One-tank road trips: June 2008 Archives

Background post: Stuart's Ride reenactment

Just a reminder that this event is coming up later this week! For more information, or to request "will call" tickets, please see their website.

Background post: One-tank trips: Belle Grove Plantation.

Recently, author and blogger Eric J. Wittenberg posted an article about a sell-out by a previously well respected historical preservation group that traded the rights to mine historical property in exchange for a token piece of land that abuts their holdings (the original article follows). The sad tale reminded me of the ill-fated and illogical swap the National Park Service did with Gettysburg College a few years ago that forever ruined a key portion of the first day's battlefield at Gettysburg. Short-sighted, short-term thinking often clouds longer-term judgement, and we are left with a scarred landscape that can never be restored properly.

Here in York County, similar preservation efforts have been underway for years to try to save the Camp Security prisoner-of-war site from the American Revolution. Recently, the skirmish field at Wrightsville has been compromised by new construction, and other sites of interest to the historian are long gone in the name of "progress." I was in Kernstown, Virginia, last weekend and heartily applaud the efforts of the locals there in the last five years to band together to save, preserve, and interpret a key part of the three Kernstown battlefields, although much has already been lost.

Background posts: Shenandoah battlefields, Winchester battlefields.

During my recent trip to the Shenandoah Valley, I stopped by the Cedar Creek Battlefield, site of the 1864 thrashing Phil Sheridan placed upon the forces of Jubal Early (which including a large number of regiments that had sojourned in York the previous summer during the Gettysburg Campaign). Early was initially winning the fight, highlighted by John B. Gordon's hard-hitting attack on Union camps on the Belle Grove plantation. Early was unable to capitalize on the morning's progress, and, after a stirring ride down the Valley Pike from Winchester, Phil Sheridan arrived and stabilized the Union line before launching a decisive counterattack.

Pennsylvania monument on the eastern side of the New Market battlefield, just off of U.S. Route 11 (the Valley Pike)

Debi and I spent Saturday afternoon at the Luray Caverns in Luray, Virginia. These are definitely the most spectacular caves I have ever toured! Very impressive indeed! They were discovered in the decade after the Civil War and were exploited to help draw tourists' dollars to the war-torn Luray Valley.

We drove back to our hotel in Winchester on U.S. Route 11, pausing at a few places to take in the Civil War scenery and various wayside markers. Among our early stops was the Battlefield of New Market, where I briefly took a few photos of a section of the battlefield I had not been to before. The New Market battlefield is well preserved, and is about three hours from York. There, the VMI cadets gained fame for their charge on Sigel's Yankees.

Courtesy of Winchester-Frederick County Convention & Visitors Bureau. Used by permission.

Debi and I are spending the weekend in historic Winchester, Virginia, a town that changed hands during the Civil War more than seventy times. This area is rife with Civil War history and old battlefields, although few have been well preserved. First, Second, and Third Winchester are poorly preserved, although there are some nice parts such as Fort Collier and the Star Fort. Better preserved are the nearby First and Second Kernstown battlefields, parts of which are quite pristine.

Winchester is about two-and-a-half hours south of York in the scenic Shenandoah Valley just off of I-81. It's an easy drive, and there are many good hotels in the area for an overnight stay.

Tucked away near Seven Valleys in southern York County, Pennsylvania, is the tiny hamlet of Hanover Junction. Now mostly known to locals as an important rest stop and parking lot on the York Rail Trail, the old train station has been in existance for more than 150 years. It has been altered, renovated, added onto, and subtracted from during its long history. Restored to approximate its 1863 appearance, today the station houses restrooms for the bike riders and hikers, as well as a small museum that is usually manned by volunteer guides during summer weekends.

If you have never visited this site before, it is well worth a couple of hours some Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Few casual visitors realize that a minor Civil War skirmish occurred at the station on June 27, 1863, when Lt. Colonel Elijah V. White's 35th Battalion, Virginia Cavalry, raided Hanover Junction and drove off its Union defenders, elements of the 20th Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia.

For those of you readers interested in Civil war reenactments, there will be one near Hanover on July 3 of this year. Here is an entry from this month's copy of Civil War News by Deborah Fitts.

Come out and support this extremely worthy cause!!