Let’s Claim Another Victory at Fisher’s Hill!

We are posting victory after victory at Fisher’s Hill and it’s all because of you and your fellow preservation warriors across this country! 

In recent months we’ve preserved more than 150 acres there in two separate deals, one located along the Federal line and one in the heart of the Confederate defensive position.  Now we have the opportunity to follow up on these two stunning and hard-fought victories with a third win on the Fisher’s Hill Battlefield. 

That’s because after several years and an investment of nearly $1.9 million, the preservation of the 146-acre Funkhouser farm on the Fisher’s Hill Battlefield is now within reach.  We have $89,000 to go and we’re kicking off the campaign to raise those final funds and preserve this property forever.

Of all the land that we’ve worked to preserve at Fisher’s Hill Battlefield, it’s the historic Funkhouser property that saw the most prolonged and intense fighting. 

That’s not to say that the hundreds and hundreds of acres that we’ve protected from one end of that battlefield to the other were not critically important – they absolutely were.  But when it comes to the intensity of the fighting, it’s the ground around the Funkhouser farmstead that saw the most – hands down. 

Having brushed aside the Confederate cavalry, it was on this property where the avalanche of Federal troops that rolled down Little North Mountain crashed into the flank of the Confederate infantry. 

The desperate and decisive struggle that ensued would have rocked the walls of the Funkhouser house as hundreds of blue clad soldiers from Ohio and West Virginia fought their way through the farm fields and up to the heights beyond. 

Today the old house stands silent and empty; a witness to war and a reminder of the lives that were changed forever when war was waged in their dooryard. 

The property lies along a branch of Tumbling Run (if you study a map of Fisher’s Hill, it seems like every creek and stream is named Tumbling Run) and feels strangely remote considering how un-remote the property really is. 

Standing in the hollow leading to the house, the 21st century all but disappears.  It’s one of those battlefield sites that captures the imagination to such an extent that you can almost smell gunpowder. 

If we can preserve this property, we can open it to the public and give visitors that kind of experience – the kind of experience that brings these landscapes to life and forever connects them to the history that unfolded there.  The kind of experience that turned you into lifelong lovers of battlefields and diehard preservationists.

We think you’ll agree that we have to push through to victory on this one, and that you’ll want to join the fight to save the Funkhouser farm.  Every dollar that you contribute toward the last $89,000 has been matched 22 to 1 by state, federal and private gifts!  

We’ve already pulled together more than $1.9 million to purchase and preserve this property.  The heavy lifting is over; just a little more from each of us and this property will be protected forever. 

Please consider making a gift – it will certainly have an impact. 

Will Eichler of Civil War Digital Digest on the Target Property