Neglect and Development Threaten Fredericksburg Home
Sherwood Forest, an 1810 home and grounds situated on a bluff near Fredericksburg, Va., has been named an endangered historic site by Preservation Virginia. Union forces used the house as a hospital, a lookout over the Rappahannock River, and a balloon launching site. Now vacant, the building is part of an 880-acre productive farm currently owned by an absentee landlord. According to the report, the grounds are overgrown and the house is in “tragic disrepair.” The property is already zoned for a subdivision of more than 30 residential lots, but the owner is now attempting to rescind that designation in favor of denser development, according to a press release.
When did you live at Sherwood Forest?
We bought the place in 1961 from John Lee Pratt (former vice president of GM). He wanted it run as a farm, and after my husband had heart surgeries, we couldn’t keep it. That’s why I’m concerned about what might happen to it. We sold it in 1987, and for a long time it was fine, but the last two times I visited, I knew it was getting worse. It has fine woodwork and fireplaces; a lot has been removed. The porch had blown off. Doors were gone, and four-wheelers had been in there. Windows were broken, and you know what the elements can do.
Describe the house’s history
It was built in 1810, and has a beautiful kitchen and laundry in brick, a smoke house, barns and one slave cabin. It’s up on a hill—all the big old homes were. I’ve got documentation tracing the land back to when Mary Ball, the mother of George Washington, lived there. When Northern soldiers occupied Stafford County, it was a hospital, and I’m sure they used every nook of it, plus tents outside. I’m 91, and I work once a week at the Mary Washington House in Fredericksburg. My purpose is to make people aware of what is going on on that hill. It can come back today, if someone loves it.
Visitors Queue Up for the Emancipation Proclamation
Some 3,500 guests waited in line for hours to view the original five-page Emancipation Proclamation during a continuous 36-hour display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich., beginning at 7 p.m. June 20 and closing at 7 a.m. June 22. By Tuesday evening the line was closed to new visitors and the wait to get in was seven hours, according to the Detroit Free Press. The fragile document, which is rarely displayed, is part of a Sesquicentennial exhibition from the National Archives that will also make stops in Houston and Nashville.
Walmart Picks New Location Near Battlefield
After backing off in January from a protracted battle over a proposal to build a new Walmart on the Wilderness Battlefield in Orange County, Va., the giant retailer in late May announced a new site three miles west of the contested location. The decision won praise from some of the organizations that had campaigned intensely against the Wilderness site. According to the preservation groups—the Civil War Trust, Friends of Wilderness Battlefield, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Piedmont Environmental Council—the decision was “good for the battlefield and good for the county.”
Shipwreck Identified in Mobile Bay
A shipwreck found in Mobile Bay a few years back initially didn’t draw much interest because it appeared to be only about a century old. But the discovery of a 700- pound bronze bell onboard that carried the date of 1860 and the mark of a New York foundry raised questions that David Anderson, CEO of Gulf Shores–based Fathom Explorations, intends to answer.
Anderson discovered the bell onboard a 250-foot merchant sailing vessel that went down 150 years ago in 30 feet of water after snagging on a sandbar not far from Fort Morgan. When he searched for records of the loss, however, nothing turned up to identify the wreckage in any compilation of ships lost in the bay.
By poring over both Union and Confederate captains’ logs and old newspaper stories, he finally identified the vessel as the British Amstel, which was apparently rushing to pick up a cargo of cotton just as the war began. Onboard were materials for a construction project that included large 21⁄2-inch slabs of Pennsylvania bluestone, as well as the bell.
Now the ship finally has a name, but there is a new mystery for Anderson: Who ordered the bluestone and bell, and what they did they intend to build?
Funeral Carriage for Jefferson Davis Needs a Home
The stately catafalque that carried the body of Confederate President Jefferson Davis in the New Orleans funeral procession following his death in 1889 is between homes. The carriage, which had been badly damaged in 2005 during Hurricane Katrina and is now fully restored, is currently in temporary storage at the Louisiana State Museum in New Orleans.
The carriage had been in storage for years when it was first restored in the 1980s. It was then loaned to Beauvoir, the Jefferson Davis Home and Presidential Library, located in Biloxi. Insurance paid for a second restoration of the elaborate conveyance following the extensive destruction at Beauvoir from Hurricane Katrina.
The museum did not offer to extend the loan to Beauvoir, and would prefer to keep the carriage in Louisiana.
Lincoln Film Will Be Shot in Virginia
Two Virginia cities—Richmond and Petersburg—will be the setting for the Steven Spielberg film Lincoln, based on the book Team of Rivals, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Shooting is to begin this fall, with Daniel Day-Lewis portraying Lincoln and Sally Field as his wife Mary. To get the deal, the state offered a cash incentive of about $3.5 million plus a $1.1 million in-kind contribution. The terms of the agreement require hiring Virginia workers and purchasing products made in Virginia.
African-American Troops Honored in North Carolina
A new state highway historical marker in North Carolina reminds motorists on Market Street of the sacrifice made by members of the United States Colored Troops during the 1865 capture of Fort Fisher, about 15 miles south of Wilmington. It reads: “United States Colored Troops: Black soldiers & white officers in Union army, 1863-1865. About 500 involved in Wilmington campaign buried here.”
The soldiers had been buried in unmarked graves, along with thousands of other Union troops in the national cemetery in Wilmington in 1867. A volunteer researcher and Civil War reenactor, Fred Johnson, was recognized at a dedication ceremony for his work to win recognition for the Colored Troops.
The Union’s First Martyr
The Confederate flag that led to Colonel Elmer Ellsworth’s becoming the first martyr for the Union cause will be on view for what is believed to be the first time in 150 years. The banner is a part of an exhibit of eight Civil War-era banners at the Capitol building in Albany, N.Y. Ellsworth, who was shot dead after he snatched the flag from the roof of a hotel in Alexandria on May 24, 1861, was commemorated by Lincoln, his close friend. The exhibit, funded by private donations and a grant from the Coby Foundation, runs from July 12 through June 2012.
USS Constellation Returns Home
USS Constellation, the last Civil War vessel afloat, is back in its home berth in Baltimore and open once again to tourists. During a recent spell in dry-dock, the 250- foot, 1854 sailing ship was cleaned of harbor grime. It also got new copper seals and a coat of antifouling paint on its hull.
Commissioned in 1855, Constellation was the last all-sail ship built by the U.S. Navy. Initially used to capture slave-carrying ships, it was reassigned to cruise the Mediterranean to guard Union merchant ships during the war. It assisted in blockading CSS Sumter at Gibraltar and later helped prevent the Confederate Navy from taking possession of the British-built steamer Southern for use as a commerce raider.
In 1871 Constellation was recommissioned as a training ship for the U.S. Naval Academy. Decommissioned in 1955, the ship was moved to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor in 1968, where it would serve as the centerpiece of the city’s restoration efforts. The historic vessel was restored and opened to the public in 1999.
Originally published in the October 2011 issue of Civil War Times. To subscribe, click here.
