VIRGINIA: Strasburg Battle Significant
FISHER’S HILL, Va. — The rolling hills and tree-dotted slopes of the Fisher’s Hill battlefield stand precisely as they did 150 years ago, according to Richard Kleese.
Kleese, a Civil War historian and author from Strasburg, presented a detailed play-by-play commentary of the advancements and retreats by soldiers as well as tales from the battle and references to local townsfolk on Monday evening. The sesquicentennial “On This Day” tour was attended by about 150 people.
The Battle of Fisher’s Hill was fought on Sept. 21 and 22, 1864.
Richard Kleese, an author and historian from Strasburg, speaks from under an oak tree used as a signal tree during the Civil War. Kleese was leading a tour of the Fisher’s Hill battlefield on Monday evening. Ryan Cornell/Daily
Following a bloody defeat at the Third Battle of Winchester two days earlier, the Confederate Army retreated south with the Union troops in hot pursuit.
As they reached the town south of Strasburg, they were suddenly attacked by Union forces.
Although the casualty count was relatively minor — 52 Union soldiers and 30 Confederate soldiers killed — Kleese cited the battle’s significance as leading to the Union’s control and subsequent burning of the Shenandoah Valley.
Without the valley, often referred to as “the breadbasket of the Confederacy,” Gen. Robert E. Lee’s troops were left without a food source and were less likely to invade Washington, D.C.
“If you don’t have anything to eat, you can’t feed an army as they march through here to get to Washington,” Kleese said.
One of the stops on his walking tour featured a sprawling oak tree, believed to be more than 200 years old.
The story of the tree, he said, is that the top of it was cropped and used to house a signal platform.
Former Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation President Mike Kehoe, who attended the tour, said that out of the half-dozen signal trees that once stood throughout the valley, only two remain.
The Fisher’s Hill battlefield is owned by the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation.
Kleese said he prefers the method of preserving it by leaving it pristine and as it was 150 years ago, rather than cluttering it with monuments and historical markers.
Kleese has written “Shenandoah County and the Civil War,” “The 49th Virginia Infantry,” “The 23rd Cavalry” and “Recollections of an Old Dominion Dragoon.”
-nvdaily.com
###
TEXAS: Confederate Memorial Construction on Schedule
ORANGE, Tx. – No Confederate flags are flying near Interstate 10 in Orange yet, but once construction is complete at the Confederate Memorial of the Wind, Orange residents and visitors will see at least eight flags on either side of a walkway, which will also have a plaque explaining when they were used.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans are behind the memorial. They say it’s to honor the service of Confederate soldiers.
“It was one of the deadliest wars, biggest wars, and [..] I think it would be a good monument to have,” said Houston-area U.S. history teacher Randy Garza.
The memorial isn’t finished yet. So far, the concrete monument is the only structure on site. The flagpoles and landscaping both still need to be completed.
With the memorial located conveniently off the interstate, those who travel through the area would be able to make a quick stop once the work is complete.
Whitany Asheson lives in Louisiana, but travels through the area often.
“I don’t see why we can’t support them and show our gratitude for them,” she said. “They fought for our country. I mean, that’s the least that we could do.”
But some see why the memorial has a history of groups opposed to its construction.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans are behind the memorial. They say it’s to honor the service of Confederate soldiers.(Photo: KBMT Southeast Texas)
“I would hope that the meaning behind it is to honor those that have fallen, and not necessarily to honor the way we lived during the Confederacy and the type of values that were set then,” said Orange resident Blake Bledsoe.
The controversial memorial will be finished, but the city has promised in the past that it will be watched by city inspectors. Sons of Confederate Veterans Texas Division Spokesperson Marshall Davis hasn’t shared when the memorial is expected to be finished.
“We are excited about the progress and eager for completion of the memorial,” Davis said. “We want to honor Texas war veterans who fought bravely and nobly for their country.”
-wfaa.com
###
VIRGINIA: Parts of Two Civil War Battlefields to be Protected
Two Civil War battlefields in Dinwiddie County – White Oak Road and Ream’s Station Battlefield will no longer be threatened by urban development.
The Civil War Trust, in association with the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, recently received nearly $200,000 in grants distributed by the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program.
The Civil War Trust was awarded $24,931 for 10.5 acres of the Ream’s Station Battlefield location and $154,391.50 for 4.61 acres of the White Oak Battlefield. Mary Koik, deputy director of communications at the Civil War Trust, said that prior to this grant a total of 898 acres at White Oak Road and 170 at Ream’s Station were protected by the Civil War Trust.
According to the Civil War Trust, the land was bought from private landowners and the identities of those private landowners will not be released until the property changes hands.
The grants ensure permanent protection of these acres of land that will benefit the community in more ways than keeping the historic authenticity of the land. “Not only will this aid current and future generations in coming to understand the history that unfolded here, but many studies have shown that preserved and interpreted heritage sites are significant tourism draws, making them valuable economic engines to the surrounding community,” Koik said.
Ream’s Station was the location of the second Battle of Ream’s Station on Aug. 25, 1864. Confederate troops overran Union troops at Ream’s Station, capturing Union weapons and prisoners of war. It resulted in a Confederate victory under Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill and Lt. Gen. Wade Hampton over Union Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock.
White Oak Battlefield was the location of the Battle of White Oak Road on March 31, 1865. The battle was a Union victory under Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren over the Confederate troops under Gen. Robert E. Lee and Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard. The Battle of White Oak Road ultimately led to the Confederate defeat at the Battle of Five Forks on April 1. The following day on April 2, 1865, Union troops finally broke through Petersburg defenses, prompting Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia to retreat. A week later Lee surrendered.
Last year, Jonathan B. Jarvis, National Park Service director, talked about how Civil War battlefields are significant to American history and culture. “America’s Civil War battlefields are places where we can learn about democracy, sacrifice, heroism and hope in the very places where those concepts shaped our history,” Jarvis said.
As we commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and the battles fought in the Petersburg area, there is no better way to remember and honor those who died than to protect the grounds they hallowed with their blood and sacrifice.
-progress-index.com
###
VIRGINIA: Grim Reminder of Civil War Executions
FRONT ROYAL, Va. — The deaths of six men by shooting and hanging without trials amid a group of terrified civilians might sound like the latest news bulletin from the Middle East, but the violence is an all too real part of Front Royal’s Civil War history from 150 years ago.
Patrick Farris, executive director of the Warren Heritage Society, stands beside a pair of straw wreaths draped in black in front of the old Methodist Church at the corner of Church and Main streets in Front Royal. Farris has placed the wreaths around town signifying locations where six Mosby Rangers were executed by the Union Army during the Civil War 150 years ago today. Rich Cooley/Daily
The dead were members of Lt. Col. John Mosby’s Rangers, a unit of Confederate partisan fighters marked for death under orders from Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant that were passed down the chain of command to rank and file Union soldiers.
The victims included a 17-year-old boy, Henry Rhodes, who was shot before his horrified mother. Rhodes was not an official member of the rangers, but rode off with them the same morning he and the other detainees were captured and executed.
Patrick Farris, the executive director of the Warren Heritage Society, called the executions of Mosby’s Rangers an example of how the “war truly hit home in Front Royal.”
“As you can imagine, this was a day when the civilian population was exposed quite directly to the brutality of war in its most lawless forms,” Farris said.
The anniversary of the executions Tuesday will be marked at 6:30 p.m. by a commemorative wreath laying ceremony at the Mosby monument in Prospect Hill Cemetery off of Prospect Street. The event, conducted by the John Singleton Mosby Chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, is free and open to the public.
The wreath laying will be followed by a lecture by historian Eric Buckland at 7:30 p.m. at the Williams Chapel CME Church at 231 Chester St., Front Royal.
Farris said the goal of the ceremony and lecture is to educate the public about some of the horrors that played out 150 years ago within sight of today’s gas stations and other places where people perform the mundane tasks of everyday living.
“The Civil War did not happen in our area in the middle of a farm field,” Farris said. “It happened among our residents, our town and our major thoroughfares.”
-nvdaily.com
###
VIRGINIA: Dinner Marks Prince George’s Footnote in the Civil War
PRINCE GEORGE — Cannon fire, bugle horns and a man riding a horse could all be seen as the county celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Great Beefsteak Raid — one of the notable footnotes in the Civil War’s Siege of Petersburg.
The gathering last week at Scott Park was the sixth annual Beefsteak Raid steak dinner that marks the Great Beefsteak Raid, which occurred Sept. 15-17, 1864, when Confederate cavalry stole cattle from Union troops in Prince George to feed starving soldiers defending Petersburg.
“It’s an interesting anniversary because it’s not necessarily a battle or taking over territory. It was about the sustainment of the troops,” Ann Easterling, a member of the Prince George Historical Society, said. “It was an effort on Gen. Wade Hampton’s part to feed his troops. It was a pretty miraculous feat too.”
During the Siege of Petersburg, Confederate troops began to face starvation. Gen. Wade Hampton discovered where he could get food, south of Union lines.
“Initially Wade Hampton discovered that the cows were very vulnerable and they devised a plan to very quickly to take their Confederate cavalry, about 4,600 men, and basically sneak around out of Dinwiddie County, come across through Sussex into Prince George, capture the cows and take them back to Petersburg,” George Fickett, historian with the Chesterfield Historical Society of Virginia, said.
The plan was a success. Not only did Confederates bring back 2,486 heads of cattle for the starving troops, but they only suffered 10 casualties.
“It’s a major event during the war and Siege of Petersburg,” Fickett said. “It was one of those things that altered the war, changed some things and boosted the morale of Confederate soldiers who were starving in Petersburg.”
It is also one of the only events to occur in what is present-day Prince George County.
Carol Bowman, executive director of the Prince George Regional Heritage Center, said the county was much larger during the Civil War, encompassing the city of Hopewell and much of what is present-day Petersburg National Battlefield.
Bowman added the event is also a fundraiser that raises $7,000 to $10,000 a year from ticket sales and events at the dinner, such as the silent auction for painted portraits.
“We’re nonprofit, we’re not part of the county government. So we have to raise our own money for operations,” Bowman said. “It’s [the Beefsteak Raid] important to Prince George history and it’s uniquely Prince George.”
Aside from Prince George County officials and citizens, Civil War re-enactors with the Dinwiddie Greys Camp 220 also attended. Cannon fire was provided by Jim Cochrane, captain of Knibbs Battery, who has done 23 sesquicentennial events so far this year.
-progress-index.com
###
