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Gettysburg's Other Cavalry Action-Threatened

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  • Gettysburg's Other Cavalry Action-Threatened

    I found this online with all the hooplah with the casino, the following information I didn't know about (and that casino battle seems to be lost) maybe we can turn our attention to this:

    From Preservation Online, the online magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation



    Development Planned for Gettysburg's "North Cavalry Field"


    Story by Kim A. O'Connell / July 19, 2006



    In June, a Civil War-era barn that played a small but significant role in the Gettysburg campaign was torn down. The aged structure had become a symbol of the ongoing fight to protect the Hunterstown battlefield, a bucolic site northeast of Gettysburg, Pa., where Union and Confederate cavalry clashed on July 2, 1863.

    Located on the Felty farm, the barn marked the Union position during the battle. George Armstrong Custer, as an impetuous young general, had hidden his troops there before ambushing attacking Confederates.

    Over the next few years, however, the Felty farm and its environs may be converted into a new 2,000-house development known as Gettysburg Commons. Although developer Rick Klein has agreed to install both a tree buffer around the complex and a roadside interpretive exhibit, preservationists are concerned that the development would destroy the Hunterstown historic district, which was listed on the National Register in 1979.

    "What's so amazing about this little town is that some families have been here for generations, so names you heard during the Civil War are still here," says Laurie Harding, co-founder of the Hunterstown Historical Society. "These farms are phenomenal time capsules, and the developer wants to put something modern there."

    Troy Harman, a ranger/historian at Gettysburg National Military Park, considers Hunterstown to be Gettysburg's "North Cavalry Field." The clash was significant, he says, because it delayed the Confederate troops' ability to move south to join the main battle. Harman has talked with the developer and hopes to secure several concessions, such as an enlarged buffer zone, that would offer additional protection to the battlefield.

    The historical society is also advocating for a local ordinance to preserve the historic district. "We would like to keep the original, old part of the town intact and keep out the McDonald's and the high-rises," Harding says. "It baffles me to think that people are too busy or just don't care about this history."


    All Rights Reserved © Preservation Magazine | Contact us at: preservation@nthp.org
    Sincerely,
    Emmanuel Dabney
    Atlantic Guard Soldiers' Aid Society
    http://www.agsas.org

    "God hasten the day when war shall cease, when slavery shall be blotted from the face of the earth, and when, instead of destruction and desolation, peace, prosperity, liberty, and virtue shall rule the earth!"--John C. Brock, Commissary Sergeant, 43d United States Colored Troops
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