Monocacy Battlefield Acquires 280 Acres In Heart Of Battle Area
By Deborah Fitts January '02 issue

FREDERICK, Md. - National Park Service (NPS) officials are "thrilled" by the purchase this fall of the 280-acre "Araby" farm on the Monocacy battlefield, scene of the most intense fighting during the July 1864 clash.

Nearly surrounded by park land, the farm represents "the hole in the doughnut" of the 1650-acre park. The acquisition means that NPS now owns or has historic easements on 1620 acres, nearly completing the task of securing the land. "We're real happy about it - we're thrilled," said Susan Trail, who heads the Monocacy battlefield unit as assistant superintendent at nearby Antietam National Battlefield. "The park is now 96 percent complete."

The purchase actually took place in September, but Trail said the seller, the Clapp family, asked for no publicity. A local newspaper nosed out the story in mid-November in the course of reviewing land transactions.

The sale price was $1.9 million. All but $36,000 of the money came from NPS land-acquisition funding appropriated in 1999. The remainder was provided by the Civil War Preservation Trust, making the deal possible.

"We could only give the appraised value," Trail explained. The $36,000 from the Trust "just put it over enough for the family to accept it."

Araby includes a handsome 1780s brick, center-hall home built in Georgian style. Trail said that until repairs in the early 1900s, visible bullet holes and shell damage to the structure demonstrated the proximity and intensity of the battle.

Several historic outbuildings also stand, including a smokehouse, and a story-and-a-half stone cottage that may predate the manor house. The farm complex is visible from Interstate 270, only a third of a mile to the south.

Araby became a battle zone when Confederate forces under Gen. Jubal Early swept through the area in a bid to attack Washington. Early had just won a $200,000 ransom from the nearby city of Frederick, when Union Gen. Lew Wallace struck him along the Monocacy River.

Wallace's attack failed, but the delay to Early's advance gave Union commander U.S. Grant time to send reinforcements to the capital, and any Confederate advantage evaporated.

Araby will remain off limits to the public for the foreseeable future. A Clapp family resident has life estate. Trail noted that since the purchase, however, the park has been maintaining the grounds and structures.

Eventually, said Trail, "We certainly want to open that part of the battlefield to the public. It's the center - the core of the fighting."

Public access to Araby and other property within the boundary will be addressed in the park's new General Management Plan, for which it received funding this year. The present plan dates to 1979 and is badly out of date.

Monocacy National Battlefield opened 10 years ago. Araby is one of four historic farm complexes within the park boundary, all of which are now in NPS hands. The house also earned a page in history in the fall of 1864, when Grant met Gen. Philip Sheridan there to plan the Shenandoah Valley Campaign. Monocacy receives 20,000 visitors annually.

Its staff includes seven full-time workers and several seasonals.