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Upcoming Events: Forward to a Friend Become a Member Learn more about Newsletter Archive: January 2008
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The Mosby Heritage Area Association Newsletter - July 2008 Statement From The President That includes what promises to be a memorable evening on Saturday, September 13. That's when the Board of Directors and Dr. Betsee Parker will host a special musical evening at Huntlands, the historic property near Middleburg. Invitations will go out soon; meanwhile, you can find out more in the next item in this newsletter. I would like to welcome our new Board and Advisory Board members, and offer my thanks to Gayle DeLashmutt, who has done an amazing job as Board President these past two years. Her shoes will be impossible to fill. She has worked long and tirelessly for MHAA, and, in fact, will continue to do so, as Vice President of the Board. Everyone who cares about preservation owes Gayle a debt of gratitude for her dedication, her hard work and her leadership. If I can do half as well as she has as MHAA Board President, I will consider myself a success. Marc Leepson
SAVE THE DATE!
The evening will begin with cocktails and tours of the great house and gardens to be followed by a recital featuring American opera, Broadway show tunes, and folk songs. This is a rare opportunity to tour Huntlands, one of the most stunning properties in the Northern Virginia Piedmont – an evening not to be missed! For invitations, please contact the MHAA office at 540-687-6681.
Final Cavaliers, Courage, & Coffee Program of the Summer For the final program of the summer, our offering will be presented at the 1807 Aldie Mill in Aldie, managed by the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority. This program, entitled “Tales from an Old Mill,” uses the backdrop of the two-century-old merchant mill and its surroundings to share stories of life along the turnpike during 1862-65. Stories will include miller John Moore’s troubles with the Confederacy, the Aldie Races, the June 1863 Cavalry Battle at Aldie, the whipping received by federal cavalry at nearby Mount Zion Church in 1864, plus stories of the civilian wartime experience locally. Period music will be sung by Miss Olivia Colville to build the atmosphere of the evening. The Aldie program will be offered on Saturday evening August 16th at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $5.00 for adults and $2.00 for children, proceeds used for the Mosby Heritage Area Association’s local history education programming. If you are interested in assisting the Gray Ghost Interpretive Group with their programming either by being an interpreter telling stories or by helping with program logistics, call MHAA Director of Education Rich Gillespie at (540) 687-5578 or e-mailing him at rgillespie@mosbyheritagearea.org .
Civil War Conference In this space over the summer and early fall, we will highlight the speakers for MHAA’s Civil War Conference. This month we take a look at Dennis Frye. Dennis will speak on Friday evening and after lunch on Saturday. He and Tom Clements will be leading the bus tour of the Battle of Antietam on Sunday. Dennis E. Frye is the Chief Historian at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. Writer, lecturer, guide, and preservationist, Dennis is a prominent Civil War historian. He has numerous appearances on PBS, The History Channel, The Discovery Channel, and A&E as a guest historian, and he helped produce television features on the Battle of Antietam and abolitionist John Brown. Dennis served as an Associate Producer for the Civil War movie Gods and Generals, during which he recruited and coordinated nearly 3,000 reenactors for the film. Dennis also is one of the nation’s leading Civil War battlefield preservationists. He is co-founder and first president of the Save Historic Antietam Foundation, and he is co-founder and a former president of today’s Civil War Preservation Trust, where he helped save battlefields in twelve states. Dennis is a tour guide and lecturer in demand, escorting Delta Queen steamboat excursions and leading tours for organizations such as the Smithsonian, National Geographic, numerous colleges and universities, and Civil War Round Tables. He is a well-known author, with 60 articles and five books. His latest book is entitled Antietam Revealed. Dennis resides near the Antietam Battlefield in Maryland, and he and his wife Sylvia have restored the home that was used by General Burnside as his post-Antietam headquarters. Additional speakers for the 2008 Conference include: PETER CARMICHAEL, GARY ECELBARGER, LESLIE GORDON, KIM HOLIEN, ROBERT K. KRICK, STEPHEN R. POTTER and, JEFFRY D. WERT. Speakers are subject to change. For additional information and the complete Conference program please visit the MHAA website: www.mosbyheritagearea.org (Events Page). Individual copies or quantities of the Civil War Conference brochures are available on request from the MHAA office or online. Spaces are limited, so register today!
BROWN! On November 7-8 this fall, people who love to experience history will be like chocolate-lovers diving into a hot fudge sundae. MHAA Education Director Rich Gillespie and senior GGIG interpreters Eric Buckland, Heidi Carbaugh, Olivia Colville, Susan Stevens, and Clay Steward will take 32 lucky people on the infamous John Brown’s Raid Retreat—a twenty-hour program designed to immerse participants in the electrifying situation Northern Virginia faced in 1859. Captain John Brown, radical abolitionist, had brought 21 white and black raiders to Harpers Ferry to seize the federal armory and arsenal on the evening of Sunday, October 16, 1859. The weapons taken would be used to arm a massive run-off of slaves to Canada. Brown hoped to have an armed moving bubble, a sort of mountain slave republic, that would work its way down the eastern edge of the Appalachian Mountains to northern Alabama then all the way north to Canada. But it would all begin here in our region, where slaves would run off to join Brown from places like Fauquier (10,455 slaves), Loudoun (5,501 slaves), Jefferson (3,960 slaves), Clarke (3,375 slaves), Prince William (2,356 slaves), and Warren (1,575 slaves). Suffice to say, panic and armed reaction ensued. Although John Brown and all but five of his men were either killed or captured, the Mosby Heritage Area would never again be the same. “Peace had flown from the borders of Virginia,” reflected Constance Cary Harrison. Our retreat begins Friday evening at Hedgewood, a farm in Loudoun County near Lincoln, one that witnessed the dramatic reaction of Virginians in the fall of 1859. By dramatic presentation, discussion, and lantern-light story-telling, the situation of the “peculiar institution” in Northern Virginia will be explored. A communal dinner will be part of the opening festivities. Saturday, participants will travel by bus to Harpers Ferry to explore the state of America before the raid, will meet and share their knowledge of the raiders, will spend time in the attic of the Kennedy Farm where the raiders hid until the raid, will see the raid played out through accounts of eyewitnesses, will explore the uneasy time in our region during and just after the trials of John Brown and his men, and then will role-play the historic nighttime march of John Brown’s raiders beside the roaring Potomac by lantern-light. The retreat ends with drama, discussion, and ceremony Saturday evening in the John Brown Engine House at Harpers Ferry. “History needs to be felt to have maximum meaning,” comments MHAA Education Director Rich Gillespie. “This program opens up a hugely important period in our region’s history for serious inspection. Inspired participants in the past have found a little mental switch being tripped—and their way of viewing history begins to involve in both understanding and intensity.” The program will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Friday evening November 7th, and with a brief break for a little sleep Friday night, will go on the road Saturday morning at 8:45 a.m. and run until 11:00 p.m. Yes—this is an intense historical immersion program. Participants should be in reasonably good health and able to walk at least two miles. We especially recommend doing the retreat with a spouse, family member, or friend to allow post-retreat conversation and reflection. Detailed itineraries are available upon request. Call Judy Reynolds at (540) 687-6681 if you are interested.
Summer Interns During the summer, MHAA is very fortunate to have two interns working at the MHAA office. These interns are Anna Anderson, a rising junior at Foxcroft School and Victoria (Vicky) Gravett, a rising senior at Wakefield School. These two young ladies will be with us through August. Anna and Vicky have been working with Judy Reynolds, the Executive Director, to bring the MHAA data bases up to date, “catch up” some of MHAA’s information resources, and research MHAA programs. “They have been a great help to me this summer,” said Judy. “We are so appreciative of the work our volunteers do. MHAA couldn’t operate as smooth as it does without our volunteers.”
Site of the Month: Historic Long Branch The house was enlarged and changed to the Greek Revival style with pillars in front and back, a spiral staircase, and intricate woodwork in the parlors by a relative, Hugh Nelson, himself a grandson of Thomas Nelson, Jr., a signer of the Declaration of Independence. When the Civil War threatened, Hugh Nelson was one of Clarke County’s two representatives to the Virginia Secession Convention in 1861. Addressing the Convention, he pleaded with his fellow delegates: “I come from the banks of the sparkling Shenandoah. Those green fields…may become fields of blood. Can you blame me, then, if I wish to try al peaceful means, consistent with Virginia’s honor, or obtaining our rights, before I try the last resort? I promise you that when the contest does come, if come it must, the people whom I have the honor to represent…will meet it like men…” Nelson died in 1862 leaving debts that resulted in lengthy court battles to keep Long Branch in the Nelson family until 1957 when it was sold. It then passed through several owners before Harry Z. Isaacs, a Baltimore textile executive and noted breeder of racehorse, purchased the property in 1986. Mr. Isaacs began a complete restoration of the home and donated the house and 400-acre farm to a non-profit foundation upon his death. Historic Long Branch is located off Route 50 in Clarke County. Follow Red Gate Road (Route 624), which is opposite Route 255 that comes from Millwood, to Nelson Road (Road 626) to the entrance. The grounds at Historic Long Branch are open daily from 9 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. for self-guided tours and guided tours of the mansion from 12 noon to 4:00 p.m. Wednesdays through Sunday during the spring, summer and fall. Learn more about Historic Long Branch by visiting their website www.historiclongbranch.com
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