Planning for Fisher's Hill Trail Project Nears Completion

Public Meeting Scheduled for December 8
For immediate release—December 2, 2010
Contact: John D. Hutchinson/SVBF - 540-740-4545x204
NEW MARKET, Va.—The first phase of planning for a twelve-mile trail project in northern Shenandoah County is almost complete. Since last spring, the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation has been working with landowners and other community stakeholders to develop a blueprint for a non-motorized trail linking preserved areas of the Fisher’s Hill battlefield with the town of Strasburg and Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park. On December 8 at 5:30pm, a public meeting will be held at the Strasburg Town Hall to present the draft plan.
Sponsored by the Battlefields Foundation, the $1.5 million project is funded in part by federal transportation grants. The location and other specifics of the trail network are being determined through a public planning process involving a steering committee assembled for the project. The committee includes landowners from throughout the project area, representatives of potential user groups (bicyclists, hikers), local preservation organizations, and the town and the county. Two public meetings have also been previously held.
Draft Plan to be Presented
The draft plan envisions construction of the trail in a series of phases. Initial segments will be constructed on properties owned by the Battlefields Foundation. Future segments will link those areas to one another and ultimately connect the Fisher’s Hill battlefield area to the town and the national park. The trail will accommodate a variety of user groups and provide a comprehensive interpretive experience through the corridor.
John D. Hutchinson, the Foundation’s Director of Conservation, is managing the project. “Over the last six months or so, we’ve spent a lot of time talking to landowners and residents in the Fisher’s Hill area to make sure we’re doing what they want with this project,” said Hutchinson. “We’re starting the trail construction on Foundation properties in part because that’s what they said they want us to do.”
The overall project will include stabilizing and restoring the remaining historic bridges, road traces, and fortifications along the historic Valley Pike and providing non-motorized trails and interpretation of these sites. Interpretation will focus on the importance of the Shenandoah Valley as a national transportation corridor that promoted the Valley’s economic prosperity and the importance of the region to the Civil War.
Providing technical assistance for the project is an advisory committee comprised of Pam Sheets, the director of Shenandoah County Parks and Recreation; Dave Ruth, superintendent of Richmond National Battlefield Park; Joanna Wilson, an archeologist with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources; and Sarah Mauck, a member of the Strasburg Town Council.
Hutchinson noted that this project is likely to be a model for the Foundation to follow in the future. “This project will take some time to complete but once it is done, we will be able to use the lessons learned here in other areas,” he said. “We hope this trail will be a real asset to the northern Shenandoah County community and the region.”
The Valley Turnpike and the Battle of Fisher’s Hill
The Battle of Fisher’s Hill (22 September 1864) was one of the last major battles in the Shenandoah Valley. In the fall of 1864, Union commanders sent Gen. Philip H. Sheridan to the Valley to bring a final end to Confederate control of the region. After delivering a crushing defeat at Winchester on 19 September, Sheridan faced Confederate Gen. Jubal Early just south of Strasburg at Fisher’s Hill. Although firmly lodged in earthworks above the Valley Turnpike, Early’s diminished forces were not able to fully cover the Valley’s span. As a result, the Federals routed the thinned Confederate lines along Fisher’s Hill. Seeing that they had been flanked, the Southerners were forced into a hasty retreat along the Valley Turnpike towards Woodstock.
In its 1992 survey of the Valley’s Civil War battlefields, the National Park Service noted the significance of the Battle of Fisher’s Hill. “Confederate defeat at Fisher's Hill…opened the Shenandoah Valley to a US advance that reached beyond Staunton,” the report said. “When Sheridan withdrew during the first part of October, his army systematically burned mills, barns, crops, and forage, and ran off livestock. By implementing this strategy of ‘total warfare,’ Sheridan felt that he accomplished the primary objective of his campaign--to deprive the Confederacy of the agricultural abundance of the Valley.”
The Battlefields Foundation protects a total of 426 acres at Fisher’s Hill. In the 1990s, the former Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites purchased more than 194 acres there. A local Sons of Confederate Veterans camp—the Strasburg Guards—developed a walking trail and interpretation at the site before it was deeded to the Foundation in 2007. The Foundation has protected an additional 232 acres at the battlefield since 2001.
The last major Civil War battle fought in the Shenandoah Valley was centered just north of Strasburg at Cedar Creek. The battlefield spans the area from Fisher's Hill in the south to just north of Middletown. The Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation and its partners have protected more than 1,500 acres on the Cedar Creek battlefield. This includes the 151-acre "Kiester Tract" on Pouts Hill just east of Strasburg, acquired by Shenandoah County for development as a park.
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As authorized by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation serves as the non-profit manager of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District, partnering with local, regional, and national organizations and governments to preserve the Valley’s battlefields and interpret and promote the region’s Civil War story.
Created by Congress in 1996, the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District encompasses Augusta, Clarke, Frederick, Highland, Page, Rockingham, Shenandoah, and Warren counties in Virginia and the cities of Harrisonburg, Staunton, Waynesboro, and Winchester. The legislation authorizes federal funding for the protection of ten battlefields in the District: Second Winchester, Third Winchester, Second Kernstown, Cedar Creek, Fisher’s Hill, Tom’s Brook, New Market, Cross Keys, Port Republic, and McDowell.
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ON THE WEB:
Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation and
Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District:
www.ShenandoahAtWar.org
National Park Service 1992 study of the Shenandoah Valley’s Civil War battlefields:
http://www.cr.nps.gov/hps/abpp/shenandoah/svs0-1.html
Battle of Fisher’s Hill: http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp/shenandoah/svs3-13.html.