Category Archives: National Park Service

Shepherdstown National Military Park?

06 Friday May 2011

Posted by in Antietam, National Park Service

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The National Park Service is going to study the feasibility of a national military park in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.  The Battle of Shepherdstown, or Boteler’s Ford, of course ended the Maryland Campaign of 1862.  According to the May 3 press release:

The primary focus of this study will be on battlefield lands located about one mile southeast of Shepherdstown in Jefferson County, West Virginia. Most of these lands are privately owned. Some of the battlefield is also located in Washington County, Maryland on lands managed by the C&O Canal National Historical Park and nearby privately-owned farmlands that include special easements.

The study will obtain information from professional historians and the general public during the information gathering stage of this project, planned for this summer and fall 2011, and then again when the draft study alternatives are presented.

Given the urban sprawl in West Virginia and Washington County, Maryland I would say this is a wise decision.  More here.


Grant’s Overlook Pavillion

25 Monday Apr 2011

Posted by in National Park Service, Ulysses S. Grant (General and President)

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Okay, it is not that rare a discovery but nonetheless an interesting piece of Grant memorabilia turned up in New York last week.  Those who know me know that I love stories of Recently Found Long Lost Items.

(Source: Beinecke Rare Books & Manuscript Library, Yale University; Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons)

Grant’s 189th birthday is this coming Wednesday and the Park Service has scheduled a day’s worth of events at his tomb.  The best news is that the Overlook Pavilion will be rededicated after an extensive renovation.  The NPS has done a great job refurbishing the mausoleum after the dark years of the 1970s and 1980s.  Things had gotten so bad with crime and graffiti that in the early 1990s the general’s descendants began talking of moving his and Julia’s remains to Illinois if something were not done.  My wife and I went to Grant’s Tomb in the winter and I cannot recommend strongly enough that you visit.

Visit your national parks

15 Friday Apr 2011

Posted by in Ellis Island, National Park Service

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Hey everybody, today is tax day but there is still reason to be happy—National Parks Week starts tomorrow.  Many of the 394 parks are free year round, but this week there is no entrance fee at any of the sites.  Moreover, permits and activity fees may also be waived or reduced at many locations.  With the Civil War sesquicentennial now in full swing, the kids out of school, and spring in full bloom I cannot think of a better time to visit your natural and historical treasures.  Hiking, bird watching, ranger tours, films, and lectures are just some of the things you can do at your parks.  Yours truly will be at Ellis Island this Sunday doing his thing.  I have been looking forward to seeing this just-opened exhibit for some time.

Explore your heritage.

The other Grand Army Plaza

21 Monday Mar 2011

Posted by in Monuments and Statuary, National Park Service, New York City

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Ask most Brooklynites where Grand Army Plaza is and they will give you an answer, even if they have no notion of what Grand Army the plaza commemorates.  It is the area just before the entrance to Prospect Park, where Flatbush and Eastern Parkway divide.  One passes it all the time on the way to the greenmarket, the central library, the museum, or the botanical garden.  The other day I was in Manhattan on some non-Civil War related business when I came across the “other” Grand Army Plaza, the one virtually no New Yorker, however proud, would be able to identify as such.  I intend to do a more systematic series of posts on Civil War statuary in New York this spring and summer but couldn’t resist sharing a few snaps I took on the last day of winter 2011.


The plaza is at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Central Park South.

It was a crisp, bright day and there was a sizable crowd watching some street performers.  In the background is the General Sherman statue.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens designed the statue.  Charles McKim, a frequent collaborator, built the pedestal.

Most famously the two worked together on the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial which sits in Boston Common.  When I was in Washington two weeks ago I saw the plaster mold that the National Park Service has loaned longterm to the National Gallery of Art.  One can see the similarities.

Whatever the season this area just outside Central Park is always a happening spot.

That’s the Plaza Hotel in the background.  One reason the statue works so well is because it fits proportionally into its surroundings.  Saint-Gaudens and McKim hoped to put the work just outside Grant’s Tomb, but Sherman’s family disapproved.  The tomb and this statue are both representative of the City Beautiful movement.  Saint-Gaudens’ final masterpiece was dedicated in 1903, six years after Grant’s mausoleum.

I often wonder if the men and women of the Civil War era could have imagined the multicultural twenty-first century America they helped bequeath to us.

Thanks for checking in.

“Facts bend under pressure.”

18 Friday Mar 2011

Posted by in Museums, National Park Service

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The always worthwhile Edward Rothstein has spent the past week visiting various museums, plantations, and other sites in South Carolina.  In his latest piece he explains the evolving missions of institutions like Charleston’s Confederate Museum and says some are doing better than others at keeping current.  The most moving thing to me was the slave’s embroidered sack in the slide show.  I visited Arlington House last week and can attest that similar efforts are underway there as well.  The Park Service is doing great work telling the wider, more complicated history of the Lee-Custis estate and giving voice to the previously voiceless.

An earlier Rothstein piece, “Emancipating History,” is worth your time as well.

For heaven sakes read them now before the Times makes them part of its Digital Subscription Plan.

How to visit a Civil War site, part 2

10 Thursday Mar 2011

Posted by in Memory, National Park Service

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Hey everybody,

This is the second of a two part series on visiting Civil War battlefields.  In case you missed it, part one is here.  There has never been a better time to experience our Civil War sites than today.  I hope you are able to visit at least one during the sesquicentennial.

Rule 6:  Don’t be frustrated by how little you know

The first time I visited Gettysburg, in 2008, I realized just how little I knew of that campaign.  I’m no Harry Pfanz, but my knowledge of events in southern Pennsylvania in June and July 1863 is now considerably greater than it was three ago.  Acquire an awareness of the site before visiting, but realize that most of your learning will take place after you leave.

Rule 7:  It’s not just the battle, it’s the battlefield—and what it means

Visiting a historical site allows us to make a connection to the past in a tangible way.  There are few things more meaningful to me than walking a Civil War battlefield. Ironically, however, I am less interested in the minutiae of the battles than the causes, legacy, and meaning of the war.  Without question, one needs a firm understanding of the military aspects of the conflict to understand how and why it played out the way it did.  It was the slim victory at Antietam that made Lincoln’s release of the Emancipation Proclamation a few days later possible.  If Sherman does not take Atlanta in September 1864, it is possible McClellan wins the White House in November and the Confederate States achieve independence.  Lincoln understood the importance of military affairs as much as anyone.  As he said in the Second Inaugural, “[It is t]he progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends.”  There is still a lot of work to be done to tell the full and true story of the military side of the war.  Just remember that the battle isn’t the whole story.

Civil War historiography has undergone a transformation in the past several decades.  With this change has been the rise of Memory Studies.  How many monographs have you seen in recent years titled The Civil War, [insert subject], and Memory?  I believe this is a good thing.  One of the most revelatory books I’ve read in recent years is Timothy B. Smith’s The Golden Age of Battlefield Preservation: The Decade of the 1890’s and the Establishment of the First Five Military Parks.  Professor Smith, a former ranger at Shiloh National Military Park, traces the preservation and memorialization of the Shiloh, Gettysburg, Antietam, Vicksburg, and Chickamauga/Chattanooga parks in the 1890s.  He explains how Union and Confederate veterans literally built monuments to themselves and why the decisions they made in the late nineteenth century effect how we understand those engagements today in the twenty-first.

The reasons why the veterans and their successors made the decisions they did are, at least to me, as fascinating as the battles themselves.  Especially now during the sesquicentennial, historians, journalists, and rangers are analyzing the parks not only to understand more fully what took place there but to unravel the myths that too often have taken the place of history.  The same is true of Civil War cemeteries, historic structures, and other sites.

Built primarily in the 1880s and 1890s when the soldiers were aging, the monuments functioned to tell the veterans’ story after they were gone.

Rule 8:  Visit when you can

Shelby Foote advised that one should visit during the time of year the battle took place.  For instance, one would ideally visit Fredericksburg in December to experience the cold and note the lack of foliage on the winter trees.  The key word is ideally.  The reality is that it may not be possible to do so.  Visit when you can.  Research the trip to see if any events are happening that you would like to see—or avoid.  It was only luck that helped me miss Noise Week in Gettysburg during my first visit.  Personally, I avoid anniversary time because it tends to be busy.  Note too that many worthwhile events, such as the Antietam Illumination, take place at different times of the year than the battle anniversary.

Rule 9:  Avoid the crowds

Little Round Top at 3:00 pm on a Saturday is not the best idea.  As I said in part one, visitation is currently at record levels across the Civil War national parks.  Nonetheless, quiet places are there to be had by those adventurous enough to stray off the beaten path.

Rule 10:  Have fun

Life is too short not to stop for an Italian ice.

How to visit a Civil War site, part 1

04 Friday Mar 2011

Posted by in National Park Service

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Hey everybody,

Attendance is expected to skyrocket at Civil War museums and battlefields over the next few years.  At Gettysburg they are predicting 4 million visitors this year alone.   Almost certainly it will be higher in 2013 during the 150th anniversary of the battle.  I have been visiting Civil War battlefields across the country for almost fifteen years and thought I’d offer some advice on how to get the most out of the experience.

Rule #1:  The Visitor Center is not the destination

Pay any necessary fees at the Visitor Center.  Get a map at the Visitor Center.  Ask about the scheduled programming at the Visitor Center.  Watch the introductory film if they have one at the Visitor Center.  Look at the displays at the Visitor Center.  Cool down and get a drink at the Visitor Center.  Buy a few postcards and maybe a souvenir at the Visitor Center.  Whatever you do, don’t confuse the Visitor Center with a trip to the historic site.

Rule #2:  Take a ranger tour

A tour of the Sunken Road or the Hornet’s Nest will be that much more rewarding if you experience it under the guidance of a ranger.  If it’s solitude you want, you can always go back by yourself.

Rule #3:  Remember, it’s not a theme park

The real reward of walking a battlefield or visiting a historic building is walking in the footsteps of where history was made.  I often tell visitors at Ellis Island that if you teleported an immigrant from 1911 to the immigration station today, a century later, he would know where he is.  He would recognize New York Harbor, the Statue of Liberty across the water, and the Baggage Room and Great Hall where he was processed.  It’s extraordinarily moving to stand at the top of Marye’s Heights looking down at where the Union troops tried over and over to take the hill away from Longstreet’s men.  You’re walking where great and important events happened.

Rule #4:  Be mindful

Major roads, even highways, often cut through Civil War national parks.  When approaching an intersection, on foot, on bike, or in your vehicle, be aware and look both ways.  Note, as well, that private property, even residential homes, are often located within parks.  This is because over the decades the parks acquired battle acreage a little at a time.  Eventually, in some areas, the parks came to surround private land.  Moreover, interesting sites are often found outside park bounds.  The First Shot marker, for instance, is a few miles west of Gettysburg in someone’s front yard.  It is usually okay to visit such attractions if one follows proper decorum.

Rule #5:  Don’t try to do too much

Only have one day, or even a few hours?  That’s fine.  See the one or two things that mean the most to you.  The glass is half full.  The best things about the national parks is their permanency.  You can see more on your next visit.

Coming soon, part 2