‘Spectacular’ Purchase of Wilderness Acreage
By Deborah Fitts
- June 2002 - FREDERICKSBURG, Va.

In a deal that was 14 years in the making, the National Park Service on April 12 bought 465 acres of the Wilderness battlefield from a developer.

"This is really a spectacular purchase," said Superintendent Sandy Rives of Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park. "It's one of the largest, if not the largest, purchases of Civil War battlefield land in the last 15 to 20 years, and certainly the largest here since the beginning of the park."

The tract of wooded land, Hamilton’s Thicket, bought from NTS Corp. for $6.1 million, comprises the site of Confederate Gen. James Longstreet's flank attack on the second day of the battle, May 6, 1864.

In what Rives called "the signature moment of the real horror of the Wilderness," it was there that the woods caught fire, burning many of the wounded alive.

Rives noted that NTS already had zoning in place for a golf course and luxury homes, "which led to the high price. Now it's forever saved."

Rives has been credited with pushing the purchase through, but he said credit really belonged to "the Civil War community," which kept alive a desire to preserve the property. One of the people whom Rives called to announce the buy was Howard Coffin of Montpelier, Vt.

"It might have been the happiest day of my life," said Coffin, who authored the just-released The Battered Stars, recounting the experiences of Vermonters in the 1864 Overland Campaign. Cof-fin said he had been "bugging people for 10 years" to save the Wilderness tract, which includes land where the Vermont Brigade suffered more than 1200 casualties in two days of fighting, May 5 and 6.

"This is Vermont's most important Civil War site, in my opinion," said Coffin. "It was a horrific fight, against an unseen enemy" in a thick tangle of brush. "It could be said they saved Grant's army from being cut in two, and set the stage for the siege of Petersburg, and Appomattox."

Coffin chairs Vermont for the Wilderness, a two-year-old group that pushed for the acquisition and is pursuing plans for a monument to the Vermonters. The 9-foot-high sculpture of Vermont granite will be sited on the new property near the intersection of the Brock and Plank roads, where the Vermonters fought.

The top of the monument will be in the shape of "Vermont's most famous mountain," said Coffin, Camel's Hump, between Montpelier and Burlington. In letters from Vermont soldiers at the front, "it was the terrain feature most often recalled." The Vermont legislature appropriated $20,000 last year for the $40,000 monument, and a like amount was being sought this year, Coffin said. Once the monument is up, it will be instantly familiar to "any Vermonter or Vermont ghost who might be in those woods."

Rives said that late Congressman Herbert Bateman, a Republican from the district that includes the Fredericksburg area, was instrumental in securing the money from the federal Land & Water Conservation Fund. The superintendent also cited the support of Virginia's U.S. senators John Warner and Chuck Robb. Robb has since left office.

Coffin also hailed the involvement of Vermont's U.S. Sen. James Jeffords.

The purchase was only the latest in a string of successes since Rives came to the park five years ago. Of the 9000 acres within the boundary, fully 2500 acres were in private hands. Now the park owns 8200 acres, making it one of the largest national battlefield parks.

Rives said, however, that the picture is far from rosy. "I say with some disappointment that the Fredericksburg region continues to grow at an enormously fast rate," he said.

The 11,000 people flooding into Spotsylvania County annually "are consuming battlefield resources daily. At least five major developments at work next to our boundary could destroy our most precious resources."

Meanwhile, the park staff will begin to plan for parking, trails and access to the former NTS property. At present there is no access.

Rives said success in acquiring land for battlefield parks is a matter of patience and "working closely with the individuals who own the land, and being up-front and honest." He attributed much of the park's success to the efforts of Chief Ranger Mike Johnson. Rives said Johnson in his 25 years at the park had worked patiently and sensitively to walk landowners through the appraisal and purchase process.

"We haven't pushed people real hard," Rives explained. "For the last 20 years we've been telling them, "'When you're ready to sell, we're ready to buy.'"

In his after-action report written 10 days after the Wilderness, Union Gen. Lewis Grant, commander of the 1st Vermont Brigade, asserted that there were "no dishonorable graves" among his men. Half his force had fallen before the brigade fell back May 6 in the face of a flank attack by Confederates under Gen. James Longstreet.

"The flag of each regiment," wrote Grant, "though pierced and tattered, still flaunts in the face of the foe, and noble bands of veterans, with thinned ranks, and but few officers to command, still stand by them; and they seem determined to stand so long as there is a man to bear their flag aloft or an enemy in the field."