Lake Currents – 10/16/15

Civil War Study Group features “The Inside Track on Tracks Through Time”

by Craig Rains, President, CWSG

“The Inside Track on Tracks Through Time” will be the subject of the Civil War Study Group meeting at 10:30 AM on October 23 at the Woods Center. Bob Johnson, LOW historian who has researched and written extensively about Orange County, will discuss the county’s railroad history, beginning in the 1840s. He co-authored a brochure titled “Tracks through Time: A Rail Fan Tour of Orange County, Va.,” recently published by the county. He also will include highlights not found in the brochure.

Johnson was part of a team led by Frank Walker Jr. that surveyed where railroads ran and put together the 26-page full-color brochure, which weaves history with a driving tour of 27 little-known railroad-oriented traces and sites that can be seen today.

Walker will be at the presentation to answer questions, along with Orange County Tourism Manager Leigh Mawyer.

The program will include the part railroads played during the Civil War, including the “unfinished railroad” on the southern end of the Wilderness Battlefield that figured in the surprise flank attack of General James Longstreet’s corps on May 6, 1864.

Brochures will be available at the meeting and copies are now at the county’s visitor center in the former train station in Orange.

Johnson and his wife, Marie, retired to Lake of the Woods in 2007. He has been active in the LOW Civil War Study Group since it was established. His website bjohn913.com features maps, papers, and driving directions for all parts of the Battle of the Wilderness.

Civil War Study Group meetings are open to the public. For more information, go to civilwarstudygroup.org or contact Craig Rains at 972-2844 or craig.rains@att.net.

Lake Currents – 09/04/15

Civil War Study Group to Hear About Finding Culpeper Mine Road

by Craig Rains, President, Civil War Study Group, Inc.

“Finding Culpeper Mine Road” will be the topic for the meeting of the Civil War Study Group (CWSG) on Friday, September 25, at 7 PM, at the Woods Center (108 Fairway Drive). The public is invited to attend. This special evening event is part of the fall adult reading program “Read & Discover” by the Wilderness Branch Library.

Dr. Peter G. Rainey will discuss the reasons why the Culpeper Mine Road is important in the history of eastern Orange County. Today, the road has almost been covered over by modern development. Dr. Rainey will explain how the search to find the road was conducted and what the findings were.

The Culpeper Mine Road ran through what is today’s Lake of the Woods, starting at the mine on the Rapidan River and ending at New Hope Baptist Church on the Orange Plank Road. Parts of it were built in colonial days. During the Civil War, it played a part in the 1863 Mine Run Campaign and the 1864 Battle of the Wilderness. In May 1864, one third of both the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia clashed along this wood path and changed the future of America. Members of the CWSG mapped the path of the road, using personal interviews, historical documents, and period maps. They conducted GPS recordings to help recreate its wanderings through the area.

Dr. Rainey is chairman and a co-founder of the Civil War Study Group and a charter member of Spotswood Family Descendants. He is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and has written two books about the history of Orange County.

Lake Currents – 08/07/15

Scholarship Recipient to Report on Civil War Trust Teacher Institute

by Craig Rains, President, Civil War Study Group, Inc.

Sharon Grubbs, recipient of the Civil War Study Group’s scholarship for the Civil War Trust’s National Teacher Institute, will share her experiences from this summer’s institute with the study group at its meeting at 10:30 AM, Friday, August 28, at the Woods Center, 108 Fairway Drive. The meeting is open to the public.

Ms. Grubbs has been in the Orange County school system since 2000 and is a sixth-grade history teacher at Locust Grove Middle School. The Orange County Public Schools selected her from among several applicants to receive the CWSG scholarship.

This is the seventh year that the Civil War Trust has sponsored its National Teacher Institute program and is the second year for the Civil War Study Group at LOW to provide full funding for a county teacher to attend.

Headquartered in Washington, the Civil War Trust, with 55,000 members, is the nation’s largest organization focusing on Civil War battlefields preservation, educational programs, and heritage tourism initiatives. This year it added the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 to its program. It has acquired and preserved portions of the Wilderness Battlefield near Lake of the Woods.

Teachers from across America gathered this year at Sterling, VA, for the National Teacher Institute’s accredited workshops, lectures, seminars, and site tours around the Washington, D.C. area. Participants also went behind the scenes at the National Museum of American History.

Locally, one of CWSG’s main missions is education. Ms. Grubbs said her teaching of the Civil War goes beyond details of battles to include “all aspects, including the causes, politics, economy, social culture, songs... clothing, medicine, slavery, and perspectives of each side.”

For more information on CWSG and its programs, go to www. civilwarstudygroup.org or contact Craig Rains at 972-2844. Call Us! Penny: 540.903.9732 Charlie: 540.903.7796 4207A Germanna Hwy. Locust Grove, VA 22508 www.pennyohomes.com ELITE To view the .

Lake Currents – 07/10/15

Challenges of "Civil War Crossings" Presented

by Craig Rains, President, Civil War Study Group, Inc.

Throughout the Civil War, armies moving up and down Virginia were faced with a series of major rivers that stretched from west to east and a generally muddy and rutted road system in between. Overcoming these obstacles is the subject of the July 24 meeting of the Civil War Study Group at LOW. The meeting is at 10:30 AM at the Woods Center, 108 Fairway Drive, and the public is invited.

Jim Lillard will present a fun and factual presentation called “Civil War Crossings,” based on his years of research into the importance of Army engineers, and how they built pontoon bridges, forts, re doubts, gabions, and roads.

General Ambrose Burnside ran into one such obstacle when he led the Army of the Potomac in the infamous “mud march” after the 1862 Battle of Fredericksburg, because of the delay in delivery of pontoons for his planned river crossing.

In May 1864, that same army had to build a pontoon bridge across the Rapidan River to move 100,000 men and a 65-mile-long wagon train past the Lake of the Woods area into the Wilderness.

Lillard will show period photographs depicting how engineer regiments built, reconstructed, and protected pontoon bridges, as well as timber and stone bridges.

Lillard was a bridge safety engineer with the Virginia Department of Transportation for 30 years. A lifelong resident of Madison County, his family arrived in Fredericksburg in 1680, and one of his grandfathers was a captain in the Culpeper Minute Men in the American Revolution.

For more details or information on the Civil War Study Group, go to CivilWarStudyGroup.org or call Craig Rains, CWSG president, at 972-2844.

Lake Currents – 06/12/15

Video History of Orange County in the Civil War

by Craig Rains, President, Civil War Study Group, Inc.

Life in Orange County during the Civil War was a trying time for all: soldiers, civilians, slaves, elected offi cials. Historian and writer Phil Audibert spent years researching what happened here and its effects. From that, he has created “All Four Years: The Civil War in Orange County Virginia,” a video that he wrote, directed, and narrated. Audibert will present his video to the Civil War Study Group at its monthly meeting Friday, June 26, at 10:30 AM at the Woods Center. The CWSG meeting is open to the public. “All Four Years” is made up of 12 fi ve-minute vignettes, each focusing on a different aspect of the war. Audibert uses period photographs, a diary, offi cial records, letters, newspaper articles and other original source materials to make the story authentic and moving. He and his wife, Susie, also fi lmed and recorded modern-day viewscapes and living history events that were incorporated to create a fascinating adventure through history. Compressing four years of war into one 60-minute DVD was a challenge. From early 1861, when Orange was fl ooded with wounded Confederates arriving by train from the fi rst Battle of Manassas to 1865, when the last Union cavalryman died of his wounds in the hospital at the Exchange Hotel in Gordonsville, the war was long and the entire county suffered. A native of the county, Audibert lives in Gordonsville. In addition to operating AudibertPhoto, he is a guide with Frank Walker’s Tourguide Ltd. and has won numerous writing awards, including Best of Show, from the Virginia Press Association. He is a member of the county’s Tourism Advisory Committee and the county’s Civil War Sesquicentennial Committee.

Lake Currents – 05/29/15

Civil War Study Group Hosts County Schools’ History Day Awards

by Craig Rains, President, Civil War Study Group, Inc.

The Civil War Study Group, Inc. (CWSGI) hosted an exhibition and awards reception for fourth grade students who were winners of the Orange County Public Schools History Day poster contest. The event for the students of Locust Grove and Lightfoot Elementary Schools, their families, and teachers was held at the Lake of the Woods Clubhouse on May 2.

Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) coordinator for History Day was Carol Hunter, Academic Gifted Coordinator. Each winning student was awarded a certificate of achievement.

In addition, the OCPS announced that Sharon Grubbs would receive CWSGI’s annual scholarship to attend the Civil War Trust’s National Teachers Institute in Washington D.C., this summer. CWSGI Director Josef Rokus presented a check for the scholarship to Ms. Grubbs, who teaches 6th grade U.S. History.

The poster competition judges were Marcia Baggott, Peggy Grella, Bob Johnson, Jack Phend, Josef Rokus, and Brenda Rugless, all of Lake of the Woods; and Len and Mary Ann Cowherd of Culpeper.

Wilderness ‘Tiques, the LOW chapter of Questers International, prepared the awards ceremony reception, which was coordinated by Cathy Rainey and Connie LeMay.

The History Day events are part of CWSGI’s program of working with the Orange County Public Schools to help expand students’ awareness of the rich history of Orange County, the Commonwealth, and the nation.

Lake Currents – 05/15/15

50/50 Raffle to Benefit Wounded Warriors Families

by Jack Phend, Director, Civil War Study Group Inc.

The Lake of the Woods Veterans Club (LOW Vets) is joining the Battle of the Wilderness Memorial Golf Tournament with a 50/50 raffle set up for golfers. Half of all raffle proceeds will go to the LOW Vets’ families of Wounded Warriors project.

The May 22 tournament is hosted by the Civil War Study Group, which also announced new prizes for golfers, including free rounds of golf at LOW and Rapidan golf courses, gift certificates from Walmart and LOW True Value Hardware, and wines from Virginia wineries.

A limited number of spaces in the two-person scramble match play event remains $50 per person. Registration forms are available for download at civilwarstudygroup.org or by calling tournament director Jack Phend at 540-412-9952.

Lake Currents – 05/01/15

Unknown Soldiers to be Remembered at May 5 Ceremony

by Craig Rains, President, Civil War Study Group

A ceremony remembering the soldiers who died in the 1864 Battle of the Wilderness, and who still lie buried on the battlefield, will be held Tuesday, May 5, at 11 AM. This ceremony will be held by the Civil War Study Group (CWSG) at CWSG’s memorial. The double granite memorial is adjacent to the trail off Lake of the Woods Church property in the National Park Service Battlefield. It was dedicated last year. “We honor those who remain in these woods long after the battle is over,” said Pete Rainey, CWSG chairman.

The two-day Battle of the Wilderness began on May 5, 1864, and resulted in a combined 29,000 casualties. When the armies abruptly moved out on May 7 to take the war on to Spotsylvania Court House, they left behind hundreds of dead, some of whom were disinterred and reburied in cemeteries in Fredericksburg in the next two years.

Written reports from both sides indicated that not all of the dead were found. Today, some remain in or near the Lake of the Woods area. This is where the famed Gordon’s Flank Attack began, where the Federal 6th Corps had a hospital, and where fierce fighting took place.

“Both sides were lost in these woods after sunset; men died without witnesses,” Rainey said. “It is these men that we remember with this memorial.”

The event will include remarks by CWSG President Craig Rains, a remembrance prayer, presentation of wreathes, and the playing of Taps. The public is invited. For more information, go to www.civilwarstudygroup.org or call Craig Rains at 972-2844.

Lake Currents – 04/17/15

Battle of the Wilderness Golf Tourney

by Craig Rains, President, Civil War Study Group, Inc.

The Civil War Study Group, Inc. (CWSGI) is hosting its fi fth annual Battle of the Wilderness Memorial Golf Tournament at Lake of the Woods Golf Course on Friday, May 22. Shotgun start is at 1 PM.

Jack Phend, tournament coordinator, said funds from player registrations and tournament sponsorships will be used to support CWSGI’s ongoing projects that bring attention to the May 1864 Battle of the Wilderness that was fought in and around Lake of the Woods.

The tournament format will be Two-Person Scramble Match Play, with each foursome consisting of two Confederate team members and two Union team members. The team that wins a hole gets one point. At the end, the total points from all teams determine which side wins the tournament.

Prizes and gifts will be given away in drawings following the tournament and a raffl e for donated items will be held. A replica of Gen. Stonewall Jackson’s sword will be awarded for a hole-in-one on a designated green.

Player fees are $50 per person, with $25 of that amount being a taxdeductible donation to CWSGI, which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofi t corporation. Green fees and carts are included.

To register to play, download a form at civilwarstudygroup.org or contact Jack Phend at 412-9952. You can email him at jackphend@gmail.c om.

CWSGI is also seeking corporate sponsorships of $100 and $250, as well as donations of items for the drawings and raffles. For details, contact Jack.

Lake Currents – 04/03/15

CWSG Wilderness Battle Dinner

by Craig Rains, President, Civil War Study Group, Inc.

Only a few tickets remain for the Civil War Study Group (CWSG) dinner commemorating the 151st anniversary of the Battle of the Wilderness. This event will be held at the LOW Clubhouse on Friday, April 24.

The guest speaker is David Goetz, historian and author from Warrenton, whose topic is the post-war relationship between Ulysses S. Grant and former Confederate Col. John Singleton Mosby.

Tickets are $33 per person. Reservations may be made by downloading a form which includes menu choices at civilwarstudygroup.org. Mail the form, along with a check payable to CWSGI, to CWSGI, PO Box 1204, Locust Grove, VA 22508. Reservations must be received by April 14.

For more information, please email civilwarstudygroup@gmail.com or contact Charles Brewer at 972-2401. This dinner takes the place of the regular monthly CWSG meeting for April. The next regular CWSG meeting will be on June 26 at the Woods Center. For general information, please contact Craig Rains at 972-2844 or craig.rains@att.net.

Lake Currents – 03/06/15

President’s Letter

by Mike Rugless

......

There are many amenities here at Lake of the Woods for your enjoyment and entertainment, but in addition I would like to address three organizations that provide wonderful programs of interest, education and service to the community. First, in the education area, there is the Civil War Study Group (CWSG) that meets every month presenting fascinating historical perspectives of what transpired right here in our midst, some 150 years ago. Not only did the famous Civil War Battle of the Wilderness take place just a short distance to the East of LOW, but some of the fi ghting occurred right here within our boundaries. All CWSG meetings are open to the communit, and it is a thrilling experience to learn so much about life in those days and the history that was made right here. Next time you are at the Clubhouse, take some time to view and absorb the Civil War artifacts contained in a beautiful display cabinet, many of which were found through excavations within LOW. Secondly, the LOW chapter of AARP schedules monthly meetings

Lake Currents – 02/20/15

Unusual Post-War Friendship between Grant and Mosby Highlights

by Craig Rains, President, Civil War Study Group, Inc.

The Civil War Study Group (CWSG) at Lake of the Woods will host a dinner to commemorate the 151st anniversary of the Battle of the Wilderness. This will be held at the LOW Clubhouse on Friday, April 24. The guest speaker is David Goetz, historian and author from Warrenton, VA. The topic will be “Hell is Being a Republican in Virginia: the Post-War Relationship Between John Singleton Mosby and Ulysses S. Grant.”

During the war, Mosby was a colonel who led a Confederate partisan cavalry that harassed Federal troops throughout Northern Virginia. Because Grant feared Mosby might attack the Army of the Potomac as it crossed the Rapidan River into the Wilderness on May 4, 1864, he had the Federal IX Corps remain in Culpeper County as a guard against potential raids. At the end of the Civil War, Grant even issued a $5,000 bounty for the dashing Mosby’s capture. Mosby later had a change of heart and supported Grant for president, which brought the wrath of many Southerners down on his head for supporting the party of Lincoln. This resulted in a fall from grace in the eyes of those who formerly regarded him as a hero of the “Lost Cause.” Years later, when a minister asked Mosby if he believed in hell, he replied “hell is being a Republican in Virginia.”

David Goetz has explored this unusual relationship between two former adversaries and will bring it to life in a presentation that comes from his book of the same title.

Charles Brewer is the CWSGI coordinator for this event and seating is limited. Reservations are $28 per person before March 27 and $33 after that date. There is a special rate of $184 for a table of eight if reserved before March 27. Reservations may be made by downloading a form with menu choices at civilwarstudygroup.org. Please mail your form, along with a check payable to CWSGI, to CWSGI, P.O. Box 1204, Locust Grove, VA 22508. For more information, email civilwarstudygroup@gmail.com or contact Charles Brewer at 972-2401.

Lake Currents – 02/06/15

Valentines Day - Holidays in Wartime

by Craig Rains, President, Civil War Study Group Inc.

Valentine’s Day - Holidays in Wartime by Craig Rains, President, Civil War Study Group, Inc At the Civil War Study Group’s meeting on Friday, February 27, we will take a look at how soldiers reacted when holidays, such as Valentine’s Day, reminded them of home and family. Craig Rains will present stories recalled by soldiers who sought to connect with loved ones, even behind enemy lines. Examples will range from Valentine’s Day cards that were hand-colored by soldiers, to unusual warrelated romantic tales, including one about a “minie ball pregnancy.” John Tole will perform two ballads that were popular among soldiers on both sides during the war. The meeting has been moved to the lower level of the LOW Clubhouse from its previous site at the Woods Center. It begins at 10:30 AM and is open to anyone with an interest in Civil War history. Following the presentation, the organization will announce its 2015 schedule of meetings and events, including its annual dinner that commemorates the 1864 Battle of the Wilderness. The dinner is set for April 24. For more information, go to civilwarstudygroup.org or contact Craig Rains at 972-2844.