Evening star., 1933-12-10
Battlefield as Emergency Project
BY LILY LYKES SHEPARD.

BY LILY LYKES SHEPARD.
- NE of the finest contributions to the
national tangible and intangible
wealth to result from the sending
Of the cities unemployed young
men to the great out of doors last
Summer is being made near Wash
mgton. This is the creation of the Fort Har-
rdson Battlefield Park, now being projected as
an integral part of the Richmond Battlefield
Park system, seven miles outside Of the former
capital of the Confederate States. During the
course of the next year the United States
Government expects to complete its plan for
the limited restoration of this park, covering
LOO acres of ground sacred to the heroes OF
the Civil War. And thus will come closer to
reality the dream of the people of Virginia
to have, eventually. battlefield tour from Me-
chanicsville to Fort Darling that will memorial
ize the War Between the States in Dixie as
Gettysburg does north of the Mason and Dix
on line
Under the Federal plan, Fort Harrison Park
Is to be more than battlefield ruins cleaned
up by camp 1875, Civilian Conservation Corps
at the request of its owners, the State of Vir-
ginia. 1t is to represent the most advanced
ideal of battlefield presentation to the public
A 1884 model, to speak, if such an applica-
tion of automotive terminology may be made
to battle-ground. 1t is to be depository
for all types of information wanted by stu
dents and historians about the military activi-
ties taking place there. 1t is also to be beau
tiful spot of public domain, forever set aside
for people to visit by foot path or motor lane,
to the camping grounds or to the lake in search
of recreation
from the viewpoint of today's standards, the
word restoration, as used in the Fort Har-
rison plan, has very limited sense. In an
other decade it may have come to have the
very broadest meaning. If the new policies of
historical treatment to be tried out for this
State-owned park justify the enthusiasm Of
their authors, they may become the accepted
meaning of restoration of tomorrow. In this
emergency work cooperation, the State of Vir-
ginia is getting the same professional skill and
devotion that Uncle Sam expends on his own
national reservations, and the American public
Is about to witness the development of bat
tlefield memorial without any monuments other
than simple tablet at its entrance naming
the scene Furthermore, the plan contains a
method for public education about the histori-
cal and military values in the park that will
reduce to a minimum, if not completely oblit-
crate, the need for human guide
AS the earthworks in the Fort Harrison sec
tor were uncovered by the spades and shovels
of the youthful campers, they were found to
be excellently preserved Nearby farmers had
found them too heavy, after the war, to repay
Tor the labor OF leveling them down into fields.
Nearly 10 years had passed since the Southern
ers had turned up the bastions, later called
forts, to protect Richmond, but the moats and
long-stretching trenches had suffered little soil
erosion. Vines and other forest underground
had done this bit of conservation. And the
forests had not covered them with trees only a
sentinel Of tall pines volunteering at the edge
of the one-time theater of war to stand guard
over the ghostly reveille Of gallant host. An
atmosphere Of eerie mystery hung over the
spot as the clearing continued, charm that
would be dispelled with too much modern res
toration. It was then apparent that the finest
monument the heroes of Richmond field could
have, would be the earthworks built by their
own hands, preserved with honeysuckle vines to
check the wash Of the rainfalls and the tall
pines left as part of the story told there in
the landscape.
Without an elaborate artificial restoration the
next problem was to entice the average visitor
to the park into using his own mind to under
stand what happened around Richmond in '64