Cultural Landscape Report for Chancellorsville Battlefield, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania NMP

Auwaerter, John; Curry, George; Ponte, Cathy; Powers, Nathan

The cultural landscape of Chancellorsville Battlefield represents a number of challenges in historic preservation, interpretation, and contemporary park operations. Although a large amount of historical and cultural data has been collected over the decades since the park was created, it has never been synthesized and analyzed for the purposes of managing the park’s cultural landscape. In addition to intrusion of highway traffic and suburban development in the park’s historic setting, key parts of the battlefield remain outside of park boundaries or have been lost to suburban development, such as the Dowdall’s Tavern and Hazel Grove. Existing fields and woods do not accurately reflect the historic patterns that influenced lines of battle and troop movement in 1863. Defensive earthworks are hidden beneath vegetation and are slowly eroding. Signage and wayfinding do not adequately reinforce the battlefield’s historic sense of place or the identity of the national military park. This Cultural Landscape Report has been developed to address these issues. It provides a comprehensive history of the Chancellorsville Battlefield landscape, inventories and evaluates all landscape characteristics and features according to National Park Service methods, and provides treatment recommendations to preserve and enhance the historic character of the battlefield and its setting, in keeping with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties. A Cultural Landscape Report (CLR) is the primary document for management of historically significant landscapes in the National Park System. This report for Chancellorsville Battlefield has been developed according to the Guide to Cultural Landscape Reports: Contents, Process, and Techniques (National Park Service, 1998), and contains CLR Part I (site history, existing conditions, analysis and evaluation), and CLR Part II (treatment). The project area is the land within the authorized park boundary. Surrounding properties in which there is federal interest or which are owned by park partners are addressed to the extent they inform the history or existing use and character of the landscape. Remote properties associated with the Chancellorsville Campaign, notably Salem Church that is owned by the park and the First Day at Chancellorsville site owned by the Civil War Trust, are also outside the project area, but are referenced as part of the larger setting of the park. Overall, research for this Cultural Landscape Report has been undertaken at a thorough level of investigation. Historical research focused on holdings in the park archives and park reports, consultation with park staff, and historical documentation available online. A comprehensive history of land ownership is beyond the scope of this project. Where historical information on land ownership and boundaries was available, it was included in the text and plans.

Cultural Landscape Report for Chancellorsville Battlefield, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania NMP

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