Stephensons Depot
By Deborah Fitts
WINCHESTER, Va.

The Shenandoah Valley battlefield of Stephenson's Depot was the focus of a lawsuit filed Oct. 27 in Frederick County, as landowners moved to block plans for a 447-acre industrial park.
"It would mean going to see a battlefield surrounded by asphalt and industrial plants," said Todd Kern, spokesman for a new group dubbed Defend the Depot.
"You'll have no viewshed. You'll have no feel for what happened there over that open, rolling ground."
The battlefield, adjoining the wartime Valley Pike (Route 11) and Old Charlestown Road, was the scene of a crucial portion of the battle of 2nd Winchester, June 15, 1863. And again, Sept. 19, 1864, during the battle of 3rd Winchester, Kern said it was the starting point for a charge by as many as 6000 Federal cavalry, "the single largest cavalry charge in American history."
The lawsuit followed on the heels of an Oct. 17 application by Shockey Cos., a Winchester-based general contractor and concrete manufacturer, to rezone the tract from rural to industrial. Company officials said they plan to attract technology companies and other industries to the 285 acres of the property where development is feasible.
Shockey Cos. purchased the property in 1996, the year that Frederick supervisors designated the area for industrial use.
In October, adjacent landowners and preservationists were alarmed not only by plans for the industrial park, but by indications from Shockey that the company may want to introduce a spur to the property from the nearby CSX rail line.
James Lighthizer, president of the Civil War Preservation Trust, addressed a crowd of around 100 gathered for an Oct. 12 Defend the Depot rally on the battlefield.
Lighthizer compared preserved battlefields favorably against an industrial park, calling a battlefield a "low-impact economic engine" attracting tourism dollars vs. the demands for infrastructure and services that industry would bring.
Six couples brought suit to throw out the county's comprehensive plan of development. They assert that the supervisors, in approving a Sept. 27 revision to the Northeast Frederick County Land Use Plan, failed to take into account a 1997 study by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) that recommended a historic district in the battlefield area.
The suit argues that state law required the supervisors to take the study into account. But because the planning staff "overlooked" it, the supervisors acted without addressing the recommended historic district. The suit demands that the historic district be incorporated into the comprehensive plan.
Shockey Cos. asserted that the main battle action was off the property. A flyer distributed at the rally by the company stated that "At the business level, as well as at a personal level, historic sensitivity is of great value to us, and historical preservation has long been part of the fabric of our operating philosophy."
County officials signaled their intention to proceed with the Shockey application and leave the comprehensive plan unchanged. They said they believe the Shockey Cos. property can be developed sensitively, without adverse effect on the battlefield. Shockey plans a 100-foot buffer around the park with an earthen berm planted with evergreens.
The legal action was filed in the wake of an Oct. 26 meeting before the supervisors attended by nearly 200 preservationists and concerned residents. Attendees came away with the sense that legal action was their only recourse.
Defend the Depot supporter Catherine Whitesell, who is leading an effort to preserve a two-gun redoubt known as Fort Collier two miles south of the Shockey tract, predicted that the rezoning will be approved. As for the lawsuit's chances of success, "It all depends on funding," she said. Battlefield supporters came up with $10,000 to retain the law firm that filed the suit.
"If there's not national support to help us, we're sunk, Whitesell said. "The board and Shockey have bottomless pockets."
The June 15, 1863, action represented the climax of 2nd Winchester, when troops under Confederate Gen. Richard Ewell smashed the command of Union Gen. Robert Milroy, which had been posted to guard the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley.
And on Sept. 19, 1864, Federal cavalry formed a line estimated by one commander at half a mile wide and swept south from this ground toward Winchester.
Kern, who has worked in the museum field in the Valley for a decade, said it was time for local officials to acknowledge the benefits of heritage tourism, and Stephenson's Depot could play a role in that.
"For 10 years I've heard tourists say, "Why haven't you saved anything?" Kern said. "We've been missing the boat."
Additional information is at www.savestephenson.com.