Local history for a wider audience

By Nate Delesline III

Published: August 23, 2008

Supporters of the Graffiti House, a Civil War-era landmark, and about two dozen others gathered Saturday to celebrate the release of a book that highlights the area’s role in American history.

Kenneth Garrett, author of “The Journey Through Hallowed Ground: Birthplace of the American Ideal,” was also present to sign copies of his recently released book.

“To get that type of national publicity is something that we could never achieve on our own,” said Della Edrington, a lead volunteer with the Brandy Station Foundation, a non-profit historic preservation group. “We’re just thrilled.”

Garrett said the Culpeper area also is important as a travel corridor that predates the colonial era and because of the dozens of key people in history who lived and worked in this area.

“The idea of the whole book is to educate people,” Garrett said. “This area has more American history than any place.”

The book, which will be offered for sale at the Graffiti House, also includes photos of Cedar Mountain battlefield and scenes stretching from Gettysburg, Pa., to central Virginia.

Built in 1858, the Confederate army used the Graffiti House as a hospital following the cavalry battle at Brandy Station on June 9, 1863. Union troops occupied the building later that year.

In the early 1990s, the house was spared from demolition when charcoal and pencil writings by soldiers from both armies were found on the second floor plaster walls.