July 25, 2014
10:30AM, Woods Center
“What is the most important and least commemorated event to occur in Orange County?”
Pete Rainey has made that question the title of his upcoming presentation to the Civil War Study Group at its next meeting, 10:30 a.m., Friday, July 25, at the Woods Center.
Rainey’s answer is timely in this 150th anniversary of the Battle of the Wilderness. “It is about Union Lt. Gen. U.S. Grant putting his headquarters in our neighborhood, then never again going back across the Rapidan River,” he says.
Grant had been made commander-in-chief of all U.S. armies only two months before he crossed the river in May, 1864, accompanying the Army of the Potomac as it moved to meet Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Previous commanders had always retreated following battles against Lee. What Grant did, both during the battle and afterwards, changed the course of the war, Rainey notes, and doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. He will discuss how America’s history might have changed, had Grant retreated after the stalemate in the Wilderness.
Rainey contends that this major battleground site has not received proper attention, even after 150 years. He will outline the history of America’s preserving battlefields, starting right after the Civil War ended and through the 20th century development of the National Park system, including the 1927 Congressional authorization of the initial land purchase for the Wilderness battlefield.
Grant’s Knoll became the first tour stop for visitors to the Wilderness. But it has been almost hidden from public view for decades. In the past few years, some significant actions point to the hope for making Grant’s Knoll, now renamed Grant’s Headquarters, into a significant educational site.
Rainey discusses these changes and makes his case that this “least commemorated event” should get the attention it deserves.
Rainey is chairman of the Civil War Study Group. A descendent of the Spottswood families that lived here in the 1700s and 1800s, he is the author of two historical books about eastern Orange County.
The Civil War Study Group at Lake of the Woods was formed primarily to research and present the historical events that took place during the Civil War, especially in 1864 Battle of the Wilderness in and around what is today’s Lake of the Woods area. The meetings are free and open to all with an interest in the Civil War.