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 8

Expanding the Boundaries

Implementing the Boundary Expansion Law: Brawner Farm

The "third battle" of Manassas, as many people dubbed the park boundary expansion debate, ended with the daunting challenge to acquire the newly designated lands. Varnado, living in the front lines of the park expansion battle, had experienced firsthand the political infighting and turmoil created by park neighbor arguing against park neighbor. Even before the legislation was passed, he accepted a promotion to the National Capital Regional Office Headquarters. Rolland Swain, former unit manager of Lookout Mountain at the Chickamauga-Chattanooga National Military Park and thirteen-year veteran of the Park Service, arrived in September 1980 as the Manassas National Battlefield Park's eighth superintendent. Swain had majored in botany at the University of Colorado, but his own interest in history and his seven years at the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park gave him the background he needed to address his new assignment. [37]

Swain expected to start land acquisition immediately and drew up a detailed review of the seventy-two designated parcels in preparation for purchase or scenic easement, which had been approved under the 1980 legislation. With the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan and his appointment of James Watt as secretary of the Interior, Swain's orders changed. In February 1981 Watt placed a temporary moratorium on land acquisition in the National Park System, thereby suspending immediate attempts to implement the 1980 Manassas boundary expansion legislation. Watt justified this action by noting that the Park Service did not have sufficient economic and human resources to manage the lands already under its protection. The secretary also needed to address Reagan's call for slashing domestic program budgets while increasing defense spending. [38]

In response to the changed political climate, Swain developed a land protection plan that categorized tracts for acquisition, easement, or special protection. Land protection plans replaced the previous Park Service format of a land acquisition plan. The new plans were a way for the Reagan administration to minimize federal ownership by designating only the most essential tracts necessary to protect park resources for fee simple purchase. Swain's land protection plan necessarily reflected this new attitude and identified only the Brawner Farm and a few small isolated tracts for fee purchase. Most of the Wheeler tract and the land around the Stone Bridge, which P.L. 96-442 designated for fee, were recommended for easement, purchase and sale with covenants, or continued occupancy. With the land protection plan in place, Swain had authority to begin its implementation. [39]

Swain proceeded to hold meetings with the appropriate landowners to purchase those tracts approved for fee simple under the new land protection plan. The Brawner Farm, having top priority, proved difficult to acquire because the approximately seventeen heirs of late owner, Walker Davis, could not agree on a price. Talks stalled until April 1984 when George McDaniel, one of Davis's nephews, informed park temporary historian John Hennessy that he had uncovered friction primers, the small metal tubes used to spark the cannon, during recent relic-hunting trips to the farm. The location of the friction primers, spaced regulation distance apart, indicated the position of Col. S. D. Lee's artillery on 30 August 1862. More important, in July McDaniel and other relic hunters discovered an unmarked battlefield grave containing the skeletal remains of a soldier wrapped in a uniform, several Virginia Military Institute buttons, and a bullet that may have killed the young man. Park Service historians visited the Brawner Farm on several occasions, each time finding "abundant evidence" of relic hunting by friends and relatives of deceased owner Davis. [40]

The removal of artifacts from the Brawner Farm represented a "real and immediate threat" to the historic resources. Items critical to determining the placement of battle lines during Second Manassas were being taken for personal collections and for sale. "Diggers" showed no signs of stopping their activities, with one Davis relative proclaiming he would "take a back-hoe to the trenches" to find more artifacts. The Park Service did not have any legal authority to stop the relic hunting because the land was privately owned. Talks with the heirs continued to leave the selling price undetermined, so Swain recommended that the Park Service file a declaration of taking to allow the courts to decide on a fair price and the federal government to take possession of the land by condemnation. [41]

Determination of a fair price and acquisition of the Brawner property proceeded slowly. The Park Service filed its official request for the declaration of taking in October 1984. Transfer of the land came in May 1985, after both houses of Congress approved the measure. The federal government spent the next year deciding on the price for the hand. During the condemnation proceedings, Hazel/Peterson Companies, a local real estate development firm, purchased the Marriott tract, which sat across the road from the Brawner property, and announced its intention to build a residential office complex. Land prices skyrocketed, and the jury reviewing the Brawner case awarded the heirs $4.2 million in 1986. The government unsuccessfully appealed this decision. The delay in obtaining the Brawner Farm was costly. In 1977 the cost of the 312-acre Brawner Farm tract was estimated at $1.5 million. The need for full and honest dealings with all involved parties was apparent. The Park Service would prove it had learned the lesson when it dealt with the next crisis on the former Marriott land. [42]

The 1980 expansion, which allowed the Park Service to acquire the Brawner Farm and most of the remaining historically significant tracts at the Manassas battlefield park, should have changed the park's boundaries for the last time. Thanks to this legislation, the Park Service largely achieved its objectives. The federal government protected the most significant lands where battle action had occurred. At the same time, the park's borders had been rounded out so that its outer limits shielded the heart of the park from outside development. Modern intrusions continued to plague the park, including the traffic at the Stone House intersection, but the Manassas National Battlefield Park finally represented a viable entity. The Park Service could proceed with its mission to interpret this Civil War landscape for increasing numbers of visitors. Yet the entrance of the Hazel/Peterson Companies on the scene cut short the celebrations by park expansion proponents, and questions over the historical significance of Stuart's Hill, which sat on the far edge of the old Marriott tract, resurfaced.

http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/mana/adhi8d.htm