News Briefs

News Briefs — April 2016

Originally published April 2016 · p. 15

Petersburg NPS Hours PETERSBURG, Va. — Beginning March 13, 2016, park-wide facilities including visitor contact stations, governmental offices will open at 9 am and close at 5 pm. Park gates (excluding the City Point and Five Forks Units) and tour roads will open at 9 am and close at 8 pm. The Battlefield grounds will continue to open daily at sunrise and close at sunset. For more information about Petersburg National Battlefield, please call 804-732-3531 ext. 200. Petersburg National Battlefield was created in order to commemorate the campaign and siege and defense of Petersburg, Virginia, in 1864 and 1865. The park staff is committed to preserving and protecting the historical, cultural, and natural resources within the park in a manner that will provide interpretation, education, and enjoyment for the visitors.

Grant Assn. Meeting

RICHMOND, Va. — Registration is open for the Ulysses S. Grant Association’s 53rd Annual Meeting to be held May 6-8 in Richmond. It will begin with a Friday reception and dinner at the headquarters hotel, Omni Richmond Hotel. On Saturday A. Wilson Greene, executive director of Pamplin Historical Park and The National Museum of the Civil War Soldier in Petersburg, will host the group and speak, as will Grant biographer Ron White. The tour will include Confederate entrenchments that Grant’s troops faced during the Petersburg siege, lunch, and the museum. A tour of Tredegar Civil War Museum and dinner in Richmond will end the day. A Sunday morning panel of association staff will talk about the preparation of the scholarly edition of the Grant Memoirs to be published in 2017 by Harvard University Press. For registration information visit www.usgrantlibrary.org or contact Meg Henderson at [email protected].

Japanese Summit GETTYSBURG, Pa. — A delegation from Japan visited Gettysburg National Military Park to prepare for the March World Battlefield Summit in Sekigahara, Japan, site of a 1600s battlefield. The summit shared lessons about conservation and visitation promotion from the battlefields of Gettysburg, the “Gettysburg of Japan.” Summit attendees were to include Supt. Ed Clark and Borough manager Charles Gable.

New Park Signs FORT OGLETHORPE, Ga. — Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park received $24,500 to replace outdated entrance signs at 12 major areas of the national park in Georgia and Tennessee and to build a new primary entrance sign designed for group photographs in front of the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center. The Friends of Chickamauga and Chattanooga NMP will match the National Park Service’s (NPS) Centennial Challenge Program grant with $49,200. The $15 million NPS centennial grant program is funding 69 projects matched with an additional $33 million. According to Friends of the Park President Anthony Hodges the project is funded through a gift from the estate of Shawn Johns, a longtime living history volunteer. For park information call Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center at 706-866-9241, Lookout Mountain Battlefield Visitor Center at 423-821-7786, or visit the park’s website at www.nps.gov/chch.

Women’s Weekend GETTYSBURG, Pa. — The registration deadline is May 31 for the Women’s Contributions & Challenges of the Civil War: Mentoring Weekend at the Daniel Lady Farm from June 10-12. Organizer Melynda Wrightstone says it is for women who want to try reenacting, learn the basics or move their current impressions forward. There will be no critiquing of one’s level of knowledge or experience. Participants can spend the weekend camping at the Daniel Lady Farm with other women who share their curiosity about the role of women during the Civil War. Tents, cots, and bedrolls will be available, as well as help setting up gear, for those who wish to stay at the farm. Registration of $10 payable to the Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Assn. may be sent to GBPA, P.O. Box 4087, Gettysburg, PA 17325. For information contact Wrightstone at [email protected] or on Facebook.

Chickamauga And Chattanooga Trails Grant WASHINGTON D.C. — Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park is selected to receive a 2016 Active Trails grant from the National Park Foundation, the official charity of America’s national parks. This grant will be used to encourage first-time visitors to “Find their Park” in their own backyard. Now in its eighth year, the Active Trails program supports healthy living by getting people out and active in national parks through projects promoting recreation and exercise. “Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park hosts active recreational opportunities to bike, kayak, canoe and hike while learning about the park’s history and resources,” said Kim Coons, Chief of Interpretation and Resource Education. “We look forward to strengthening our partnership with a local nonprofit, Glass House Collective. Together we plan to provide support for an urban, underserved neighborhood in East Chattanooga to discover our parks.”

“Sherman Reservation, a 50-acre public attraction, is located at the north end of a community that is undergoing revitalization. Thanks to our Active Trails program, we’re also able to interact with Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park in a much more intensive way to make it easier for people of all backgrounds to participate. Our residents will discover how they can actively enjoy our national parks in ways that speak to their unique interests,” said Teal Thibaud, Executive Director of Glass House Collective.

Fredericksburg, Its Wounded, & The Men & Women Who Rushed To Help FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — During 17 days in May 1864, more than 26,000 wounded soldiers passed through Fredericksburg— the human toll of the battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House. Fredericksburg became known across the world as “The City of Hospitals” as virtually every public building in town was used to house the wounded. The flood of wounded overawed the army’s ability to care for them. Hundreds of Northern civilians rushed to help—women, clergymen, reformers, farmers and physicians. It was one of the largest relief efforts in American history to that time and featured the famous (like Clara Barton) or the forgotten and the lost. The experience touched virtually every corner of Fredericksburg. On Monday, February 29, 2016, John Hennessy, Chief Historian at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park will tell this story, full of dramatic characters and vivid images, at the Headquarters Branch of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library. The hospitals in Fredericksburg were more impromptu, more chaotic than the Mansion House Hospital portrayed in the PBS series “Mercy Street.” But the stories of the wounded and caregivers are no less vivid. Mr. Hennessy will use the many period photographs and the words of those who were there to convey one of the most intense human trials in Fredericksburg’s history.