SVBF and Virginia Civil War Trails Unveil Interpretive Signage at Star Fort

For immediate release—July 9, 2008
Contact: Howard J. Kittell/SVBF (540-740-4545)

WINCHESTER, Va.—Before Robert E. Lee marched his army north into Pennsylvania in the summer of 1863, he directed his subordinate, Richard S. Ewell, to clear the northern Shenandoah Valley of Union troops.  Ewell did just that in what became the Second Battle of Winchester, a feat that required the Southerners to push the Federals out of the defensive forts surrounding the city. 

Remnants of one of these--Star Fort--survive.  The site is owned by the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation which today joined with the Virginia Civil War Trails Program to unveil a new interpretive marker on the site.  The new sign describes the history of the fort and actions that took place there during the war.

“Star Fort is a silent sentinel of the Valley’s past and a significant fragment of our Civil War history,” said Dr. Irvin Hess, the chairman of the Battlefields Foundation, when the Foundation acquired the fort last summer. “The fort’s potential to enhance students’ awareness of topography and its effect on tactics is superb.”

The sign, along with new fencing around the perimeter of the property, is the first phase of the restoration and interpretation of the site.  In 2000, Frederick County developed a plan for Star Fort that recommended a phased approach to the management and interpretation of the site.  The Foundation will be implementing the plan in the coming years with the goal of having the site open to the public by 2011, the beginning of the Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War.

“The site is quite overgrown now,” said Howard Kittell, Executive Director of the Battlefields Foundation.  “So while we do the work internal to the site—landscaping, restoration of the earthworks, signage installation and so forth—we are pleased to have this new sign on the exterior of the site so that visitors can understand what happened here.”

“Preservation and interpretation of this site is a great example of partnership at work,” said Mitch Bowman, director of the Virginia Civil War Trails program.  “It’s gratifying to see the work done here by the county, the Middlesex Artillery, which owned the site before the Foundation, the local neighbors, and the Battlefields Foundation.  The Trails program is glad to join this successful partnership.”

Star Fort is one of the many defensive forts constructed around Winchester during the American Civil War.  It was begun in late 1861 or early 1862 by Confederates under Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson and was garrisoned by March 1862.  The fort—like all of the defensive fortifications around Winchester —was enhanced and occupied by subsequent armies from both sides.

Before the Second Battle of Winchester (13-15 June 1863), Union troops occupied the city and its surrounding defenses.  Over the course of three days, the highly mobile Confederates managed to push the Northerners out of their fortifications.  The battle ended in a complete rout of the Union division stationed at Winchester and elevated Southern hopes for a successful invasion of the North by Lee’s army.

Today, Star Fort is one of the few intact fortifications remaining around the city.  Like Fort Collier , its sister to the east, it contains a system of extant earthworks that will help visitors understand the challenges of defending the northernmost city in the Confederacy.

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A conceptual map of the site from the 2000 management and interpretation plan may be downloaded here.

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As authorized by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation serves as the non-profit manager of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District, partnering with local, regional, and national organizations and governments to preserve the Valley’s battlefields and interpret and promote the region’s Civil War story.  Created by Congress in 1996, the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District encompasses Augusta, Clarke, Frederick, Highland, Page, Rockingham, Shenandoah, and Warren counties in Virginia and the cities of Harrisonburg, Staunton, Waynesboro, and Winchester .  The legislation authorizes federal funding for the protection of ten battlefields in the District: Second Winchester, Third Winchester, Second Kernstown, Cedar Creek, Fisher’s Hill, Tom’s Brook, New Market, Cross Keys, Port Republic , and McDowell.

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ON THE WEB:

Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation and
Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District:
www.ShenandoahAtWar.org

National Park Service 1992 study of the Shenandoah Valley’s Civil War battlefields:
www.cr.nps.gov/hps/abpp/shenandoah/svs0-1.html
    Second Battle of Winchester:

    www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp/shenandoah/svs3-7.html

Virginia Civil War Trails:
          www.civilwartrails.org

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