Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 5, 1994 TAG: 9407050124
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Robert Freis
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
It's "Ashokan Farewell," the fiddle-and-guitar waltz and theme from the television series "The Civil War."
This riveting video mosaic captivated me and millions of Americans when originally broadcast by PBS four years ago. Seeing it rerun last week was just as pleasurable.
The series has its flaws, as Virginia Tech historian James I. Robertson Jr. points out: some glaring inaccuracies, a few questionable emphases and too much judgmental hindsight.
On balance, however, what resonates from "The Civil War" isn't data but a sensation of time traveling, back to the era of anguish and resolve that forged modern America.
"The Civil War" is also praiseworthy because it engages and enlightens both the novice and buff. I serve in the latter regiment.
I grew up amid simultaneous events that seemed abrasive, yet actually shared much common ground: the Civil War Centennial and the Civil Rights Movement.
Living through those times gave me a healthy sense of identity as a Southerner and a Virginian without any illusions or magnolia-scented mythology about my heritage. That combination came from reading about Civil War battles while watching freedom marchers attacked with fire hoses and dogs.
What I learned from those experiences was this: the war, in some ways, remains unresolved, 129 years after Appomattox. Think about that the next time you hear of Americans who emotionally disagree about the public display of the Confederate battle flag.
The struggle to define the course of our dynamic nation continues - in a less violent manner that open warfare, thankfully. The basic issues involving citizen rights and obligations remain volatile. Many of the words spoken by Americans in the 1860s ring with the same fidelity and potency today.
We have both a need and an obligation to understand the Civil War - if we seek to understand ourselves.
For me, the pursuit is a pleasure. I've spent many days wandering Civil War battlefields, peaceful places where unimaginable mayhem occurred more than a century ago.
I lived much of my young adult life near several major battlefields of Virginia's Northern Piedmont and came to know them well. Fortunately in those days the haphazard sprawl of Washington-area residential development was somewhat restrained, held back by oil embargoes and the Iranian ayatollah.
Years later, back home in Southwestern Virginia, I watch despairingly from afar as much of that hallowed ground disappears beneath a bulldozer's blade. How - when public interest in the Civil War is higher than ever - can they allow a new subdivision to be built amid in the Wilderness battlefield? Why - when tourist dollars are so coveted - would anyone visit there again? I don't get it.
In our part of Virginia a great opportunity remains.
Earlier this month I wrote a story for the New River Current about the Battle of Cloyds Mountain. Before researching the article I knew virtually nothing about the subject. Civil War histories don't mention Cloyds Mountain much.
Thanks to several books written by local historians - Patricia Givens Johnson of Prices Fork being one - I learned about a fascinating saga.
Below Cloyds Mountain occurred a large-scale, savage, decisive battle. The ensuing campaign brought the Civil War home to the New River Valley - to Dublin, Radford, Christiansburg, Blacksburg, Newport - with all the vivid details we associate with better-known campaigns.
It is our very own Civil War legacy.
In northeast Pulaski County, on grassy bluffs above Back Creek, the Confederate defenders made their stand, only to be overwhelmed by Union forces. Part of the Cloyds Mountain field has been developed, yet the bluffs remain much as they were during the battle.
Fortunately, the bluffs are part of a farm owned by the family of the late John Dalton, Virginia's governor 1978-82. The Daltons are public-spirited people who understand the value of the land cannot be measured in dollars.
Experts on Civil War battlefields say the site is a gem, ideal for preservation and interpretation of what happened there - and why. Local initiative is the key to making that happen, they say.
New River Valley residents should treat that information like a rousing bugle call announcing our chance to make history live again. Fancy this: a modest Cloyds Mountain Battlefield park, perhaps a driving tour of other area Civil War sites associated with the campaign, all connected with the Huckleberry Trail and Ingles Ferry projects, which are only a few years away from reality.
I dream of a dedication ceremony where someone reads aloud the words of Abraham Lincoln, who said at Gettysburg:
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom...
by CNB