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Bristoe Station Battlefield a new historic park for Prince William
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Related Topics: Prince William County
Prince William County (Map, News) - The Civil War Preservation Trust on Tuesday signed over to Prince William County a lease for a Civil War battlefield. The Bristoe Station Battlefield Heritage Park is 134 acres on Bristow Road south of Route 28. The land was given to CWPT for free by Centex Homes as part of the deal with the county to develop the neighboring, nearly 700-home Bristow Village.
The 2002 agreement was a “milestone” in the county’s historic preservation efforts and became a national model of how preservationists, local governments, residents and developers can work together to save historic lands, said Sean Connaughton, Prince William County Board of Supervisors chair.
CWPT, which saved three other battlefields following Bristoe’s example, has been working with the county to develop walking trails that highlight the area’s history. The trails, lined with informational signs, and a parking lot will be built by Centex and finished by this winter, said Brandon Hanafin, head of the county’s historic preservation division.
“This will be a very heavily used trail system when you look at the neighborhood there and the growth in the area. There is not a lot of public trails in the area,” Hanafin said.
The open farmland features ponds, wetlands and trees that buffer Bristow Village to the west.
The parkland also has a rich history. CWPT has found two confederate camp cemeteries from the early 1860s and believe there are other trench graves from the Oct. 14, 1863, Battle of Bristoe Station, said Jim Campi, a CWPT spokesman.
“This is one of those sort of forgotten battlefields. Not by the veterans that fought there, but by a lot of historians,” Campi said.
The Battle of Bristoe Station was fought shortly after Gettysburg and before Gen. Ulysses Grant moved east to win the war, Campi said. The fight was led by Gen. Robert E. Lee as he made his way to attack Washington, he said.
The “blundered” battle was lost by the Confederates, who did not realize a significant portion of the Union army was camped behind the railroad tracks that still border the southern side of the park, Campi said.
cgoodman@dcexaminer.com
Comments from Examiner Readers
8:10 PM MST on Thu., Aug. 14, 2008 re: "Counties back at the drawing board for horse park"
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patricia crutchfield said:
Before any new parts are established for horse. I recommend Cecil county require an educational course on how take care of a horse before you buy one. I am appauled to have to watch how so many residents of cecil county "don't " take care of their horse. They never pick up the manure. The horse do not have enough property to graze. In cecil county you can have a house, 2 or 3 horses, garage , swimming pool all on an acre of property. I have to ask all of you "horse poeple" do you really love your horses. Do you stomp around in you manure? Cecil county need a wake up call this is really animal cruelty, I bet PETA would love this pictures of horses in cecil county
4 agree | 3 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
details of bsic kill for volleyball
6 agree | 3 disagree
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Rational Thinker said:
When is this lousy park gm going to get his walking papers? Please, enough already!
7 agree | 5 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Once again our illustrious General Manager Yomi Agunbiade elects not to address the facts at hand and instead direct his argument to the fact that this letter was submitted using Rec & Park Dept. stationery. Fact is, this was not a complaint letter against the department or anyone person in particular; it was a letter addressing building concerns that our General Manager chose to ignore. He responded only because his name is listed on department stationery and God forbid, don't let the public think I agree with these concerns! Sadly, this is business as usual for our GM. He hired a Director of Operations to act as his buffer so he wouldn't have to deal with day to day concerns such as this and many others that he has chosen not to address. When will it end? Well, perhaps with the recently announced departure of Mayor Newsome's chief of staff, Phil Ginsburg, Mr. Agunbiade may well by on his way out and not a moment too soon!
10 agree | 5 disagree
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Alabama D'ernie said:
GG park used to be so beautiful when the trees were covered with mold...oh wait that was moss.
6 agree | 5 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Or maybe we can fire a lot of those do nothing middle managers and supervisors in the Park and Rec Dept and we would come up with lots of cash to fix a lot of the problems at the parks.
6 agree | 9 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Rather than contract this out, why don't we train unemployed SF young adults in roofing? They'll earn a valuable trade, the City gets its roofs fixed, crime and poverty go down -- win, win, win.
6 agree | 4 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
This is rich! Look at the link below the article. Dangers in Dog Parks The first one they mention is that your dog might get injured by an agressive dog, because you never know what kinds of dogs will be there. What about the kids? Kids and dogs are not a good mix. The nicest dog and the nicest kid can all of a sudden be the kid that just got bit because he or she did or did not do something that the dog reacted to. Dogs are animals! They always have the ability to suprise even their owners. Kids will do things that will cause a dog to respond. When I was a little boy (back in the 50's) I got a cowboy outfit for Christmas. I made the mistake of drawing on my Uncle and his beloved German Shepard lunged at me. Kids play - dogs react. Kids should be allowed to run free on ball fields with out having to worry about a dog chasing them down or if the one chasing them down means any harm. Playgrounds for kids!
9 agree | 6 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
The fact that there are thousands more dogs than kids should not be a rational for giving the parks to the dogs. Miraloma was in terrible shape before it was redone. It was very uneven and you could easily twist your ankle if you were playing with your kids. The dog owners just stand and let thier dogs do their business and dig on the lawn. If I hear another dog owner say "they are responsible" I just might scream. The dogs in this neighborhood bark at anyone that walks by thet bark at people trying to enjoy their own back yards. I had one of these responsible dog owners let her dog bark for hours every afternoon and night while she worked a swing shift. I tried to work with her to no avail. She had no control over the animal. She didn't care about the human suffering she was allowing to happen. It was more important to her to let her dog have access to the back yard while she was gone. Stern Grove and Upper Noe are within minutes of the ball field. They have dog runs there go there!
7 agree | 5 disagree
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Miraloma neighbor said:
Dog owners at Miraloma Playground do not follow the leash rules up there. The dogs crap and pee all over the field, on the tennis courts. They dig with their paws. The grass field will be wrecked before the summer is over. Dog owners rationalize having their dogs with stupid arguments. Let the kids have a nice field to play on, keep your Mutt on leash and walk it around the block!
26 agree | 9 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Yeah, hardly any dog owners ever pick up after their dogs ... it is disgusting. How is it any differnt from humans using the streets for toilets? It smells just as bad. Why don't those people have their dogs crap and urinate in front of their OWN HOUSES instead of in front of MY HOUSE? My favorite comment this week "get over it -- when it rains, it will wash it away" ...uh, it is the month of MAY, idiot.
14 agree | 6 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Rather than pressuring SF to use dangerous chemicals the PGA ought to be threatening to stop having tournaments at golf courses that don't use recycled water. Harding Park uses Hetch Hetchy water. What a terrible waste.
8 agree | 4 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
I wish Supervisor Maxwell and others so inclined, would stop with the comments re: the more affluent neighborhoods receiving the bulk of park funding. As an employee of the Recreation and Park Dept. I can tell you that, through the years, a lot of tax dollars have been allocated to the southeast quadrant of the city, more often at the expense of other areas of the city to address such concerns as playground/field maintenance and recreation programming. This is an area of the city that appears to expect certain entitlements, yet cannot uphold their end of the bargain to respect and work with our department to help maintain our resources. It's tiring to constantly hear that this area is so underfunded and how it's the Recreation and Parks Dept's fault for not doing this, or not doing that. When their play structures, buildings and equipment are vandalized and program attendance is low, we still make the necessary repairs and do the community outreach. And this is still our fault? C'
18 agree | 5 disagree
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Justine said:
it looks weird that the building is on a high side n the surrounding is low.. why not make it same plane field so it won't look like theres a huge building out of no where???!?!? or face the other building towards ryans park n not block behind JCC...
7 agree | 7 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
You should see the beautiful 20,000 Christmas lights on the garden of eden on 2600 block of Eager street. This is the twelve years of lifting the spirit of the children and residents. Another example of what to do with a vacant lot - save lives. The lights are on from 5p.m. to 1.33a.m.
132 agree | 137 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
The traffic on woodbine road is bad enough as it is so lets build something to bring in more. The people that were born and raised in woodbine have moved away because of the over crowding and the outsiders coming in. We don't need another yuppie park where people can drive in with their lexus', what about a park were you can drive your tractor in,you know something for the farm people.Lets listen to the people OF WOODBINE not the people thats lived here for a few years.
413 agree | 310 disagree
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Ryan said:
Its interesting that with such a large demand for the Volleyball courts, all of the proposals for the new park have less area for volleyball. There is nothing like city officals that don't listen to the people. You got to love it!
410 agree | 309 disagree
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