Musicians affiliated with the Community Music School of the Piedmont came out to play chamber music at Mayo Brown’s "Akenfield" on September 18, 2011. The majestic setting overlooking the Blue Ridge could not have been more perfect for the concert. About 75 area friends turned out in support of music and tree planting in and around the village of Unison.

The concert, the second one held in the last three years, is to benefit the Unison Preservation Society’s ongoing Tree Planting and Village Beautification Program which Mr. Brown has championed for a number of years. Whenever asked about his “passion”, Mayo simply reminds us that when he first moved to Unison the streets were beautifully lined with gorgeous native shade trees that added to the cool charm of the village. Since then many of the original trees perished and were never replaced. In Mayo’s opinion that situation needed changing.

With Mayo’s oversight, interest, and energy, the UPS Tree Planting and Beautification Program has been far more successful than originally anticipated with more than a dozen replacement trees having been planted in and around the village. The program continues to receive enthusiastic support from neighbors and friends in and around the village.

Many thanks go to musicians Alan Saul Saucedo Estrada (cello), Cynthia Suacedo (violin), Flor Maryory Serrano (violin), and Jason Diggs (violist) for sharing their great skill and appreciation of Handel, Bach, and Mozart. Thank you to Mayo Brown and his daughter Andrea, for hosting the day. And thank you to all the many folks who came in support of “Music Under the Great Oak”.

As for the day it can best summed up as a day of “greats”. Great friends, listening to great music, played by great musicians, in honor of a great cause, blessed by great weather, overlooking the great Blue Ridge, all happening under Mayo’s GREAT OAK.

On Sept. 22, 2011, Virginia’s State Review Board and Virginia’s Historic Resources Board both voted unanimously to place the 8,000-acre Unison Battlefield Historic District in the Virginia Landmarks Register. They simultaneously recommended to the National Park Service that the battlefield be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is expected to go on the National Register sometime this winter.

Department of Historic Resources Director Kathleen Kilpatrick praised both the battlefield and the Unison Preservation Society for what they are doing for historic preservation in this region. She cited the pristine nature of the battlefield, with its farms, villages, historic dirt roads and no development, as one of best preserved battlefields and noted that more than half the battlefield is already under conservation easement.

The Land Trust of Virginia, a major supporter of UPS and the battlefield project, calls the region one the best preserved most heavily easemented places in the nation. Being on the historic registers will make easements easier for landowners within the battlefield. Several additional battlefield easements are now pending.

There was no opposition to the proposed 8,000-acre battlefield historic district at the official state public hearing held on Aug. 22 in Upperville, and no registered written opposition, attesting to the extensive public information effort by UPS over the past years. There was one unofficial letter of opposition. The Unison Village Historic District had no opposition when UPS created it 10 years ago. The village is on both state and national historic registers.

The eight-mile-long battlefield historic district, which stretches from Philomont through Unison to Upperville, with spurs to Bloomfield and Trappe, has been almost six years in the making, since UPS first won a federal grant to study the 1862 Battle of Unison. That grant, from the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program, funded the mapping and history of the Battle of Unison by National Park Service historian David Lowe.

ABPP then gave UPS two additional grants to help create the battlefield historic district. The grants enabled UPS to hire architectural historian Maral Kalbian of Berryville, who has done more historic districts than anyone else in Northern Virginia (she also did the Unison Village Historic District). Kalbian hired historian John Salmon to do additional historic research on the Battle of Unison and the battlefield and archaeologists Steve Thompson and Ben Ford of Charlottesville, who did an archaeological study of the center of the battlefield near the Quaker cemetery west of Unison.

The nomination to state/national registers, with more than 100 pages of maps, photos and architectural, archaeological and historical information, is available online at least through October on the DHR web site: dhr.virginia.gov/registers/boardPage.html. It will be available afterwards under Loudoun County listings at: dhr.virginia.gov/registers/register_counties_cities.html.

The Washington Sustainable Growth Alliance announced March 7 that the proposed Unison Battlefield Historic District has won one of its 2011 Conservation Recognition awards. A ceremony will be held on the lawn at Mount Vernonat 1 p.m. on April 27. The public is invited. The annual awards recognize projects "that protect environmental assets and enhance our region's quality of life." The citation will appear on the alliance's 2011 Regional Conservation Priorities list and may be viewed on its website www.SGAlliance.org.

The Mosby Heritage Area Association has recognized the work of the Unison Preservation Society, bestowing its with its annual Heritage Hero Award on the volunteer organization.

Unison Preservation Society President Harry Bigley and members of the society's Battlefield Committee Owen Snyder, Paul Hodge, Mitch Diamond and Denis Gordon were on hand for the Dec. 22 ceremony as MHAA President Childs Burden presented the annual award.

The Heritage Hero award was initiated by then-President Gayle DeLashmutt in 2007 in an effort to recognize movers and shakers at the local level in the field of preservation and history education in the Virginia Piedmont. That first award was given jointly to Karen Hughes White for her work at the African-American Museum in The Plains and to the late Robert H. Smith for his preservation philanthropy. Subsequent awards went to Sen. John Warner (R-VA) for his support of preservation projects and to Linda Newton, president of the Atoka Preservation Society for its successful work.

The 2010 award was given in recognition of the Unison group's activism and dedicated work over the past four or five years to gain national recognition of the significance of the Nov. 1-3, 1862, Battle of Unison as well as other preservation activities in the village. That work has culminated in a nomination currently being prepared to create an 8,000-acre Civil War battlefield historic district. If approved, it would stretch across portions of western Loudoun and Fauquier counties and would be among the best preserved battlefield historic districts in the nation, according to the MHAA.

"We wanted to recognize another organization for its activist work," Burden said this week. Nominations are submitted by MHAA board members, and when Unison came up, Burden said it was timely because "it is coming up for battlefield historic district recognition and [historian] Maral Kalbian is about to finish her nomination." Saying his "hat is off to them," Burden noted he was involved in the early work on the battlefield designation, having been on the panel of historians during the society's application for its first grant from the National Park Service.

Although recognized in contemporary media accounts for its significance, the three-day delaying battle that helped Gen. Robert E. Lee escape to Richmond after the Battle of Antietam has largely fallen out of modern-day accounts. The story of the society's efforts to re-focus attention on the little-known battle has been a long one that started when Unison leaders were endeavoring to find ways to deal with an unwanted development of 100 acres on the edge of the village. History was one avenue.

Diamond and Hodge, former president of the Unison Preservation Society, worked together to dig out the actual history of the event and, based on what they found, gain attention for the battle at both the state and national levels.

Diamond conducted the historic research and said the battlefield group was excited "not just about the recognition, but the new scholarship" that was uncovered.

"Lee had retired behind the Blue Ridge. Looking at the map, [President] Lincoln saw that [Gen. George B.] McClellan was still near Sheperdstown and Antietam and was actually closer to Richmond than Lee was." Lincoln told McClellan to head south through Loudoun and move close to Lee's flank to cut off his retreat to Richmond, Diamond said.

In mid-October, McClellan crossed the Potomac, but "Lee figured it out and moved south," Diamond said. Part of that was knowing he needed a delaying action for several days so Lee ordered Gen. J.E.B. Stuart to take 1,000 troopers to the Bloomfield area to hold of McClellan for the necessary respite, which he did, fighting a fierce retreat south to Rt. 50. When Lincoln realized the impact of McClellan's delay, he fired the Union general.

"This battle is not mentioned in the history books," Diamond said. But he found an article on the end of McClellan's career in a magazine called Blue and Gray. "It gave a lot of history, so I started calling around and a group of us began investigating on our own." They met with State Historic Preservation Officer Kathleen Kilpatrick and her team. Once she was convinced their quest was real, she agreed to write a letter of support to the National Park Service.

Through that letter, the preservation society obtained the first of three federal grants, the initial one from the American Battlefield Protection Program of the NPS. With that first grant, the society hired a professional historian from the NPS to do a scholarly study of the battlefield area and its history. The credibility gained from the study and initial mapping became the "basis of what we wanted to do."

Later grants covered the bulk of the cost of Kalban's team in preparing the nomination. The research as it evolved produced wonderful surprises, Diamond said. "Names started popping up-Lincoln, Stuart, Lee, McClellan, even Mosby, who was attached to Stuart's group as a scout before anyone had heard of him," Diamond recalled. Among the other useful tools was the Internet, which enabled researchers to look at the New York Times archives and find contemporary stories of 1862, that had information not included in modern textbooks but which were fully available in the press at the time, and understood to be important.

Kalbian and her team have finished their fieldwork and are in the final process of preparing draft nomination document. Diamond said the Battlefield Committee is hoping to get the document edited and reviewed internally by the end of the month before being sent to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and local preservation organizations for their review. When the document is complete, a public hearing, likely next month, will be held in the area and area landowners invited to attend. There will be a presentation on the battlefield and its history, what it means and what it doesn't mean, according to Diamond.

Just as important is what the designation doesn't mean. There are "no restrictive efforts on zoning," Diamond said. "That's the single most important message. It's an honorary designation, which has tax benefits and recognition, but is not in any way restrictive."

The designation also gives leverage for fund-raising. Of the 8,000 acres 55 percent is already subject to conservation easements, and the group hopes to get more than that-through special funds available at the national register level and through organizations like the Land Trust of Virginia, which has a special fund to help defray easement costs in recognized battlefields, or the Virginia Outdoor Foundation.

If all goes well and there is community support, the document will be submitted to the state, and the group hopes in the spring to be considered the Virginia Register of Historic Places. Once approved, there is a six-month delay before the nomination can be approved for the National Register of Historic Places. "We hope to be on the state and national registers by the end of the year," Diamond said. The village of Unison already has those designations.

Now the beginning of the end is in sight, Diamond and his fellow committee members were elated by with the MHAA recognition.

"It's a particular pleasure and delight to be honored and recognized by your own friends and neighbors," Diamond said.

Dear Fellow Friend of Preservation,

Thank you for your efforts during 2009-2010. The Unison Preservation Society, Inc. is truly blessed to have enjoyed the participation of so many who were willing and able to shake off dismal economic data to make 2009 and 2010 years of achievement.

The Unison Preservation Society’s all volunteer Board of Directors also sends its sincere appreciation to all of you, who have given so much to make the greater Unison area the great place to live that it is. Our worthiest endeavors started with you.

The year in review:

• Battlefield Designation- UPS forged ahead with plans to secure a new honorary battlefield designation that would commemorate the little known, but consequential, 1862 Battle of Unison. So far, and despite a poor economy, the Battlefield remains projected for completion in 2011.
• Preservation and Enhancements- In early spring 2009 a group of concerned UPS members met to come up with feasible, cost effective ways, to make the greater Unison area a safer, cleaner, place for walkers, cyclists, and horse enthusiasts. One result was “Unison Clean-Up Days” sponsored by UPS in April to place dumpsters around the “village” helping neighbors remove things not handled be traditional trash collections services. Stay tuned for 2011 dates.
• Land Conservation and Preservation- The Unison Preservation Society recognizes that Land conservation easement options remain the best way to help protect and preserve the rural countryside and way of life. The work of educating landowners of the easement option will continue unabated in 2010.
• Heritage Day 2010- The annual fall festival in the streets of Unison was held on a warm and beautiful day, as its was in 2009. Neighbors and UPS supporters from far and wide came out to celebrate and support preservation. Thanks again to all who participated. We look forward to seeing you in 2011.
• Village Holiday Tree Goes Up Again- Every year we put up a village Christmas tree in front of the historic Unison Store in "downtown" Unison. And we celebrated by singing in Unison, enjoying carols and libations inside the store, thanks to owner Coe Eldredge and the new renter of the store, Washington restaurateur and bicycle racer Eli Hengst.

  As we look forward to the promise of 2011, please to do not hesitate to contact me or any Unison Preservation Society Board Member, with your thoughts and ideas. Also if you, or someone you know, may be interested in volunteering please contact feel free to visit our website at www.unisonva.org to e-mail us your information, and we will get in touch with you.

  Thank you again for an outstanding 2009 and 2010.

  Sincerely,
  Harry Bigley, President UPS