Most Endangered Battlefields 2008
Cedar Creek, Va.
October 19, 1864
By the fall of 1864, the Confederate hold on Virginia’s fertile Shenandoah Valley was slipping, thanks to a string of devastating blows dealt by Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan’s Union army. But rather than let the region’s barns, fields and mills be put to the torch, a total war tactic known in the Valley simply as “the Burning,” Confederate commander Lt. Gen. Jubal Early planned for one last stand.
On the morning of October 19, Early’s forces attacked unprepared elements of Sheridan’s army at Cedar Creek, nearly driving them from the field. However, a timely northern counter-attack turned the tide and sealed the fate of the Shenandoah Valley.
Threat
Local activists in Frederick County, Va., are fighting a proposal to expand a limestone mining operation onto 639 acres immediately adjacent to Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park — property that, according to the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, is at least 60 percent core battlefield.
Although the county planning commission voted by an
8-4 margin against the mining proposal in June 2006, it has yet to go before the Board of Supervisors for an ultimate decision. In the interim, preservationists in the group Preserve Frederick have crafted their own compromise plan, which CWPT supports. “Plan B,” as it has become known, would protect the northerly, more historically significant portion of the land up for rezoning, while allowing mining to expand to the south of the current plant, buffered from the park. Though only 158 acres, the site espoused by Plan B contains a limestone vein rich enough to keep the plant in business for three decades.
In addition, Cedar Creek faces two additional threats: the proposed widening of I-81, including a flyover interchange on the battlefield at the junction of I-81 and I-66; and its inclusion within the proposed National Interest Electric Transmission corridor, a plan that threatens several battlefields in Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
CWSAC classified Cedar Creek as a Priority I, Class A battlefield — its highest designation.
Resources for Cedar Creek
- Cedar Creek National Historical Park
- Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation
- CWSAC Battle Summary of Cedar Creek
MOST ENDANGERED BATTLEFIELDS:
Cedar Creek, Virginia
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