Battlefield: Farming a Civil War Battleground

by Peter Svenson

"This compelling memoir is by turns charming and chilling. As the artist-author restores a forty-acre farm field and builds a house in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, making the mistakes of a city slicker but somehow bumbling through to success, he also uncovers the story of the Battle of Cross Keys that was fought on his land 125 years earlier. Alternating chapters focus contrapuntally on the 1980s and 1860s, keeping the reader glued to these fascinating pages." -- James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom A finalist for the 1993 National Book Award, Battlefield recounts Peter Svenson's experiences building a farmhouse on a forty-acre site near Harrisonburg, Virginia, which 125 years before had been the site of a Civil War the 1862 Battle of Cross Keys, in which Confederate forces stopped a Union advance and provided Stonewall Jackson with an important victory in his guerrilla campaign in the Shenandoah Valley. Svenson intertwines a detailed description of the battle based on field reports, dispatches, letters, and other firsthand accounts with lively anecdotes about attempting to farm his land using traditional methods while staving off mini-mall developers. He describes the learning process of fixing up an old property, trying to grow hay on long-neglected farmland, and digging a pond. He unearths spent cartridges and artillery shells, hears from neighbors who relate oft-told tales of the Confederacy's victory, pursues minute details of the battle in archives and at often contentious meetings of the local historical society, and meditates on how best to commemorate the men who fell in battle on his forty acres. Exploring the intimate connections between landscape and history, Battlefield offers an engaging, reverent, and highly personal view of the Civil War and its ongoing legacy.

Genres: Civil War, American History, History, Nonfiction, War

246 pages, Paperback

First published November 13, 1992

About the author

Peter Svenson was born in 1944. He has a B.A. from Tufts University and an M.F.A. in painting from the University of North Carolina. He lives Cross Keys, Virginia.

Reviews

[Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Battlefield" is the fascinating story of Peter Svenson, an artist, who with his wife (a professor of art at James Madison University) and their two children, buy 40 acres near Harrisonburg, Virginia, intending to build a home and art studio. Shortly after purchasing the acreage, they find out it's the site of the Civil War Battle of Cross Keys, a largely unheralded site among several in the Shenandoah Valley. Svenson weaves together two narratives; the first, and to me the more interesting, is his work to build his house and update several barns and outbuildings. Along the way he battles the local electric co-op, plans and constructs a pond, gives us an insight into the work of felling and splitting enough wood to heat through the winter, and buys and renovates old farm equipment, eventually putting it to use in farming hay. The second narrative, interspersed among the first, is a highly detailed hour-by-hour account of the Battle of Cross Keys, complete with troop movements, and documented by contemporaneous telegrams, letters, and diaries. Frankly, after the first few of these, I simply skipped the rest; I'm not that interested in detailed battle accounts, it seems. The battle story accounts for about a quarter of the book, though, so overall the book was interesting.

[Padraic · Rating 5 out of 5]

What saves this from turning into another yuppie/farmer tale is the fact that he comes to realize he's plowing up the dead. What keeps it from turning into Poltergeist is he can actually write. An amazing illustration of Faulkner's observation that "the past isn't even past."

[Anthony Bracciante · Rating 3 out of 5]

An artist wants to build a new home and studio on farmland where he plans to raise hay. He soon discovers that the land he has purchased was the site of the Battle of Cross Keys on June 8, 1862. The book combines his forays as an amateur farmer purchasing and restoring old farm equipment in order to raise hay; and his research into the battle and what actually occurred there. While this was a small battle it served a great strategic part in preventing General Fremont's forces from uniting with those of General Shields whose army was subsequently defeated at the battle of Port Republic on June 9th by the forces under General Stonewall Jackson.

[Vel Veeter]

A memoir from 1988 or so about Peter Svenson, a visual artist, who buys a farms in the Shenadoah Valley that just so happens to be one of the sites of a series of battles around the city of Harrisonburg, VA (in the middle of the Shenandoah Valley and home to James Madison University). The Battle of Cross Keys saw JC Fremont for the North meeting up with Jackson, Ewell, and Trimble of the South and being turned back, despite superiors numbers (a battle result that sums up much of the 1861 and 1862.

The book itself splits its time between Svenson building his new house (he's an experienced homebuilder), setting up the farming, explaining the history of farming in the region, and then his burgeoning and accidentally turn as someone becoming an expert in a very specific minor battle of the Civil War, and some more general expertise in the war as well.

The writing here is memoir and history blended, but there's also a careful and quite beautiful pastoral quality to the writing. For example, there's a very charming description of a pair of kittens he adopts and begins bringing to the worksite with him who spend their time in a portable chair that bakes in the sun all day and who jump in and out of the cab of his truck each morning and afternoon and ride with him like "proper passengers". So the book speaks as well to the passage of time in the US, the role of farms and farming, the history and life baked into the landscape, and the discomforting role history does and doesn't play in our lives here.

[Nancy Loe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Svenson is a beautiful writer and the book is compelling. The author moves to Virginia and as he begins to work the land, he realizes the 1862 Battle of Cross Keys was fought there. Svenson combines his research into the battle with meditations on the dead and his deep feelings of obligation and stewardship.

WaPo's review: "...modest, eloquent and oddly moving account of buying and farming one of Stonewall Jackson's battle sites." I agree.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The chapters in this book alternate between descriptions of Peter Svenson's experiences in owning and farming a Civil War battleground, and descriptions of the battle fought there during the Civil War, the Battle of Cross Keys. This book is very well written. Svenson is able to capture the chaos of the battle and how the quirks and foibles of the military leaders on both sides affected the outcome. The descriptions of his efforts to build a house and farm on the land are fascinating.

[Rae · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author bought a farm in the Shenandoah Valley and in restoring it discovered that a Civil War battle had been fought there...the Battle of Cross Keys. This is the story of that battle as well as the restoration. Interesting intersection of history with modern life.

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good history of the battle of Cross Keys and a very interesting look at living in the Shenandoah Valley in the mid 1990s

[Charles M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author tells story of obtaining a farm and surrounding area; while recounting the Civil War Battle of Cross Keys on the site. This book was a finalist for the 1993 Natl. Book Award.