The National Park Service announced Friday that 200 acres of Civil War battlefields will be protected in three states through two million dollars from the Battlefield Land Acquisition Grant program. The sites are in Mississippi, Virginia, and West Virginia.
In West Virginia, perpetual easements are to be placed on 122 acres at the Shepherdstown Battlefield in Jefferson County, West Virginia on the site of the Faraway Farm. The site saw heavy fighting in September, 1862 along the Potomac as Confederate troops were retreating after Antietam.
I visited the site several years ago. It is only a few minutes from Antietam National Battlefield and a short distance east from Shepherdtown. The site was pretty historically intact when I visited. However, Shepherdtown has more than doubled in population in the last two decades and taking steps towards preservation in conjunction with the local county, West Virginia preservation groups and the American Battlefield Trust is appropriate now.
Here is how the National Park Service describes the newly protected Shepherdtown acres:
From the perspective of a military tactician, the high cliffs along the western bank of the Potomac River, at Boteler’s Ford near Shepherdstown, West Virginia, offer excellent defensive terrain: the bluffs pose a challenge to assaults and provide positioning for long- and short-range artillery. In late September 1862, after the Union army beat back the Confederate invasion of Maryland at Antietam, General Robert E. Lee retreated across the Potomac and left a rearguard to defend the river’s ford. Union troops suffered heavy casualties in crossing the river and trying to establish a beachhead. This rearguard action halted Federal pursuit of the retreating Confederates and cost Union Major General George McClelland his job, but the Union victory at the end of the Maryland campaign was the “turning point” that President Abraham Lincoln was seeking. On Sept. 22, 1862, Lincoln issued the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, with the promise of forever freedom to persons held in slavery in secessionist states at the stroke of the new year.
An NPS American Battlefield Protection Program 2023 Battlefield Land Acquisition Grant to the Jefferson County Historic Landmarks Commission supports the county’s collaboration with the American Battlefield Trust and the Land Trust of the Eastern Panhandle to purchase and protect nearly 122 acres of Shepherdstown Battlefield in Jefferson County, West Virginia. The project will ensure that Faraway Farm, which witnessed much of the fighting, will remain as it has been for much of the past 160 years. The partners’ “forever” commitment to preserving the farm builds on sustained preservation efforts that have protected more than 600 acres at Shepherdstown Battlefield and on our collective commitment to hope and renewal.
According to National Park Traveler, the other sites to be protected are:
- Mississippi Department of Archives and History ($136,740) for preservation of 3.06 acres at Chickasaw Bayou Battlefield in Warren County, MS.
- Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation ($536,277) for preservation of 42.19 acres at Chancellorsville Battlefield in Spotsylvania County, VA.
- Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation ($257,757) for preservation of 44.75 acres at Cedar Mountain Battlefield in Culpeper County, VA.
Note: Feature Photo from National Park Service showing part of Shepherdtown Battlefield being preserved.
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