The passage of time never ceases to amaze me. For all that I talk about us being in “the forever business” and spend my days thinking about events that happened 160 or 240-something years ago, it can be easy to lose sight of the rate at which the wheels of preservation turn.
Today I want to tell you about the ultimate fate, the full-circle moment for a 29-acre property at White Oak Road that we bought in 2001. I was only in my third year with the Trust, and the organization looked much different than it does now: smaller staff, fewer members and a much smaller preservation footprint in terms of acres, sites and states.
When we first bought that land, we couldn’t have transferred it to the National Park Service. But with patience and an act of Congress expanding the authorized boundary beyond the siege to include the broader campaign, it is now – 22 years later! – a part of Petersburg National Battlefield. All told, in the last few months, we’ve seen four properties totaling 44 acres integrated into three different national parks.
Strategic Advance – White Oak Road
On March 31, 1865, in combination with Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan’s cavalry thrust via Dinwiddie Court House, Maj. Gen. Gouverneur Warren directed his V Corps against Confederate entrenchments along White Oak Road, hoping to cut General Robert E. Lee’s communications with his men at Five Forks.
The 29 acres now owned by the National Park Service are crucial to understanding and interpreting the initial phases of the battle where severe fighting occurred and three undersized Confederate brigades managed to turn the Federal left flank and drive two Union divisions from the field in what historian A. Wilson Green calls “a remarkable tactical achievement.” When the Union’s counterattack succeeded, Confederate forces retreated across this very land.
In their push forward, the Union troops had gained possession of White Oak Road west of the Confederate entrenchments and successfully cut off Lee’s ability to later support Maj. Gen. George Pickett and Maj. Gen. W.H. Fitzhugh Lee at Five Forks, setting the stage for a Union victory there on April 1.
Securing Shiloh
Two victories in Shiloh, Tenn., total nearly 8 acres transferred to the National Park service in October. They include a 1.88-acre tract that played a role on the first day of the Battle of Shiloh, when Mississippi Regiments from Brig. Gen. James Chalmers’ brigade advanced over this tract to engage elements of Col. David Stuart’s brigade of Brig. Gen. William T. Sherman’s division. The federals managed to hold on against the Confederate onslaught for about 90 minutes before they withdrew.
The larger, 5.81-acre property is in the rear area where the initial Union camp was established at Pittsburg Landing prior to the battle. On the night of April 6, 1862, exhausted Union soldiers took refuge here behind Union Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s Last Line, even as they general pledged he would “Lick ’em tomorrow though.”
A Stones Throw
Also now part of a national park is a little over 6 acres associated with fighting on the final day of the Battle of Stones River January 2, 1863. As a Confederate attack pushed toward the ford, they came within range of 57 Union cannon massed on the west side of the Stones River. General George Crittenden watched as his guns went to work, later reporting: “[Brig. Gen. Horatio] Van Cleve’s Division of my command was retiring down the opposite slope, before overwhelming numbers of the enemy, when the guns...opened upon the swarming enemy. The very forest seemed to fall...and not a Confederate reached the river.”
Stones River National Battlefield can be viewed as an island surrounded by sprawl, making each acquisition there, and each addition to the park, precious. We’re especially pleased because the Trust protected an adjacent 42-acre tract that will also help ensure the preservation of this section of the battlefield.
I am so grateful for the supporters who make this work possible. So many of you are with us for the “long haul” -- even if it takes us two decades for a preservation story to reach its conclusion! And we do have plenty more work ahead of us: right now, we’re seeking to save 343 acres spread across the crucial battlefields at Chickamauga, Brice’s Cross Roads, Wyse Fork, Bentonville, and Shiloh. Learn more about the exceptional matching funds that will help us tell the full story of the Civil War on the land where it unfolded.
Til the Battle, etc.
David N. Duncan, President
American Battlefield Trust