The following article appeared in the Spring 2009 Piedmont View.

This monument, on newly protected land, lists the names of Massachusetts soldiers who died in the Battle of Aldie. Photo by Rose Jenkins.

As the 150th anniversary of the Civil War begins, private land conservation has protected 12,000 acres of battlefields in the Piedmont, including portions of three battlefields in 2008: Aldie, Brandy Station and Rappahannock Station.

In the summer of 1863, Gen. Lee's army was marching up the Shenandoah Valley, on its way to Gettysburg. On the other side of the Blue Ridge, in Loudoun County, Union and Confederate troops fought over roads that led to gaps in the mountains. If the federal troops could cross those gaps, they could attack Lee's army.

On June 17, a very hot day, fighting broke out in the village of Aldie and spread north up the Snickersville Turnpike. Near the top of a hill, Confederate sharpshooters took positions behind a stone wall, backed by cannons. Col. Munsford, who commanded the Confederate troops, called it "the strongest position in 50 miles." The well-protected marksmen decimated approaching Union soldiers. By the end of the battle, two thirds of the men in the 1st Massachusetts regiment had been killed, wounded or captured.

Later, in 1892, the First Massachusetts Calvary Association wrote to Dallas Furr, the owner of the farm where the deadliest fighting took place, to inquire about erecting a monument to the Massachusetts soldiers who died there. Mr. Furr was the great-grandfather of Mary Leslie, the current trustee of the land, which has been in her family for seven generations.

Mr. Furr, who had fought for the Confederacy, agreed to the memorial, writing back, "Your dead heroes need no shaft of Marble or Granite to perpetuate their memory, but their gallant and brave charges and noble stands in the face of death will last as long as history is recorded. I have nothing but praise for all the fallen Heroes of both North and South, and I can truthfully say with the Poet, 'Love and tears for the blue, Tears and love for the gray."

Today, this granite monument stands beside the same stone wall where the Confederate marksmen took aim-the first monument to Union dead to be placed on southern soil. There is a pull-off by the side of Snickersville Turnpike so people can stop to see the monument, survey the battlefield, and read signs about the historic events.

The land itself will continue to serve as a memorial to the soldiers who fought there because Ms. Leslie donated a conservation easement on the farm in 2008. She wrote to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, which holds the easement, "More than 140 years after the battle, my guess is that many participants in the battle would still recognize the site. The stone walls, the Furr House and the property's rural, agricultural landscape remain a part of our property. I hope the same can be said in another 140 years."

The violence occurred in a beautiful place-a winding country road that offers views of both the Blue Ridge and the Bull Run mountains, which the Washington Post has described as one of the most scenic drives in the D.C. region. Ms. Leslie says, "This land was in my father's family for a long, long time. My father was born there and he loved that land." Even when he was suffering from Parkinson's disease, she says, she could see that when he was there, he was at peace. The beauty of the land and its importance to her father made her want to protect it.

Because the Leslie family is of modest means and because the property is so significant, PEC's James M. Rowley Goose Creek Land Conservation Fund provided a grant to cover the up-front costs of donating the easement, such as an appraisal and legal fees.

This land was one of three Civil War battlefield properties in the Piedmont that were protected by conservation easements in 2008-along with 50 acres at Brandy Station in Culpeper and 185 acres at Rappahannock Station, near Remington.

The June 9, 1863 Battle of Brandy Station, which launched the Gettysburg campaign, was the largest cavalry battle ever fought on American soil, as 20,000 troops including 17,000 soldiers on horseback fought. Over the years, preservationists including the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT), the Brandy Station Foundation and PEC have staved off plans for an office park and a racetrack on the site. In 2008, CWPT placed an easement on 50 acres of the battlefield in addition to 944 acres which were already under easement. Visitors can experience the battlefield through guided tours and reenactments, as well as tours of the Graffiti House, which was used as a Confederate hospital and Union headquarters, where many soldiers left drawings and writing on the walls.

Just a few miles to the north, in Culpeper, Bob Currier donated an easement on 185 acres at Rappahannock Station, where two battles were fought, in 1862 and 1863, over control of a bridge across the Rappahannock River. The larger battle, on November 7, 1863, resulted in a decisive victory for the Union, which captured over 1,600 Confederate soldiers and then pressed further south toward the Battle of Mine Run in Orange County.

Mr. Currier's property is located just across the river from the portion of the battlefield that PEC took action to save in 2005, when it was slated for a housing development. PEC raised money to purchase some of the most crucial historic land, which will become a 26-acre public park on the banks of the Rappahannock River. PEC, Fauquier County and the Department of Historic Resources are working to finalize a conservation easement on the land, so that plans for the park can move forward.

Tom Gilmore, Director of Real Estate with CWPT, who worked with Mr. Currier, calls battlefield preservation efforts "a race" against development, but notes that, out of all the states where CWPT works, Virginia is one of the best places to protect land because of the Virginia Land Preservation Tax Credit (see p. 5).

Much of the fiercest fighting of the Civil War took place in this region between the Union and Confederate capitals. Of the 384 priority battlefield sites identified by Congress, nearly one third are located in Virginia, although Civil War fighting took place across twenty states. PEC's nine-county region includes about 100,000 acres of battlefield land, of which 12,000 acres are protected with conservation easements. The Journey through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area, a 175-mile corridor from Gettysburg to Monticello, claims the largest concentration of Civil War battlefields in the country, including many of the most significant.

Civil War sites may draw increased attention in the coming years, because of the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War, which begins in 2009, commemorating John Brown's 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry. PEC's Director of Land Conservation Heather Richards says,"PEC is active in promoting heritage tourism and is helping to create a widespread understanding of our region's extraordinary history in honor of the Sesquicentennial. The anniversary of the Civil War is creating increased interest in conservation of our historic lands from both local residents who are reconnecting with the area's history as well as historians and tourists who hope see this hallowed ground protected forever."

Read more articles from the Spring 2009 Piedmont View