Historian Scott Patchan, a board member of the Kernstown Battlefield Association, explains troop movements at the Third Battle of Winchester's Middle Field during a tour Saturday. The Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation has a three-year plan to restore the Third Winchester Battlefield.

WINCHESTER- On Sept. 19, 1864, two future U.S. presidents - Rutherford B. Hayes and William McKinley - were among the Civil War soldiers who fought in the Third Battle of Winchester. If they returned to the battlefield today, they might have trouble orienting themselves.

By 2014, it might not be so hard.

The New Market-based Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation on Saturday afternoon announced a $1.5 million, three-year project to restore part of the battlefield to the way it looked during the Civil War, and add interpretive trails and signage in time for the battle's 150th anniversary.

The nonprofit SVBF owns 365 acres of the Frederick County battlefield off Interstate 81, which dovetails with another 222 acres owned by the Civil War Trust.

The Third Battle of Winchester was the largest battle fought in the Shenandoah Valley and is considered by many historians to be the most important, due to its size, intensity and casualties among key commanders on both sides. The battle also was the scene of the largest cavalry charge the U.S. ever mounted.

In terms of its significance, the battle marked a turning point in the Shenandoah Valley in favor of the North.

"It sealed the fate of the Confederacy," SVBF executive director W. Denman Zirkle remarked in an interview last week.

Ohioans Hayes and McKinley were part of the right flank of Union Gen. Philip Sheridan's forces as the battle began, according to Nicholas Picerno, chairman of the board of trustees of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation.

Speaking from the porch of the privately owned Hackwood House on Saturday, Picerno called the battlefield land around the home "hallowed ground," just as President Abraham Lincoln described the battlefield at Gettysburg.

In 2009, the SVBF added 209 acres of the Huntsberry Farm to its Third Winchester holdings.

Formed in 2000, the SVBF works in eight counties and four cities in the Northern Shenandoah Valley that comprise the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District, which was created by an act of Congress.

Of 19,223 acres at 10 Civil War battlefields in the Valley, about 14,000 are still unprotected. In 2,000, 2,124 acres were saved, and another 3,094 have been protected since then.

The SVFB has set a goal to double the preserved acreage by the end of the Civil War Sesquicentennial in 2015.

But it also wants to take the next step in making preserved battlefields accessible to the public.

The project at the site of the Third Battle of Winchester takes that step.

"The land retains a story," Picerno said, and the SVBF wants to "remove the land's silence" so it can speak to us all.

By returning the land to its agrarian roots, and perhaps by adding high-tech enhancements such as "ghost structures" to replace the lost farm buildings, the battlefield will be able to serve as a "classroom for the future," Picerno said.

The goal is to raise the final $420,000 to pay off the purchase price of the property, and an estimated $750,000 for the restoration, plus create a perpetual maintenance fund of $300,000.

Civil War historian and Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Jeffry Wert outlined the importance of the battle for those who attended Saturday's gathering.

Third Winchester was important because it opened the way for a Union military victory in the Shenandoah Valley, but it also turned around the political fortunes of President Lincoln and helped him win re-election in 1864.

If Lincoln had lost, the Civil War might have had a different outcome.

But Wert said it's the human stories of the battle that make it memorable. He spoke of the father and son, serving in the 11th Iowa. The father, a lieutenant, warned his son, a private, to "stay in the ranks" as the action began. Hours later, the son was carrying his father's body off the field.

And the men of the 8th Vermont and 12th Connecticut, who held their ground for two hours, in the face of overwhelming casualties, to buy time for the Union army.

"That's why I think these fields are important," Wert told the audience of several dozen invited guests. "It's important that those human stories are preserved."

According to Zirkle, restoring the battlefield to a condition similar to what it was 150 years ago is "the largest project the Shenandoah Valley Battlefield Foundation has ever undertaken on its own. We need everybody's help."

The foundation has hired the Richmond firm of Dutton+Associates LLC to prepare a cultural heritage plan on what needs to be done to preserve the property and the best way to open its story to the public. This will include historic research, an inventory of the natural and cultural resources on the land, and suggestions on ways to rehabilitate the landscape and conserve the property.

The draft plan is due to the foundation in the spring.

The speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, William J. Howell, who is chairman of the Virginia Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission, was a guest at Saturday's event.

Howell called the restoration project a "rare opportunity for preservation,"

The battlefield is a remarkable educational opportunity, he said, as well as an opportunity for economic development for the area through tourism.

Preservation of battlefields "leaves a lasting legacy for tomorrow," Howell said.

Kathleen Kilpatrick, director of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and a member of the SVBF board, stressed the spiritual benefits of historic preservation.

"When things are lost, they are lost forever," she said. "Our history is buried."

Communities that come together to preserve history are "making a commitment to the future," said Kilpatrick, who was presented with the SVBF's Carrington Wells award for her contribution to the foundation's work in battlefield preservation.

ShenandoahAtWar.org

- Contact Val Van Meter at vvanmeter@winchesterstar.com

Richmond, VA, September 26, 2011 -- The National Federation of Independent Business, Virginia's leading small-business association, has endorsed Senator Jill Holtzman Vogel in the 27th Senate District race.

The endorsement was made by NFIB/Virginia SAFE (Save America's Free Enterprise) Trust, which is comprised exclusively of NFIB members. NFIB has 6,000 small-business members throughout the Commonwealth.

"Senator Vogel understands the challenges facing Virginia's small, family businesses and is the clear choice in Senate District 27," said Nicole Riley, state director of NFIB/Virginia. "What this means is that Senator Vogel has stood up for Virginia's job creators time and again on important issues such as tax relief, health care reform and the right of employees to cast secret ballots in union organization elections."

"We believe Senator Vogel will continue to take a fiscally responsible approach to managing state government and support legislation that helps our small businesses grow and create jobs and puts the Commonwealth back on the pathway to success."

"It is a great honor to have the support of small business," said Senator Vogel. "Small businesses are the backbone of the economy in my district and I will continue to carry the legislation that they desperately need to help sustain them through this economy. I meet with families and small business owners every day who are struggling to survive in the worst economic environment anyone has seen since the Great Depression. So much depends on the outcome of our elections this fall and I am grateful to have such an important coalition of small businesses working to support me this November."

NFIB's endorsement is critical to a candidate's campaign. Small business owners and their employees vote in high numbers and are known for actively recruiting friends, family members and acquaintances to go to the polls. NFIB has pledged it will activate its grassroots network on behalf of the campaign. NFIB's political support is based on the candidates' positions and voting records on small business issues. 

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NFIB is the nation's leading small business association, with offices in Washington, D.C. and all 50 state capitals. Founded in 1943 as a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, NFIB gives small- and independent-business owners a voice in shaping the public policy issues that affect their business. NFIB's powerful network of grassroots activists sends its views directly to state and federal lawmakers through our unique member-only ballot, thus playing a critical role in supporting America's free enterprise system. NFIB's mission is to promote and protect the right of our members to own, operate and grow their businesses. More information about NFIB is available on their website http://www.nfib.com.