Showing results for "Chancellorsville"
Shaping Chancellorsville: Conclusion
The final installment in a series In 2010, the update to Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park (FSNMP) map denoted for the first time the location of the Day One battlefield even though it lies outside the park boundary. In its summary of the overall battle, the first sentence reads: “At Chancellorsville Robert E. Lee won […]
Read more...Shaping Chancellorsville: The Final Campaign for Day One
Part thirteen in a series Although Dogwood Development’s effort to develop Chancellorsville’s Day One battlefield went down in defeat, owner John Mullins still looked for opportunity to develop the property. Preservationists, meanwhile, offered to buy the land from him, but he asked an “outrageous” $40.[1] Acrimony increased as the debate raged publicly in the media, intensified […]
Read more...Shaping Chancellorsville: Going National
part twelve in a series At a July 31, 2002 news conference, representatives from seven different preservation groups held a well-coordinated news conference to draw national attention to the latest development threat to the Chancellorsville battlefield: the land where action opened on May 1, 1863. At the event, the historical value of the site was […]
Read more...Shaping Chancellorsville: The Second Battle of Chancellorsville
part eleven in a series Easily the highest-profile land acquisition at Chancellorsville in the last two decades has been the Day One battlefield. On May 1, 1863, east of the Chancellorsville intersection, Confederate forces intercepted the Federal advance, much to the Federals’ surprise. As a result, the Federal army withdrew into a defensive position around the […]
Read more...Shaping Chancellorsville: Guarding the Flank
Part ten in a series In 1998, fresh off its acquisition of McLaws’ Wedge, the Central Virginia Battlefield Trust (CVBT) turned its attention to the far end of the Chancellorsville battlefield and began buying property associated with Jackson’s Flank Attack, targeting small lots as they came on the market. They purchased the first piece in […]
Read more...Shaping Chancellorsville: Change in the Landscape
Part nine in a series By the mid-90s, the threat of development reached unprecedented levels because of exploding population growth in central Virginia. Additionally, the market value of land inflated well beyond the National Park Service’s legal or financial ability to purchase it. “We can’t do everything in the marketplace we need to do,” John […]
Read more...Shaping Chancellorsville: Cementing the Story
Part eight of a series The area on the Chancellorsville battlefield known as Fairview was a central point of action during the fighting on May 3. Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park (FSNMP) already owned much of the land there and had established a tour stop at the location because of highly visible earthworks. However, […]
Read more...Shaping Chancellorsville: The New “Heart of the Battlefield”
Part seven of a series Throughout the seventies, Fredericksburg and Spostylvania National Military Park (FSNMP) continued to fill interior gaps in its land holdings. A pair of major acquisitions came in 1973 and 1975 that opened new ground and, ironically, redefined “the heart of the battlefield.” “Of the many historic sites on the four battlefields […]
Read more...Shaping Chancellorsville Revisited
In advance of the Chancellorsville sesquicentennial, I started a series called “Shaping Chancellorsville: How Memories of the Battle Shaped the Battlefield,” which looked at the way in which the Chancellorsville battlefield park was created. I never got around to finishing that series, but the Civil War Trust recently announced that it has helped preserve more land […]
Read more...