Part of Wilderness to be bought

In record time, preservationists aim to save part of the heart of Orange County's Wilderness battlefield.

The 55,000-member Civil War Preservation Trust announced yesterday that it is working to buy 49 acres beside the battlefield's best-known landscape, Saunders Field along State Route 20.

During a press conference at Saunders Field, CWPT President Jim Lighthizer called the effort one of the five most pressing battlefield-preservation efforts in the nation.

The property, owned for the past 50 years by Orange County resident Warren Middlebrook, is bordered on three sides by Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park and on the north by Lake of the Woods. It fronts Route 20 and adjoins the site of the park's Saunders Field exhibit shelter, where tens of thousands of visitors come each year to learn about the May 1864 battle.

After months of intense negotiations, Middlebrook--who lives on the property--signed a contract with CWPT to sell his land for $1,085,000, a hefty price because of its history, road frontage and location.

Middlebrook's final request was for a signed copy of James M. McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom," which he received yesterday as the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian looked on.

McPherson, who lives in Princeton, N.J., and Virginia's natural resources chief came to Orange to encourage the trust's new campaign, stressing its importance to the commonwealth and the nation.

Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources Doug Domenech, formerly a top official in President George W. Bush's Department of the Interior, praised the deal as one destined to boost what he called the "three E's" of conservation: environment, economic well-being and education.

Its acquisition will help achieve Gov. Bob McDonnell's commitment to preserve 400,000 acres of open space, including historic sites, during his tenure, he said.

Preservation of such a prime parcel also will contribute to Virginia's observance--beginning next year --of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and emancipation, Domenech said. "More than 380,000 soldiers from both sides died on our soil, and it's very important for us to recognize their sacrifice," the Cabinet officer said.

McPherson, considered by many to be the dean of Civil War historians, said the Orange tract is significant in telling the story of how the United States emerged--whole--from its bloodiest conflict.

The nation's "hinge of fate" turned on what happened at the Wilderness, he said.

Had Union commanders retreated after the bloody stalemate in the tangled underbrush and woods of Orange and Spotsylvania, which left nearly 30,000 casualties, the war might have ended very differently, McPherson said.

"Maybe the Confederate States of America would exist today as an independent, separate entity. The United States of America could have become the 'disunited states of America,'" he said. "What happened here in the Wilderness shaped the world in which all of us live today."

In a new strategy, Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant turned south immediately after the battle to pursue Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's army toward Richmond. His decision surprised many Union veterans, who had expected another Chancellorsville-like "skedaddle."

The Wilderness launched Grant's Overland Campaign, 11 months of nonstop fighting that ended with Lee's surrender at Appomattox, McPherson noted.

Raising the money to buy Middlebrook's property, which must be done privately, will be a challenge--especially given the nation's difficult economy, Lighthizer acknowledged. But the trust seeks to close the deal by year's end, he said.

John Janson, a longtime CWPT member in Wisconsin, has started things off with a $100,000 gift--the largest donation yet made through the trust's website.

Acquiring the Middlebrook property has long been a priority for the National Park Service, park Superintendent Russ Smith said.

None of the participants in yesterday's event mentioned it, but CWPT and Orange County are in court over a planned development about a mile down Route 20: a Walmart-anchored retail center that has drawn national opposition because of its proximity to the battlefield park.

The Wilderness battlefield's Middlebrook tract was the scene of major combat on May 5 and 6, 1864, as forces led by Lee and Grant clashed for the first time.

Because the Saunders Field area was one of the few large clearings on the battlefield, fighting there was especially fierce.

For his valor there trying to save a mortally wounded comrade on May 5, Lt. John Patterson of the 11th U.S. Infantry was awarded the Medal of Honor.

The next day, a dramatic counterattack on the Middlebrook tract turned the tide of a major Confederate onslaught that threatened to outflank the Union army.

Part of Wilderness to be bought

October 28, 2010 12:35 am