In the quiet countryside of western Loudoun County lies one of the state's most well-preserved Civil War battlefields. The untouched landscape in Unison looks much as it did when Federal and Confederate troops clashed there in fall 1862.

And some Unison residents want to keep it that way.

The Unison Preservation Society is in the process of nominating its proposed 8,000-acre Unison Battlefield Historic District for a spot on the Virginia Landmarks Register. The state designation would make the district eligible for a listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

State and federal historic designations could help prevent development in Unison, which was the site of a proposed landfill several years ago. The designations also would mark a victory for the preservation society, which has tried to block a housing development in Unison.

At a public meeting in Upperville on Wednesday, landowners in the proposed district were reassured that historic designations would place no restrictions on their properties.

"There won't be any government interference with what you do with your property," said David Edwards, a regional director for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

Unison, an unincorporated village settled by Quakers in the 1700s, was given a designation on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. But preservationists say its unrecognized treasure is its battlefield, considered one of the most pristine in the state.

"That's hard to say in this day and age, when battlefields are much more vulnerable to development," Edwards said.

President Abraham Lincoln devised the Battle of Unison in fall 1862, when Union victories had been few and public support for the war was waning.

The battle began when Union Gen. George B. McClellan and his troops moved down the Blue Ridge in an effort to cut off the Confederate army from its source of food and weapon supplies in Richmond.

On Oct. 31, Union Gen. Alfred Pleasonton moved ahead of McClellan's army to clear roads for their advance.

Fighting broke out in the village of Philomont, after which Union and Confederate troops clashed in Unison, where many buildings were set on fire as the battle raged. The fighting continued until Union forces broke Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's line. Stuart and his troops retreated through Upperville toward Paris and safety.

But on Nov. 3, Confederate Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's troops crossed the Blue Ridge and moved toward Culpeper. They arrived the next day to block McClellan's advance, foiling Lincoln's plan. Upon hearing of the battle Nov. 5, Lincoln removed McClellan from command.

The historic district nomination process will include a search for remnants of the three-day battle.

Maral Kalbian, an architectural historian preparing the nomination, will begin taking photographs and documenting all of the buildings and structures in the proposed historic district from the end of this month through February.

"This is a collection of buildings that help tell the story," she said.

The nomination also will include research of any archeological remains in the battlefield, remains that might document Union and Confederate defensive positions or show signs of a struggle.

Ben Ford, a Charlottesville-based archeologist, said he will look for Civil War artifacts, such as the foundation of stone or brick buildings, bullets and buckles.

Other searches will look for nails, pottery, glass and essentially "evidence of a structure and the people who came and went," he said.

Most Unison landowners at the meeting seemed pleased with a possible historic district nomination.

"This will allow our property to look as it did during the war," said Stacy Mallonee, a real estate agent who grew up in Unison and lives on 36 acres in the proposed district.

State and federal historic designations would provide rehabilitation tax credits for old buildings and make it easier for landowners to put conservation and preservation easements on their properties. With the historic designations, development that requires state or federal approval or funds, such as power lines, road paving and landfills, also would require a special federal review to assess the impact on the historic district.

The proposed boundaries for the district total 8,087 acres, with 7,139 acres falling in Loudoun and 948 acres in Fauquier County. It's northwest corner starts on Jeb Stuart Road just west of Philomont and goes through Unison. It continues through the intersection of Route 50 and Willisville Road before moving west along Route 50 through the Village of Upperville. The district completes its U shape by going north from Upperville along Trappe Road and then north along Greengarden and Airmont roads before it stops at Ebenezer Church Road and Airmont roads.

A public hearing on the historic district will be scheduled in the spring or summer, after the proposed boundaries are finalized.

link to on-line Washington Post article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/09/AR2009100904636.html

A team of historians is preparing an application that would make the Unison Civil War Battlefield Historic District the largest historic district in Loudoun, stretching from Philomont to Rt. 50 and west toward Ashby's Gap.

Unison area residents have contended the 1862 battle was worthy of the highest recognition as a significant Civil War engagement, but that recognition is not included in the official lexicon of major Civil War battles, receiving only citation as a minor cavalry battle. Over the past several years, members of the Unison Preservation Society have worked to gain more recognition for the significance of the clash of forces among southwest Loudoun's rolling hillsides.

Now, with the help of a third grant from the National Park Service's American Battlefield Protection Program and support from state and federal historians, area residents can feel they are finally getting on the Civil War "map."

If the nomination for the Unison Civil War Battlefield District is approved by state and federal agencies after review and public hearings, the district would be listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register, thanks in part to $10,853 granted to the Unison Preservation Society, according to last week's announcement by former UPS president Paul Hodge, who has been managing the project. The new grant by the National Park Service's American Battlefield Protection Program will cover the cost of studying a larger battlefield than the original core battle area, leading to an expanded district to be nominated for inclusion on the federal and state registers.

Unison resident Mitch Diamond was one of those who pushed for greater recognition of the significance of the three-day engagement. It was Diamond's research that helped persuade federal and state historians that the battle was significant because it delayed, for those crucial few days, what could have been a successful move by Union forces to cut off Gen. Robert E. Lee's retreat to Richmond after the Battle of Antietam. Although Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart had to retreat from the battle area, he successfully held off units of the Union Army of the Potomac under the command of Gen. George B. McClellan for three days, enabling Lee to successfully slip southward.

The recent grant came about when the consultants hired by the preservation society to prepare the register nomination realized the study area relating to the battle needed to be larger to take in Stuart's retreat westward. National Park Service historians agreed, and also realized that the initial funding would be insufficient to cover the larger study area.

The Unison researcher noted the boundaries of the district would be determined by the study and in consultation with the Department of Historic Resources. The district is likely to stretch from Philomont down through Unison to Rt. 50 and along Rt. 50 to Upperville and Paris, probably to Ashby Gap, according to Diamond.

"We're still trying to establish the exact acreage, but it will be many thousands of acres," Diamond said this week.

It's been a long road. The UPS got an initial grant of $19,853 to hire NPS historian David Lowe in 2005 to study and map the battle, which took about a year and a half. Lowe's illustrated history was recently published by the society.

The society then applied for a second grant to do the nomination for placing the core area of the battlefield on the federal and state registers, from Philomont through Unison to Rt. 50, an area comprising approximately seven miles. That $34,660 grant covered the cost of hiring a team of consultant historians, headed by Maral Kalbian of Boyce, to do the work. And it was their conclusion the study area needed to be larger, to add the eight miles of Stuart's retreat along Rt. 50, Diamond said.

That in turn led to discussions with members of the National Park Service. "Everyone agreed, it should be bigger, but we'd need more funding," hence the recent grant, Diamond said.

Now that the expanded study area is approved, Diamond gave the state historic resources department personnel a big thank you. "They've been on our side from Day One. From the first, we thought it was more important than mentioned, and they and David Edwards [manager of the department's Northern Virginia regional office in Berryville] have been big supporters and helpers of everything we've done," Diamond said.

The process will not be a quick one, according to Edwards. VDHR has stated the nomination appears to have met the National Park Service criteria for eligibility consideration, he said, and Kalbian has already started some archival work. But it is unlikely she and her team, including Richmond historian John Salmon and archaeologists Ben Ford and Steve Thompson of Charlottesville, will be able to begin field study work until the late summer.

The proposed federal and state historic district is an honorary designation that would not affect local zoning laws or place restrictions on landowners or their properties, according to Hodge, although the designation could require additional oversight of some construction projects that might adversely affect the district, such as cell phone towers, or road widening. Property owners could be eligible for tax benefits for the restoration of historic structures within the district.

The AVPP office can be reached at the National Park Service at 202-354-2037.

Supervisors Pass Restrictions
On Non-Conventional Septic Systems

Excerpt from Leesburg Today (Thursday, November 13th, 2008)

After years of debate about the pros and cons of non-conventional septic systems, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors this week voted to restrict their use despite concerns that the action could undermine rural property values.

The adopted ordinance places a ban on alternative septic systems, with a five-year sunset provision and a grandfathering clause for the approximately 2,000 subdivision lots already approved by the health department to use them.

The ban will limit the use of the small sewage treatment plants, which critics say are prone to failure especially if homeowners are not aware of their specialized operational limitations and maintenance needs. Opponents of the board's action, however, argued that the technology is far better for the environment than conventional drainfield systems and claim the restriction is aimed at limiting development.

County staff members have estimated that there are 14,000 onsite sewage systems in Loudoun and approximately 1,200 of those are systems that use methods other than the traditional septic tank process. Of the 1,200 alternative systems in Loudoun, 18 have had failures, according to county statistics.

"We need this time out to take a step back," Supervisor Jim Burton (I-Blue Ridge) said. Burton added that the five-year ban would give the county enough time to examine if there are any problems with the non-conventional systems that could pose a public health risks. "I am sure it will show that some work just fine and are worth continuing and some do not. It's a question that we really need to get answered."

The five supervisors who joined Burton in support of the ban said they also were concerned the county did not know enough about the systems and their potential problems.

"No answer available to us is going to please everybody, but that doesn't give us the option to walk away and do nothing. It's worth five years of waiting and see if the ones in the ground now work well," Supervisor Stevens Miller (D-Dulles) said.

Vice Chairman Susan Klimek Buckley (D-Sugarland Run) likened the five-year moratorium to a "stop, look and listen" approach.

"This allows us to evaluate the situation and continue to look at the data and in five years make a decision that is in the best interests of the citizens of Loudoun County," she said.

Dominion Virgina and Allegheny Power plan to build a 500-kilovolt transmission line, linking Winchester to Aldie, complete with steel towers nearly 160 feet tall and a wide right-of-way up to 200 feet wide.

But the line doesn’t end at Aldie. In March, PJM Interconnection, and Allegheny Power asked the Department of Energy for an early decision on a “National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor” designation for the route.

Using national security and the need for redundant routing of power to the Capital and other major cities in times of crisis, the designation would allow the Federal Government to condemn property for the right of way, no matter what objections might be raised by property owners, or state, county, and local governments.

Bundles Murdock gave the Middleburg Town Council an early warning about the power companies plans in August. Noting the impact of such rights-of-way on the environment and public health, not to mention historic sites, viewsheds, and property values, she urged action. On September 14 the Council unanimously authorized the drafting of a formal resolution for distribution to the Department of Energy and all other important stakeholders, urging, at the very least, that an environmental impact study and public hearings preceed any Federal, state, or county action on the matter. The same day, at a Piedmont Environmental Council briefing at the Hill School, Council Member Mark Schneider urged development of a well-reasoned counter-plan to meet the power companies’ national security and redundancy arguments. The Council hopes to pass the resolution at a special meeting on September 27.

Member of both pro-growth and slow-growth factions on the Loudoun County Board of Supervisiors have joined forces against the “corridor.” Developers see the giant towers and humming lines as “sales killers.” Homeowners, already worried about real estate values, see them as “asset killers.” Politicians see them as “vote killers.”

Senator John Warner demanded a clearer definition of needs, the development of alternative approaches to meeting them, and a comprehensive environmental impact study before moving foreard.

Stonger language was used by both Judy Feder and Frank Wolf. Wolf’s letter to the Secretary of Energy was unequivocal. “Millions of federal, state, local and private dollars have gone into protecting the sanctity of the history of this region. An electric transmission corridor with a transmission line of the magnitude proposed would permanently desecrate the integrity of this landscape. We must not destroy this land.”

Yet to be heard from on the issue is junior Senator George Allen, who serves on the powerful Senate Committee on Energy and Resources. Supporters of former Navy Secretary Jim Webb, Allen’s opponent in the upcoming election, have noted Allen’s close ties to Dominion Power (Allen’s wife and Richmond Democrat Benjamin Lambert served together on Dominion’s Board of Directors). Allen has also been a strong supporter of the Bush administration’s current energy policy, which Pennsylvania Republican Rick Santorum bragged recently, could help an Allegheny Energy proposal “ . . . to build a $1.4 billion, 330-mile transmission line from West Virginia to Maryland to bring a more reliable energy stream to the East Coast”

Rep. Frank Wolf says "NO" to proposed Dominion Power Line through Clarke/Fauquier/Loudoun

Washington, D.C. – Rep. Frank Wolf (R-10th) today released the attached letter to the Department of Energy (DOE) opposing a proposed power line through the 10th District.

Wolf urges the DOE to deny the designation of a National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor (NIET) in the 10th District that would endanger this exceptional landscape.

“I cannot emphasize enough the historic, environmental, scenic and cultural importance of the lands within this section of the proposed NIET corridor boundaries,” Wolf wrote. “The importance of these lands is unparalleled, as evidenced by the vast amount of this area under federal and state protection.”

This region includes rural and conservation areas, federal and state recognized historic districts, historic sites and scenic byways, agricultural and forest districts, state parks, the Appalachian Trail, the Shenandoah River, and many Civil War battlefield parks.

The entire text of the letter is below:

September 14, 2006

The Honorable Samuel Bodman
Secretary, United States Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave SW
Washington, D.C. 20585

Dear Secretary Bodman:

I write today to express my deep concerns about the request by PJM Interconnection and Allegheny Power for the Department of Energy to designate a National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor (NIET) through one of the most protected landscapes in America. I strongly urge the Department of Energy to deny this NIET corridor designation request.

The eastern section of this corridor would cross parts of Frederick, Clarke, Warren, Fauquier, Loudoun and Prince William counties in the 10th Congressional District of Virginia which I represent. This 40-mile section has been proposed by Dominion Power (the local utility company charged with siting and building the transmission line) as the “Meadow Brook to Loudoun Station” line, and Dominion has publicly stated its intention to file a request to build with the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) in spring 2007 as part of a larger 240-mile transmission line linking 502 Junction in Pennsylvania to East Coast markets.

I cannot emphasize enough the historic, environmental, scenic and cultural importance of the lands within this section of the proposed NIET corridor boundaries. The importance of these lands is unparalleled, as evidenced by the vast amount of this area under federal and state protection. Included are local comprehensive plans for rural and conservation areas, federal and state recognized historic districts, historic sites and scenic byways, agricultural and forest districts, state parks, the Appalachian Trail, the Shenandoah River, and more than 80,000 acres under conservation easement -- the highest concentration of privately donated conservation easements in Virginia and arguably in the United States -- pursuant to local, state and federal policies and incentives (see attached map of the designated study area).

The study area also contains lands preserved as Civil War battlefield parks. The blood that sustained a unified nation is in this land. This is the land that George Washington surveyed. This is the land that James Monroe walked. This is the land that Chief Justice John Marshall farmed. Throughout my 26 years in Congress I have worked diligently to preserve these lands for future generations. Millions of federal, state, local and private dollars have gone into protecting the sanctity of the history of this region. An electric transmission corridor with a transmission line of the magnitude proposed would permanently desecrate the integrity of this landscape. We must not destroy this land.

Before you proceed with the department’s review of the PJM request, I urge that you order an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). I understand an EIS is being prepared prior to designation of a NIET corridor through 11 western states, and a similar environmental study must also be conducted here. I believe an EIS will reveal that the environmental impact of the proposed corridor designation in Virginia would be unprecedented and threaten a longstanding federal, state and local effort to protect the landscape’s cultural, historic and scenic qualities.

Furthermore, as you may know, the Commonwealth of Virginia is beginning work on a comprehensive energy plan. The department’s action now to designate a NIET corridor in the state would impede that work and preclude the State Corporation Commission from having the necessary time to consider the comprehensive plan before ruling on a new power line siting for this area.

Thank you for your consideration of my comments. I would appreciate any updates you can provide as you review the NIET corridor designation and proposed transmission line request. Please contact me or Elizabeth Becker of my staff at (202) 225-5136.

Sincerely,

Frank R. Wolf

Member of Congress