Photo credit: Terry Rensel
CVBT Newsletter, July 2024
Preservation Updates and News
From the Executive Director's Desk
I find it hard to believe that it is already late July. It seems that it was just last week that we were commemorating the 160th Anniversary of the battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania.
We've been busy here in the CVBT office this summer, working hard to ensure that we offer another outstanding Annual Conference in mid-September. We are doing some different things this year at the conference to improve your learning opportunities, and we look forward to seeing you there.
Late last month members of the CVBT board and staff toured some of our properties to start planning interpretation projects. We hope to have more information to share with you about this initiative later in the year.
The Summer 2024 edition of On The Front Line came out earlier this month. This issue, titled "The Wilderness: Seventy Square Miles of Hell," complements our upcoming conference, and also includes information on Mine Run. Tom Van Winkle has also spent a lot of time this summer giving the CVBT website a new look. Be sure to give it a visit at: www.cvbt.org.
Work continues on our current preservation projects. We are in the final stages of wrapping up the easement work at Myer's Hill and continue working on our active projects along the Flank Attack at Chancellorsville. We are also actively vetting potential lands projects on multiple battlefields.
I hope that your summer is going well and continues to do so.
See you on the battlefield,
Terry Rensel
Come join us for a full weekend of great tours and presentations, good food, and camaraderie with fellow history enthusiasts.
As part of this year's Annual Conference events, well-known expert, historian, and author Greg Mertz will take us on an extended tour of the western edge of the Wilderness on Saturday, September 14. This particular area had a significant impact on the planning and execution of several overlapping military operations in 1863 and 1864. The Wilderness itself proved to be as great of a challenge as the armies were to each other.
Only 9 tickets left!
Friends of CVBT Volunteers Needed!
As you know, CVBT is a land trust. We focus primarily on purchasing endangered battlefield properties. However, we also host a large three-day annual conference, standalone events, and we interpret and maintain our lands. We need help in all of these areas.
In the past, CVBT has often relied on individuals from organizations to assist us, and for their help we are extremely grateful. But now we are in the process of recruiting CVBT's own official volunteer corps.
We have created “The Friends of CVBT." The purpose for this all-volunteer group is to be the “on call” corps of CVBT’s volunteers, serving the organization by assisting with events and battlefield-related needs. Active volunteer members will have the unique opportunity to be involved with events hosted by nationally acclaimed historians, assist in tours, and work on preserved battlefields. Participating volunteers will also be enrolled in the membership ranks of CVBT every year that they contribute.
CVBT will provide each Friend of CVBT with an official volunteer staff shirt and CVBT cap to wear at events, or wherever wanted. We will be limiting this new group to 18 volunteers.
CVBT is now beginning its 28th year of preserving our local battlefields; the very battlefields that you study and trek across. We would be honored to have you join the ranks of CVBT volunteers and help us further our mission of preserving our nation’s history.
If you are interested in being a part of our volunteer corps, please email executivedirector@cvbt.org.
Beckham Tract Landscape Restoration
CVBT is beginning the preliminary work to remove the modern structures on the Beckham Tract in order to return the land to its natural appearance. We are currently about 65% of the way toward our $35,000 goal to make this happen. You can learn more at our website.
Historic Quote
Photo credit: Terry Rensel
"You see we had to advance over a level plane and their batteries being on high ground and them being behind breastworks we had no chance at them, while they could take as deliberate aim as a fellow would at a chicken . . . they threw percussion shells into our ranks, that would drop at our feet and explode killing and wounding Three or four every pop.”
Capt. George Washington Whitman, 51st New York Infantry (and younger brother of noted poet Walt Whitman) in a letter to his mother following the Battle of Fredericksburg.
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