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Preserving Saltville's Civil War battlefields
Preserving Saltville's Civil War battlefields
DAN KEGLEY -- Staff
Smyth County News
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Saltville took its first step toward adopting a battlefield protection program Thursday in a meeting that explored the importance of the town’s two 1864 Civil War battles sites.
This wasn’t an “official” town meeting, Dr. Robert Whisonant of Radford University observed. But it didn’t have to be. Whisonant told the group the key element of battlefield preservation is community support, although endorsement by the town council will be important to its success.
The group consensus was voiced by some who said, “Let’s do it.”
Battlefield protection is often a grassroots effort, the best way to approach the subject when so much land deserving protection is in private ownership.
Whisonant, a geology professor who has led projects to map the Saltville battlefields, told the gathering of local historians, re-enactors, Museum of the Middle Appalachians board members and others that the Confederate earthworks on hills surrounding the vital salt wells and evaporation furnaces is a defensive system important enough to understanding the area’s military actions to deserve national status.
The old forts, who have names like Hatton and Walnut Street on hills north of the wellfields, and Breckenridge and Statham to the south, as well as the Broady Bottom and Sanders Hill, Cedar Creek and Elizabeth Cemetery, fall into core areas and study areas, depending on whether one is considering the October battle or the December battle in 1864.
In October, Union forces marched on the town from the east, arriving via Richlands and points as far west as Kentucky. Confederate defenders repulsed the attack and saved the salt operations. In December, marching from Chilhowie and Marion, the federals slipped in under cover of rain and fog and were in the valley before the defenders knew it, overrunning gun emplacements at forts Statham and Breckenridge and interrupting salt production.
The Saltville battle sites are made more important to preservationists because they and the town are one and the same. Many Civil war battlefields are on farmland or the outskirts of towns where sprawl is expanding urban areas and destroying an acre of battlefield every 10 minutes, Whisonant said. The battlefield at Chancellorsville, for example, “is in the sticks,” he said.
Historian Jeff Weaver suggested Harper’s Ferry, W.Va., as a model to follow in designing a protection plan for Saltville because of Civil War sites protected within that town.
Whisonant, geophysicist Dr.Rhett Herman, and anthropology professor and archaeologist Dr. Cliff Boyd, all of Radford University, who have used their respective disciplines in the battlefield mapping, were careful to avoid making recommendations to the group, but instead offered suggestions based on the importance of the town’s sites.
After gauging the audience’s response to their presentation and the idea of a preservation plan, the Radford group did offer to write a grant proposal for plan funding. Protection plans can cost between $10,000 and $20,000, according to Virginia Department of Historic Resources archaeologist Tom Klatka. The grant would come from the U.S. Park Service which they expected to support protection in Saltville.
Klatka said once federal funding is secured, the town could apply to a state funding program that would pay half of the plan’s cost. The town could use the federal dollars for the other half.
Property owners on whose land the fortifications are located can apply for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, which Klatka described as a largely honorific status that does not restrict landowners’ use of the site. Klatka said one can list a house, for example, then “bulldoze it or paint it purple. No one can stop you.”
The protection is against threats like utility development. Klatka said he was involved in encouraging the town of Floyd to become listed on the register, but the efforts failed because of unfounded concerns about property rights. But when a power line’s proposed route passed through the town, the listing seemed more attractive, and once in place, forced the rerouting of the power line.
Whisonant offered to come back and present the matter to the town council to encourage its support of developing the battlefield protection plan.
http://www.smythnews.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=SCN/MGArticle/SCN_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149191588085&path=!home
Preserving Saltville's Civil War battlefields
DAN KEGLEY -- Staff
Smyth County News
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Saltville took its first step toward adopting a battlefield protection program Thursday in a meeting that explored the importance of the town’s two 1864 Civil War battles sites.
This wasn’t an “official” town meeting, Dr. Robert Whisonant of Radford University observed. But it didn’t have to be. Whisonant told the group the key element of battlefield preservation is community support, although endorsement by the town council will be important to its success.
The group consensus was voiced by some who said, “Let’s do it.”
Battlefield protection is often a grassroots effort, the best way to approach the subject when so much land deserving protection is in private ownership.
Whisonant, a geology professor who has led projects to map the Saltville battlefields, told the gathering of local historians, re-enactors, Museum of the Middle Appalachians board members and others that the Confederate earthworks on hills surrounding the vital salt wells and evaporation furnaces is a defensive system important enough to understanding the area’s military actions to deserve national status.
The old forts, who have names like Hatton and Walnut Street on hills north of the wellfields, and Breckenridge and Statham to the south, as well as the Broady Bottom and Sanders Hill, Cedar Creek and Elizabeth Cemetery, fall into core areas and study areas, depending on whether one is considering the October battle or the December battle in 1864.
In October, Union forces marched on the town from the east, arriving via Richlands and points as far west as Kentucky. Confederate defenders repulsed the attack and saved the salt operations. In December, marching from Chilhowie and Marion, the federals slipped in under cover of rain and fog and were in the valley before the defenders knew it, overrunning gun emplacements at forts Statham and Breckenridge and interrupting salt production.
The Saltville battle sites are made more important to preservationists because they and the town are one and the same. Many Civil war battlefields are on farmland or the outskirts of towns where sprawl is expanding urban areas and destroying an acre of battlefield every 10 minutes, Whisonant said. The battlefield at Chancellorsville, for example, “is in the sticks,” he said.
Historian Jeff Weaver suggested Harper’s Ferry, W.Va., as a model to follow in designing a protection plan for Saltville because of Civil War sites protected within that town.
Whisonant, geophysicist Dr.Rhett Herman, and anthropology professor and archaeologist Dr. Cliff Boyd, all of Radford University, who have used their respective disciplines in the battlefield mapping, were careful to avoid making recommendations to the group, but instead offered suggestions based on the importance of the town’s sites.
After gauging the audience’s response to their presentation and the idea of a preservation plan, the Radford group did offer to write a grant proposal for plan funding. Protection plans can cost between $10,000 and $20,000, according to Virginia Department of Historic Resources archaeologist Tom Klatka. The grant would come from the U.S. Park Service which they expected to support protection in Saltville.
Klatka said once federal funding is secured, the town could apply to a state funding program that would pay half of the plan’s cost. The town could use the federal dollars for the other half.
Property owners on whose land the fortifications are located can apply for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, which Klatka described as a largely honorific status that does not restrict landowners’ use of the site. Klatka said one can list a house, for example, then “bulldoze it or paint it purple. No one can stop you.”
The protection is against threats like utility development. Klatka said he was involved in encouraging the town of Floyd to become listed on the register, but the efforts failed because of unfounded concerns about property rights. But when a power line’s proposed route passed through the town, the listing seemed more attractive, and once in place, forced the rerouting of the power line.
Whisonant offered to come back and present the matter to the town council to encourage its support of developing the battlefield protection plan.
http://www.smythnews.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=SCN/MGArticle/SCN_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149191588085&path=!home
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