Four Arrested After Richmond Battlefield’s Worst Vandalism Attack
By Deborah Fitts
November 2002

RICHMOND, Va. — Four teenagers were arrested on felony counts of vandalism following a Sept. 18 spray-painting spree that was so severe that officials at Richmond National Battlefield Park temporarily closed the affected unit.

The teens, neighbors of the park’s 10-acre Parker’s Battery unit, used five different colors of paint on the interpretive signs, a 100-foot pedestrian bridge, and a small granite monument. The graffiti included profanities and vulgarities. But it also included the nicknames of the perpetrators and the names of two friends who had died, providing investigators with solid clues.

“It was bad enough that we had to keep the unit closed,” said Tim Mauch, supervisory park ranger. “It was the worst documented case of vandalism in the park’s history.”

Following up on the names, rangers paid a visit to a nearby high school and soon accosted three of the perpetrators. The fourth had dropped out of school but was also apprehended.

Mauch declined to release their names, but said two were juveniles, 14 and 16, and two were 18-year-old adults. Each was charged with one felony count of vandalism. Court appearances were being scheduled at presstime.

The park will seek to recover the $5000 cost of the cleanup, plus a fine and community service. Also, Mauch said, “We’re going to seek to get them banned from the park, if not for life, then for two years.”

The paint literally covered the eight interpretive markers, extensive portions of the wooden bridge, and the 3-foot-high granite marker to Parker’s Battery, which Mauch said was erected in the 1920s. The vandals also spray-painted a nearby CSX train trestle and a builders’ supply store.

The park staff was able to remove most of the paint. Because it still shows on the interpretive panels, Mauch said the park will seek restitution from the youths to replace them. To remove the paint from the railing, side rails and planks of the bridge, the wood had to be sanded.

Mauch said he was stunned by the extent of the painting and its unpleasant message. “It was a desecration of our heritage to see the amount of the paint and the words they used,” he said. “To see those things that were dedicated to those who fought and died there covered in paint, it makes you kind of sick. It was really quite a shocking amount of damage.”

He said when apprehended, the youths reacted as though their crime was “no big deal.”

“Hopefully we made them realize it was a serious business,” Mauch said. “The community service hopefully will turn them around. We want to change them.” The community service will be performed for Chesterfield County, not the park. “To be honest, I don’t know that we’d trust them,” Mauch said.

Parker’s Battery, located between Richmond and Petersburg, was part of a lengthy chain of Confederate entrenchments. The Howlett Line stretched from Battery Dantzler on the James River south to the Appomattox River.