Cultural Landscape Report for the Federal Left Flank and Fish Hook Siegeworks, Petersburg National Battlefield

Sherry, Roger; Foulds, H Eliot

In June 1998, The Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation entered into a cooperative agreement with the University of Virginia to prepare a cultural landscape report for this landscape. This collaboration has produced a report that includes; an expanded historical narrative, a survey of existing conditions, assessment of surviving details and character-defining features, a review and evaluation of historical significance, landscape treatment recommendations, and schematic designs for visitor circulation and site amenities intended to enhance visitation and historical interpretation. The historical narrative reaches beyond the immediate and fragmentary study area, encompassing the greater cultural landscape of Petersburg. This narrative overview presents the regional geography and physical development of the area dating from pre-history through Civil War-era military occupations, to the area’s political and physical reconstruction. The post-war discussion takes in the resurgence of agriculture and commerce, Czechoslovakian immigration and settlement, and finally, the politics of national park establishment and development. This report’s inventory of existing conditions makes significant use of the work accomplished by the NPS Cultural Resources- Geographic Information Systems program operated out of Washington, D.C. Like the following CLR, the work of the CR-GIS project team was funded as a pre-planning effort serving the anticipated earthwork preservation project at Petersburg. Entitled, Assessment of the Principal Earthworks, Federal Fish Hook Line, Petersburg, Virginia (Lowe, et al), this report provided a survey and assessment of existing conditions, including knowledgeable and valuable technical observations of surviving earthwork details which have been incorporated in this CLR and supplemented with additional narrative and observations. In assessing the historical significance of the surviving Federal Left Flank and Fish Hook Siegeworks, the following report reviews the subject resources with respect to their capacity to meet the criteria of the National Register of Historic Places Program. The project clearly states the intrinsic value of this site, reflecting its strong association with significant military actions, events and individuals, and its ability to yield information relevant to the history of the American Civil War. In addition, the report also makes available to the reader the findings of the Civil War Advisory Commission’s Report entitled, Report on the Nation’s Civil War Battlefields (1993), restating the case that the study area of this report overlaps with two significant battlefields, owing to the decisive events that took place on this site influencing the outcome of the Appomattox Campaign and the greater war. In developing treatment recommendations, team members were careful to address the concerns of park management as well as agency policy, ultimately attempting to satisfy site-specific needs as well as to conform to a broad national vision regarding the stewardship of cultural landscapes. In this, the CLR project team was assisted by early participation in a planning effort making use of the Choosing by Advantages process employed by the agency for important decisions. The results found that for the largest and most accessible sites, removal of all trees and revegetation with tall grasses offered the agency the greatest advantages. The exercise also found greater value in managing individual hazardous trees at the remaining sites. These findings were subsequently presented to the Director’s Advisory Board (DAB) at its 2 December 1998 meeting in Alexandria, Virginia. The DAB approved the clearing of three earthen forts and the hazard tree management of the remaining four, subject to review of the proposed seed mix specifications developed during the CLR process.

Cultural Landscape Report for the Federal Left Flank and Fish Hook Siegeworks, Petersburg National Battlefield

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