Development Threatens Shepherdstown Battlefield
By Deborah Fitts
Feb./March 2005
SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. - A group of homeowners is
hoping that the battle of Shepherdstown will help make their case
against a planned 152-unit subdivision in their neighborhood.
A Maryland developer has passed a first hurdle with Jefferson County
to build the homes on 123-acre Faraway Farm. The tract, about two
miles southeast of Shepherdstown, includes a brick farmhouse built
around 1776 that is mentioned in several eyewitness accounts of the
battle.
Edward Dunleavy, head of Citizens United to Save Faraway Farm
(CUSFF), asserted that much of the battle of Shepherdstown took place
on about three-quarters of the farm property.
"To be honest with you, when I moved here I didn't even know there
was a battle of Shepherdstown," said Dunleavy. By Civil War
standards, he noted, the 650 casualties ranked as a "skirmish."
"But it was an important battle," because it threw a scare into Union
commander George B. McClellan in the wake of Antietam and convinced
him to let the Confederate army under Robert E. Lee proceed south
unmolested.
On Sept. 18, 1862, the day following Antietam, the Confederate army
began its withdrawal back across the Potomac to Virginia at Boteler's
(or Blackford's, or Pack Horse) Ford. On the 19th, pursuing Federals
began pouring musket and artillery fire into the Southern positions
from the Maryland side, and late in the day about 500 troops from the
5th Corps crossed the river and seized five Confederate artillery
pieces before recrossing.
The following morning, three Federal brigades forded the river and
set out toward Shepherdstown only to encounter troops from
Confederate Gen. A.P. Hill's division hastening to answer the Federal
threat. The Union force was ordered back across the river. But the
recently formed 118th Pennsylvania Infantry, the Corn Exchange
Regiment, stayed put, deploying on the bluffs above the ford in their
first-ever battle. They were soon scattered; only 431 of the 700 men
who began the assault returned to Federal lines
Dunleavy said his group of 35 neighboring households formed to fight
the development when the plan began gaining steam in the fall. A
former Manhattan resident and "a little bit of a Civil War buff," he
bought 20 acres adjacent to Faraway Farm a year and a half ago and
said he felt protected by Jefferson County's rural zoning.
Under the present zoning, Dunleavy asserted that no more than three
dozen homes could be built on Faraway Farm.
That was before Faraway Farms LLC of Woodboro, Md., employed a
provision in the county regulations that could allow them to sidestep
the rural zoning requirements. Under the county's Land Evaluation
Site Assessment, if a developer scores below a certain number of
points (for soil quality, availability of water and sewer, proximity
to "growth corridors," and impact on schools and other services),
then the project can proceed to the next step in the permitting
process.
The Faraway Farm development scored successfully. CUSFF filed an
appeal with the county's Board of Zoning Appeals, citing numerous
technicalities. But on Jan. 20 their appeal was denied, and Dunleavy
said he would meet with an attorney to plan "what our next effort
will be."
"We don't want to stop development," Dunleavy said, "but this area of
Jefferson County has been zoned rural and we want to keep it rural."
He said his group would like to see the developer restrict the
subdivision to the southern end of the battlefield, where there was
no fighting, and donate the rest for preservation.
The tract, currently open farmland, was sold to the developer in July
for $1.5 million. Jefferson County is one of the fastest-growing
counties in the nation. |
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