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CVBT plans to buy another 20 acres near Po River in the Spotsylvania Court House battlefield. Date published: 8/24/2002
As battlefield land in one part of Spotsylvania County teeters on the brink of development, a chunk farther south is being preserved. The Central Virginia Battlefields Trust last week put a $10,000 down payment on 20 acres near the Po River in the Spotsylvania Court House battlefield. "This is all part of our mission," said John D. Mitchell, president of the local, nonprofit trust. "It's wilderness there now, but at one time 99 percent of Spotsylvania was wilderness. There's no telling what it will look like 50 years from now." The trust is also working with a coalition of preservation groups to buy 800 acres off State Route 3 in the Chancellorsville battlefield. That land is slated for commercial and residential development. The Po River site complements a 20-acre parcel nearby that the trust bought last September. "We feel this further protects National Park Service land across the river," Mitchell said. The Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park owns about 1,500 acres of the Spotsylvania Court House battlefield. The park includes a sliver of land reaching to the Po. The trust's new piece is across the river from the park, at a bend in the Po where the Blockhouse Bridge once stood. Fighting along the Po River was just one part of the larger battle at Spotsylvania Court House, which lasted two weeks. On May 9, 1864, under orders from Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, the 2nd Corps crossed the Po River using pontoon bridges just south of what today is Hancock Drive. Union Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock had difficulty recrossing the river to assail the left and rear flanks of the Confederate army as Grant had ordered. Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee saw this as an opportunity to isolate Hancock's men from the rest of the Union army. Before Hancock could retreat, the Confederates attacked. The fighting raged near what was then Shady Grove Church Road, now Robert E. Lee Drive. The Union troops had to work to get their forces back across the river to safety. Grant then refocused his attacks at Laurel Hill and the Muleshoe bulge. "The old Blockhouse Bridge was one of the key features at the battle at Po River," said Erik Nelson, a trust board member. The trust will pay $40,000 for the parcel, and plans to close on it within 30 days. Retired developer Jerry Leonard owns the site, Mitchell said. "It's a real nice piece of property with frontage along the Po," Mitchell said. Unlike the site the trust bought last year, this piece does not have Civil War earthworks and has more wetlands. There are some new homes in that area. The nonprofit trust has protected land involved in all of the four major Civil War battles fought here. It has had a hand in preserving portions of battlefields in Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and the Wilderness. The trust said it doesn't plan to buy a lot of land south of the Po River, but these sites were two identified by the group as important. "This allows a better interpretation of the Po River fighting," Nelson said.
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