The site of the Civil War's longest siege could soon become its largest protected battlefield. The Park Service is devising a general management plan for Petersburg National Battlefield in Virginia that could add more than 7,200 acres to the park-broadening the story told at the site and potentially boosting the economies of surrounding towns through increased tourism. The Park Service has narrowed the plan down to four alternatives but prefers the option that would protect the greatest number of now-unprotected acres of historic battlefield, helping to keep the land safe from encroaching development that threatens many of America's battlefields.
"Expanding the park's boundary is an important and necessary investment in the future of this battlefield site," says Joy Oakes, NPCA's Mid-Atlantic regional director. "Petersburg's extraordinary stories deserve the broader and bigger audience that will be attracted by the Park Service's visionary plan."
The park's planning is designed to reaffirm Petersburg's purpose and importance and assess its natural and historic resources. It could: include further interpretive outreach in downtown Petersburg, expanding on the stories told of the war to include those of free African Americans and women as well as the story of the city being under siege; connect battlefield land to nearby recreational trails; and rehabilitate Poplar Grove National Cemetery-to restore what park officials call its "sense of contemplation, quiet, and solemnity.'
"This plan could have enormous economic benefits for the region," says Superintendent Bob Kirby, citing a recent study by the Civil War Preservation Trust that revealed how preserving battlefields can boost economic viability by preventing blight and pollution and increasing tourism, among other long-term benefits.
"Preserving the battlefield is important for us to be able to tell the interesting story of America's history," says Kirby, "but it also allows us to create green space, really enhancing the region's quality of life."
Among the other proposed enhancements to the site are boosting park staff, from law enforcement to historical interpreters, and forging a partnership between the park and the city of Petersburg to create a downtown visitor contact station. Each of these proposals is devised to strengthen the park's ability to convey its history and offer meaningful and fun experiences to visitors.
Petersburg was the scene of a months-long siege, the longest in American history, during the Civil War, when Gen. Ulysses S. Grant failed to capture Richmond in the spring of 1864. Grant sought to subdue the Confederacy by surrounding Petersburg and splitting off Gen. Robert E. Lee's supply lines into Petersburg and Richmond. Nine-and-a-half months after the siege began, the Confederacy had collapsed and Lee evacuated Petersburg on April 2, 1865.
"We are hoping to make the Petersburg campaign as relevant to the Civil War as Colonial Williamsburg is to colonial history," says Kirby.
Adding the unprotected acres to the park is timely in light of what is occurring at other battlefields in the mid-Atlantic and South, where encroaching development has become a pressing threat, says Oakes.
"Suburban sprawl has become one of the biggest threats," she says. "Inappropriate and poorly placed developments have been a major problem. Petersburg is under the same pressures, although the pressures are currently greater at places like Manassas National Battlefield Park in Virginia.
"Manassas is in danger of becoming a green median strip surrounded by sprawl and traffic, "says Oakes. "Look at Manassas and see Petersburg's future if we don't act today."
