Amateur historian Ernest Dollar hopes to save such sites from development. It's no surprise. Town officials, it seems, may soon run a sewer line under the site for a development that is going up down the road. Here we have a classic, juicy Civil War story. Though it is still up in the air whether the ravine was actually dug by soldiers, found letters and artifacts suggest that several weeks before the end of the war, Morrisville was the stomping ground for Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's soldiers.
Documents also suggest it was the site of a skirmish.
Whether Dollar, who grew up in Durham and lives in Carrboro, will generate enough support for his cause remains in doubt. So far, he has marched to town hall and state offices in his Doc Martins, armed with a notebook filled with documents that back up his thesis. Morrisville Mayor Gordon Cromwell says he will look into the matter. And if it turns out that the ravine is a Civil War entrenchment, he says he'll defer to state historians. As for the property owner, Hans Stadelmaier, he too is unclear on how historic the site is.