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Dyanne Holt of Culpeper is trying to raise $150,000 for a monument to Culpeper-born Confederate Maj. Gen. A.P. Hill in his hometown. A model of the monument is at right. |
Dyanne Holt has undertaken an ambitious project to raise two statues to one of Culpeper's favorite sons. She is president of both the Culpeper chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Cedar Mountain chapter of the Order of Southern Gray.
Working with Gary Casteel, a Gettysburg, Pa., sculptor, and Patrick Falci, the actor who portrayed Hill in the movie "Gettysburg," Holt is trying to raise $150,000 to place bronze statues of the Confederate general in Culpeper and Cashtown, Pa.
Ambrose Powell Hill was born and raised in Culpeper and set up his headquarters in Cashtown during the Gettysburg campaign. Holt said that history owes Hill more credit than he has received.
"Both [Gen. Robert E.] Lee and [Gen. Stonewall] Jackson called for Hill on their death beds," she says. "He was that important to them."
Holt, a Culpeper advertising executive, said Hill was equally loved by his men.
"He was not just their leader; he was one of them," she says of the West Point graduate.
Holt's great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather fought side-by-side at the Battle of Brandy Station with the 12th Virginia Cavalry.
She has already raised several thousand dollars toward her goal and has secured a site for one of the life-size statues that will stand atop granite pedestals. But she is still seeking a home for the other.
The Pennsylvania statue will be placed on a knoll behind the Cashtown Inn on the spot where Hill and Lee conferred on July 1, 1863. A reception was held at the inn in April to kick off the fund-raising effort.
Holt has yet to find a spot in Culpeper. She said her first choice is a grassy area near the renovated railroad depot that now serves as the Chamber of Commerce office, but the town may put a fountain on that spot.
"That [site] would be perfect," she said. "The statue would be visible all the way down Davis Street and those who pass by on Amtrak could see it."
Holt is continuing her fund-raising efforts.
Casteel has created a 12-inch-high crushed pecan resin miniature of the statue Holt is selling. A limited number of bonded bronze statues are also on sale.
The Pennsylvania artist has produced a bas-relief of Hill, as well as a miniature of Hill's Cashtown headquarters. Profits from the sale of these items will go to the monument fund.
A.P. Hill T-shirts also are being sold. Holt said she welcomes donations.
The project has the backing of the local Daughters of the Confederacy chapter and the Southern Gray, but those groups are not directly involved in raising money. A special incorporated Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill Monument Fund has been set up for fund-raising purposes.
"I read once that Hill's daughter said that not enough credit was ever given to her father so I wanted to try and do something about it," Holt said. "I would especially like to see this done for him in Culpeper."
Casteel, who once lived near Woodstock, Va., agreed. He said he is happy to see Holt's effort get national attention in several prominent Civil War re-enactment publications. The owner of Four Winds Studio said that the only statue of Hill is in Richmond.
"There's virtually nothing in Culpeper, where he was born, and nothing in Gettysburg," Casteel says.
Hill was born in 1825 and received an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy on petition of 31 influential Culpeper-area citizens. He graduated in 1847 and served in both the Mexican and Seminole wars.
Hill resigned his U.S. Army commission in 1861 to join the Confederate army. In addition to Gettysburg, he fought in the battles of Fredericksburg, Cedar Mountain, Second Manassas, Antietam and Chancellorsville. He was killed at Petersburg on April 2, 1865, as the Confederate army began evacuating its defenses there.
Hill's boyhood home, now an office building, still stands at the corner of Main and Davis streets in Culpeper.
For more information on the Hill Monument Fund, call Holt at 540/547-3896 or write to Box 1115, Culpeper, Va. 22701. Information also is available on the Web at aphill.port5.com.
