Maryland Preservation Project Will Protect 552 Battlefield Acres
By Deborah Fitts
Feb./March ’02 issue
SHARPSBURG, Md.

A 200-acre farm adjacent to Antietam National Battle-field will be preserved under a wide-ranging plan to save a total of 552 acres at Antietam, Monocacy and South Mountain/Fox’s Gap.

The $1.8 million deal will purchase conservation easements on the 200 acres at Antietam and 245 acres at Monocacy, and will purchase outright 107 acres of "core battlefield" at South Mountain. Partnering in the project are the State of Maryland, the Civil War Preservation Trust and the Conservation Fund.

"We're very excited about this," said Trust spokesman Jim Campi. "Clearly this is valuable and significant land."
According to Campi, $500,000 of the total is expected to come from the federal Land & Water Conservation Fund Civil War Battlefield Preservation Program. In fact, this would be the first use of $11 million set aside by Congress last year for acquisition at non-federal battlefields.

The Trust itself has pledged to $200,000 of the total. The 36,000-member nonprofit recently launched a "2002 Maryland Campaign" fundraising appeal through a letter to members from President James Lighthizer.

The bulk of the money, $1 million, will come from Maryland's Program Open Space. Another $100,000 will come from an anonymous Trust member, who, according to Lighthizer, "has requested that his gift be used where the Army of Northern Virginia fought."

Campi said in late January that closing on the acquisitions was planned in 120 days.

The farm at Antietam, which includes a historic house and barns, lies outside the park boundary immediately northwest of the town of Sharpsburg. It is sited on Snyder's Landing Road next to the National Park Service monument to Robert E. Lee.

According to the Trust, six Confederate infantry brigades crossed these fields as they advanced in a counterattack against troops under Union Gen. John Sedgwick between 9 and 9:30 a.m. on Sept. 17, 1862, as Sedgwick's division passed through the West Woods. At the end of the day the Confederate battle line "was positioned through the middle" of this property.

Grant Dehart, a policy director with Program Open Space, noted that the 200-acre farm abuts on the west a 151-acre easement that the state acquired previously, as well as a 40-acre easement to the northeast. The Conservation Fund earlier preserved another 200 acres nearby.

At Monocacy, the historic Michel Farm lies on the south bank of the Monocacy River about 100 yards west of the boundary of Monocacy National Battlefield. Dehart said that without the easement, the property would soon have fallen to development spreading rapidly from nearby Frederick, "and it would have created a visual intrusion on the battlefield."
Union troops camped on the farm in July and August 1864, according to the Trust. Union Gen. U.S. Grant met here with Gen. Phil Sheridan to plan the campaign for the Shenandoah Valley.

At South Mountain, the 107 acres represent the "heart of the battlefield" at Fox's Gap, Dehart said. Here, on the eve of Antietam, the Union 9th Corps under Gen. Jesse Reno engaged Confederates under Gen. Samuel Garland on Sept. 14, 1862. Both generals were killed nearby. Future President Rutherford B. Hayes was wounded here.

Dehart noted that Maryland had purchased an easement on the property in 1994, and the owner now wants to sell the land in fee.

The tract, described by officials at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources as "one of the most important visual and historic elements of the battle of South Mountain," will become part of a new state park, South Mountain Battlefield Park, and will be interpreted and open to the public for the first time.

According to Dehart, about 11,000 non-federal acres are now protected at Antietam, South Mountain and Monocacy, including more than 6000 acres at Antietam.

The Civil War Preservation Trust figures the cost of each acre in the fundraising campaign at $362. Lighthizer stresses the 8 to 1 match ($1.6 million committed to $200,000 to be raised by the Trust).

Donations may be sent payable to the Civil War Preservation Trust or by credit card to 1331 H St. NW, Suite 1001, Washington, DC 20005. For information call (202) 367-1861.