Tag: Confederacy

Shepherdstown Battlefield Getting $492,000 Grant To Preserve Farmland

The Jefferson County Farmland Protection Board will use the funding to preserve 149 acres that played a role in the lesser-known battle that took place days after Antietam in September 1862.

The National Park Service is giving a $492,000 grant to preserve farmland that was part of the Civil War battle of Shepherdstown.

The Jefferson County Farmland Protection Board will use the funding to preserve 149 acres that played a role in the lesser-known battle that took place days after Antietam in September 1862.

Confederate troops fought off the Union Army at Shepherdstown, which was then in Virginia. 

When they returned to the Potomac River to push north into Pennsylvania the following year, West Virginia had become a state, and a part of the Union.

The preserved acreage will be protected from development but still produce hay and alfalfa.

“The conservation easements this funding will be used for will also ensure that farmers with land in the area can continue to earn a living and help feed America while protecting a piece of American history that is our duty to remember,” said U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia.

Another 2023 Battlefield Land Acquisition Grant of $927,000 was awarded to the Jefferson County Historic Landmarks Commission to preserve another 122 acres along the Potomac where most of the battle took place.

Sept. 12, 1861: The Battle of Cheat Mountain is Fought Near the Randolph-Pocahontas County Line

On September 12, 1861, the Battle of Cheat Mountain was fought near the Randolph-Pocahontas County line. Taking place just five months into the Civil War, the battle was a significant loss for the Confederacy.

General Robert E. Lee—at the time commander of the Department of Northwestern Virginia—was trying to protect railroad lines in Western Virginia while keeping what would become northern West Virginia in Confederate hands, thereby thwarting the young statehood movement.

Before the battle, Lee’s subordinate, William Loring, gathered his forces on Valley Mountain. Brigadier General Joseph Reynolds, commander of the U.S. forces, had his headquarters at Elkwater and a strongly fortified post atop Cheat Mountain in Randolph County.

Continual rainfall bogged down the Confederate attack, which was foiled further by the discovery of Southern troops by Union pickets. Lee abandoned his original plan and ordered an advance against Elkwater. The Confederate troops, who were described as being “too wet and too hungry to fight,” were easily repelled.

Colonel John A. Washington, Lee’s aide-de-camp and the last owner of Mount Vernon, was killed while scouting for Lee at Elkwater.

Sept. 14, 1862 – Confederate Artillery Launches Opening Barrage in Battle of Harpers Ferry

On September 14, 1862, Confederate artillery launched the opening barrage in the Battle of Harpers Ferry, initiating perhaps the most important Civil War conflict in present West Virginia.

Harpers Ferry was key to Confederate Commander Robert E. Lee’s strategy in invading Maryland. Union forces stationed at Harpers Ferry stood in the way of Lee’s supply line. Lee dispatched “Stonewall” Jackson to capture Martinsburg, which fell without a shot, and then take Harpers Ferry.

Jackson positioned his artillery on mountain heights that towered above Harpers Ferry. Union commander Dixon Miles had haphazardly allowed his troops to be trapped in a bowl in the middle of the heights. By the next morning, Jackson had pounded the Union garrison into submission. Miles was killed by a blast shortly after the surrender.

Jackson’s capture of nearly 13,000 Union forces was the largest surrender of a Northern army during the Civil War and the third largest surrender of a United States army in history.

Two days later, Confederate troops arrived from Harpers Ferry just in time to save the day for Robert E. Lee in the waning moments of the Battle of Antietam.

Us & Them: A Confederate Reckoning

In the summer of 2015, Us & Them was approached by two American-born journalists, Roopa Gogineni (who grew up in Charleston and graduated from my alma mater George Washington High School) and Mike Onyiego.

In the summer of 2015, Us & Them was approached by two American-born journalists, Roopa Gogineni (who grew up in Charleston and graduated from my alma mater George Washington High School) and Mike Onyiego.  

For years, these two have been based in East Africa reporting on the civil war conflicts simmering there.  From that part of the world, they were fascinated with the news reports about the mass shooting at a Bible study group at a Baptist church in Charleston, SC. and the subsequent call from many to take down Confederate flags and monuments that were on display in southern cities.

These efforts were met with some animated protest by people who feel these icons are a cherished part of their heritage and were willing to fight to keep them in place.  

Roopa and Mike were inspired to travel back to U.S. soil and use their war reporting skills to examine a Civil War in American that, after a century and a half, still seems to be unfinished.  They traveled to New Orleans where there was a hot battle over the city’s efforts to take town three long-standing statues honoring Confederate heroes – including a statute of Robert E. Lee. 

They found that Old Rebels are not prepared to “go gently into that good night.”  Their reporting wrestles with the question: “Can we reconcile different versions of history?”

Us & Them is a joint project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting and Trey Kay Productions, with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council.

You can subscribe to Us & Them on iTunes and Stitcher, and listen on the podcast’s website.

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