Recipient Organization
STATE UNIV OF NEW YORK
(N/A)
SYRACUSE,NY 13210
Performing Department
Landscape Architecture
Non Technical Summary
This project supports the documentation and evaluation of the historic landscape of theWilderness Battlefield, a unit of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County BattlefieldsNational Military Park (FRSP) that encompasses 2,774 acres in Spotsylvania and Orangecounties, Virginia.The Wilderness Battlefield was the scene of intense fighting on May 5-6, 1864 that tookplace in a rural and forested landscape that had been the homeland of the nativeManahoac people before being settled by Europeans beginning in the 18th century. Thelandscape today reflects two centuries of history, from roads and the Ellwood plantationthat date to the 18th century, to battle remnants from 1864 and early 20th-century militarypark development and commemorative works.Established in 1927, the Wilderness Battlefield unit of the national military park wasoriginally developed under War Depatiment administration according to the AntietamPlan, with park lands restricted to narrow road corridors along key defensive positions. In1933, the national military park was transfened to National Park Service administration.In the mid-and-late 20th century, park boundaries were enlarged to take in more of theprimary battlefield lands. The park today owns much of the propetiy within its legislatedboundaries, although some private inholdings remain. NPS also owns easements onprivately owned battlefield land. Potiions of the historic battlefield, and lands comprisingits rural and wooded setting remain outside of the park boundaries. Suburban residentialsubdivisions have been developed in close proximity to the park and in some cases arevisible from park drives. Route 3, historically a two-lane road, is today a busy four-lanedivided highway with cmmnercial development adjacent to the park boundaries, whileRoutes 20 (Orange Turnpike), 613 (Brock Road), and 621 (Orange Plank Road) are busystate highways that serve as part of the park's circulation system.While the park has collected a large amount of historical data, most of it has never beensynthesized and analyzed for the purposes of managing the cultural landscape. The park'sdevelopment, stewardship, and interpretive programs have been plagued by incompleteinformation and/or misunderstanding of significant components of the park's evolvinglandscapes. Documentation specific to the Wilderness Battlefield cultural landscapeincludes research for a cultural landscape report for the 97 -acre Ellwood plantation,completed through SUNY ESF in 2010. The southeastern portion of the battlefield hasalso been documented in part through research for a cultural landscape report forChancellorsville Battlefield, completed through SUNY ESF in 2016. Other relevantresearch includes an administrative history of the park (Zenzen, 2011 ), a monumentssurvey (Pfanz, 2006), and updated National Register documentation (2016).This project will help the park achieve several objectives of the NPS "A Call to Action"for the next century of park stewardship, including connecting people to parks (Action 1 ),advancing the NPS education mission (17, 19), and preserving America's special places(21, 22, 24, and 25). This project also addresses the goals and objectives of the NPS ParkCultural Landscapes Program. These include goal #2, Relevancy, through engagement ofeducational partnerships and defining gaps in our current knowledge, and goal #3,Stewardship, by completing base-line inventory and documentation through theapplication of scholarly research. The information gained from this research will enhanceresource preservation activities and park interpretation to the general public.Awarded Start Date: 8/16/2016Sponsor: National Park Service
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
This project will help the park achieve several objectives of the NPS "A Call to Action"for the next century of park stewardship, including connecting people to parks (Action 1 ),advancing the NPS education mission (17, 19), and preserving America's special places(21, 22, 24, and 25). This project also addresses the goals and objectives of the NPS ParkCultural Landscapes Program. These include goal #2, Relevancy, through engagement ofeducational partnerships and defining gaps in our current knowledge, and goal #3,Stewardship, by completing base-line inventory and documentation through theapplication of scholarly research. The information gained from this research will enhanceresource preservation activities and park interpretation to the general public.
Project Methods
This project supports the documentation and evaluation of the historic WildernessBattlefield landscape as phase 1 of research for a Cultural Landscape Report (CLR). TheSUNY project team will work in close partnership with the NPS Olmsted Center andFRSP staff throughout this project. The scope of the project includes research, writing,and graphics for completion of the Site History, Existing Conditions, and Analysis &Evaluation components of CLR Part I, comprising Component A of PMIS statement208243A. Research will incorporate or refer to findings from the Ellwood CLRcompleted under a prior task agreement. Recommendations for treatment of the culturallandscape (CLR Part II), which will be based on the research findings of phase 1, will beaddressed in a second phase and separate task agreement (Component B of PMISstatement 208234).Research will be conducted at a "thorough" level of investigation, which is defined as"research in selected published and documentary sources of known or presumedrelevance that are readily accessible without extensive travel and that promiseexpeditious extraction of relevant data, interviewing all knowledgeable persons who arereadily available, and presenting findings in no greater detail than required by the taskdirective ... [as well as] non-destructive investigation using all appropriate technicalmeans" (NPS 28: Cultural Resource lvfanagement Guideline).The project study area encompasses all of the Wilderness Battlefield landscapeamounting to 2, 77 4 acres, excluding the 97 -acre Ellwood plantation property that wasdocumented in the Ellwood CLR. The history of Ellwood will be referenced in the sitehistory and existing conditions documentation for Wilderness Battlefield, but will beexcluded from the analysis and evaluation. Property within the authorized park boundarythat is not owned by the NPS will be documented to the extent feasible, but will beidentified as privately owned.A. Site History Research and DocumentationThe site history will document the history of the cultural landscape of the WildernessBattlefield park unit by compiling existing data, researching new sources as deemedappropriate by the project team, and analyzing the existing landscape. The history willfocus on documenting physical changes in the landscape within existing park boundaries.Adjoining areas and public roads will be documented only to the extent that they informunderstanding ofthe park landscape. The site history will not include the entire historydocumented in the Ellwood CLR, but will rather incorporate those portions that illustratethe overall development of the Wilderness Battlefield park landscape.The history will include concise overviews of historic contexts that inform understandingof the park landscape, such as the history of settlement, agriculture, and transportation inthe region; the Battle of the Wilderness; and the history of park management. A detailedaccount of Civil War action is not within the scope ofthis project. Historical researchmay be further focused on those portions of the park landscape where treatment is likely.The research data will be compiled into a historical narrative illustrated with historicphotographs, maps, and plans depicting change during each of the historic periods.B. Existing Conditions DocumentationThe existing conditions documentation will provide an overview of the regional setting ofthe Wilderness Battlefield unit, an overview of its current use and operations, and adetailed description of the existing character of the park landscape in text and graphics,including one or more existing conditions plans. The Ellwood landscape will beaddressed as part of the larger Wilderness Battlefield unit. Plans will incorporate GISdata following NPS cultural resource spatial data standards.C. Analysis and EvaluationThe first part of the analysis and evaluation will provide an overview of the currentNational Register status of the Wilderness Battlefield unit landscape, including Ellwood,as part of the larger national military park, and provide recommendations (if any) forupdating the National Register documentation petiaining to the landscape. The secondpart will evaluate the cultural landscape according to NPS methods to identifycontributing and non-contributing characteristics and associated features within parkboundaries, excluding the landscape within the Ellwood CLR project area. The culturallandscape evaluation will include graphic figures and plans that depict change in thelandscape since the end of the historic period.