7/29/2005

Porter's battlefield gets a stay of execution

The latest on Shepherdstown:
Any action on remaining unresolved issues surrounding a controversial plan to build more than 100 houses on 121 acres that some people contend are part of a Civil War battlefield will have to wait until Aug. 9, officials said Tuesday. [...]
According to records on the National Park Service's Web site, the Battle of Shepherdstown took place Sept. 19 and 20, 1862, on acreage to the west side of what is now Trough Road, including Far Away Farm [the proposed building site], which is east of Shepherdstown.
What, a battle after Antietam? You must be mistaken, everyone knows McClellan failed to act:
After the Battle of Antietam, Gen. Robert E. Lee began to pull his Army of Northern Virginia back across the Potomac River, crossing at Pack Horse Ford. Union soldiers arrived on the Maryland side of the river the following morning and began to shoot at southern troops across the water. [Emphasis added.]
Oh, I see. These preservation nuts are confusing potshots with an actual battle.

Send in the bulldozers; I've read my Centennial histories.