The Shepherdstown Battlefield Preservation Association seems to be gaining ground on the developers who want to put 100 houses on the site of the battle in which Lee defeated McClellan's pursuit, post-Antietam.(Whispered in the peanut gallery: "McClellan's pursuit? What on earth is this blogger talking about?")
I'm a little giddy. If the public recognizes that there once was a battle at Shepherdstown, despite pop history's best effort to pass over it, what's next? Admission that a battle occurred at Crampton's Gap?
Are we now uncompressing that consensus history that has been pounded down into diamond hardness over 50 years? I shudder for the royalty checks of scores of authors.
(Shown: one view of the battle from Harper's Weekly.)
