This is the story of how one American Civil War site has garnered national attention and taught Americans lessons about the future of historic preservation. It covers the earliest moves to create the Manassas Battlefield Park up to the struggle to prevent the Disney site nearby. (From the publisher's description)
One hundred and forty-seven years ago, lines of blue advanced on a hillside near the outskirts of Fredericksburg. Those heights were manned by gray-uniformed soldiers, powerfully well-armed and rather surprised that the Union commander should send wave after wave of troops into their maelstrom of cannon and rifle fire. What followed was a slaughter about which Confederate General Robert E. Lee said, "It is well that war is so terrible...we should grow too fond of it."
Memorial Day has a long history, reaching back to the end of the Civil War. On April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee surrendered his army, and soldiers of the North and South went home to their families, their ranks thinned by the war's bloodshed. Thousands upon thousands of the men who went to battle never returned. At home, their families grieved for the fathers and brothers lost to them and looked for a way to memorialize their sacrifices.
The best thing about the library is that it is available not only to me, but to everyone. It does not discriminate. It makes itself available to those who want to use it.
