Volunteers Stretch National Park Service Dollars

BY BRIAN KELLEY
Staff Writer, Potomac News

Not to mention hard work.

Volunteers add a layer of black paint to the fence at Groveton Confederate Cemetery. More than 80 man hours are estimated to complete the job. Photograph by Chris Moorehead.

A week ago, about a dozen Civil War re-enactors -- they prefer to be called living history interpreters -- sacrificed a second Saturday to do a small part toward helping the National Park Service stretch its maintenance dollars at Manassas National Battlefield Park.

Members of the 42nd Virginia Infantry Regiment, Company I, augmented with at least one half-pint assistant, painstakingly painted the wrought-iron fence surrounding the Groveton Confederate Cememtery.

"There's more to be done that just uniformed interpretation," said James Fletcher, a [Loudoun] County resident and long-time park supporter. "I enjoy coming out here and doing things like this just because it helps out. It would be a real shame to see this go into total disrepair."

"It's a service project that we can do," explained Vienna resident Marie Lukac, the group's secretary, before taking a lunch break with her husband Carl and two of the group's Woodbridge members, Carolyn Cuccherini [now Backus] and Peggy Wallace.

The 42nd Virginia scraped, sanded, primed, and painted the first installment of the cemetery fence as part of the battlefield's "Adopt-a-Resource" initiative. Already groups such as the Battlefield Equestrian Society take care of horse trails and perform other service work.

But as Park Superintendent Ken Apschnikat explained last month, the 53-year-old park's staff of 26 has its hands full protecting resources and regulating use. That, combined with tight budgets, leaves some worthy projects waiting on the park's "things to do list," including repainting the fence of the cemetery, located above U.S. 29 just east of Groveton Road.

Larry Ward paints black over red lead undercoat on the front gate at the Groveton Confederate Cemetery. Silver paint will be added to trim the letters and numbers on the gate. Photograph by Chris Moorehead.

The cemetery sits, guarded by stately cedars, on a peaceful knoll within eyesight of the scenes of some of the heaviest fighting of the Battle of Second Manassas. The United Daughters of the Confederacy dedicated it in 1866 as a final resting place for 266 soldiers whose remains either were left on the battlefield or were buried originally in shallow graves. Only two men were fully identified. The others, said Larry Ward, the 42nd's president, were grouped by state based on uniform buttons found with the remains, or from linking the site where a body was found to spots where certain units fought.

The 42nd Virginia signed on as the first group to adopt a park resource, said Ray Brown, the battlefield's cultural resources specialist. The volunteer labor -- the Park Service provided the paint, brishes, and so forth -- has given the cemetery fence a sprucing up in preparation for Memorial Day.

The Park Service figured 80 hours of labor to paint the entire fence, said Dennis McCarthy, the compnay commander. On April 13, it took 13 people working the entire day just to get the front scraped and primed.

"It now looks like we've sort of signed on to make this a year-long project," McCarthy said.

Of course, the work will be fit in around the group's other service projects and history events. This weekend, for instance, they'll be tidying up Va. 234 just north of the battlefield, between Sudley United Methodist Church and Catharpin. The on May 15, they'll be co-hosting a living history event at Sully Plantation.

About half the 42nd's Virginia's members portray civilians, and the remainder take roles as farmers, merchants, and laborers fighting in the Civil War. The company is based on an actual Civil War infantry unit that hailed from Campbell County near Lynchburg.

Fletcher, who has portrayed both Confederate and Union army soldiers, willingly admits he's "20 years too old and 40 pounds too heavy" to represent a typical Civil War infantryman. Yet he and others bring a passion to explaining the role of the common soldier. It's present whether bearing a rifle and wearing a cotton-and-wool uniform, or jeans-and-T-shirt clad, armed with a paintbrush.

Since 1994, the 42nd Virginia has maintained a partnership with the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites (APCWS) and the Blue and Gray Education Society at Port Republic, Virginia.

Port Republic was the scene of fierce fighting on June 9, 1862, during Stonewall Jackson's brilliant Valley Campaign. "The Coaling," the location of a Federal artillery emplacement during that battle, was donated to the APCWS by the Lee-Jackson Foundation in 1989 and is one of the few remaining sites associated with the Battle of Port Republic that is open to the public.

"The Coaling" derived its name from its original use as a slag heap for a foundry located a short distance away. With its commanding view of the field of battle, it was an ideal piece of "high ground," and its possession was hotly contested during the Battle of Port Republic. As Captain Daniel A. Wilson of the 7th Louisiana Infantry recalled, "From this battery was belched forth one incessant storm...of canister and shell, literally covering the Valley, so that the work of attack on our part seemed almost hopeless."

Confederate troops of the Louisiana Brigade, under Brigadier General Richard Taylor, made the initial assault on the hill and overran it quickly. Just as quickly, they were forced to retire in the face of a savage counter-attack launched by units of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry. In the end, Taylor's men, reinforced by Virginia units, were able to wrest the hill from its Union defenders, Battery H of the 1st Ohio Light Artillery.

A Virginia artilleryman who witnessed the aftermath of the struggle wrote, "...I had the satisfaction of seeing the fine cannon that had played on our guns standing silent on the coal-hearth, in our hands. There being no room in their rear, their caissons and limbers stood off to their right on a flat piece of heavily wooded ground. This was almost covered with dead horses. I think there must have been eighty or ninety on less than an acre; one I noticed standing almost upright, perfectly lifeless, supported by a fallen tree."

The 42nd Virginia maintains a mulched trail leading to the top of "The Coaling," has constructed wooden stairs in some places, and has placed a wooden bench at the summit of the hill for the convenience of visitors. A trail extension and additional landscaping are being considered as future improvements to the site.

An informational brochure (shown at left) is available at the site.

42nd member Mike Mescher at the Stone Bridge, one of the endpoints of the Regiment's designated stretch of Lee Highway

Kneeling (L to R): Ken Lawson, Dean McElroy. Standing (L to R): Mike Mescher, Tom Phillips, Carl Lukcas

For some years, the 42nd maintained an area along Sudley Road but this spring adopted the stretch of Route 29 (Lee Highway) that runs through Manassas National Battlefield Park between the Stone Bridge and the Stone House.