Battling for Manassas: The Fifty-Year Preservation Struggle at Manassas National Battlefield Park

Table of Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Bibliography

Appendix I

Appendix II

Appendix III

Appendix IV

Appendix V (omitted from on-line edition)

Appendix VI

Appendix VII

Appendix VIII

Manassas Chapter 5

Reenacting the Past

Threatening the "Very Heart" of the Park

Before Wilshin had the opportunity to delve into any of the Mission 66 projects, he had to contend with the Virginia state highway department, which proposed to route a new interstate along Lee Highway through the middle of the park. Wilshin recognized immediately the terrific impact the proposed interstate would have on the battlefield park. He first heard of the state's intentions in spring 1957 when the Virginia Department of Highways announced that a new interstate highway would run east-west from Washington, D.C., to the Shenandoah Valley, following Lee Highway in Prince William County. Needing further information to evaluate the road's impact on the park, Wilshin requested, and obtained, from the state highway officials a map superimposing their plans on the layout of the battlefield park. In early March, state officials presented their proposal to a packed house in the park's museum building. [16]

At the 12 March meeting, Wilshin, Region 1 Director Elbert Cox, and retired superintendent Hanson learned that the new interstate would require widening Lee Highway to at least three hundred feet for the combination of the east-west lanes, median strip, side strips, and service roads. Engineers also expected to place an interchange at Route 234, where the Stone House stood. The resulting cloverleaf would necessitate the development of additional land at that intersection. [17]

Listening to the state's plans, Wilshin and the other National Park Service attendees knew that the interstate would do "irreparable damage to the very heart" of the battlefield park. The widened road would make a "major intrusion" on Henry Hill and destroy some of the historic areas near the Stone Bridge. The Stone House frontage and the high ground where the New York monument honoring the 14th Brooklyn Regiment stood would be jeopardized. And how could the Park Service preserve the overall battlefield appearance and complete its plans under Mission 66 with this modern intrusion? Wilshin, Cox, and Hanson expressed these misgivings at the 12 March hearing, and later Cox and Director Wirth filed formal statements asking the state to reconsider its plans. [18]

Wilshin knew that the Park Service's arguments alone would not sway the highway department. Despite the concerns raised by the NPS, state officials held firm to their proposal, "like a horse with a bit in his teeth," noting the plan's economic advantages. Fearing the worst, Wilshin resolved to act aggressively. With permission from interpretive chief Lee, Wilshin addressed the Civil War Round Table of Washington, D.C., which coincidentally met the evening of the state highway hearing. Round Tables represented local clubs of Civil War enthusiasts. Acclaimed Civil War historian Bruce Catton was the scheduled speaker, and three hundred members were in attendance. In a booming voice that echoed over the microphone system, Wilshin painted a somber picture of Manassas National Battlefield Park once the interstate had "carve[d] it up." Henry Hill would be "mutilated beyond recognition," and the monument land that the state of New York had recently donated to the National Park Service would be "completely despoil[ed]." He urged his fellow members to take a stand, like the Greeks at Thermopylae, against this threat. [19]

The response was immediate and effective. That night the D.C. Round Table adopted a resolution that protested the proposed "desecration" of Manassas National Battlefield Park and petitioned the state highway department to select an alternative route for the interstate. The D.C. Round Table sent its resolution to some eighty other Round Tables, with a total membership of about ten thousand, and various other patriotic organizations, alerting them to the danger. Round Table members and others flooded Congress and the Virginia state highway office with letters objecting to the proposed route. In a typical response, the Robert E. Lee Camp No. 726 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans of Alexandria, Virginia, lodged a complaint against any highway that would interfere with or destroy the monuments and memorials erected on the hallowed ground at Manassas. [20]

Building on this support, Wilshin adopted a publicity strategy that became his standard tactic for future battles to protect the park. He appeared before a host of civic and patriotic organizations, including the Manassas Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Warrenton Rotary Club, and the Manassas Historical Association. Even before the 12 March state highway meeting, he had spoken to the Manassas Chamber of Commerce, the Lions Club, and the Kiwanis Club. He obtained support from the mayor, members of the Manassas town council, and the Prince William Board of County Supervisors. Newspapers in Manassas, Washington, and Richmond printed articles and editorials informing readers of the situation. Local radio and television stations aired stories. The plight of the Manassas battlefield park gained national attention when Chet Huntley and David Brinkley presented the story on the 24 March airing of Outlook. [21]

Wilshin enlisted help from everyone he met, and fortuitously he gained a lifelong ally in Anne (Annie) Delp Snyder. Snyder and her husband Waldon Peter (Pete) had bought a 180-acre cattle farm next to Manassas battlefield park following World War II. Originally from Pittsburgh, she had thought of the Civil War only as a "name in the history book" until she had a personal tour of the Manassas battlefield with Wilshin. As she later recalled, Wilshin made you feel as if you were there, seeing the soldiers and hearing their thoughts as they engaged in battle. Nothing was left to the imagination in his presentation, and Snyder walked away so awed and overwhelmed that she became an instant convert to the importance of the battlefield park. [22]

Snyder's conversion coincided with the interstate highway controversy, and Wilshin recruited her for his letter-writing campaign. It was the first campaign of many that she would embrace in connection with the Manassas battlefields. Snyder was accustomed to challenges. During World War II she had dropped out of law school and joined the first class of women to graduate from the Marine Officers Candidate School to "free a Marine to fight." She worked as a recruiter in New Orleans, convincing men that having their daughters, sisters, and wives in the Marines was not "selling [them] into prostitution." She gained sophisticated public relations skills that she honed in her future Manassas battles. She credits Wilshin with sparking her preservationist sympathies and teaching her many of the methods for accomplishing her goals. [23]

Wilshin's strategy in the interstate highway crisis proved pivotal. Inundated with letters from Civil War Round Tables as far away as England, the state highway commission quickly agreed to consider alternative routes. With continued pressure from Wilshin and his supporters, the state eventually adopted a southern route. This decision proved a happy solution to the issue because it saved the park from destruction and provided room for future highway expansion without harming the park. [24]

Surprisingly, the chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors resurrected the idea of using Lee Highway for the interstate in early 1958. As Wilshin later recalled, the chairman wanted to protect two farms held by his friend William Wheeler, which would be affected by the southern routing of the interstate. In response, Director Wirth, Wilshin, and other NPS representatives together with Virginia state highway and Prince William County officials presented their case to Rep. Howard Smith, who had expressed support for widening Lee Highway. Smith had long been interested in the battlefield park, having assisted the Park Service in acquiring lands during the Bull Run Recreational Demonstration Area period and drafting the first boundary expansion bill in 1949. Wirth argued strenuously against the highway change, saying that he could "never live with it" or the idea of letting down the Round Tables and other groups who had come to the park's defense. Using troop position maps to show that the proposed area included the sites of some of the heaviest fighting in both Manassas battles, the Park Service convinced Smith to stay with the southern route. [25]

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