillery remnants. It turned out that the camp Calkins had originally sought was in another area entirely and misidentified by Gibbs as "Martin's" when, in fact, the house was named "Morton's." The mishap, however, led Calkins to the lost battlefield of Appomattox Station, which he later confirmed with the aid of a diary sketch by Union cavalryman Roger Hannaford.
Chris Calkins, who wrote of his discovery in The Civil War Preservation Trust's 'Hallowed Ground' magazine, in an article titled 'In Search of the Battle of Appomattox Station.'

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--(9)  Preservationists Pan Casino Plan -----------------------------------------------------

Preservationists Pan Casino Plan
By Erin James
1/29/2010
Hanover Evening Sun (PA)
http://www.eveningsun.com/ci_14288145

Four of the nation's largest preservation groups have come out in public opposition to businessman David LeVan's proposal to build a casino near the Gettysburg Battlefield.
The groups - the Civil War Preservation Trust, the National Parks Conservation Association, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Preservation Pennsylvania - issued a joint statement Thursday explaining their reasons.
Proximity to the battlefield is once again at the center of preservationist opposition - as it was in 2005-06, when LeVan proposed to build a standalone casino about 1.3 miles from the battlefield in Straban Township.
"The site's proximity to the hallowed ground of Gettysburg creates an inappropriate juxtaposition damaging to the national park," the statement reads.
The groups informed LeVan of their opposition in a Jan. 26 letter, in which they commend the Battlefield Harley-Davidson owner for his philanthropic work, but cite multiple concerns with his latest project.
"We appreciate that significant effort has been expended to formulate a project you consider to have little negative impact upon Gettysburg's unique atmosphere and historic character. However, the concerns and objections our organizations raised to the 2006 Crossroads proposal remain valid and unresolved, and are raised by this project as well," the letter to LeVan reads. "Locating and marketing a gambling facility at Gettysburg unavoidably conflicts with the essential meaning of this  place in American history."
Their letter also takes aim at LeVan's claim that Mason-Dixon Resort & Casino would be the "largest economic-development project in the history of Adams County." LeVan has vowed to create hundreds of jobs and pass on millions of dollars of additional revenue to local government.
The preservation groups expressed doubt the resort casino would prove an economic boon for the area. They point out that more than 1 million people visited Gettysburg National Military Park in 2009 and cite a 2005 study that found park visitors spent more than $121 million at local businesses and supported more than 2,600 jobs.
"The combination of Civil War preservation and the family-friendly nature of Adams County has created a proven, winning formula for the park and its neighboring communities," the letter reads. "A casino will conflict with this proven economic engine - heritage tourism, and development compatible with and respectful of that heritage."
In a statement Thursday, LeVan spokesman David La Torre strongly rejected the groups' assertion that the casino project would not help the Adams County economy.
"To somehow suggest that there are enough jobs in Adams County when unemployment is now over 8 percent is ludicrous," the statement reads. "It will be interesting to see how this message from these Harrisburg and Washington organizations will resonate with Adams County residents who are out of work and facing yearly tax increases."
The statement ends with a series of questions.
"If these organizations help cause this project to fail, will they buy the Eisenhower Inn for $14.1 million to help save the struggling resort, which employs hundreds of Adams County residents? Will they guarantee Cumberland Township and Adams County $1 million each annually to help its local residents avoid tax increases? And will they put people to work?"
Public opposition to LeVan's first Adams County casino proposal did have a significant influence on the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board when its members considered and rejected the application of Crossroads Gaming Resort & Spa. They cited the opposition of grassroots citizens' groups, preservationists and others as one reason for their decision.
This time, LeVan has joined with former state Rep. Joseph Lashinger to propose converting the Eisenhower Hotel and Conference Center on Emmitsburg Road into a resort casino with 600 slots machines and 50 table games. The site is located in Cumberland Township about 0.8 miles from the southern boundary of the battlefield and five miles from downtown Gettysburg.
But before they can proceed, LeVan and Lashinger need to secure the one Category 3 gaming license that remains unawarded by the state Gaming Control Board. They have until April 7 to submit their application.
According to the joint statement, representatives of the four preservation groups each met with LeVan, toured the Eisenhower facility and conducted their own research before opting to oppose the project.

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--(10)  Walmart Foes Get Reinforcements -----------------------------------------------------

Walmart Foes Get Reinforcements
By Clint Schemmer
1/28/2010
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star (VA)
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2010/012010/01282010/524026

This week brings a double-barreled development in the legal battle over a Walmart in the Wilderness battlefield area.
Two other U.S. groups seek to join the National Trust for Historic Preservation and six local residents in their fight to overturn Orange County's approval of a 240,000-square-foot retail development anchored by a Supercenter.
On top of that, the director of the National Park Service has weighed in, expressing that agency's support for the litigation and dismay at the Aug. 25 decision by the county supervisors.
The Park Service "is deeply concerned about the development at issue, and the NPS does not believe the County has taken actions necessary to address our concerns," NPS Director Jonathan B. Jarvis wrote the National Parks Conservation Association and the Civil War Preservation Trust.
It's unusual, but not unheard of, for a Park Service director to involve himself in such a land-use or legal issue, David Barna, NPS chief of public affairs, said yesterday. This is the first time that Jarvis, who became director in October, has done so, he said.
Yesterday, the NPCA and the CWPT asked Orange County Circuit Court for permission to file a friend of the court brief supporting the National Trust's pending lawsuit.
Orange County has asked the judge to dismiss the NTHP challenge, which aims to block construction of the retail center near the intersection of State Routes 3 and 20, a quarter-mile from the entrance to Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.
The project, Jarvis said, would directly harm the Wilderness battlefield. "Although there is some commercial development in this area already, this complex would be many times larger and transform the character of the landscape," he wrote. "Hills would be leveled and roads widened to that the Piedmont landscape would be unrecognizable."
The development would impair the park gateway's "historic rural character" and tremendously increase traffic, heightening pressure to widen Route 20--the historic Orange Turnpike--to four lanes through the park, Jarvis wrote. Route 3 would be widened as well, he said.
By 2016, the project would generate 10,667 new vehicle trips on an average Saturday, with 20 percent of them along Route 20 through the park, he wrote. "In a single peak Saturday hour, there will be more than 1,000 new trips" from the retail center, not counting traffic from spinoff development likely to occur, Jarvis wrote.
The development would degrade park visitors' experiences at several sites--including historic Ellwood Manor, the Wilderness exhibit shelter and the historic crossroads where Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant turned his army south toward Richmond, setting the war's future course, the director said.
Traffic would increase noise, pollution and safety issues on Route 20--and "compromise efforts to interpret the role of the road in the battle," Jarvis wrote.
He noted that Ellwood--an early 19th-century house within a mile of the Walmart site--is being restored by the Park Service.
At the nearby crossroads, the Union army set up artillery, tents, hospitals, headquarters and supply and ammunition depots. Jarvis said the agency hopes to restore that crossroads area to the way it appeared in May 1864, when it was one of the few bits of open farmland in the tangled woods of the Wilderness.
"The Walmart complex would foreclose that option," he wrote. "Even if no landscape restoration is done, the lights from the complex would be visible at Ellwood at night."
The project would be built within a few hundred feet of Union earthworks the federal government owns, and within two-tenths of a mile of the park itself, which abuts the Route 3-Route 20 intersection, Jarvis noted.
In closing, Jarvis expressed hope that the CWPT and NPCA will "succeed in raising these important historic issues in your litigation."
His letter is addressed to Trust President James Lighthizer and NPCA President Tom Kiernan.
In their amicus curiae motion, the 213,000-member NPCA and 55,000-member CWPT urge the court to reject Orange's plea and "to preserve the Wilderness Battlefield for future generations."
Virginia attorney Scott D. Helsel, who is with the Reston law firm of Walton & Adams, filed the brief.
The Circuit Court is scheduled to hear the case next Wednesday.

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--(11)  PA Civil War Flags Need Cash for Upkeep -----------------------------------------------------

PA Civil War Flags Need Cash for Upkeep
By Jeff Frantz
1/24/2010
York Daily Record (PA)
http://www.ydr.com/ci_14249162

Flag Day, 1914.
Forty-nine years after they had last carried them in battle, the surviving flag bearers from Pennsylvania's Civil War regiments again hoisted their unit's colors and marched through Harrisburg in a light rain.
Once they reached the Capitol, the veterans -- many of whom cried at the sight of the banners they rallied behind in their youth -- stood the regimental flags in tall, round glass cases on the rotunda floor.
There the flags remained for decades, wrapped around their staffs, warping and decaying.
In 1981 , a group of re-enactors based in York, Company A of the 87th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, wanted to see the regiment's original flag so it could make an accurate replica, said Ruthann Hubbert-Kemper, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee, which oversees the state's flag collection.
Seeing the poor condition the original flag was in, the re-enactors raised and donated $1,000 to have the flag preserved.
Spurred by the success of that project, the state began restoring and preserving its entire collection of 390 battle flags, Hubbert-Kemper said. It hired archivists to carefully unroll the flags, almost all tattered from battle, and built a storage space with a special ventilation system that elevated the humidity, which kept the silk from curling up.
But the collection faces a new challenge.
Last year, with the state facing a massive budget deficit, legislators
eliminated the $60,000 allocation for the flag collection. That paid for staff and maintaining a special HVAC system. Previous donations allowed the collection to remain open, Hubbert-Kemper said, but that money is limited.
This year, the preservation committee is asking for $30,000, but with state money again tight, Hubbert-Kemper is not optimistic.
And once a program goes without funding for a few years, it becomes very difficult to have that money restored -- which is why the committee will begin asking for donations this spring, Hubbert-Kemper said. First, the committee will focus on reenactor groups and people who have visited the collection in the past, and expand from there if needed.
The flags themselves now lay flat, on acid-free cloth, stored in large drawers. Their staffs, many broken in combat and grafted together with twine, stand separately.
Some of their colors have run together, said research historian Jason Wilson, a consequence of being wrapped up wet after that 1914 parade. Some are only scraps.
All that remains of the 87th's original battle flag is the gold fringe, Wilson said. The flag that was restored in 1981 was made after the war ended to commemorate the regiment, with the names of the battles it fought written in gold on a blue field: Wilderness. Spotsylvania . Cold Harbor. Petersburg. Lee's Surrender.
"Every flag tells a story," Wilson said. "Some have blood on them. Some have bullet holes."
SEE THE FLAGS
People can make appointments to see Pennsylvania's collection of Civil War battle flags on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
For more information, visit cpc.state.pa.us and click on "Civil War Flags."
IMPORTANCE OF THE COLORS
For men in the Civil War, there were few things more personal than their regimental battle flag.
Each regiment received its own flag, said Allen Guelzo , professor of Civil War era studies at Gettysburg College. Often, those flags would signify a hometown or county where the regiment was raised. Pennsylvania regiments often included the state seal among the stars in the canton, or upper left quarter.
The flags were considered the symbol of the regiment, Guelzo said, and it was a great honor to be a member of the color guard. The history of the war is filled with stories of men sacrificing themselves to prevent the colors from falling into enemy hands.
"(The flags) had a practical use," Guelzo said. "They were big because they were the rallying point in battle, which is full of smoke and death and wounds. It's chaos. You needed something that says this is where we are, this is our rallying point, and that was the flags."
After Gen. Joseph Hooker authorized it in 1863, regiments started writing the names of the battles they had fought across the flags' stripes.
"There would be these horrible words -- horrible because you know what these places had been," Guelzo said. "You knew that flag and those men had really been in it."

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--(12)  Group Raising Funds to Save Portion of Gettysburg Battlefield -----------------------------------------------------

Group Raising Funds to Save Portion of Gettysburg Battlefield
By Erin James
1/21/2010
Hanover Evening Sun (PA)
http://www.publicopiniononline.com/localnews/ci_14252116

America's largest preservation group has launched a campaign to raise $75,000 in hopes of permanently saving a 2-acre piece of land on the Gettysburg Battlefield.
When its goal is met, the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT) plans to sell the land to the National Park Service - which has already allocated $300,000 toward the purchase. In the meantime, the CWPT has the land under contract.
Acquiring the property - which lies along the Emmitsburg Road and was originally part of the historic Philip Snyder farm - has long been considered a top priority by Gettysburg National Military Park officials, spokeswoman Katie Lawhon said.
There are two main reasons for that status, Lawhon said.
First of all, the property is close to areas of major battle action - particularly Little Round Top, the Peach Orchard and Devil's Den, all popular tourist areas. It is estimated that nearly a third of the Union Army marched by or across the property on its way to Gettysburg on July 1, 1863.
Secondly, two modern homes that sit on the property are significantly more intrusive on the views of those studying the battlefield since park officials completed a landscape rehabilitation project on that section of the battlefield. Much of the work included tree removal to make the land look more like it did in 1863.
What that meant was a better view of the landscape - and the houses.
"They really, really stuck out like a sore thumb," Lawhon said, adding that the park plans to remove the homes when the land comes under its ownership.
But - as with any potential land purchase - the park cannot do anything unless there is a willing seller.
The park was notified late last year of the owner's intention to sell the property. But the land was appraised at a value significantly higher than the $300,000 already set aside.
Lawhon declined to comment on the difference, but the CWPT has set its fundraising goal at $75,000.
Acting quickly, before a new private landowner could purchase and further develop the property, the CWPT put the land under contract. After closing, the CWPT plans to sell the land to the National Park Service for $300,000.
"Virtually everyone who has ever come to Gettysburg, seeking to walk the fields of the Civil War's greatest battle, has passed by this land," CWPT President James Lighthizer said in a news release. "As significant as the protection of large swaths of historic land can be, getting critical in-holdings like this one under protection of the National Park Service cannot be overemphasized."
About 80 parcels of land - the equivalent of about one in every six acres - within the 6,000-acre battlefield are privately owned. Of those, about 30 are considered high priority by park officials.

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--(13)  Lee Honored as leader in Civilian, Military Duties -----------------------------------------------------

Lee Honored as leader in Civilian, Military Duties
By Alvin Benn
1/20/2010
Montgomery Advertiser (AL)
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20100120/NEWS01/1200350/1007/news01/Lee-honored-as-leader-in-civilian-military-duties

Robert E. Lee has always been considered a military genius who led a disciplined army, but few are aware of how he also made his civilian "troops" toe the line after the Civil War ended.
One example was the time a student at Washington College stood before him with a chaw of tobacco in his mouth and was in¬formed by Lee, the college's president, that he found it ob¬noxious. Told to leave the room and not to come back the same way, the student did an about-face, went into the hallway and then returned with the same chaw in his jaw.
As soon as Lee saw the bulge in the student's mouth, he wrote an expulsion notice, informing his classmates that he was being bounced out of college "for disre¬spect to the president."
Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals Judge James Main dis¬covered that interesting tidbit during research for his address Tuesday at the First White House of the Confederacy, where Lee was honored on the 203rd anniversary of his birth.
"Discipline, respect for au¬thority and duty were required of all students and one of the most terrifying experiences for a student was to be called to the president's office," Main said.
Lee lived five years after the end of America's bloodiest war and he packed a lot into them as he took the helm of a college that would add his name to that of the country's first president.
When Lee became president of Washington College, Main said the school had only 40 stu¬dents. During Lee's first year, enrollment jumped to 300 and the college received more than $100,000 from tuition and gifts -- an enormous sum in those days.
It was a word-of-mouth edu¬cational resuscitation and was based primarily on the leader¬ship of a man whose military ac¬complishments are studied around the world 140 years after his death.
"Lee's commitment to his post-war career continued to deepen as he successfully devel¬oped the college's new curricu¬lum and physical facilities," said Main, who spoke near the stairs leading to the second floor of the building.  "He enjoyed his work and his civilian life."
About 75 visitors squeezed into the building for the annual event and, in order to give those behind her a chance to see Main as well as hear him, Regent Anne Tidmore sat on the floor at the bottom of the steps.
It was another example of how those who look after the First White House of the Confed¬eracy provide lots of tender, lov¬ing care at the historic state-owned facility.
Following the end of Main's speech, visitors helped eat a birthday cake honoring Lee. Slices were served by Evelyn England, Eva Newman and Lynn Birk.
Among those attending the birthday celebration was Philip Davis, who often wears Civil War-era garb during events such as birthdays for Lee and Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confedera¬cy.
A history buff as well as a lawyer, Philip Davis said Lee was well aware of the odds against the South when the Civ¬il War began in 1861.
"As Southerners, we don't think of things as not being pos¬sible," said Davis, who noted that overwhelming numbers of Union troops proved to be too much to overcome.
Constant leadership pressure throughout the Civil War, mounting losses of Confederate troops and the knowledge that it was just a matter of time before surrender took a toll on Lee. But it did not keep him from doing his duty as president of the college, Davis said.
"The heart condition he already had was manifested throughout the war and it wasn't something that just happened in 1870 when (Lee) died," said Davis.
Washington College became Washington and Lee University following his death on Oct. 12, 1870.

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--(14)  A New Battle Plan for Chickamauga -----------------------------------------------------

A New Battle Plan for Chickamauga
By Andy Johns
1/19/2010
Chattanooga Times Free Press (TN)
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2010/jan/19/a-new-battle-plan-for-chickamauga/

Leaders among Civil War Re-enactors have drawn up a battle plan for the war's 150th anniversary and have agreed to support Chickamauga as one of 10 major events during the five-year celebration.
That could mean 8,000 re-enactors and 16,000 spectators at the 2013 battle, according to Chickamauga city manager and Georgia Civil War Commission Chairman John Culpepper.
"You get into late summer of 2013 and all eyes will turn to Chattanooga and Northwest Georgia, just like they did in 1863," Mr. Culpepper said.
About 75 leaders representing about 12,000 re-enactors voted to support the battles at the Civil War 150th National Leadership Convention in Chickamauga earlier this month. Other battles on the list include Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Atlanta and Shiloh, near Savannah, Tenn.
Joe Way, one of the convention's organizers, said Northwest Georgia has a big opportunity.
"People in the area would be foolish not to support it and be enthusiastic," said Mr. Way, a major general with Cleburne's Division who will be the Confederate field commander at Chickamauga. "You've got a lot of history in you area and you should support."
Staff File Photo by Chad McClure
Participants in the observance of Confederate Memorial Day bow their heads in prayer Sunday at the Georgia Monument in the Chickamauga Battlefield.
He and several others will bring their artillery, horses and wagons on the nine-hour drive from Pensacola, Fla., to Chickamauga for the re-enactment.
"It'll be like a moving army," he said.
Mr. Culpepper and Walker County Commissioner Bebe Heiskell both say they are hoping to capitalize on the visitors to the area.
"That many tourists are certainly an opportunity for Walker County," Ms. Heiskell said.
The commissioner said she hoped the county will have more hotels and restaurants by 2013 to keep tourism dollars in Walker County rather than Catoosa County or Chattanooga.

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