Posted on 09/16/2004 3:26:44 PM PDT by yonif
(AP) - A portion of the battlefield where Gen. Robert E. Lee's outnumbered Confederate forces defeated Union soldiers in 1863 will be spared from development under a proposed deal preservationists call a model for other Civil War sites.
The agreement to set aside 57 hectares of the "core" Chancellorsville battlefield marks a breakthrough in a long campaign to save part of the land.
The national Civil War Preservation Trust compared the deal to the successful effort to defeat Walt Disney Co.'s plans 10 years ago to build a theme park near Manassas National Battlefield.
"We see this as the beginning of a trend of battlefield preservationists working with developers," trust spokesman Jim Campi said Wednesday.
Under the agreement, the trust would pay developer Tricord Homes of Spotsylvania $3 million for 57 hectares near Fredericksburg. Tricord Homes would forfeit its right to build retail space on its remaining property along a heavily travelled road nearby and also would agree to set back homes 300 metres from the road.
In exchange, Spotsylvania officials would permit Tricord to build 294 homes for adults on three parcels - roughly 220 more homes than allowed under current zoning.
The deal is subject to approval by the Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors.
From May 1 to May 3, 1863, Lee's forces stopped the Union from wresting Fredericksburg from the Confederacy. Chancellorsville also was the last battle where Lee and Confederate Lt.-Gen. Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson fought together. Jackson was mortally wounded on the second day of the battle.
"Historians refer to it as one of the most important battles of the Civil War," Campi said.
"It's often referred to as Lee's greatest military victory."
Although the 57 hectares are outside the boundaries of Chancellorsville National Battlefield, preservationists said parts are nonetheless historically significant. The property to be preserved includes an area east of what is known as Lick Run, where Union and Confederate troops clashed on the first day of the three-day battle.
Russell Smith, the park's superintendent, said the land provides "a green gateway to the battlefield."
Oh, s/he always does this. If we just ignore it, maybe sh/e'll lose interest.
We had one today on another thread that stated that the Union should have exterminated every living Southerner. They hate us with a passion.
Did you foget the sarcasm tag, or are you really that uneducated?
Your interlocutor is posting from Indiana. Usually Indianans are better-disposed, and certainly better-mannered, than this guy, who by his demeanor is probably from someplace like New York or New Jersey. Just a WAG.
He probably has a complex psych history and profile, which being nice people we don't want to get into judging, so just ignore him and eventually he'll go off and micturate on something else.
What really annoyed him was that you and GOPcapitalist and nolu chan had just beaten him like a drum with argument, documentation, sweet reason, and generally just knowing what the hell you're talking about.
It tends to make for a cranky Yankee.
Yeah, I've seen that one around, too. They just like to push our buttons to make us light up (so to speak). My ideal would be that we'll all pretend they don't exist, and go on discussing our heritage. Hateful people are condemned to misery, just by being themselves.
Gianni and myself added a post or two on that one I believe. It's hard to defend a socialist agenda when conservatives bring facts to the debate.
Delighted that they'll have more of the battlefield saved! It's always disappointing when you go to do a battlefield (Murfreesboro/Stones River springs to mind) and more than half the action is somewhere outside the battlefield park.
They have to believe their cause was just, or it means they were the agressors fighting against self-government.
Don't confuse forgiveness with vindication. The neo-rebs make this point all the time, but it doesn't fly. Just because the north was lenient and wanted to reunite the country as quickly as possible doesn't mean the rebels weren't guilty.
Deo Vindice!
Even worse when they simply ignore the facts, and the opinions of someone with almost 29 years on the court, over some historian that doesn't understand the legal difference between citizens, natives and aliens.
I wish ALL battlefields were preserved in toto.
Nobody is much of a slouch on those boards. Though some of them do seem to wear a slouch hat! (Yeeee, haaaaa!)
Thanks for the ping.
It really wouldn't have done the nation any good to round 'em all up and hang them, although that probably would have made Confederate revisionists less noisy.
You can look at places like Iraq to see what happens when one side trashes the other ~ they never forget!
George Washington was offered a pardon by the British - he refused, saying he had done nothing wrong. His allegiance was to his state, not to the British crown.
I visited Chancellorsville and Fredericksburg in '90 and again in '94.
Chancellorsville is a fantastic battlefield and I most enjoyed driving the route of Jackson's flank march. As I drove on those dirt roads, I tried to imagine long columns of Confederate troops hurrying along and Jackson riding among them on Little Sorrell.
But I'm confused as to where this parcel of acreage is located. Can anyone give me a little help here?
Hmmmmm ... (thoughtful pause) ... I think some people just get a bug up their b*tt, one way or another. The local SCV chapter here won't display the United States flag because they say "You can't serve two masters." A bit loopy, IMO, and not the sort we want teaching history to our Cub Scouts.
However we wish things might have turned out, past is past.
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