New Group Aims To Preserve Richmond Battlefields
By Deborah Fitts

RICHMOND, Va. - A new nonprofit is sounding the alarm about threats to the battlefields around Richmond, in hopes of salvaging some of the war's most important sites before they fall to the developer's bulldozer.

"There are no more important, threatened battlefields in this country worth our determined efforts to save them than the battlefields in the Richmond area," said historian Brian Pohanka, a board member of the new Richmond Battlefields Association (RBA).

RBA President Julie Krick said her group is focusing on "at least a dozen major battlefields" within 100 miles of the former Confederate capital. Many have only modest acreage preserved, like Gaines's Mill, where 95 percent of the battlefield is "unprotected and exposed to destruction," although 15,000 men fell there in six hours of fighting June 27, 1862. The grisly battle of Cold Harbor was fought on much of the same ground two years later, June 3, 1864.

Krick said the rapid growth around Richmond, and the success of other grassroots groups such as the Fredericksburg-based Central Virginia Battlefields Trust, convinced a small band of area residents to form the new group.

"More and more signs are creeping up every day saying, 'for sale, for sale,'" Krick said. "Fair Oaks is developed, Yellow Tavern is completely gone."

The group is contacting battlefield landowners, "So everyone will know that they can sell to us instead of developers," Krick said.

Advantages for the communities involved include preservation of green space and historic assets.

RBA was founded in January and by mid-August had garnered fewer than 100 members, but Krick predicted that a mass mailing to prospective members would swell the group's resources. "People are calling to join," she said. "They're interested in certain battles."

Pohanka noted that two of the war's most significant campaigns, the Peninsula Campaign and the siege warfare of the war's final months, focused around Richmond. "The struggle for the capital formed the most important aspect in the east, and arguably of the whole war," he said. "There is probably no more bloody ground in this country than around Richmond.

"Land values are going up and it's a difficult challenge," Pohanka acknowledged. "It's going to be draining and exhausting. But we have to fight this battle. These fields are so vital to the history of the United States. If we lose them it's an incalculable loss to our history."

Historian William Miller is also among the board members. The advisory board includes Ed Bearss, Ernest Furgurson, Gary Gallagher, J.E.B. Stuart IV and Gordon Rhea, among others. Krick herself also has a close association with two Civil War historians, her husband Bobby Krick, a historian at Richmond National Battlefield Park, and father-in-law Bob Krick, historian at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park.

Information, including membership levels starting at $35, is available by contacting RBA at P.O. Box 13945, Richmond, VA 23225, or the website at www.saverichmondbattlefields.org.