"The Shenandoh valley? You mean there's still farms worth burning there? Get my horse!"
Posted on 10/20/2003 6:06:38 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
HARRISONBURG, Va. - Sculptor Gary Casteel has suggested the Upper Shenandoah Valley as a good location for a national Civil War memorial.
Casteel pitched the memorial as a tourism draw as well of a place of reverence during a meeting recently with the Civil War subcommittee of the Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance, a nonprofit group working to revitalize Harrisonburg's city center.
"It was sort of a surprise for me and the group," said Eddie Bumbaugh, executive director of the organization.
The subcommittee had been focusing on a series of signs providing information on the downtown's Civil War history, he said. Bumbaugh also said Casteel's idea would require a lot of research and consideration.
The proposed memorial, surrounded by flags of the 36 states then in the country, would include circular 10-foot granite walls enclosing a park area. Along the interiors of the walls, bas-relief tablets would depict events of the war.
Two statues would greet visitors at each opening. They would represent soldiers from the North and the South and various branches of the army and navy.
Other statues would depict the emotions experienced during the war. The center of the memorial would feature two statues representing old veterans, one North and one South, sitting with children around them.
To bring the memorial to the region, Casteel predicted the community would have to provide land and seed money to begin raising funds for the project, estimated to cost $8 to 10 million. The National Civil War Memorial Commission, however, already is working to help create it.
Commission President Rodney Cromeans said the sculpture would represent the entire war's scope. The Valley became the Confederacy's breadbasket during the war. Major military campaigns swept through the area in 1862, 1863 and 1864.
The final sweep resulted in the burning of crops and killing of livestock. Union forces systematically put the torch to Page and Shenandoah counties.
"There is a tremendous need to honor the soldiers," Cromeans said. "There are so many monuments out there at different battlefields. The common soldier has pretty much been left behind. This memorial not only wants to honor battles, not only honor generals, but the soldiers themselves."
A panel of historians from the North and the South would determine which representations would be included on the memorial. Casteel would then sculpt them, Cromeans said.
Casteel's work includes an equestrian statue of Confederate Gen. James "Pete" Longstreet in Gettysburg, Pa., and the tablets at the Old Soldiers Cemetery in Mount Jackson.
The Upper Valley is not the first location Casteel has suggested for the national Civil War memorial. He has taken his concept to Gettysburg, the site of a three-day battle in 1863; Sharpsburg, Md., with the nearby Antietam battlefield; and Appomattox Court House in Virginia, the site of Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender to Gen. Ulysses Grant, as well as other locations.
Bump.
in the southland, THOUSANDS of innocent civilian women & children were tortured, robbed, raped, abused & MURDERED by the "filth that flowed down from the north".
especially targeted for abuse were poor whites, indians,blacks, recent immigrants & jews;furthermore, the poorer you were in the occupied south, the more likely you were to be an innocent victim of the WAR CRIMINALS. FEW rich white ladies/gentlemen (despite the movie, few "Scarletts" had to shoot yankee soldiers in the parlour!) were victimized!
free dixie,sw
"The Shenandoh valley? You mean there's still farms worth burning there? Get my horse!"
Well, we have equestrian statues of CW generals all over the place. There's the frieze on the Pension Building (now the National Building Museum). There's the African American Civil War Memorial. Not forgetting the artillerymen/horses/caissons flanking U.S. Grant at the foot of the Capitol Building. I'm sure I'm leaving a few out, but that's a start.
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