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2009 SESSION


SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 369
Commending Friends of Wilderness Battlefield.
 
Agreed to by the Senate, January 22, 2009
Agreed to by the House of Delegates, January 30, 2009
 

WHEREAS, Friends of Wilderness Battlefield has been selected as the recipient of the 2008 Brian Pohanka Preservation Organization of the Year award by the Civil War Preservation Trust; and

WHEREAS, with 65,000 members, the Civil War Preservation Trust is the largest nonprofit battlefield preservation organization in the United States; and

WHEREAS, the 2008 Brian Pohanka Preservation Organization of the Year award, named for the late Civil War historian Brian C. Pohanka, is awarded annually to a local or regional group that has distinguished itself by outstanding dedication to the preservation, promotion, and interpretation of Civil War history; and

WHEREAS, in 1995, 10 members of Spotsylvania and Orange Counties concerned with the preservation of the Wilderness Battlefield founded Friends of Wilderness Battlefield, and today the organization has grown to more than 240 members in 29 states; and

WHEREAS, the Battle of the Wilderness was fought in Orange County on May 5–6, 1864, at the onset of the Overland Campaign, the bloodiest campaign in American history and the turning point in the Civil War in the Eastern Theatre; and

WHEREAS, Friends of Wilderness Battlefield partners with the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park to preserve historic resources in and around the Wilderness Battlefield; and

WHEREAS, Friends of Wilderness Battlefield conducts tours of the battlefield, hosts living history programs, and provides educational programs for teachers, schoolchildren, and visitors; and

WHEREAS, Friends of Wilderness Battlefield members are involved in service projects, including cleaning roads throughout the battlefield; maintaining park walking trails, earthworks, markers, and monuments; and rebuilding bridges on the battlefield; and

WHEREAS, one of the greatest endeavors of Friends of Wilderness Battlefield has been the preservation and ongoing restoration of Ellwood, a historic home on the battlefield that served as a Confederate hospital after the Battle of Chancellorsville and the headquarters of Major General Gouverneur K. Warren during the Battle of the Wilderness; and

WHEREAS, because of the fundraising efforts and hard work of the members and volunteers of Friends of Wilderness Battlefield, the National Park Service has designated the restoration of Ellwood as a Centennial Challenge Project to receive matching federal funds from the Department of the Interior to be used to create exhibits to interpret the site; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the Senate, the House of Delegates concurring, That the General Assembly commend and congratulate the Friends of Wilderness Battlefield as the recipient of the 2008 Brian Pohanka Preservation Organization of the Year award by the Civil War Preservation Trust; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the Senate prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to Friends of Wilderness Battlefield as an expression of the General Assembly’s gratitude to its members and volunteers for their commitment to preserve the Wilderness Battlefield and the history of Virginia.