By Kafia A. Hosh
Thursday, December 4, 2008

A 275-acre swath of land with ties to the Civil War will be protected as a regional park in Loudoun County, officials said yesterday.

The Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority has secured a contract to buy the tract along the Potomac River north of Leesburg. The park authority will pay private landowners about $2.8 million for the parcel.

The property, which was once the home of Confederate Lt. Col. Elijah V. White and was used as a strategic route during battle, will be known as White's Ford Regional Park. The park, a half-mile of which fronts the Potomac, will include a boat ramp, picnic pavilions, campgrounds, and cabins nestled on a hill. There will also be interpretive exhibits explaining the park's Civil War history.

"It's very important, and it will ensure that this land will be parkland forever and will always be a natural site that people can go to," said Paul Gilbert, executive director of the park authority. The agency owns 10,000 acres of land throughout Northern Virginia.

The park authority plans to close on the purchase within a year, pending zoning permits from Loudoun County. Gilbert said most of the $2.8 million will come from the settlement in a lawsuit. The agency also applied for a $150,000 state grant for the purchase.

Gilbert said the land was affordable, about $10,000 an acre, because its owners had obtained a conservation easement that restricted its development. "That reduced the market value of the property and really helped us out," he said. "We're not interested in buying land for its maximum development potential."

The easement helped the state toward its goal of protecting 400,000 acres of open space by 2010. But because the land was under private ownership, it wasn't open to the public, said Joseph H. Maroon, director of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. As a regional park, it will be "very significant in terms of adding recreation and active management of that property," he said.

The state's goal to preserve rural land always included acres that could be used for public recreation, said Nikki Rovner, deputy secretary of natural resources. White's Ford "is a significant contribution toward the goal," she said. "That's really exciting to see that there are going to be more [recreational] opportunities for Northern Virginia."

Lt. Col. White is best known for his role as an aide and scout for Col. Eppa Hunton's 8th Virginia Infantry during the Battle of Ball's Bluff, according to the park authority. For his valor during the battle, White was awarded a captain's commission and permission to raise a company of men, the 35th Battalion of the Virginia Cavalry. White and his men eventually played a role in the Battle of Gettysburg and were also part of the Laurel Brigade, according to the agency.

His land's frontage along the Potomac River played a strategic role in the movement of Confederate troops. White and his soldiers would take a ferry en route to battles in Maryland. But on their way back to Virginia, the troops traveled on horseback across shallow points of the river that lead to White's property. And during the battle of Antietam, about 40,000 Confederate soldiers crossed the river at White's Ford to join the battle in Maryland.

Gilbert said the park authority plans to continue researching the history of White's Ford in hopes of nominating the park for a spot on the National Register of Historic Places.