At Culpeper, a cadre of friends groups paved the way for a new Virginia state park that will tell the story of four battles. The idea: Preserve it and people will come

Cunningham Farm wall remnants (Chuck Laudner/ABT), Gens. John Buford and WHF "Rooney" Lee; 8th Illinois Cavalry attack along Beverly's Ford Road at Brandy Station (Keith Rocco/ABT)

A low stone wall that separated two 19^th-century farms in Brandy Station, Va., is remarkably intact today, despite being worn by time and a mammoth cavalry clash that signaled the beginning of the Gettysburg campaign.

It was here on June 9, 1863, where Union Brig. Gen. John Buford tried to turn the Confederate left flank. Brig. Gen. William Henry Fitzhugh "Rooney" Lee, son of Gen. Robert E. Lee, had no intention of allowing Buford's maneuver to succeed. Lee’s horsemen stubbornly fought off repeated assaults for five hours, stalling the Federal advance.

The site of their pitched fighting is on preserved ground that the American Battlefield Trust (ABT) will donate to the state for its burgeoning Culpeper Battlefields State Park, which will be made up of several parcels in Northern Virginia.

The trust, Friends of Culpeper Battlefields, the Brandy Station Foundation, Friends of Cedar Mountain Battlefield and other groups have worked for decades to save and interpret imperiled Civil War battlefields in Culpeper County. They are Brandy Station, Cedar Mountain, Kelly’s Ford, Rappahannock Station and Hansbrough's Ridge.

About 263 acres centered at the crest of Fleetwood Hill at Brandy Station were the first donated to the state.

While the state park opened a year ago, development is still in its embryonic stage. Staff is being hired to develop a master plan. Drew Gruber (left), former executive director of Civil War Trails, was recently hired as the park's first manager.

The ABT – which will be chief steward of the properties until 2027 -- plans to make several additional donations to the Commonwealth over the next couple years, said Jim Campi, chief policy and communications officer.

“I think it is one of our biggest accomplishments by far,” Campi said of the land preservation organization’s efforts in Culpeper County.

Ultimately, he said, visitors will be able to enjoy Brandy Station through a wide array of transportation – on foot, horseback, bicycle and canoe or kayak.

The ABT and the state hope the new park units and ensuing visitation will provide a boost to the local economy. Culpeper is nestled between Cedar Mountain and Brandy Station. “Downtown Culpeper is part of the Civil War story, anyway,” said Campi.

Click map to get a closer view of planned state park properties (American Battlefield Trust)

“Where else can you stand in the footsteps of soldiers, follow cavalry charges on horseback or paddle the battle?” Gruber said in a news release about his hiring. “This park already offers a unique set of experiences for visitors of all ages and interests, and I am excited to share these gifts with our guests.” 

43rd state park in Virginia a rare foray into history

Greg Mertz, vice president of the Brandy Station Foundation, said local groups are committed to supporting the state park in the long haul, whether through volunteering, fundraising or participating in special events.

That commitment was a big draw for Gov. Glenn Youngkin and the Virginia General Assembly when they first appropriated funds in 2022.

A pair of cannons at Cedar Mountain (Matthew Hartwig/American Battlefield Trust)

“We have been told that one of the reasons why the Culpeper Battlefields State Park has come into being before some other equally deserving new state park proposals is because of the number of friends groups and partners willing to both advocate for the park and help out with volunteers,” Mertz told the Picket in an email.

Campi said Virginia's park system "is mostly about managing natural parks and wildernesses,” so this Civil War site will indicate a new effort to convey the Commonwealth’s rich history. Culpeper will be the state's 43rd park and encompass about 2,200 acres.

While many portions of the Cedar Mountain and Brandy Station battlefields have been open to the public for years, including trails, the Fleetwood Hill unit of the Brandy Station battlefield is the only portion of the Culpeper Battlefields State Park that is currently open to the public, said Mertz.

Interpretation at Brandy Station's Fleetwood Hill sector (American Battlefield Trust)

Public hearing will spotlight cool features

The ABT, working with the Brandy Station Foundation and other partners, is engaged in a yearlong cultural landscape study that will help inform the state’s master plan.

Campi said this study focused on a portion of the Brandy Station battlefield, including St. James Church and Elkwood. “We have identified some pretty interesting archaeological resources we are going to identify publicly,” he said.

Those features include an old road and cemeteries. The stone wall that separated the Cunningham and Green farms will be among discussion points at a June 24 evening program in Culpeper about the study.

An ABT marker about fighting at the Cunningham farm details the action. (Above, American Battlefield Trust map of Brandy Station. See top to see where Buford and Lee clashed)

“Rooney Lee was a skilled fighter and used the terrain well. First, he blocked Buford's progress by the stone wall 500 yards in front of you.

“From his command post on the knoll behind you, Buford saw that a portion of Lee's dismounted regiments were placed between Ruffans Run and the Hazel River (to your left and right respectively). Two unlimbered cannon were located on the other side of the hill behind the stone wall. Since the disposition of the enemy and the channels of the two water courses left him no alternative, Buford launched several mounted and dismounted charges against the wall. Blistering fire from Lee's brigade held the Federals back for several hours.”

Rooney Lee’s cavaliers eventually left the field as an additional Federal cavalry force entered the fray. Casualties at and near the stone wall were significant.

U.S. cavalry earned their stripes at Brandy Station

The Friends of Culpeper Battlefields provides details on Brandy Station, Cedar Mountain, Rappahannock Station and Kelly’s Ford at this page. Cedar Mountain is famous for Confederate Maj. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s August 1862 victory over Federal forces led by Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks. This battle shifted fighting in Virginia from the Peninsula to Northern Virginia, giving Lee the initiative, according to the National Park Service.

The NPS says this about Brandy Station:

“Enduring a narrow defeat and forced to withdraw, the Union force did not succeed in their mission to stop the Confederate advance. However, for the Union cavalry, the confidence and experience they gained at Brandy Station would prove invaluable four weeks later at a battlefield in southern Pennsylvania called Gettysburg.”

“It is just picturesque. It is beautiful,” Campi said of Brandy Station. Fleetwood Hill is just stunning.” He mentions the role of Beverly’s Ford Road, which is still unpaved in the battlefield. He also touts the important of archaeology work at Hansbrough’s Ridge.

Rappahannock Station witnessed fighting in 1862 and 1863. Some battleground has been lost to residential development.

These walls do talk. Will state take over Graffiti House?

Mertz, with the Brandy Station Foundation and a retired supervisory historian at the National Park Service, said besides owning parcels of land at Brandy Station and Kelly’s Ford, the nonprofit owns the Graffiti House (left), which is open Saturdays from 12 p.m.-4 p.m. from mid-March to early December.

“Walls in the 1858 building-- which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places -- contain Civil War graffiti,” he said. 

“The charcoal graffiti includes signatures, unit designations, dates, drawings and messages written by both Federal and Confederate soldiers.”

Mertz believes future master planning by the state could look at whether the house should be part of the park. “We envision that the options for ownership and operation of the Graffiti House vary from the BSF retaining both, the state taking over both, the state taking ownership but the BSF continues to run the operations.”

Hansbrough's Ridge -- scene of a small engagement during the battle of Brandy Station as well as a site from the Federal winter encampment of 1863-64 – will require extensive planning to provide visitor access and still preserve the resources on the site, Mertz added. 

View from Hansbrough's Ridge captures beauty, development (Peter Giraudeau/American Battlefield Trust)

Coming up with the right master plan is key

The ABT said it and other groups worked together to stave off much of the development that would take in battlefield land.

“At various times, pieces of land that we are now gifting to the Commonwealth of Virginia were slated to become housing tracts, industrial parks, water retention and management areas — even a Formula One racetrack,” it says. (Below, American Battlefield Trust map of parcels at Brandy station; click to enlarge)

State and private money are crucial to protecting more land as the development wave continues, said Campi, adding it’s important for the public to have access to history.

“We think this is going to add so much tourism potential,” said of the state moving in with a deeper budget and staffing than the advocacy groups. “We expect to see that explode in the next decade.”

Coming up with the master plan will take a few years as the state determines what it can open and what is vulnerable and needs extra protection.

In the meantime, visitors can walk on several trails and read ABT and Civil War Trails signs.

“We are always going to be involved,” said Campi. “The park is not done yet. There is more land to acquire.”

An Arkansas museum telling the tragic story of the steamboat Sultana will be housed in an old school gym. Its decades-old wooden bleachers are finding a new use

Wood from high school bleachers adorn lobby area; banners will be featured in exhibits (Sultana Disaster Museum)

John Fogleman grew up in Marion, Ark., three blocks from the high school gymnasium-auditorium his grandfather helped dedicate in 1939 near the end of the Great Depression.

Fogleman -- president of the Sultana Historical Preservation Society, which is building a new museum about a Civil War maritime disaster that occurred near the town -- routinely walked to the gym to watch basketball games and attend plays and pep rallies. He played guard for the junior high and high school hoops teams.

“My memory is that the gym was always packed with people (probably not in reality),” he said. “It was much like a scene from ‘Hoosiers.’”

Fogleman’s and other alumni’s memories will live on as the Sultana Disaster Museum continues to take shape in the old multiuse building. Recent construction has used part of the 500-seat bleachers to decorate walls in the lobby area outside what will be the main exhibit area. (Below, Fogleman during a 1969 game at Marion High School)

“Generations of high school students … were in that gym. (Some) of our board members played on the basketball team,” museum director executive director Jeff Kollath told the Daily Memphian podcast last month.

The relocated museum, which spotlights the burning and sinking of the side-wheel steamboat Sultana, will feature a space dedicated to the story of the gym and the old high school. Visitors will see photos of basketball teams, letter jackets and cheerleader uniforms, Kollath told the Picket in an email.

The current Marion high school is in another part of the bedroom community, which is across the Mississippi River from Memphis, Tenn. The gym is the only part of the old high school to survive.

Crews are building a more dynamic Sultana Disaster Museum than the current small location a few blocks away. Marion, close to where the Sultana caught fire in the Mississippi, will honor soldiers who died in the disaster and residents who helped save others who were plunged into the river in late April 1865.

About 1,200 passengers and crew perished. Hundreds of Federal soldiers, many recently freed from Confederate prisons, including Andersonville and Cahaba, were on their way home.

Museum officials say the exhibits will build off the full story of the Sultana, with information about the importance of the river, Confederate POW camps, the bribery and corruption that led to the overcrowding of the boat, the explosion and fire, and the creation of the Sultana Survivors Association. The vessel’s boilers are considered to be the main cause of the catastrophe.

Recalling the smell of popcorn and sweat 

Harper's Weekly illustration of the conflagration (Library of Congress)

The state of Arkansas and the federal Public Works Administration built the gymnasium-auditorium in 1938-1939. School board President J.F. Fogleman presided over its dedication.

“Musical selections were performed by the Marion and Earle Glee Clubs. Following the program, three intrasquad games were played,” according to a brief history of the venue.

An article on the Living New Deal website describes the building:

“The structure is a handsome example of brick Moderne architecture, with two faux stone entrances. It is single-story with large window and minimal decoration, except for the bas-relief columns and arch around the entrances and two sculptural scrolls along the central roof line. The interior of the gymnasium appears largely unchanged from its original form.”

The gym got off to a notable start after it opened, hosting a February 1940 game between the Southwestern College Lynx of Memphis and the Louisiana State University Tigers.

The University of Arkansas Razorbacks, on their way to what is now called the Final Four, beat Southwestern at the Marion gym in December 1940. (At left, a May 1939 article on the dedication of the gym, click to enlarge)

This, of course, was before segregation, which came to Crittenden County in 1970-1971. Until then, Black athletes played at Phelix School in nearby Sunset.

I asked Fogleman what happened to that gym. “It was sold and it is more or less tearing itself down -- nature. It’s sad to see,” he said.

Fogleman, 69 and a retired circuit court judge, said he gave his first speech in the auditorium when he was in sixth grade.

“I remember basketball practice as exhausting (line drills, and bleachers). When I go into the main part of the gym, I am reminded of the smell of popcorn,” the 6-footer wrote in an email.

“Prior to (demolition) work, when I entered the area that will now house the administrative offices and the classroom I could still smell a combination of sweat and liniment (Atomic Balm).”

Gym before 2022 construction began and a concert in the 1960s-70s (Sultana Disaster Museum)

The last high school game in the building was 1974-75. A youth sports league played games in the building until 2020.

The elementary school across the street also used the building until 2020. 

Fewer artifacts, more storytelling 

While the bleachers have been repurposed for a decorative element, the wooden floor remains in the gym. Most of it will be covered by a large-scale version of the Sultana and other exhibits, says Fogleman (right, below).

Kollath, who formerly led the Stax Museum of American Soul Museum in Memphis, told the Daily Memphian the remains of the Sultana lie about 20 feet below a soybean field east of Marion, which has about 13,000 residents.

The permanent gallery about the Sultana disaster will open in April 2026. The society and museum are still raising money to finish the project. Unlike Stax, the Sultana Disaster Museum has few original items to display.

“It is not going to be as artifact heavy as a lot of museums would be. But we have great storytelling,” said Kollath.

Gene Salecker, Sultana author, collector and museum supporter, has amassed a large cache of items, many associated with disaster survivor associations and their reunions.

The museum will use modern technology and a scale replica of the 270-foot boat to tell the story under the 35-foot ceiling of the old gym on Old Military Road.

The Sultana had left Memphis and caught fire in the middle of the night, with its flaming wreckage drifting to the Arkansas side.

The story of the Sultana runs deep in the blood of Judge Fogleman and his cousin Frank, who was Marion's mayor for many years.

Their great-great-grandfather, John Fogleman -- after lashing two or three logs together -- poled his way through the current of the Mississippi River and toward survivors.

The Fogleman and Barton families, descendants of local men who were part of that rescue effort, donated $100,000 for the project.

The new museum met another milestone recently, with its name added to the gym’s exterior. (Photo Sultana Disaster Museum)

 “We are the only museum in the world that will have the word disaster in it,” quipped Kollath.

May 2025 photo of the gym interior, future site of permanent gallery (Sultana Disaster Museum)

As four Confederate soldiers are reburied in Williamsburg, archaeologists try to positively ID them through DNA testing and searches of records

The final resting place for four soldiers at Cedar Grove Cemetery (The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation)

Archaeologists at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia have recovered DNA from the remains of four Confederate soldiers uncovered two years ago and hope to use that material and hospital and other records to positively identify them, officials said last week.

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation last week shared an update with local media and the Associated Press. The Picket previously wrote about the discovery of the bodies near the site’s powder magazine.

The archaeologists have narrowed the possible identities to four men who served in regiments from Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina and Virginia, the AP reported. 

The museum is withholding the names as work continues.

Excavations in 2023 yielded a mass grave at the powder magazine. (The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation)

“The next step in the search for the soldiers’ identities is working with a genealogist and the recovered DNA to conclusively connect the Confederate burials to living relatives, a process that may take over a year,” Ellen Morgan Peltz, public relations manager for The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, wrote the Picket in an email.

The remains of the four men were buried last week at William’s Cedar Grove Cemetery, where other Confederates rest. Remains of three amputated legs also were found during excavations around the magazine’s wall from February to April 2023. 

“Each soldier’s remains were placed in an individual stainless-steel box and buried in an individual vault. The three amputated limbs were buried together in their own box and vault for a total of five boxes and five vaults,” Peltz said. “The burials took place quietly and without ceremony.”

The soldiers likely took part in the May 5, 1862, Battle of Williamsburg in Virginia.

The inconclusive Battle of Williamsburg, according to the National Park Service, was the first pitched battle of the Peninsula Campaign, following a Confederate retreat from Yorktown. Hooker’s division attacked the Southerners at Fort Magruder, but was repulsed. Confederate counterattacks ultimately failed and they made a nighttime withdrawal toward Richmond. Casualties numbered more than 3,800.

Some wounded troops were treated at a Williamsburg makeshift hospital, officials said.

“The museum has recovered enough genetic material from the men’s teeth for possible matches,” the AP reported. “But the prospect of identifying them emerged only after the team located handwritten lists in an archive that name the soldiers in that hospital.”

Hancock's Federal troops launch attack on May 5, 1862 (Library of Congress)

The four soldiers had been buried respectfully, with their hands folded. Bullets, gold coins, buttons and suspender buckles were found with the skeletal remains. One had a bullet in his spine.

Rebel troops used the magazine in 1861 to store ordnance. Colonial Williamsburg was conducting a restoration project at the site when the grave was discovered.

The remains were sent to the Institute for Historical Biology at William & Mary, a nearby university, for analysis.

Jack Gary, Colonial Williamsburg’s executive director of archaeology, said his team used account books and newspapers to narrow down a historic list of 29 individuals who died on that site after the Battle of Williamsburg to a short list of individuals who might be matches for the burials.

The archaeologists eliminated soldiers who survived or lost an extremity, the AP reported. The four skeletons had all of their limbs. Death dates were key because three men were buried together, allowing the team to pinpoint three soldiers who died around the same time.

Use of the powder magazine dates to the American Revolution (The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation)

“Doing this type of identification with burials this old takes a unique set of circumstances. In this case we are lucky to have numerous lines of evidence we can draw on to try and determine the names of these individuals,” Gary said in a statement. Future efforts will include seeking DNA swabs from descendants

Women who visited the wounded kept some records with names. Those documents are kept at William & Mary. The Picket reached out Friday to the library’s special collections research center for details and possible images of the papers but has not heard back.

In a March 2023 article after the discovery of the grave, The Virginia Gazette quoted a local historian as saying the remains are likely Confederate.

“With the Union occupation of the city after the battle, Union remains were collected and ultimately buried at the cemetery in Yorktown,” said Will Molineux. It’s possibly reburial crews missed these two pits.

The article said battle expert Carson O. Hudson wrote in his book, “Civil War Williamsburg,” that the Confederates “were buried in large square pits on the west side of the building” adjacent to the magazine.