Great News for Hunterstown and Hanover

The National Park Service sign near the site of the Battle of Hunterstown details the cavalry engagement there. The Park Service has designated the battle at Hunterstown and another at Fairfield as part of the Battle of Gettysburg.

The National Park Service announced Tuesday it intends to include Hunterstown and Fairfield in an updated field study of the Gettysburg Battlefield.

Both towns were the site of cavalry battles during the Battle of Gettysburg – Hunterstown on July 2nd and Fairfield on July 3rd.

But their inclusion in the field study by the Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program does not mean they are now part of the official Gettysburg National Military Park.

“In this program, the community drives the efforts. It’s not a top down thing,” said Katie Lawhon, the spokeswoman for the park. “This does not mean the National Park Service intends to expand the park boundary to include Fairfield and Hunterstown.”

In a news release from the American Battlefield Protection Program, it said the two sites “were the scenes of fierce cavalry fighting and were directly related to the battle.”

The release states the primary purpose of the update is to help planning the preservation of Civil War battlefields, but also makes clear that the program does not have the authority to expand park boundaries.

And that means the new inclusion of the battlefield won’t affect currently planned and approved development like the 2,000-home Gettysburg Commons, Lawhon said. Some of the houses will actually be placed on the Hunterstown battlefield, an outcome preservationists would like to avoid.

Lawhon said the National Park Service would need an act of Congress and funding before acquiring any new land or expanding the boundaries of the park.

But local preservationists hope an act of Congress will follow, now that a federal government study has legitimized claims the battles were integral in the battle.

“With the support there is in Congress to preserve these battlefield sites, it’s going to happen,” said Hunterstown preservationist Roger Harding. “I think a lot of people just don’t want to believe it.”

Instead of just taking land, the program provides funding to help communities implement planning policies to protect the battleground if they decide to, she said.

And that funding and designation as part of the Gettysburg Battlefield will open doors to more grant money and matching funds, Harding said.

He’s the leader of Friends of Hunterstown, a group that hopes to preserve Hunterstown’s history.

Hunterstown, four miles north of Gettysburg, has been called the “north cavalry field,” following the pattern of the east and south cavalry fields. Some historians have argued the seemingly separate cavalry actions from Hanover to Fairfield are unified elements, part of the big picture of the Battle of Gettysburg.

Groundbreaking on the first phase of Gettysburg Commons, near Routes 15 and 394, is anticipated for later this year, but it will be at least four or five years before the Hunterstown battle area is developed, developer Rick Klein has said.

Klein has already agreed to extra screening in certain critical areas and to install a wayside exhibit at the Confederate position near the Gilbert farm, but preservationists hope for further concessions.

They also hope the Civil War Preservation Trust will follow the lead of the American Battlefield Protection Program and consider Fairfield and Hunterstown as part of Gettysburg, a top priority for the trust’s preservation efforts.