Today the Civil War Trust is scheduled to announce a $1.3 million fund-raising campaign to preserve two parcels of land near the official boundaries of the Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, about 80 miles west of Washington. One is a 12-acre piece of private property where the 8th Vermont Volunteers Monument honors a desperate encounter during the Battle of Cedar Creek on Oct. 19, 1864, and the other is a 64-acre parcel where Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan rallied his troops to counterattack the Confederates.
The 8th Vermont Volunteers Monument. (Civil War Trust)

The battle is famous for its morning victory for the Confederates under Lt. Gen. Jubal Early and the afternoon victory for the Union which retook the same land.

The parcels are at opposite ends of the battlefield and are not now protected. As is often the case with national battlefields, the boundaries do not include the entire site of a battle.

The public does not now have access to the Vermont monument because it is on private property. Permission has to be gained from the owner through the National Park Service office in Middletown. The monument marks the site where the Union brigade fought heroically to hold off the Confederate advance so the Northern line would have time to reform. The 8th Vermont lost 110 of its 164 men. Preservation of this land has been a long-standing goal of former Vermont Sen. Jim Jeffords (I).

The irregularly shaped parcel at the north end of the battlefield is known as Rienzi’s Knoll, named for Sheridan’s horse. Sheridan’s frantic ride from Winchester to the scene of the battle was immortalized by Thomas Buchanan Read in his poem, “Sheridan’s Ride.”

Black History Month and the Civil War Sesquicentennial coincide in February, leading to programs designed to celebrate African American participation and influence on the story of the war including lectures, panel discussions, drama and music programs.

On Feb. 9, the Penn Center at St. Helena Island, S.C., has scheduled an evening of free lectures, including topics such as the state’s ordinance of secession, the causes of the war, slavery in South Carolina and the Port Royal experience.

Rev. Josiah Henson’s early years were spent as a slave on a 260-acre plantation in what is now North Bethesda, Md. He escaped to Canada as an adult and in 1849 wrote a widely-read autobiography about his life as a slave. Henson’s personal story became the inspiration for Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1853 best-selling novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” which fueled the abolitionist movement in the North.

The house built by the plantation owners, brothers George and Isaac Riley, and what may have been a separate log cabin kitchen where Henson was forced to sleep on a dirt floor for a brief period in 1828 still stand on a two-acre parcel. In 2006, the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission  purchased the property with plans to preserve the buildings for use as a museum. The planning commission sought federal recognition for the buildings, which was granted last week when the property was named to the National Register of Historic Places.

Originally named Uncle Tom’s Cabin Special Park by the planning commission, it is now known as the Josiah Henson Special Park. The house is called the Riley/Bolten house after its two private owners.

According to the 2008 historic structure report prepared by John Milner Associates, Inc. for the planning commission, Stowe acknowledged that Henson was a “model of the character she portrayed in her fictionalized account of slavery as were several other people associated with George and Isaac Riley’s plantation.”

The current building bears little resemblance to the place Henson described in his book. According to the Milner report, in the 1930s the owner at the time wanted the 1800 farm house to be remodeled as a more fashionable Colonial Revival. The log cabin was attached to the house and a wing was added for a new kitchen and bathroom. Most of the exterior and interior original surface materials were removed, as was the front porch. The location of windows was changed to create better spacing and the interior layout was altered.

For now, the property located at 11420 Old Georgetown Road, North Bethesda, is only open a few times a year but on Feb. 4, a guided tour — “A Walk in Father Henson’s Footsteps” — will be offered. There is no charge for the tour, which will take place at noon, 1 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m.

President Abraham Lincoln’s 203^rd birthday is Feb. 12 and there are celebrations and commemorations to attend including balls, a play opening, a cemetery service, banquets and wreath layings. All of those were familiar to Lincoln in his day but the one he probably would choose not to attend would be a ball. Lincoln couldn’t dance.

“When he first asked Mary to cut the rug at their first meeting in Springfield, he famously said, ‘I want to dance with you in the worst way,’ and she later recalled, ‘that was exactly the way he danced,’” according to Harold Holzer, author or editor of 42 books on the 16^th president.

At an official event, he would occasionally be seen giving Mary a mandatory twirl across the floor. That led the author of a comic anti-Lincoln biography of the time to say that as a dancer, the President looked like “a cross between a derrick and a windmill,” according to Holzer.

However, there are at least two balls where period music, dancing and dress are planned to celebrate Lincoln’s birthday. On Feb. 4, the Lincoln Birthday Commemoration Ball will be held at the Union League of Philadelphia and on Feb. 11, the 14th Annual Lincoln Ball is scheduled at the Gettysburg Hotel in Gettysburg, Pa..

In Washington, the play “Necessary Sacrifices,” about the relationship between Lincoln and abolitionist Frederick Douglass opened at Ford’s Theatre on Jan. 25 and will close on Feb.18. And on Lincoln’s birthday, the theater is holding the grand opening for the Center for Education and Leadership in a newly renovated building across the street from the theater. It will include a full day of free events about Lincoln’s life including lectures, workshops and story telling.

In a small country cemetery where Lincoln’s relatives on his father’s side are buried, the Lincoln Society of Virginia will hold its annual ceremony on Feb. 12 at 2 p.m. The cemetery and nearby Lincoln family home are located six miles north of Harrisonburg on Rt. 42.

Also on Feb. 12, the Abraham Lincoln Association’s annual banquet is scheduled at the President Lincoln Hotel in Springfield, Ill. with U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin (D) as the guest speaker. The 108th Commemorative Lincoln Presidential Banquet is planned for Feb. 18 at Courtlandt, N.Y. Lincoln included a stop at nearby Peekskill while on route to Washington in 1861. The keynote speaker is historian and author David Blight.

In Washington, a wreath-laying ceremony is de rigueur for anniversaries. On Feb. 12, the National Park Service will do the honors at Ford’s Theatre at 8:45 a.m. and at noon at the Lincoln Memorial.

A leading expert on President Abraham Lincoln said the recent discovery of an $800 check cashed by the 16^th president on April 15, 1865 indicates he was planning ahead and anticipating some expenditures, possibly a trip for his wife Mary or a return to the war front for himself. Lincoln had a habit of letting his monthly paychecks of $2,000 accumulate in his desk drawer, leading many to conclude he was careless when it came to his finances.

A check written by President Abraham Lincoln to himself from the First National Bank for $800 one day before he was assassinated is displayed at the Huntington Bank in Brooklyn, Ohio. (AP Photo/The Plain Dealer ) (Peggy Turbett - AP)  “Now we at least know that he did get some cash together, perhaps to carry them through the spring and summer,” said Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer. “It’s good to know he wasn’t as careless or blasé about his money as we’d thought. He was replenishing—even though he tragically did not live to spend his money.”

Lincoln cashed the check the day before he was attacked at Ford’s Theatre and two days before he died.

The First National Bank, where Lincoln had an account, is a short block east of the White House. The ornate white pillared building still stands on the northwest corner of 15^th and Pennsylvania Ave. NW but is no longer the First National Bank.

The $800 check turned up in a Columbus, Ohio bank storeroom along with checks signed by other presidents including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and Ulysses S. Grant. They had been left behind by the Union Commerce Bank when it was acquired by Huntington Bank in 1983.

The checks are on exhibit at some of Huntington’s banks.

Holzer said the check is a significant find because “anything in Lincoln’s hand from the days right before his assassination holds both historic and emotional importance.”

There has been some speculation Lincoln had cashed the check to pay off bills Mary had  run up at various stores. Holzer says he does not draw the same conclusion.

“Do we imagine he was going to invite them all the White House, line them up, and hand out some cash?,” he asked. “Not Likely. Lincoln would have written checks directly to them.”