Andrew Banasik named next superintendent at Antietam National Battlefield

Longtime Civil War history enthusiast Andrew Banasik next month will become superintendent of Antietam National Battlefield in Maryland.

“I'm humbled to be chosen to care for such a consequential treasure of American history,” Banasik said in a news release. “I'm excited to bring my passion for caring for park staff and resources, serving our visitors and partnering for the future.” He starts May 19.

The National Park service tallies 22,720 men on both sides killed, wounded or missing/captured at the Battle of Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862, making it the bloodiest single day in U.S. history.

Banasik will move from a similar position at Monocacy National Battlefield, about 25 miles away. He has had a couple stints at that Civil War site near Frederick.

NPS regional director Kym A. Hall touts Banasik’s 25 years of park experience.

“At Monocacy, he integrated the park’s natural and cultural resources management programs, and preserved and protected historic structures, archeological sites, historic landscapes and wildlife habitat,” Hall said in the release. “He also expanded recreation opportunities by improving trails and park view sheds. I believe he will bring that tenacity and creative problem solving to his new role at Antietam.”

Banasik has also worked at Catoctin Mountain Park in Maryland and for the National Capital Region Exotic Plant Management Team.

Much-needed R&R: Three Fort Sumter flags are headed for a cool, dark place after years on display. Here's more about the banners

US storm flag, top, garrison flag, lower left, Palmetto Guard (NPS)

Three Fort Sumter flags – among them the U.S. flag that waved during its bombardment -- have been on display for at least 20 years, powerful symbols of a nation torn apart and brought back together.

Gunfire wasn’t their only enemy: saltwater spay, humidity and light took a toll on the flags. Now it’s time to give them some down time. Today and Wednesday, gloved curators will carefully remove the fragile banners from exhibit.

“It is long overdue for them to be rested,” said Brett Spaulding, chief of interpretation for Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park in Charleston, S.C. “Light is an issue for all textiles that are on display. To help preserve them, it’s common practice to rest artifacts.”

The museum on the island will be closed both days; the grounds of the fort and bookstore will remain open and ranger programs will operate normally, officials said.

Storm flag flies above the fort on April 14, 1865 (Library of Congress)

The flags are among the most famous of the Civil War: The 33-star U.S. garrison flag flew over the fort until it sustained wind damage on April 11, 1861, hours before Rebel artillery effectively began the Civil War. Its smaller successor, the storm flag, flew during the 34 hours of the attack.

Both were removed from the island by Union Maj. Robert Anderson after he surrendered. The storm flag immediately became a patriotic symbol for the remainder of the conflict and raised the status of the Star-Spangled Banner to what we know today.

The Palmetto Guard flag was the first Confederate flag to fly over the fort after the departure of the US Army on April 14, 1861. 

(NPS photo)

The storm and Palmetto Guard flags have been at the Fort Sumter museum. The garrison flag is at the Fort Sumter Visitor Center (above) at Liberty Square in downtown Charleston.

All underwent conservation before they went on display. “Despite taking great care to protect the artifacts they are best preserved when stored in a clean, dark, cool, and dry environment for periods of rest,” the park said in a news release. 

Here is more about the three flags:

U.S. 33-star garrison flag (wool bunting, 20 feet by 36 feet)

This was the larger of two U.S. flags to fly over Sumter in April 1861. When the Civil War began, the United States flag had 33 stars: one representing each state in the Union. After Fort Sumter, President Abraham Lincoln had to decide whether to leave all 33 stars on the flag or to remove those of the seceded states. Since Lincoln's mission was to preserve the Union, no stars were removed.

The garrison flag flew as tensions rose before the bombardment. By the evening of April 11, hours from the exchange of artillery, the larger banner suffered extreme wind damage and it was taken down. It has lost the most material of the three historic flags.

McCrone Associates, which partnered with the NPS to authenticate the flags, wrote this about the project:

“A crucial finding was that the fibers were characterized by “glass rod fracture,” indicative of severe photo degradation -- findings verified through micro chemical tests, as well. Thus, museum personnel were strongly advised to keep the rolling up and unrolling of the flags to an absolute minimum. 

"The severe climatic conditions of an ocean island, together with prolonged exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun, were responsible for irreversible damage to the integrity of the individual fibers, so that every movement of the flags resulted in countless more broken fibers. These facts, together with the constant whipping in the wind, accounted for the missing portions of the garrison flag.”

Remarkably, the blue canton of the tattered flag is largely intact.

U.S. 33-star storm flag (20 feet by 10 feet)

(NPS photo)

While it flew only three days over the fort, this banner was the sturdier banner and was taken by Anderson to New York City a week after the surrender for a rally. He was celebrated as a hero. The storm flag later was the object of fundraising across the country for the Federal war effort.

Anderson said of the flags in 1863, according to the Post and Courier newspaper:

 “I feel that no one can love and ... keep as carefully as I do this sacred relic, and it is my earnest wish that when Fort Sumter shall be again our own, I may be permitted by the government to there once more unfurl it, or should I die before that time, that it may be wrapped around my body when it is borne to its last resting place ...”

On April 14, 1865, five years after the garrison surrender, Anderson (left) returned to Fort Sumter as the storm flag was raised. Charleston had been under Union occupation for two months and the liberated black population had put on parades.

“Lincoln had pushed for the April 14 ceremony and was invited to attend, but with the break-neck speed of events in Virginia following the fall of Richmond, the president opted to stay in Washington instead,” according to Emerging Civil War. 

“The flag ceremony went on without him. That evening, at Ford’s Theater, John Wilkes Booth put a bullet in Lincoln’s head. Had the president gone to Charleston, how different might things have played out.”

In 1905, the garrison and storm flags were donated by Anderson’s family to the War Department.

Palmetto Guard Flag (9 feet by 6 feet)

From the National Park Service: As victorious Confederates entered Fort Sumter, John Styles Bird Jr., a private in the South Carolina militia unit known as the Palmetto Guard, placed his unit's flag on the parapet facing Charleston.

Palmetto Guard flag on display at Fort Sumter Museum (NPS)

The single star signified the independent Republic of South Carolina and the tree harkened back to the Revolutionary War. The fort remained in Confederate hands for the next four years until evacuation in February 1865.

John Styles Ashe, son of John Styles Bird Jr., donated it to the National Park Service. They were transferred to the National Park Service at Fort Sumter in 1954, according to the Post and Courier.

No timetable for them to be put back on display

Spaulding, the interpretive ranger, told the Picket in an email that there are no current plans to replace the flags. “Later this year, we will look to develop temporary displays to occupy the empty space.”

He said it is not currently known whether significant work is needed or will be done on the three flags.

“For right now they are only being stored and preservation will take place at a later undetermined time. At this time, no date has been set for the return of the flags” to exhibit.

Ole Miss researcher to study African-American experience at Vicksburg

For the next two years, University of Mississippi history instructor Beth Kruse will live and work in Vicksburg, delving into the untold story of Black Americans in the tumultuous Civil War South.  The National Park Service Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship has named 15 postdoctoral fellows to tell a more inclusive story of American history. Kruse will piece together the history of African Americans living in and around Vicksburg between the Civil War and Reconstruction. Kruse will examine widow and orphan pension letters and other documents from African American soldiers who died in the war and are buried in Vicksburg National Cemetery. She will also gather stories from families who are descendants. -- Article

NPS staff members sink their teeth into building a yummy Fort Sumter replica. Ingredients included gingerbread, icing and other goodies

Staffers crafted the fort to include debris, damaged walls and cannonballs (NPS photo)

Another round of gloomy weather in the Atlanta area had me feeling the Christmas blues coming into this week. Then a Facebook post from Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historic Park in Charleston, S.C., came along, lifting my spirits -- and appetite.

Monday, in case you didn’t know, was National Gingerbread House Day, and the park’s staff did it up in style with a tasty recreation of the famous Civil War fort, albeit a representation of how it looked after a long siege -- including debris and embedded cannonballs.

It’s all part of December’s #GreatNPSBakeOff sponsored by the National Park Service. Staffers and those who follow parks on social media are encouraged to participate.

Fort Sumter ranger Summer Elcock provided the Picket details about the festive Fort Sumter delicacy. Her responses have been edited.

Fort Sumter, as imagined in a sweets eater's dreams (NPS photo)

Q.  What exactly is the Great National Park Service Bake Off?

A. The Great NPS Bake Off is a chance for people to show their love for the parks in a unique and fun way. During the month of December, we’re inviting anyone (regardless of baking skills) to get out a rolling pin and give it a go! Whether it’s recreating a historical landmark, such as Fort Sumter, or creating a tasty sweet inspired by nature, we look forward to seeing the outcome.

Q. Who on the Sumter/Moultrie staff came up with this idea? How long was the idea in the works?

A. Rebekah (Claussen), one of our interpretive rangers, is in a social media group for NPS and saw the upcoming campaign. She told me about it, and I came up with the idea to make a gingerbread version of Fort Sumter. 

Q. Can you tell me what the different components are made of, ie. the cannonballs, cannon, flags, etc.?

A. We decided to create what we thought the fort would have looked like in 1865 after the 18-month Union bombardment from Fort Morris (that ended in a Confederate evacuation). We used gingerbread for the walls and icing for the mortar. We then created a black icing to harden and cover little candies to create the cannonballs. Our cannons and the flag were made out of modeling clay to help them keep shape.

For the water around the fort, we pulled multiple icings together to create a color that best represents our harbor, complete with a swirling tide that we often see ourselves when out on the island.

Q. How long did it take to make?

A. It took five women across three different divisions (our historian, preservationist and our Interpretation team) plus one fun evening together to build the gingerbread fort. 

We made sugar cookies that night and realized Whoppers would be too big to represent a cannon ball. The scaling would have been way off.

Q. What will become of it?

A. It became a delicious treat for rangers coming in from the cold, and yes, it does get cold here in Charleston! 

Q. Anything else about the project?

A. We had so much fun coming together and collaborating on this piece. We’re very proud of how it turned out and can’t wait to do it again next year.

We’re already brainstorming bigger and better ideas, so definitely be on the lookout come next December.

One of the things we're making adjustments for next year is that we take more photos in the process. We were having too much fun!

Other NPS creations: Harpers Ferry, Grand Canyon, Tonto National Monument

Rogers named new superintendent at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania

Lewis Rogers, whose 38-year National Park Service career has included service at 12 sites with historic and cultural themes, has been named the next superintendent of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park in Virginia.

Lewis Rogers

Rogers, currently the superintendent at another Civil War site, Petersburg National Battlefield, will start his new position on Dec. 18.

At Petersburg, Rogers guided the park through the Civil War sesquicentennial and he spoke often about the important role of African American soldiers (U.S. Colored Troops). A postage stamp honors Black troops who fought during the Battle of the Crater at Petersburg in July 30, 1864. Rogers also backed expansion of the Petersburg park.

“I am proud to be a steward of America’s history,” Rogers said in a press release Friday.

“The most exciting thing about national parks is the intersection of story and place. This is the stuff that makes your hair stand up. But too often in public history, too many faces have been cropped out of the whole picture. To understand what really happened, stewards of our shared history need to reveal the entire picture, with all of its participants. That’s what makes history so interesting.”

Rogers’ time at the National Park Service has involved a variety of roles, including law enforcement, wildland firefighting and interpretation. He has served in the U.S. Naval Reserves.

His previous NPS posts included Booker T. Washington National Monument, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Valley Forge National Historical Park and Saint-Gaudens National Historic Park.

National Park Service awards $345K in new grants to help restore battlefields in Virginia and Pennsylvania

Huntsberry farm near Winchester, Va. (SVBF via NPS)

With a focus on restoring “day of battle” conditions at historic sites, the National Park Service has awarded $345,000 in grants for the study of and improvements at Civil War battlefields in Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The agency this week announced the inaugural Battlefield Restoration Grants, emphasizing they will conserve open spaces and restore landscapes.

Here’s a brief look at the five projects that “build on collaborative conservation efforts among state and local governmental and nonprofit partners,” said NPS Director Chuck Sams in a news release.

Pennsylvania

Seminary Ridge at Gettysburg ($62,500 to the American Battlefield Trust): “With financial support from a Battlefield Restoration Grant from the American Battlefield Protection Program, the American Battlefield Trust will synthesize research on the civilian landscape at Seminary Ridge, including the Mary Thompson House, the James Thompson House, the Dustman Barn and the ruins of the Alexander Riggs House; all properties that witnessed the opening stages of the battle. The Trust’s plan will build upon previous research to gain a complete understanding of the Seminary Ridge landscape and provide a roadmap to restoring day-of-battle conditions to a view shed essential to visitors’ experience at the Gettysburg battlefield.” – Details here

Virginia

Edwin Forbes' illustration of the clash at Brandy Station (Library of Congress)

Brandy Station 1863 cavalry battle ($175,000 to the American Battlefield Trust): “The American Battlefield Trust will develop a comprehensive report on the landscape features of the Brandy Station Battlefield, including the archaeological remains of fighting and historic buildings that witnessed the battle. The report will also explore lesser-known stories, such as the experiences of enslaved and freed African Americans as the battle came to Elkwood Downs plantation. The American Battlefield Trust hopes that the report’s findings will lead to the continued preservation of these resources and narratives ahead of the battlefield’s incorporation into Virginia’s new Culpeper Battlefields State Park.” – Details here

Third Winchester in 1864 ($79,428 to the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation): NPS’s award supports the foundation’s on-going restoration of the Third Winchester Battlefield with the installation of period fencing at both portions of the (Huntsberry) farm. The fences that once brought order to the property will now give a sense of place to the farm and help visitors understand the battlefield’s landscape: how it was used by the people who called this place home, how it was traversed by the soldiers who fought here, and how it can be a place of renewal today.” – Details here

New Market battle in 1864 ($28,277 to the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation):  “The Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation (SVBF) will pave the way to advance the New Market Greenway Trail, an interpreted greenway linking New Market’s downtown with nearly 400 acres of protected battlefield” – Details here

The federal money for the new grants program comes from the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

The NPS’s American Battlefield Protection Program administers the new program, along with Battlefield Land Acquisition, Preservation Planning, and Battlefield Interpretation grants.

“Battlefield Restoration Grants empower preservation partners to inspire wonder, understanding, and empathy at the places that witnessed some of our nation’s most challenging events,” the park service says.

Remembering the versatile and passionate Ed Bearss: The public is invited to June celebration of life in Gettysburg

Bearss and former University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley (Georgia Battlefields Assn.)

The public is invited to Gettysburg, Pa., for a celebration of life for renowned Civil War historian, battlefield guide and preservationist Edwin Cole Bearss, who died in September 2020 at age 97.

The American Battlefield Trust announced that the Bearss family has invited people to attend the 1 p.m. June 26 celebration – what would have been Bearss’ 99^th birthday -- on land the trust preserved near the Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center, a nonprofit venue on the campus of the United Lutheran Seminary.

Speakers include retired Marine Corps  Lt. Gen. Richard P. Mills; Jerome A. Greene, retired historian for the National Park Service; and O. James Lighthizer, president emeritus of the American Battlefield Trust.  

Bearss was a legendary figure in the Civil War world. Tour participants hung on his every word as he walked the grounds and gave precise details of what happened there, usually without notes. His voice, itself riveting, was described as thunderous or booming.

As "History's Pied Piper," he more than lived up to the title of Jack Waugh's 2003 biography of the decorated Marine Corps veteran and National Park Service chief historian emeritus.

The American Battlefield Trust detailed his career as a decorated Marine severely wounded during World War II, National Park Service historian, author, preservationist and lecturer. Commenters on the trust’s Facebook page this week remembered his tours and knowledge of battles to exacting detail.

Bearss gained fame for the discovery and raising of the USS Cairo in the 1960s, when he was historian at Vicksburg National Military Park. The majority of the public came to know him from his appearance in Ken Burns' 1990 “The Civil War” series on PBS.

The widower, after living 50 years in Arlington, Va., moved in 2018 to Mississippi, where he had family (Above, in Athens, Ga., in 2019. Photo courtesy of Georgia Battlefields Association.)

The American Battlefield Trust said the one-hour June 26 event will be tented, with seating available and water and light refreshments provided. Portable toilets and indoor restrooms will be nearby. 

Click this link for an email address in which you can express your intention to attend. For those unable to attend in person, a video of the celebration will be posted later.

Influential Fredericksburg-Spotsylvania chief historian John Hennessy is hanging up his hat after a 40-year NPS career

John J. Hennessy, who says his role was to reflect the evolution of thought on key events in the American story, is retiring this month as chief historian at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park in Virginia.

Tuesday (Sept. 1) was his last day of work at the site.

Hennessy last month announced on Facebook the upcoming conclusion of his 40-year service with the agency, which started as a seasonal employee at Manassas National Battlefield Park and continued at Fredericksburg, where he held his position for two decades.

The Delmar, N.Y., native said he hopes to do more historic interpretation and writing. He is the author of several Civil War books, including “Return to Bull Run: The Campaign and Battle of Second Manassas.” He has contributed to “Mysteries and Conundrums,” the park’s blog, and maintains his own website “Remembering.”

“The world has changed incredibly in 40 years, and our business of public history has changed along with it,” Hennessy wrote on Facebook. “I cannot imagine a better time and place to be a public historian. Never has our work as public historians been more important to our nation.”

After he announced his retirement, hundreds of followers thanked Hennessy for his service at Manassas and Fredericksburg, including leading tours and speaking at events.

One wrote, “You were the historian working the Manassas Battlefield when my Mom and Dad drove down from Massachusetts in the ‘80s for a visit. My Great Grandfather had fought for the 44^th New York at ... Manassas, and you spent the time explaining where he fought, pointing to the ridge/fields. We will always be grateful for you, John.”

Hennessy was of help to the Picket over the years, including articles over the death of a Georgia general at Fredericksburg and the search for a burial site for Federal soldiers who died in the battle.

Fredericksburg Superintendent Kirsten Talken-Spaulding told the Picket that Hennessy’s “contributions are extensive and ongoing.  While he is retiring from the NPS, he will still be contributing to the annals of scholarship of history.  For that we should all be grateful.”

Civil War historians Brooks Simpson and Kevin Levin have extolled Hennessy for pushing the boundaries of interpretation of battlefields and factors contributing to the war and their legacy today, including the Confederate battle flag. They say Hennessy faced criticism from some, but stood firm.

“The chief historian of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park combines the talents of a skilled military historian with an ability to reflect upon the broader issues of war and peace, slavery and emancipation, and history and memory,” Simpson wrote in 2015.

In 2011, the historian spoke with the Daily Gazette in his native New York about his interest in the Civil War.

“My dad took me to Antietam in the fourth grade, but I don’t remember too much about the trip. I do remember that in the fifth grade I wrote a book about the Civil War that was 87 pages long. I can’t imagine what I said, but ever since then I’ve read a lot and was always interested in history.” He told the newspaper he considers Antietam to be the most compelling Civil War battle site.

Hennessy has said he originally expected to pursue a business career and his time at Manassas would be a brief break between college after graduating in 1980 and joining the “real world.” It turned into a four-decade career with the NPS.

Before joining the staff at Fredericksburg in 1995, Hennessy worked at the New York State Historic Preservation Office and Harpers Ferry Center.

Of working at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania, Hennessy told the Daily Gazette: “What’s unique about us here is that our story illustrates vividly how the war touched all kinds of different people, not just the soldiers. Traditionally, our story has been told through the soldiers’ eyes, but here we talk about civilians and slaves, and how this community was just consumed by the war. The surrounding landscape was devastated by the two opposing armies for almost two years, and it’s a story with a lot of texture and richness, and it reverberates throughout the American landscape. The story here is told in all sorts of ways: politically, socially and militarily.”

Hennessy wrote last year on his personal blog that while the NPS should not be an agent of social change, public historians have an important role to play in the process of change.

“Using the best scholarship available and thoughtful and dynamic presentation, we need to illuminate brightly the path that brought us to where we are, and then hope that our programs prompt listeners and readers use that information (and, perhaps, inspiration) thoughtfully as they engage in the ongoing quest to improve our nation.”

The park paid tribute to the historian in a Facebook post on Sept. 10.

“He wrote many of our visitor center exhibits and interpretive signs and established many popular park programs such as the History at Sunset series. Over the years, John's efforts have made the history on the ground come alive.”

Chickamauga historian Jim Ogden is a font of knowledge on battles

Do you know the reason why Chattanooga and Chickamauga became the sites of the first national military park, or that it contains more monuments than Gettysburg? Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park staff historian Jim Ogden does, and he shared these and other ear-catching facts that are part of his style with the Chattanooga Civitan Club on Friday. -- Article

Remembering Ed Bearss: Marine veteran, Civil War historian, author, speaker and one-of-a-kind Pied Piper of the battlefield

Bearss at Allatoona Pass, Ga., in 2010 (Georgia Battlefields Association)

Whether leading a battlefield tour, giving a lecture or appearing on Ken Burns’ 1990 PBS miniseries “The Civil War,” historian Ed Bearss commanded attention.

Edwin Cole Bearss, who died Tuesday at age 97, was a legendary figure in the Civil War world. Tour participants hung on his every word as he walked the grounds and gave precise details of what happened there, usually without notes. His voice, itself riveting, was described as thunderous or booming.

The historian incredibly led tours until late last year, when it became evident his health would not permit him to continue. Charlie Crawford, president of the Georgia Battlefields Association, told the Picket then that no other expert could emulate Bearss.

The American Battlefield Trust this week detailed his career as a decorated Marine severely wounded during World War II, National Park Service historian, author, preservationist and lecturer. Among his accomplishments with the NPS was the discovery and raising of the USS Cairo in the 1960s, when Bearss was historian at Vicksburg National Military Park. 

The Picket asked Crawford for a memory relating to Bearss. Here is his response:

(American Battlefield Trust)

"As you know, stories about Ed are legion. Jack Waugh's 2003 biography of Ed is titled "History's Pied Piper," and we witnessed this effect many times in the years that Ed led Georgia Battlefields Association tours and when we would attend American Battlefield Trust events where Ed led tours.

In the last few years, Ed asked that we request a wheelchair and meet him at the airport arrival gate when he came to Atlanta to lead one of our tours. Ed realized he was having trouble navigating the crowded airport corridors, even though he didn't use a wheelchair when he was on a battlefield.

At Utoy Creek in 2018 (GBA)

Bill (-----) usually had the task -- more of an honor than a task -- of meeting Ed, and Ed would often engage the wheelchair attendant in conversation while transiting from the gate to baggage claim. Ed's knowledge would amuse and amaze the attendant, and Bill would notice that other travelers would adjust their pace so that they could hear what Ed was saying.

Of course, they didn't have to be too close to Ed because he had a "trumpet voice," to use his own characterization. So the crowd around Ed would grow as he transited. Some people would approach Bill at baggage claim and ask the identity of the man in the wheelchair and how it was that he knew so much.

Occasionally, someone would recognize Ed and ask if he remembered a tour they were on years ago. Of course, he always did and usually responded with an anecdote about that specific tour. He truly was a pied piper."

Bearss, after living 50 years in Arlington, Va., had recently moved to Mississippi, where he has family, according to the trust and the funeral home in Pearl handling his arrangements.

Work at Petersburg's Poplar Grove cemetery will return headstones to upright position

Gravestones lie flat on the ground at Poplar Grove (NPS photos)

Ann Blumenschine recalls the day a group of Vietnam veterans stopped at the visitor station of the Five Forks unit of Petersburg National Battlefield. They had made a stop at Poplar Grove National Cemetery – resting place for 6,000 Union soldiers – and were disappointed by its condition.

Perhaps they weren’t expecting to see gravestones placed on the ground rather than standing upright. Occasional flooding from poor drainage had eaten away some of the writing on the stones. The flagpole was in rough shape, as were historical buildings on the property.

“I did not know what to say,” said Blumenschine, a Petersburg park ranger and public information officer.

Now the park has an answer. A dozen years after the push for a multimillion-dollar rehabilitation project began, proper and lasting honor will be restored to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country at this Virginia battlefield in 1864 and 1865.

Typical Poplar Grove grave (NPS)

This Sunday (Nov. 15) is the last day for people to visit Poplar Grove National Cemetery before it closes for an anticipated 18 months. 

Maintenance employees and contractors will repair drainage issues, put in new – and upright – marble gravestones, and repair a brick boundary wall and the buildings, including a lodge that one day may serve as a visitor stop. (The cemetery currently is not staffed.)

Officials said they are unaware of any other cemetery maintained by the National Park Service that contains flat gravestones.

Betsy Dinger, a park ranger who maintains a database of soldiers buried at Poplar Grove, told the Picket earlier this year that her heart sank when she first saw the peculiar arrangement of stones, which are of different sizes. “I thought this doesn’t look right.”

The park superintendent in the early 1930s believed that cutting off the bases of the gravestones and placing the remaining marble on the ground was a good way to save on maintenance money. 

Tombstone House off of I-85 (NPS)

Hundreds of the bottoms from the sawed-off monuments found a new, inappropriate purpose. They were sold to a man who used them on the exterior of his Petersburg house and sidewalk.

While park employees don’t second-guess the superintendent’s maintenance decision, they are well aware that the action needs to be remedied.

Dinger said that the new, familiar military gravestones with a rounded top will “make it easy for elements to roll off and protect the inscription.” Because of poor drainage, some of the current stones have become hosts to lichen.

Blumenschine said a storm once brought down trees, including one that brought up a gravestone in its exposed roots. Rumors that coffins were exposed were unfounded, she said.

Lodge at Poplar Grove National Cemetery

1932 photo shows cemetery with upright markers (NPS)

In accordance with protocol, the old gravestones will be ground up and disposed of in order to prevent their use in a dishonorable way.

Poplar Grove National Cemetery, about in the center of the sprawling battlefield, was surveyed in 1866. The Rev. Thomas Flower’s farm was chose. The War Department administered the site until turning it over to the NPS in 1933.

About 6,200 soldiers are buried there, with about 4,000 of them unknown. In some instances, multiple soldiers are buried together. A few Confederates rest at Poplar Grove.

1869 burial register

Many of them fell along the battlefield’s western front. Some died at hospitals, including at City Point. The last burial at Poplar Grove came in 2003.

Rangers said the rehabilitated cemetery will benefit from a maintenance crew up to the task.

“This project is not just important to Civil War soldiers who sacrificed and died,” said Blumenschine. “It will show the respect we have” for fallen sevicemembers today.

Visitation to Poplar Grove during the project will be very limited. Officials said requests for tours will need to be made at least 30 days in advance. Updates on the project will be posted on the park's website and on Facebook.

NPS takes a new look at Reconstruction

With its observance of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War now past, the National Park Service is turning its attention to a lesser-known period of American history: Reconstruction. The agency is embarking on a yearlong study to inventory sites throughout the South and beyond that are important to telling the sometimes-bloody story of a time when 4 million freed blacks worked to build lives as a free people. • Article

310,000 photos -- and counting: NPS team captures 150th for social media, posterity

The cornfield at Antietam (Photo courtesy of National Park Service)

Jason Martz, a visual information specialist with the National Park Service, has led the team that has photographed and made videos at NPS sites throughout the Civil War sesquicentennial. Those images have graced park Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr pages. Martz will talk about the group’s work on Jan. 11, 2015, during the winter lecture series at Gettysburg National Military Park, where he is based. The Picket recently spoke with Martz, 40, about the effort to promote events through social media and to document them for future online and print use. Responses have been edited for brevity and organization by topic.

Jason Martz

Q. How did you become involved in the effort?

A. I came onboard and started focusing on the Civil War 150th in 2010. At the time, the NPS had not jumped into social media pool just yet. That occurred in 2011 after First Manassas (Bull Run).

Q. How does the team work?           

                

A. We are basically serving as the live news media on behalf of that park and are following the park’s schedule and framework and putting the content on social media live as it happens. Our objective is to chronicle the events by taking pictures and video of everything and turning that around and telling a story, interpreting it as it is happening or within a couple of hours. (For Facebook or Twitter) the night before we put a final picture that says tomorrow the park will do this, beginning at this time. We are using social media as a platform to advertise what is coming. We want readers to know this is happening live.

A moment at Fredericksburg (Photos courtesy of NPS)

And at Vicksburg 

Even if you are not here right now, you feel you are part of it. Gettysburg was the most intense of the 150th Civil War events. It had the largest crowds, the most programs, a very well-oiled machine. Everything went off by most accounts without a hitch. I had a large team to shoot and then edit. We were turning around content by the first day or so in two hours, which was unheard of. It used to be four to six hours. At a place like Gettysburg, to turn around content and push it out in two hours -- I still marvel at that.

Q. What are some of the sites at which the team has covered events?

A. They include first and second Manassas; Richmond – the 1862 and 1864 sites; Petersburg, with a focus on the Crater; the four Fredericksburg-based sites, Cedar Creek, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Kennesaw Mountain, Antietam, Harpers Ferry twice, Fort Stevens, Monocacy and Gettysburg. We are going to Appomattox in 2015, and possibly Sailor’s Creek and Petersburg and Richmond again.

Capturing the action at Gettysburg (Photo courtesy of NPS)

Q. How many staff members have been involved?

A. We’ve probably have had about 30, including six volunteers. Some of these were temporary/seasonal NPS photographers.

Q. How many images have you collected?

A. Up to this point, with the Cedar Creek numbers not added, we have taken 310,000 photos. We’ve had about 90 videos, ranging from 30 seconds to five to six minutes.

Q. What were some of the most memorable moments?

Marchers at Gettysburg (Photo courtesy of NPS)

A. At Gettysburg, recalling the march of the Iron Brigade, July 1, 2013. The crowd was as large or slightly larger than the actual number of Iron Brigade soldiers that marched that day -- about 1,500. If you saw it and you were there … it was basically following in their footsteps. It was if people on tour that day -- the people 150 years later -- were the Iron Brigade. It was the same for Pickett’s Charge. The wave of people coming across the field was undeniably the most spectacular thing in the National Park Service. I am covering the great stuff a park is doing.

(Photo courtesy of NPS)

At Chickamauga (above), there were five stations in their timeline program (A Walk Through Time: 1860-1864). The visitor was taken on a trip through time, including the election of 1860, a Confederate recruiter, the civilian story, the lasting effects of the 13^th-15^th amendments, the U.S. Colored Troops (USCT). I thought it was incredible. I am also looking at this from a logistics process, for the park to pull it off, to get all the people bused in.

At Cold Harbor-Richmond, they did a candlelight program. As it got darker there would be interpretive stations, and people would walk from point A to point B. A Confederate or Union soldier would be talking about what was going on at that moment: what those people were doing, thinking and planning. There were two camps and candles. The atmosphere was unlike any other program I have seen. That was one of those spine-chilling things. Shiloh had great programs – the tour of the Hornet’s Nest was also spectacular. 

Q. Tell us a little about online readership and page views during events.

A. It was phenomenal. Take Facebook, for example. Whatever it was in the weeks leading up to the event, on average, during the anniversary, when we were throwing up a ton of content, the average increase was tenfold.

Q. What was it like to cover this many events?

A. In some cases there would an event once a week, but not another for three months. That’s what happened in 1862 -- gaps in campaigns. For the overland campaign, Fredericksburg, Richmond and Petersburg, there was virtually no time off in between. That was the case for a large part of 2014.  Plus you had Kennesaw, Fort Stevens, Monocacy. Though there were no monster battles, it was overwhelming by the sheer number of them going back-to back or on top of each other.

Q. Were there ever any limitations or resource issues?

A. In a couple instances, I wish I had a couple more people. We could have done things to strengthen coverage -- maybe six videos instead of three. Sometimes there are budgetary constrictions and dealing with sequesters. And it was easier to get folks around D.C. and Gettysburg, where travel was not such an issue.

Fort Stevens, Shiloh, Chancellorsville (Photos courtesy of NPS)

Q. Any other singular moments?

A. One came without crowds, when there was an off day at Chickamauga. We went to Chattanooga and got permission to go to the summit of Lookout Mountain when the park was closed. We wanted to get these pictures for advertising purposes for the Battle of Chattanooga in a couple of months. We had multiple cameras and were shooting at various locations. That was one of those days I will never forget. Four of us were up there and we were in awe of the day. There was a spectacular sunrise and footage and camaraderie. Without saying it, we were all saying: “How lucky are we to be here right now?”

Q. What has the sesquicentennial experience been like?

 A. Unprecedented. Everything came to together just at the right time. Once we had covered Manassas in July 2011, the park chiefs and superintendents began to quickly talk about programs for their sites. What always came up was … the work the team was doing for social media and web and video. It was not only great for the moment, but has a lasting legacy that would not have been recorded if the team had not been there. 

Gathering around campfire at Wilderness (Courtesy of NPS)