The End is Near for the Cyclorama

After a long and protracted battle, the fate of the Cyclorama building at Gettysburg National Military Park has been sealed. You can find the press release here.

Of course this issue has been the source of a great deal of controversy over the years. Many consider today a long awaited victory for battlefield preservation. To be honest, I'm not quite sure how I feel. Initially, I jumped on board with plans for demolishing the building and restoring the landscape. I've also seen with my own eyes the incredible interpretive benefits achieved by the Park's landscape rehabilitation projects.

And yet, over the years I've come to see the other side of this controversy too. The NPS is charged with preserving the history of the Battle of Gettysburg, it is true. But the park itself has its own unique history that informs us of our past as a nation, and we should perhaps not be so quick to destroy all of that history in an effort to get back to 1863.

A friend of mine with tremendous experience in the field of historic preservation has helped me to understand the other side to this controversy over the years, and I'm hoping that he will become Battlefield Backstories' first guest-blogger at some point soon to make a case for why destroying the Cyclorama was perhaps not in the best interests of the park. Stay tuned.

What are your thoughts?

Celebrating the Emancipation Proclamation, and the South Side Depot

I'm on the road for work for a few days. I'm looking forward to continuing my series on the Slyder Family when I return. In the meantime, a few news items caught my attention over the past 48 hours and I thought I would share.

First, Gettysburg National Military Park released a schedule of events to honor the history of the Emancipation Proclamation over the weekend of September 21-23. I won't be able to attend, but the lineup of activities looked really interesting. Looks like the NPS did a great job of partnering with Gettysburg College to put together this event.

The other big news was the announcement that the city of Petersburg and the Petersburg National Battlefield will begin stabilization and restoration of the South Side Depot. The building will house a visitor's center interpreting Petersburg's Civil War history. This sounds like a very exciting development in Petersburg, and something to look forward to on future visits there.

Kevin Levin has a good post discussing this announcement over on his Civil War Memory blog.

A few links to look at...

My last post concluded my series on Captain Francis Irsch. Since then I have been working on a few posts related to an early Confederate monument on the battlefield. Hopefully I will have the first part up later this week. This time of year is pretty crazy for my day job, but I'm still finding some time to plug away with research at night. The time between posts might slow a bit over the next few weeks. Then again, I find that it's a good way to relax at the end of the day - so perhaps I'll be able to keep to the same schedule.

In the meantime - I have a few links to share. Fifty acres of Fleetwood Hill, the most important feature of the Brandy Station battlefield, recently came up for sale. To read more about the importance of the location and some of the efforts underway to save the land you can visit Rantings of a Civil War Historian and the Emerging Civil War.