Help Complete the Berryville Canyon Preservation Project

32 Acres at Third Winchester

We can complete the preservation of 32 more acres at Third Winchester.  This is an amazing opportunity that has come together thanks to the Commonwealth of Virginia and the generosity of two families who are wholly committed to battlefield preservation.  Before I get into the details of the deal, let me tell you about the property.

All 32 acres are contained in three adjoining parcels that are situated along the south bank of Redbud Run in an area of the battlefield known locally as the Berryville Canyon.  The area is named for the steep and rugged terrain through which the Winchester and Berryville Turnpike makes its way from the high open plain just east of Winchester down toward the banks of Opequon Creek.  The ground on both sides of the Turnpike slopes abruptly up from the road edge forming a deep ravine and a narrow defile through which three corps of Philip Sheridan’s Union army had to pass as they went into the fight on the morning of the battle. 

These 32 acres were the site of one of several major mill complexes that, at the time of the war, were located along Redbud Run.  The mills were owned and operated by the Wood family and with their outbuildings, support structures, and mill hand housing, would have looked like small villages along the creek.  On the eve of the battle, the mill at this site had just recently been reconstructed and upgraded to include one of the largest mill wheels that the region had ever seen.  It was a state-of-the-art operation in 1864.  As the fighting pushed quickly through the Berryville Canyon and westward, this property became part of a critical

Target Property in Yellow

logistics hub in the “rear echelon” area immediately behind the front lines.  The Redbud Road stretched northward from the Pike for a few hundred yards to the mill complex.  It was here, on the target property, that the road crossed the creek and forked with Redbud Road bending dramatically to the west and toward Winchester (roughly parallel to the pike).  The other fork ran to the north and the Jordan’s Spring hotel a few miles distant.

During the Third Battle of Winchester, while the fighting raged up the road, a field hospital was established at the mill and desperately wounded soldiers streaming to the rear were gathered at this and other aid stations for initial care and comfort.  For days following the battle, the scene on this property would have been heart-rending. Ambulance loads of Federal wounded were cared for in the buildings and work yards.  The dead were hastily buried at the site, partially removed years later to the National Cemetery in Winchester.

So, how do we get this done?  Well, we’re pretty darn close.  We’ve been able to have 30 of the 32 acres transferred to us from the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Department of Wildlife Resources.  This leaves just two acres in question.  Unfortunately, these two acres are right smack dab in the middle of the property and contain the location of the historic mill and the center of the 1864 hospital site.  Compared to other recent acquisition projects, the price of these two acres, $125,000, doesn’t seem so insurmountable, but the small size of the parcel and the fact that it includes a derelict non-historic house makes it very difficult to make it through the process that would lead to state and federal grant assistance.  Even more problematic, the owners of these critical two acres hired a realtor and put the property on the market.  A potential buyer sprang up right away.  As fate would have it, this potential buyer is a friend of the Foundation and agreed to hold off while we tried to figure out how we could purchase the property.  In a hastily called meeting of the lands committee, purchase of the property was authorized and recommended to the executive committee for approval.  But before it could be presented to the executive committee, a plan for how we were going to pay for the property had to be figured out.  With grant funding presumed to be off the table we had to quickly identify the immediate source of $125,000.

Our chairman, Mark Perreault, picked up the phone and called longtime trustee and former chairman, Rod Graves.  Rod called his brother, our dear friend John Graves, and between the three of them they agreed to gift the Battlefields Foundation $100,000 for the purchase of the site!  That leaves only $25,000 for you and I to raise and these two acres can be preserved, opening up all 32 acres for visitation and interpretation!  What I would like to ask you to help with is a little more than that, however.  I think that considering the extreme generosity of the Graves and the Perreaults, we should come together and try to raise not only $25,000 to complete the purchase, but an additional $25,000 to do the work that’s going to be necessary to clean up the site and open it to the public.  That additional $25,000 won’t get all that’s needed at the site completed, but it will remove the non-historic house from the mill foundation, do some basic clean up, open a part of the trail and provide some initial interpretation. 

Will you join Mark and Rod and John to get this done? The Commonwealth of Virginia has done their part, the Graves and Perreaults have gone above and beyond (once again). Let’s do what we can to raise the $25,000 that we absolutely must have to complete this purchase and let’s pull together $25,000 more to open this site to the world. I really hope you’ll join this campaign and do all that you can to add 32 more acres to the Third Winchester Battlefield Park. You know how much we appreciate all you do but let me say it again. We can’t do this work without you, and we are so grateful that you invest your hard-earned resources to save these battlefields. The future of our past depends on you – and we’re thankful that you’ve never failed or faltered.

The story of Ira Gardner at Woods Mill