(1) Editorial: History Lesson for Walmart ­ Virginian-Pilot

 (2) Preservation Efforts for Battle of Monterey Pass Receive Support - Waynesboro Record-Herald

 (3) Editorial: History Defiled Here - Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star

 (4) Virginia Seeks Balance in Marking War's Anniversary - Washington Post

  (5) Virginia Battle over Walmart Continues - Associated Press

 (6) Editorial: No Dice on Gettysburg - Philadelphia Inquirer

 (7) Archives Exhibit Explores Little-Known Aspects of Civil War - Washington Post

 (8) Gettysburg Battles Again Over a Casino Plan - Philadelphia Inquirer

 (9) New Fund Will Preserve History - Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star

(10) Links to a Bygone Era - Knoxville News Sentinel

(11) Communities Face Shortage of Funds to Commemorate Civil War - Chattanooga Times Free Press

(12) Nixon Kicks Off Missouri Civil War Commission to Push Tourism - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

--(1)  Editorial: History Lesson for Walmart -----------------------------------------------------

Editorial: History Lesson for Walmart
Virginian-Pilot (va)
5/10/2010
Virginian-Pilot (VA)
http://hamptonroads.com/2010/05/history-lesson-walmart

If they haven't already, Wal-Mart's current leaders should visit George Washington's boyhood home east of Fredericksburg.
At Ferry Farm, as the site is known, they'll find an archaeological dig and tourist attraction. What they won't find is the store that their corporate predecessors fought to build there in the mid-1990s.
After many months of bad publicity, Wal-Mart executives dropped those plans as local opposition began to spread nationwide. Rather than risk alienating customers, the retailer accepted a compromise that turned the land over to a foundation. The store was built further from view of the site.
A similar, equally avoidable controversy is mushrooming on the western edge of Fredericksburg. Wal-Mart wants to build a "supercenter" near a national park commemorating the Battle of the Wilderness, where Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant first met in conflict.
A Circuit Court judge recently rejected a request by Orange County officials to dismiss a lawsuit over approval of the project. The plaintiffs, who include nearby residents, contend officials didn't take the area's history, among other things, fully into account.
The suit may lead nowhere. But the opposition to Wal-Mart's plans is likely heading somewhere.
As the 150th anniversary of the Civil War approaches, many Americans will turn their eyes to landmarks like the Wilderness. And many won't look kindly upon the prospect of a Wal-Mart so close to the park.
Development has crept near the park in recent years, but nothing is on the scale of Wal-Mart's plans. It's in the wrong place, just as the proposed store at George Washington's boyhood home was.
There's still time for Wal-Mart's current leaders to strike a deal with preservationist and county officials. The Ferry Farm compromise showed it's possible to honor property rights, advance economic development and preserve an important piece of U.S. history.
All Wal-Mart has to do is remember its own history.

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--(2)  Preservation Efforts for Battle of Monterey Pass Receive Support -----------------------------------------------------

Preservation Efforts for Battle of Monterey Pass Receive Support
By Matt McLaughlin
5/7/2010
Waynesboro Record-Herald (PA)
http://www.therecordherald.com/news/x2084232206/Washington-Townships-preservation-efforts-for-the-Battle-of-Monterey-Pass-receive-strong-support-but-theres-still-more-to-do

Significant strides have been made since Washington Township agreed to raise funds to purchase land and establish an interpretive site dedicated to the Battle of Monterey Pass in January.
During a Jan. 29 meeting between the Monterey Pass Battlefield Association and Washington Township supervisors, the board agreed to seek funding and be the recipient of donations for purchasing a property near the Lions Club's Rolando Woods Park and establishing it as an interpretive site, complete with a visitors center.
Once established, the township would own the site, but the Battle of Monterey Pass Committee - made up of the association and its partners - would be responsible for its planning and operation, Washington Township Manager Mike Christopher said in January.
The Battle of Monterey Pass, fought July 4 and 5, 1863, began in Fountaindale as Confederate forces limped back to the South after the Battle of Gettysburg. It was the second-largest conflict fought on northern soil during the Civil War and the only one fought on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line.
A step forward in preserving a piece of the Monterey Pass battlefield was the signing of a sale agreement for the .83-acre property near Rolando Woods Park April 21.
The property, owned by Mary Rae Cantwell, is located at 13325 Buchanan Trail East and was the location of the last Confederate defense during the 1863 battle.
Supervisor Elaine Gladhill, an advocate of preserving the history of the battle, said the township has already received more than $1,000 in donations.
Gladhill also recently received a donation of artifacts found where the Battle of Monterey Pass was fought. Two Minie balls - one fired and one unfired - were given for display in the future visitors center.
Moral support
About $100,000 is needed to buy all the property and township recently applied for $49,950 from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources grant for purchasing the property. The township would provide matching funds of $52,900.
More than 75 letters of support for the grant were submitted.
"To me, that just says how valuable this initiative is," Christopher said. "I'm amazed by the support."
Agencies that wrote letters of support include the Monterey Pass Battlefield Association, Franklin County Board of Commissioners, Franklin County Visitors Bureau, Gettysburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, Franklin County Area Development Corp., Greater Waynesboro Chamber of Commerce, Franklin County Planning Commission, Borough of Waynesboro, One Mountain Foundation, Franklin County Historical Society, Waynesboro Area School District, Greater Area Emmitsburg Historical Society and Cumberland Valley Rifles.
Letters of support were also received from state Sen. Richard Alloway II, a Republican who represents Franklin, Adams and parts of York counties, and state Rep. Todd Rock, a Republican who represents Franklin County, as well as a number of individuals.
"What makes our situation unique and wonderful is that we're going to be able to interpret it ... which means it can come alive for the public," Christopher said. "Instead of reading a sign or marker, we can bring this site to life because of having the historian already in place."
John Miller, historian and founder of the MPBA said recent support and efforts to establish a battlefield are the culmination of 12 years of work.
"I'm very excited about how far things have come," Miller said. "We are very pleased with the township's efforts and their support for this project. The township has been the driving force behind obtaining grants for the project as well as obtaining support from our local and state officials."
The next step
The township plans to continue looking for money to develop a site that will serve the community historically and economically as a tourism destination. If it receives the DCNR grant, the township hopes to raise the matching funds through donations.
"We need to raise the money to buy the property,  and we need to raise the money to build the interpretive center," Christopher said. "There are people out there that donate to this kind of thing and we're looking for them."
Christopher hopes businesses in the area will see the advantage of supporting the site financially, because "they're going to be paid back tenfold."
Miller and members of the Battle of Monterey Pass Committee met with Civil War historian Ed Bearss Thursday to discuss, in part, ways to gain financial support.
"The meeting is basically to gain a better understanding about what type of preservation grants are out there as well as kind of figuring out how to gain more national support, taking it past the local level," Miller said prior to the meeting.
Donations can be made at the township office at 13013 Welty Road, Wayne Heights. Checks should be made payable to Washington Township.
Donation forms also are available at MPBA interpretive programs002E

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--(3)  Editorial: History Defiled Here -----------------------------------------------------

Editorial: History Defiled Here
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
5/4/2010
Fredericksburg Free Lance (VA)
http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2010/052010/05042010/545440

ALL THE DIVERSE opponents of Walmart's plan to build a superstore in the Wilderness battlefield got a vicarious boost Friday when a judge allowed a handful of them their day in court. One Spotsylvania and five Orange county residents, along with the area preservationist group Friends of the Wilderness Battlefield, now can proceed with a suit which alleges that Orange County supervisors improperly permitted the retail giant to come squat on hallowed ground.
The chances of the preservationists' ultimate success are anyone's guess; ours is that Orange supervisors and Walmart will prevail. There is no law against public officials making myopic decisions or against grand gaucherie by corporations. Property rights, however, are constitutionally guaranteed. If Orange's political leaders--representatives of the people--made technical errors, they are probably easily correctable. Walmart's business plan--essentially the script from "It Conquered the World"--doesn't include scenes of defeat. Nobody is going to wear out Bentonville with litigation.
To be sure, a triumph for the tag team of provincialism and corporate power-lust would be a defeat for America. But it shapes up to be lawful and democratic--making it a self-defeat.

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--(4)  Virginia Seeks Balance in Marking War's Anniversary -----------------------------------------------------

Virginia Seeks Balance in Marking War's Anniversary
By Rosalind Helderman
5/3/2010
Washington Post (DC)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/02/AR2010050203457.html

When Virginia and the rest of the nation set out to mark the 100th anniversary of the Civil War in 1961, the party got off to a rocky start.
Intricate plans were made to mark the military conquests of the Confederate and Union armies, but little attention was paid to the experience of individuals -- soldiers, civilians and slaves.
A massive reenactment of the Battle of Bull Run at Manassas was marred by too little water and too few bathrooms. Most jarringly, some adopted the events as an opportunity to celebrate the Confederacy in the face of the burgeoning civil rights movement.
At last, President John F. Kennedy called on a 31-year-old historian to take over as the centennial's executive director, refocusing it on sober education.
Virginia has turned to the same man -- James I. Robertson Jr., a history professor at Virginia Tech and a Civil War expert -- to help the state avoid the same kinds of problems as it prepares to mark next year's 150th anniversary of the start of the war.
With Robertson's guidance, a commission established by the General Assembly to plan the state's sesquicentennial events has spent four years trying to avoid the impression that they will amount to a celebration of the Confederacy.
There are no Confederate battle flags on the commission's homepage. One of its first events is a scholarly conference titled "Race, Slavery and the Civil War: The Tough Stuff of American History and Memory." Commission members, a bipartisan collection of 15 legislators, historians and others, even shy from the word "celebrate," preferring to use "commemorate" instead.
"We're going to make it a serious thing, an all-inclusive thing," Robertson said.
'Brother against brother'
Virginia officials hope they can attract tourist dollars from war buffs from across the country during four years of events in the state with more Civil War battlefields than any other. The commission, founded in 2006, is funded through a $2 million annual appropriation from the legislature, as well as private grants.
But they are keenly aware that Virginia was the capital of the Confederacy and home to many of its most famous figures. The commonwealth got a reminder of the sensitivities involved when Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) declared last month Confederate History Month, a proclamation he said would bring attention to the 150th anniversary.
McDonnell quickly apologized after facing stinging national criticism for omitting references to slavery. But an amended version that called slavery an abomination did not satisfy those who thought it was still too deferential to Virginia's role in a losing rebellion.
At a recent event marking the preservation of a new 85-acre section of the battlefield at Chancellorsville, McDonnell told a crowd that the 150th anniversary will be about more than the Confederacy.
"I think people from all over this country and around the world will come here next year to learn the Civil War battles," he said on a podium set up in front of rolling field that saw a bloody Confederate charge during the 1863 battle. "They will also come to learn of a battle that pitted brother against brother and divided this nation like no other event in American history. They will pause to see the sites, like this one here at Chancellorsville, of the most bloody conflict on American soil. They will also pause to reflect on the fact that this was the war that eliminated the abomination of slavery from American soil."
After the event, McDonnell said the anniversary will provide additional opportunities to preserve battlefields as well as to educate Virginia's children. "I look forward to being a champion for racial reconciliation during that time," he said.
One place he might start is at the September conference on slavery at Norfolk State University, which has 1,200 registrants. It will be chaired by James O. Horton, professor emeritus of African American history at George Mason University and an expert on slavery. Horton called the conference "very important to understanding the Civil War, understanding the issues that really shaped the tremendous and heated debates of history."
Slavery plays an important role, too, in a two-disc DVD set that's been produced by the commission and distributed to every school in the state. It emphasizes the experience of soldiers on both sides, African Americans -- free and enslaved -- as well as civilians on the home front.
And in February, a 3,000-square-foot exhibit will open at the Virginia Historical Society with an emphasis on telling the Civil War story from all perspectives. After a run in Richmond, the exhibit will tour the state.
The commission also has plans for high-tech kiosks at state parks and other sites with information about local battlefields and databases of soldiers who fought there, allowing visitors to track their ancestors. The Library of Virginia will make a major push to digitize newly unearthed Civil War-related letters and diaries.
The commission's work has not been without critics. The Richmond Free Press, a black-owned newspaper, has run several editorials criticizing the commission as a waste of taxpayer money whose work is bound to invite four years of Confederate flag waving.
"Most eighth-graders know that Virginia's participation [in the war] was hardly worthy of promoting," publisher Raymond H. Boone wrote last year.
'Broader perspective'
At the same time, members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans say the commission is running a politically correct event that will ignore their ancestors' sacrifices.
"I think they're so afraid of offending someone, hurting someone's feelings, that they're just going to do this generic, bland commemoration, where at the end, we know we've commemorated something, but we're not quite sure what," said Frank Earnest, a Virginia Beach resident and chief of the heritage defense for the group.
House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford), who chairs the commission, said such criticism shows the committee has found the right balance.
"We've been looking at it from a broader perspective, I think, from the very beginning," he said.
Many involved with planning the events say such controversies are inevitable -- and might help raise interest in the commission's work.
"We know this," said former governor L. Douglas Wilder, the grandson of slaves and the nation's first elected black governor. "It won't suffer a lack of attention."

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--(5)  Virginia Battle over Walmart Continues -----------------------------------------------------

Virginia Battle over Walmart Continues
By Steve Szkotak
4/30/2010
Associated Press (NAT)
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/local-breaking-news/va-walmart-battle-continues.html

A judge on Friday kept alive the fight to block a Wal-Mart Supercenter near an endangered Civil War site where Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant first met on the field of battle.
Circuit Court Judge Daniel R. Bouton rejected a bid by Orange County, Va., to dismiss the challenge and instead ruled that residents who live near the Wilderness Battlefield and a historic group can contest the county's approval of the store at trial.
The decision resurrects a fierce national effort to protect a battlefield in Northern Virginia where 180,000 soldiers fought and 26,000 were killed or injured 146 years ago.
More than 250 historians, Civil War preservationists and celebrities such as actor Robert Duvall and filmmaker Ken Burns have taken a stand against the store and its possible impact on the battlefield. The Supercenter planned by Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Storeswould be outside the limits of the protected national park but within an area where troops prepared for battle, marched and died of their injuries.
The challenge was brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, six residents who live within 3 miles or less of the Walmart site and a group that maintains an historic estate on the battlefield. They argued that the county Board of Supervisors ignored or rejected the assistance of historians and other preservation experts when it approved the special use permit for Walmart last August.
In his ruling, Bouton decided that the National Trust had no legal standing in the dispute but ruled for the residents and the local preservation group. The judge cited another national chain in ruling for the residents: Starbucks.
While the residents would have a tough case proving one of the ubiquitous coffee chain's stores several miles away would disrupt their lives, the judge said the construction of a 138,000-square-foot Walmart was another story. He said residents had legitimate fears about increased traffic and litter.
"Thus, the use of land by an establishment like Walmart could have an adverse and immediate impact on far more property owners than would a Starbucks," Bouton wrote.
The judge also concluded that the Friends of the Wilderness Battlefield had standing in the case and could move forward with a legal challenge. The group maintains an historic property at the battlefield, Ellwood Manor, a former plantation house that dates to the 1700s and served as a hospital for Confederate troops. It is located less than 1 mile from the store's site.
Bouton said the group would be "significantly affected" by the county's approval of the store.
In a statement, National Trust President Richard Moe said, "While the National Trust will not serve as a plaintiff in this lawsuit, we are very pleased that local Orange County residents and Friends of Wilderness Battlefield will be able to challenge this Wal-Mart project that threatens an historic place they care about."
Zann Nelson, president of the Friends of the Wilderness Battlefield, said members "eagerly await trial."
"We are grateful for the ruling of the court that allows us to speak on behalf of preservation and the Orange County community that care about this national treasure," Nelson said.
An attorney representing Orange County had not reviewed the ruling and had no immediate response. Walmart, which was not a party to this dispute, did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment.
The ruling focused on the legal question of whether the residents and preservation groups could further pursue their challenge and did not debate the historic arguments against the store.
Preservationists and some local residents argue 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.
Walmart and its supporters have said the store would be in a commercial zone that's already crowded with small retail outlets, and it would provide tax revenues and jobs in this rural county of approximately 15,000.

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--(6)  Editorial: No Dice on Gettysburg -----------------------------------------------------

Editorial: No Dice on Gettysburg
Philadelphia Inquirer
4/28/2010
Philadelphia Inquirer (PA)
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20100428_Editorial__No_dice_on_Gettysburg.html

Since the state Gaming Control Board in 2006 rejected a proposed slots parlor several miles from the Civil War battlefield in Gettysburg, it's hard to see how a full-blown casino just a half-mile south of the hallowed ground is an improvement.
Former Conrail chairman David M. LeVan is back with another proposal to build a casino near where thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers fought and died during the pivotal battle.
Like his failed bid for a gambling license, LeVan's new proposal has rekindled the dispute between civic leaders, merchants, Civil War buffs, and conservationists over whether gambling can coexist with the historic site.
Up for grabs among four bidders around the state is a hotel-based resort license providing for up to 600 slot machines and 50 table games. A decision is months away, so that gives Gettysburg residents time to make their sentiments known to the gaming board, which certainly shouldn't force-feed a casino down the historic town's throat.
LeVan's previous pitch for a 3,000-machine slots hall was at least somewhat removed from where Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous speech, though the idea of a seedy casino anywhere near the quaint town and historic battlefield is troubling.
A coalition of historic and preservation groups - including the Civil War Preservation Trust, National Parks Conservation Association, National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Preservation Pennsylvania - says the new site along storied Emmitsburg Road is simply too close to where soldiers marched.
Casino officials counter that this corridor already has been commercialized. What's more, LeVan and his investors are making the case that the Adams County economy needs a boost even more than it did four years ago.
Even with a smaller gambling footprint at the proposed Mason-Dixon Resort & Casino, there's little question the project would generate added tax revenue. Proponents also contend that a Gettysburg casino would capture gamblers from Maryland.
But with the new Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitors Center open, there's an even greater economic incentive not to mar the experience of battlefield visitors.
It is hard to make the case that the two disparate groups of visitors - gamblers and history buffs - would complement each other. In fact, Gettysburg has thrived for decades largely because it has stayed true to its historic roots.
The Gettysburg dispute offers another reason why gambling in the long run remains a bad bet for Pennsylvania. There may be short-term gains from the added tax revenue. But the long-term societal costs that follow gambling - including increases in crime, personal bankruptcies, alcoholism, and divorce rates - are not something Gettysburg wants to make part of its history.

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--(7)  Archives Exhibit Explores Little-Known Aspects of Civil War -----------------------------------------------------

Archives Exhibit Explores Little-Known Aspects of Civil War
By Michael Ruane
 
4/27/2010
Washington Post (DC)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/26/AR2010042604276.html

The Confederate prisoners were lined up 15 paces from the Union firing squad. The order was given, and the six rebels died instantly. Five of them were shot through the heart, the Union officer in charge reported, adding that the execution was conducted to "my entire satisfaction."
So what if they were innocent POWs. A band of rebels had massacred captured Union soldiers and their commanding officer a few weeks before. Now, Union commanders just needed to select a Confederate officer for death, to complete the eye-for-an-eye transaction.
There was no gallantry to this bloody affair in 1864, no stirring charge worthy of Currier and Ives. It was but a dark footnote to the epic of the American Civil War. And it was just what the National Archives sought for the major exhibit that will debut Friday: "Discovering the Civil War."
The exhibit, designed to launch Washington's celebration of the coming 150th anniversary of the war years, seeks to explore more of the little-known aspects of the battle and glimpse some of the dimmer corners of the conflict that remade the country and that so many Americans think they know so well.
Yet 150 years later, the anniversary of the war that tore the nation apart finds a country that remains racially divided, politically fractured and historically split -- even over the causes and legacy of America's most wrenching conflict.
The governors of two Southern states, Virginia and Mississippi, sparked controversy this month by neglecting or sounding dismissive of the role of slavery in the war. And one noted Civil War historian says the nation might be too divided to properly mark the key unifying event in its history.
"I think it's going to be impossible to get all the American people to gather to commemorate a portion of American history that's so important to the country," said Virginia Tech's James I. Robertson Jr., who 50 years ago directed the U.S. Civil War Centennial Commission. "People just aren't that together anymore.
"The nation is far more polarized and politicized now than it was" in the centennial, he said. "Every subject seems to become an issue."
But another scholar disagreed. Princeton historian James M. McPherson said that the Civil War centennial coincided with the civil rights movement. "On the issue of race, I think there was much sharper polarization then than now," he said.
McPherson said recent uproars point to "the way in which the war still resonates in American culture."
"Issues having to do with race and slavery and regionalism and federalism -- all of those are hot-button issues in American politics and American culture, and the Civil War looms over all of them," he said.
The war, which began in 1861 and ended in 1865, claimed more than 600,000 lives -- 2 percent of the population then. Today, that would mean 6 million dead, historians say. One battle in 1862, near Sharpsburg, Md., killed four times the number of American casualties on D-Day in 1944.
But the archives' exhibit seeks to probe beyond the sagas of the grand battles that pack the shelves of bookstores.
It will present, for instance, an earlier, and long forgotten, proposal for what could have been the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. The actual 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery in the United States. But in December 1860, Congress proposed a very different version.
Although never ratified, it read: "No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will . . . abolish or interfere, within any state, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said state." This was a 13th Amendment that would have protected slavery, instead of abolishing it, archives historians say.
The exhibit, which is free, features reproductions of recruiting posters, letters and photographs, including one haunting portrait of an African American drummer boy from a Union regiment of black soldiers.
The exhibit also uses touch-screen computer technology to illustrate chapters of the war. The saga of the notorious Confederate commerce raider, CSS Alabama, which preyed on Union shipping until it was sunk in 1864, is told as a touch-screen "graphic novel" with comic book-style cartoon panels.
The tale of the vengeful executions in Missouri is rendered with a touch-screen tour of the documents found in the archives' stacks.
"It's kind of a guided research experience," said senior curator Bruce Bustard, "where the visitor will be able to follow the research through the steps."
It is not a pleasant story. "It struck me as not the way I remembered the Civil War growing up, which is generally pictured as great armies clashing on a battlefield like Gettysburg," he said.
The tale begins with the killing of six Union POWs and their commander, Maj. James Wilson. They had been captured in a skirmish at Pilot Knob, Mo., on Sept. 27, 1864. But their captors handed them over to a rebel guerrilla commander named Tim Reves, or Reeves, Bustard said.
There appears to have been bad blood between Reeves and Wilson, Bustard said, but the record on that is not clear. Documents indicate that Wilson and his men were killed by Reeves and his band Oct. 3.
After the bodies were found weeks later, outraged Union officers ordered the execution of the six rebel POWs at a prison in St. Louis. And on Nov. 8, Confederate Maj. Enoch O. Wolf was selected to be shot in retaliation for the killing of Wilson.
Wolf proclaimed his innocence, condemned the killing of the Union soldiers by a "bush whacker" and in a letter to a Union general requested time "to prepare for death."
Somehow, word of his plight reached the White House, whose chief resident -- and the Civil War's main protagonist -- was known for staying executions.
Bustard duly found in the archives a scrawled note on War Department stationery dated Nov. 10, 1864.
It read:
"Suspend execution of Major Wolf until further order, (and) meanwhile, report to me on the case.
A. Lincoln."
Wolf was spared, survived the war and lived well into old age.

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--(8)  Gettysburg Battles Again Over a Casino Plan -----------------------------------------------------

Gettysburg Battles Again Over a Casino Plan
By Amy Worden
4/26/2010
Philadelphia Inquirer (PA)
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/front_page/20100426_Gettysburg_battles_again_over_a_casino_plan.html

The struggle between the forces of development and preservation here on the ground where the nation's most famous battle was fought is almost as old as the conflict itself.
Efforts to capture visitors' dollars date to shortly after the 1863 battle, when souvenir hunters and relatives of missing soldiers arrived.
Today, amid heightened efforts to protect vulnerable parts of the battlefield and restore other areas to their original condition, preservationists see a new threat on the horizon: a proposal to put a resort casino in an aging conference center a half-mile south of the Civil War battlefield on the storied Emmitsburg Road.
"You can't just stop at the borders of what the Park Service dictated," said Nicholas Redding, a policy associate with the Civil War Preservation Trust in Washington, one of several major national preservation groups trying to stop the casino project.
Redding, a former Gettysburg park ranger, spoke as he maneuvered his car down Emmitsburg Road, one of the principal avenues of approach for the Union Army and the departure route for Confederates as they retreated in defeat after July 3.
"It's a pivotal part of understanding how the battle unfolded," he said.
But casino developer David LeVan, a former Conrail chief executive who served on the Philadelphia school board, and his supporters maintain the resort is far enough from the battlefield that it won't be a threat. And, they argue, any history along that stretch of Emmitsburg Road has been erased by the construction of motels and businesses in the last century.
LeVan, in an open letter to preservationists, said the $75 million Mason-Dixon Resort & Casino project would rescue a long-struggling resort, saving existing jobs and creating hundreds of new ones.
The latest rift comes five years after the first casino battle was waged here.
In 2005, LeVan applied for a slots license to build a casino at another spot, several miles east of Gettysburg. That project, which would have been much larger with 3,000 slot machines, was farther from the heart of the battlefield but closer to the historic center of Gettysburg.
Then, as now, the controversy pitted national and local preservation groups against a local developer and his supporters who believe a casino will bring needed jobs to a county where unemployment - at 8 percent - has doubled in the last five years.
And again, the dispute has divided this borough of 7,500, sparking wars of words on the local editorial pages and in Internet chat rooms, dueling public events, and competing lawn signs.
The divide appears to some degree to be geographic. In the borough's historic district, "No Casino" signs adorn many brick houses; the lawns of properties outside the district are decorated with "Pro Casino" signs.
Each side has leveled charges at the other, including harassment and theft. Lawn signs have mysteriously disappeared. Most recently, Ronald Maxwell, director of the Hollywood blockbuster Gettysburg, entered the fray, delivering a tent-revival-style sermon to more than 200 preservationists.
Speaking at the Gettysburg Firehouse earlier this month, Maxwell led the crowd in a no-casino chant: "There are hundreds of casinos; there is only one Gettysburg," and accused LeVan and his partners of seeking to "rape and exploit the battlefield."
(Maxwell later apologized for that statement in a letter to the Gettysburg Times newspaper.)
The casino war erupted earlier this year when LeVan, who declined several requests from The Inquirer for an interview, joined with Joe Lashinger, developer of Chester Downs, to bid for the state's one remaining resort casino license. The winning bidder will be allowed to install up to 600 slot machines and 50 table games in a hotel facility.
They are competing against three other applicants: one at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Southwestern Pennsylvania, one in the Poconos, and one in Mechanicsburg, outside Harrisburg.
LeVan, 64, a Gettysburg native who lives across the street from the new Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitors Center, is seen as something of a paradox to preservationists because he has invested heavily in preserving the borough and the battlefield. All told, LeVan has invested more than $4 million in saving battlefield acreage and historic properties in the area.
Neither LeVan nor his supporters see his roles as developer and preservationist as conflicting.
"I am passionate about the battlefield, too," said hobby shop owner Tommy Gilbert, a childhood friend of LeVan's. "The battlefield is protected. What we need is an economic shot in the arm."
But preservation groups say a casino will not only increase development pressure, it will forever alter the image of a sacred place in American history and drive away battlefield tourists.
"It will change the identity of the community from a historic community to a casino town," said Susan Starr Paddock, president of No Casino Gettysburg.
Paddock led the opposition in 2005, when LeVan's slots-license application was denied by the state Gaming Control Board, in part because of the lack of local support.
This time LeVan is ramping up his effort to rally support of residents in Adams County, and his spokesman, David LaTorre, says it has paid off. He cites a recent poll conducted by a research firm run by G. Terry Madonna at Franklin and Marshall College showing that 62 percent of county residents who responded supported the casino.
LaTorre feels the proposed casino location, about 90 minutes from Washington and Baltimore, makes it the most attractive candidate for the second resort license (the first was awarded to the still-unbuilt Valley Forge casino in 2009).
"The state has an easy choice," LaTorre said. "Shoehorn another one in crowded casino areas southwest and the Poconos or approve a facility near the Maryland border, a virtually untapped marketplace."
It is unclear when the final resort license will be awarded. The deadline for applications to be filed with the Gaming Control Board was April 8, and board officials say the review process will likely continue until late this year.

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--(9)  New Fund Will Preserve History -----------------------------------------------------

New Fund Will Preserve History
By Rusty Dennen
4/21/2010
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star (VA)
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2010/042010/04212010/542396

They gathered under a crisp blue sky on a small Spotsylvania County farm to remember what happened on the spot 147 years ago, and to ensure that no one ever forgets.
About 200 people, including Gov. Bob McDonnell and House Speaker Bill Howell, R-Stafford, were there to celebrate the protection of the Wagner farm, and pave the way for the preservation of other hallowed ground still left in Virginia.
The occasion was an out-door bill signing east of Wilderness Baptist Church on State Route 3 where Confederate Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's daring May 1863 flank attack gave the South one of its greatest victories.
"In Virginia, we're blessed with so many incredible natural resources --oceans, mountains, history, battlefields from the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War so many foundational moments in our history happened right here," McDonnell said.
"Today is about not only historic preservation, but also about land conservation, environmental protection and a step toward my goal of creating 400,000 acres of open space protected during my administration."
The visit was one stop on McDonnell's Earth Week tour around the state commemorating conservation efforts and Earth Day.
Seated next to McDonnell were State Sen. Edd Houck, D-Spotsylvania, and Del. Chris Peace, R-Hanover, sponsors of Senate Bill 614 and House Bill 717. The bills, passed unanimously by the General Assembly, permanently authorize the Virginia Civil War Sites Preservation Fund.
A grant from the fund helped the Civil War Preservation Trust purchase the Spotsylvania farm from Frank Wagner, a Fredericksburg veterinarian, and his wife, Margot. The couple continue to live on the property under a lease-back agreement.
The Wagners moved to the land in 1985. At the time, Wagner said, he wasn't fully aware of the significance of the land, which sits inside the Chancellorsville battlefield national park boundary.
"We've learned a lot more about it since then. It's pretty neat. It's nice to see the land preserved."
The Washington, D.C.-based CWPT paid $2.1 million for the property. The state grant was augmented by a federal transportation grant, and donations.
The governor announced $300,000 in new grants for seven properties. Five will be preserved by CWPT and two by the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation in partnership with the Department of Historic Resources.
Howell praised public- and private-sector efforts that made the Wagner deal possible.
Still, Howell noted, "Each day in Virginia, we're losing about 30 acres of battlefield to development. There's about 50,000 acres left to preserve, so we've got our work cut out for us."
Howell was an architect of Virginia's Land Preservation Tax Credit, an incentive program credited with protecting tens of thousands of acres from development.
Howell said such efforts pay dividends, especially with the Civil War sesquicentennial on the horizon. The 150th anniversary commemoration begins next year and runs through 2015.
With more Civil War battlefields than any other state, "It's a tremendous educational opportunity [for Virginia] and a chance to examine the war from many perspectives," he said.
Not to mention economic benefits.
"People from all over the country--all over the world --will be coming here over the next five years."
Mark Ellis, 55, of Spotsylvania, took time off from work to attend the program and a tour offered by National Park Service historian Frank O'Reilly.
"I've always been a history buff. This is an important day," said Ellis, who has both Union and Confederate ancestors.
Donald Dihlmann, 14, was there with 16 other eighth-graders from St. Patrick School on nearby Elys Ford Road.
"People fought and died here and it's really important to keep the property safe, so that no one builds on it and disturbs it."

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--(10)  Links to a Bygone Era -----------------------------------------------------

Links to a Bygone Era
By Matt Lakin
4/17/2010
Knoxville News Sentinel
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/apr/17/links-to-a-bygone-era/

MAN'S FATHER FOUGHT IN CIVIL WAR
Jim Brown grew up in the Civil War's shadow, listening to stories of the fighting from a father who lived it.
"He was in it from the beginning at Manassas to the end at Appomattox," Brown said. "He'd be amazed to see the changes today."
At 98, Brown's part of an exclusive group - the surviving children of Civil War soldiers, removed by a single generation from the nation's bloodiest conflict. Records show fewer than 100 sons and daughters of the blue and gray veterans remain nationwide. Tennessee boasts four Confederate sons - two in the Knoxville area, including Brown - along with a Union son and daughter.
Historians hope to see members of that club hang around long enough to help celebrate the war's 150th anniversary, which begins next year.
"As you might imagine, they're going away pretty quickly," said Ben Sewell, executive director of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. "We know of 32 Confederate real sons across the country, and we're losing them at the rate of about five to nine per year. But a number of these fellows who are remaining have birth dates as late as 1923 or 1924. So there's a pretty good chance of having a few remaining for the sesquicentennial."
Brown, who lives in Tellico Village with his son, plans to be here for the celebration. So does Tom Bruce, 85, who lives in Knoxville with memories of a Confederate father he barely knew.
Bruce was born in Morristown to a 77-year-old former Virginia cavalryman and was just 6 years old when his father died in 1930. Levi Bruce served with the 7th and later the 11th Virginia Cavalry through fighting in what's now West Virginia.
"I'm part of a dying breed, I guess," Bruce said. "The only thing I can remember distinctly about my father is when he bought me a bicycle once. My mother had his sword and a picture of Robert E. Lee he had framed, but she sold them one piece at a time for enough money to get by."
Brown can claim memories a little clearer. He was born in 1912 to a 71-year-old father who survived battles from Gettysburg to the Siege of Knoxville. Brown knew his father for the next 11 years, until the veteran's death at age 82.
James Henry Harrison Brown joined the 8th Georgia Infantry's Company K at age 20 when war erupted in 1861. Records show his regiment saw action from the war's first major battle at Manassas, through the cornfields of Antietam, Md., in 1862 and across the bloody ground at Gettysburg, Pa., in 1863.
The father followed Gen. James Longstreet to East Tennessee in the fall of 1863 for the Confederacy's attempt to recapture Knoxville, including battles at Campbell Station near present-day Farragut and at Fort Sanders, where the Siege of Knoxville ended in a 20-minute failed assault near the University of Tennessee campus. He returned to Virginia for the last days of the war, all the way to the surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865.
Brown plans to stand where his father fought next month when he helps celebrate the placement of a Civil War Trails marker near the Campbell Station site. He still shares some of his father's stories in talks to groups such as the Knoxville Civil War Roundtable, where he spoke Tuesday night.
Most of those stories dealt less with glory and honor than with hunger and hardship.
"He'd talk about what he endured," Brown said. "He'd talk about marching barefoot through the snow in the East Tennessee winter and leaving bloody tracks behind."
He believes his father would be proud to see the nation that emerged from that struggle.
"He was doing what he thought he had to do," Brown said. "But I never heard him say a harsh word about anyone, Yankees or anyone else. I just wish I could have listened to him more."

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--(11)  Communities Face Shortage of Funds to Commemorate Civil War -----------------------------------------------------

Communities Face Shortage of Funds to Commemorate Civil War
By Andy Johns
4/7/2010
Chattanooga Times Free Press (TN)
http://timesfreepress.com/news/2010/apr/07/communities-face-shortage-of-funds-to-commemorate/

During much of the Civil War, Confederate troops were short on manpower, funding and equipment.
Nearly 150 years later, as local officials make plans to commemorate the war's sesquicentennial anniversary, they face the same challenges.
Local governments, historic groups and tourism leaders hope to capitalize on tourists they hope will flock to local sites during re-enactments and other anniversary events. But trying to raise money for marketing campaigns during a recession and a major state budget shortfall has proven to be difficult.
Every time Chickamauga City Manager John Culpepper has gone to Atlanta seeking money for various campaigns, he has found only empty pockets.
Mr. Culpepper, who also is the Georgia Civil War Commission president, said the state initially budgeted $500,000 toward publicizing state sites and events for the 150th anniversary. That funding was stripped out with the first round of budget cuts, he explained.
For comparison's sake, Virginia included $2 million in its budget to prepare for the anniversary, Mr. Culpepper said.
"The state of Georgia hasn't budgeted anything," he said.
Established re-enactments are faring better than new ones, according to Ken Sumner, founder of the Battle of Tunnel Hill re-enactment.
"It is a difficult time," he said.
Tunnel Hill, which takes place in September, gets all of its funding from private sources and is run by volunteers. Manpower and funding, however, remain a problem for similar events across the South, said Mr. Sumner, who works with other re-enactments Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.
Because the financial situation is so tough, Mr. Culpepper recently started the Tri-State Civil War Association to combine resources and promote related sites and events in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee.
"By pooling our resources together, we can get the job done," he said.
In 2013, the Battle of Chickamauga re-enactment will be the largest in the Deep South with as many as 12,000 re-enactors expected, Mr. Culpepper said. The key, he said, will be getting those visitors to stay an extra day or two to visit Resaca, Ringgold or other nearby towns with historic sites.
"Ringgold, Trenton, Dalton, modern Chickamauga -- you had all these communities that were touched during the (Civil War) campaign," he said.
Catoosa County Commissioner Ken Marks said tourists coming to the Chickamauga National Military Park present an opportunity for businesses in Catoosa and Walker counties as well as the counties themselves.
"Our county lives off sales tax," Mr. Marks said. "We have to promote tourism."
Walker County Commissioner Bebe Heiskell called the potential tourism boost from the Civil War anniversary "very important." She said she hoped to have another hotel in the county by then and said she would hoped to add a lodging tax for the unincorporated areas of the county in anticipation of the anniversary.
Luring tourists is all about marketing the county's historic sites and activities, she said.
"I've always said, if a Pet Rock and a Hula Hoop would sell, you can sell anything," she said.
* CIVIL WAR ANNIVERSARY
During much of the Civil War, Confederate troops were short on manpower, funding and equipment. Nearly 150 years later, as local officials make plans to commemorate the war's sesquicentennial anniversary, they face the same challenges.

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--(12)  Nixon Kicks Off Missouri Civil War Commission to Push Tourism -----------------------------------------------------

Nixon Kicks Off Missouri Civil War Commission in Effort to Push Tourism
By Paul Hampel
4/3/2010
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/05C2C333DC282620862576FA0008EC40?OpenDocument

In a move designed to boost tourism and enhance Jefferson Barracks and other state sites as historical destinations, Gov. Jay Nixon recognized a 10-member Missouri Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission on Friday.
"As a border state, Missouri was caught in the middle of the geographic, cultural and economic forces that threatened to permanently tear apart the United States," Nixon said at a ceremony on the courtyard of the Powder Magazine Museum at Jefferson Barracks. "The Civil War and its legacies still hold a place of keen interest in the minds of many Missourians, as well as people from across the country and around the world."
Nixon noted that Missourians fought and died on both sides in the conflict, and that only two states, Virginia and Tennessee, experienced more battles on their soil than Missouri did.
The announcement tied in with St. Louis County's plan, announced in January, to spend $68 million on improvements to the 1,000-acre complex, which includes a county park, numerous historic buildings, a national cemetery, veterans hospital and active military post.
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A key element in the plan is a proposal for a library in memory of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, a Civil War hero and 18th president. Grant served at Jefferson Barracks as a young officer fresh out of West Point. Other future Civil War leaders stationed at the military camp, founded in 1826, included Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and William T. Sherman.
The plan envisions Jefferson Barracks as a major tourist attraction by 2026.
Nixon said the state will nationally publicize its important role in the Civil War over the course of the next year, leading up to the 150th anniversary of the start of the conflict, the bombardment of Fort Sumter at Charleston, S.C., on April 12, 1861.
"We will also coordinate with re-enactors to attract the significant number of people who trace the historic battle lines," he said. "The state has a great chance to be a significant military tourism destination."
St. Louis County Executive Charlie A. Dooley joined Nixon in the ceremony. Dooley said that 850,000 people visited Jefferson Barracks last year.
"And that number is going to continue to grow," he predicted.

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