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Photo credit: Terry Rensel
Preservation Updates and News
From the President's Desk
We have already entered the third month of 2024; time is flying by already. I awoke this past Sunday morning forgetting it was daylight savings time and was already behind schedule.
I would like to acknowledge our small CVBT staff, Tim Talbott and Terry Rensel, as well as our volunteers Lisa Van Winkle, Tyler McGraw, and Carol Spiers for executing CVBT’s first Spring Seminar. It was a sold-out venue with terrific presenters: Mike Block, Dan Davis, John Hennessy, Kevin Pawlak, and Ted Savas. It was a true success, and we are already working on next year's event.
Speaking of events, ticket sales are already going fast for our 2024 CVBT Annual Conference, “Seventy Square Miles of Hell”. This year we are offering guests the ability to attend the entire weekend as a conference package, or just the Saturday evening dinner Banquet with keynote speaker William "Jack" Davis. You can review the Conference details and register here.
CVBT and The Army Historical Foundation are also teaming up for a one-day event, a Spring Battle Ride, Spotsylvania Court House, “The Horrors of Many Battlefields.” This May 4th tour will explore the battle for the Muleshoe Salient at Spotsylvania Court House, a notoriously violent clash. Participants will spend the day learning about critical campaign decisions, witnessing live fire demonstrations of Civil War-era weaponry, and examining preserved field fortifications. Sign up for this event here.
Of course, time is always of the essence for saving our endangered battlefields. Chancellorsville is under an imminent threat again as I write this month’s article. Development on a 10-acre parcel just over one thousand feet from the famed Chancellor House, at the heart of the Chancellorsville Battlefield, is proposed and would include a gas station, convenience store, and professional office buildings. We must continue to stall this continued westward expansion of development into the battlefields!
CVBT, together with our good partners at the American Battlefield Trust, are assisting in mitigating this issue through the concerned local citizens most affected by this proposal. Please learn more about what you can do to help us in this critical matter. Learn more here.
While we work on this issue and continue the litigation regarding the proposed colossal Wilderness Crossing development rezoning decision in Orange County, CVBT is working on other endangered battlefield properties at Mine Run and Chancellorsville. More to come on these.
As always, I thank all of our resolute members and supporters. Without you, we would not be able to succeed in our mission to preserve our nation’s ever so threatened history. Please join us!
I leave you with this quote by Edward Everett Hale
I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.
Thank You,
Tom Van Winkle
Preservation Updates
2024 Spring Seminar Thank You
Thank you to all of those who attended the 1st Annual CVBT Spring Seminar.
Special appreciation goes to the following for providing support for this year's event: LINKBANK, Braehead Farms, Civil War Trails, Hilldrup, Wilderness Baptist Church, Eastern National, and Chris Mackowski and Emerging Civil War.
A big thank you also to our historians: Michael Block, Dan Davis, John Hennessy, Kevin Pawlak, and Ted Savas. An additional special thank you to Paul Scott for bringing some of his personal Civil War relic collection for attendees to view and talk about with him.
We look forward to seeing everyone next year!
Annual Conference Tickets Now Available!
The 2024 CVBT Annual Conference will take place September 13-15, 2024.
Registration is now OPEN!
The Army Historical Foundation, with CVBT, Presents the 2024 Spring Battle Ride
Embark on a historical journey with The Army Historical Foundation’s Spring Battle Ride, Spotsylvania Court House, “The Horrors of Many Battlefields” on May 4, 2024. The tour will explore the battle for the Muleshoe Salient at Spotsylvania Court House, a notoriously violent clash that marked a turning point in the Civil War. Participants will spend the day learning about critical campaign decisions, witnessing live fire demonstrations of Civil War-era weaponry, and examining preserved field fortifications. Surveying the 500-acre contested ground where hard fought history was made will give participants an understanding of the battle’s impact on Soldiers and civilians who witnessed this historic event.
This Battle Ride is hosted in partnership with the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust (CVBT) and will feature renowned Civil War historian Robert Lee Hodge, who was prominently featured in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Confederates in the Attic.
Historic Quote
"Some of the boys says there is preaching at Grace Church. I will stop writing for a while and go. Maybe when I return I can tell you something about the sermon. I didn’t get to the church. I met several on the road who told me there was no chance to hear anything, that church and church yard is crowded with young soldiers, the professors of religion and worldly minded. All are assembled there for the same purpose."
- Pvt. Frank D. Meadows, 5th Alabama Infantry, March 1863.
Photo credit: Tim Talbott
