The Shadow
LOW MOOR – A local committee will be working to promote Civil War history in the Highlands.
Meeting Tuesday night in Low Moor, the Alleghany County Board of Supervisors approved a resolution supporting efforts of Alleghany Highlands Civil War Sesquicentennial Committee.
The committee, chaired by Bonnie Keyser of Covington, will be working to identify significant Civil War sites in the region as part of the ongoing commemoration of the war’s 150th anniversary.
The war was fought between 1861 and 1865, with more than 2,000 military events recorded in Virginia – more than any other state.
“We want to move forward with developing a Civil War trail in the Alleghany Highlands,” said Teresa Hammond, executive director of the Alleghany Highlands Chamber of Commerce and Tourism.
“Your resolution of support is more or less a blessing on the work of the [Alleghany Highlands Civil War Sesquicentennial Committee,” she told supervisors.
Hammond said 16 local committees are being formed in the state to promote Civil War history. In 2006, the General Assembly approved the creation of the Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission. The statewide initiative to commemorate the Civil War began in 2009 with programs examining the causes of the Civil War and continues through 2015.
Hammond said the Highlands Sesquicentennial Committee will identify and research significant Civil War sites in the area. The committee will seek grants to place historical markers at each site. The sites will become part of a Civil War Trail in the Highlands and a broader trail that will encompass the state.
In Alleghany County, the first marker will be placed at Jackson River Depot near Selma. Union soldiers under the command of Gen. George Crook raided the depot May 20, 1862, to capture supplies. Confederate troops had evacuated the depot the day before Union forces arrived.
After retrieving valuable information from the depot’s telegraph office about Confederate dispositions, Crook returned to Lewisburg, in present-day West Virginia, and defeated Confederate forces in the Battle of Lewisburg.
The only surviving structure from the Jackson River Depot railroad complex is Oakland Grove Presbyterian Church. The church served as a Confederate hospital. Twelve Confederate soldiers from Tennessee are buried in a cemetery at the church.
Hammond said the Highlands Civil War Trail will serve as a means to boost tourism in the area.
In another matter related to tourism, Susan Hammond of the Virginia Department of Transportation said rehabilitation work on Alleghany County’s historic Humpback Bridge will likely be finished next week.
Since early June, contractors have been working to strengthen the bridge’s structural timbers. They are also replacing the cedar-shake roof and repairing and re-staining exterior siding.
“All work has been completed on the superstructure, which is the deck and above, however, a small amount of work remains on the substructure,” said Hammond, VDOT’s resident administrator in Lexington.
The total cost of the Humpback Bridge project is $125,000.
The project is being funded by the Federal Highway Administration’s National Historic Covered Bridge Program.
Built in 1857, Humpback is now the only bridge remaining of its kind in the United States. The bridge is located just off U.S. Route 60 in Alleghany County, approximately three miles west of Covington.
