A Small Victory in Preserving the State's History

The clock is ticking on thousands of acres of important Civil War battlefields in Virginia, battlefields that would help future generations better understand the bloody conflict that divided America between 1861 and 1865.

Many of those acres — particularly those in Northern Virginia — remain vulnerable to development and the roads and highways that come with it.

There was welcome news, however, last week that nearly 210 acres near Winchester in the Shenandoah Valley will be preserved under a $3.35 million public-private purchase agreement.

As The Associated Press reported, the deal will create a 575-acre preserve that remains much as it was nearly 150 years ago when the Third Battle of Winchester was fought by tens of thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers.

The property was purchased through a partnership that includes the Shenandoah Battlefields Foundation, the Civil War Preservation Trust, the state of Virginia and private partners. The parties involved must raise an additional $690,000 in private money to reach the purchase price.

Historian David W. Lowe has described the Third Winchester as “the largest and most desperately contested battle of the Civil War in the Shenandoah Valley.”

He wrote in a study for the National Park Service that the property east of Winchester ranked among the bloodiest fields of the Civil War with more than 3,000 casualties.

More than 54,000 troops on both sides fought in the battle that began on Sept. 19, 1864.

It was the opening volley of Union Gen. Philip Sheridan’s Shenandoah campaign — a campaign that left a trail of destruction for nearly 100 miles to the south.

James Lighthizer, president of the Civil War Preservation Trust, called attention to the importance of preserving the battlefield when he said, “This is a stage where a great event occurred. It’s a place where people will come and imagine what happened here. They’re actually walking where these people walked.”

That gets to the core of the importance of preserving the battlefields. The historical record is replete with details of these important battles, details that include who fought there, how the battle was waged and how it turned out. Being able to walk across that battlefield, however, brings realism to the strife of the past that would not be otherwise possible.

Once the purchase of the property is completed, the preservation groups will create interpretative trails.

Despite the purchase announced last week, only a fraction of the area at Third Winchester has been protected. In the Shenandoah Valley, more than 17,000 acres of core battlefield land remain vulnerable to development, according to preservationists.

Development threatens some 50,000 acres of unprotected battlefields throughout the state.

“We have to be very conscious that the hour is getting short and we have little time to preserve,” said Kathleen S. Kilpatrick, director of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

She’s right. Time is running out on many of the historic battlefield sites from the Civil War.

Only a renewed sense of history, combined with the stewardship offered by nonprofit groups like the ones that have bought the Winchester site, can reverse that trend for the future.