STATEMENT OF DURAND
JONES, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON NATIONAL PARKS, RECREATION AND PUBLIC LANDS OF THE
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON RESOURCES CONCERNING H.R. 3307, A BILL TO AUTHORIZE THE
SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR TO ACQUIRE THE PROPERTY KNOWN AS PEMBERTON’S
HEADQUARTERS AND TO MODIFY THE BOUNDARY OF VICKSBURG NATIONAL MILITARY PARK TO
INCLUDE THAT PROPERTY
Mr. Chairman, thank you
for the opportunity to present the Department of the Interior’s views on H.R.
3307, which would authorize the Secretary of the Interior to acquire the
property known as Pemberton’s Headquarters and to modify the boundary of
Vicksburg National Military Park to include that property.
The Department supports H.R.
3307. Pemberton’s Headquarters is a
nationally significant resource that is well-suited for use as a visitor site,
and its inclusion in Vicksburg National Military Park would enable the National
Park Service to add an important dimension to the interpretation of Civil War
and post-Civil War events in the Vicksburg area. The addition of Pemberton’s Headquarters would entail
acquisition, preservation, and operating costs that are described later in this
testimony.
Pemberton’s Headquarters is the building
that Confederate Lt. General John C. Pemberton occupied during the siege of the
city of Vicksburg led by Union Major General Ulysses S. Grant from May 19 to
July 4, 1863. It was in this building
that Pemberton held a council of his chief officers on July 3, 1863 to discuss
plans for surrender of the city, which occurred the following day. The campaign for Vicksburg is considered by
many military historians to have been the most critical campaign of the Civil
War, as it severed the Confederacy geographically and cut vital supply lines to
the Confederate states and thus was pivotal in bringing about the Confederacy’s
defeat.
The national significance of
Pemberton’s Headquarters was recognized through its designation as a National
Historic Landmark in 1976. The
building, which was constructed from 1834-1836, is located in Vicksburg’s
historic district. It is adjacent to
Balfour House, which served as the headquarters for the Union occupation forces
following the surrender and is open to the public. And, it is four blocks from the historic Warren County
Courthouse, where the military administration of the occupied city was
conducted through Reconstruction. A
visitor site at this location would give the National Park Service the
opportunity not only to expand its interpretation of the siege of Vicksburg,
but also to interpret historical events in the years immediately following the
Union victory there. It would help the
service fulfill legislation passed by Congress in 1990 calling on the park to
“interpret the campaign and siege of Vicksburg from April 1862 to July 4, 1863,
and the history of Vicksburg under Union Occupation during the Civil War and
Reconstruction.”
Acquisition of Pemberton
Headquarters for inclusion in Vicksburg National Military Park would also
fulfill the vision of the Union and Confederate veterans who, in 1895,
petitioned Congress to establish a national military park at Vicksburg similar
to those previously established at Chickamauga and Chattanooga, Antietam,
Shiloh, and Gettysburg. Those veterans
recommended that the headquarters of both Union and Confederate commanders be
included in the park. However, while
the site of Grant’s headquarters was
included in the park, that of Pemberton’s was not due to the objections of the
then-owner of the property. The current
owner, who has used the building for a bed-and-breakfast in recent years, would
now like to sell the property to the National Park Service so that its place in
history will be secure.
As you know, the Department is
committed to the President’s priority of eliminating the National Park
Service’s deferred maintenance backlog and is concerned about the development
and life-cycle operational costs associated with expansion of parks already
included in the National Park System.
With that in mind, we have some concerns about the ability of the
National Park Service to assume the costs of acquiring, preserving, and
operating the Pemberton Headquarters property within current budget
constraints.
The National Park Service does not
yet have an appraisal of the property, but the agency’s land acquisition
experts believe that it may cost around $600,000 to acquire. The Service also does not have an estimate
of the cost of preserving the building and the grounds and making the site
accessible to visitors. Stabilizing the
building alone would cost an estimated $228,000, but the cost of more extensive
preservation would need to be determined through studies. Those studies would cost an estimated
$191,000. The Service has made a
preliminary estimate that the cost of operating and maintaining the site would
be approximately $425,000 annually, but actual costs would depend on a number
of unknown factors, including the extent of preservation done on the site.
H.R. 3307 includes language that
would authorize the Secretary of the Interior to acquire less than one acre in
the environs of Pemberton’s Headquarters to use for off-street parking, as well
as related visitor or administrative facilities. This is a provision that was recommended by the Department in
testimony before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last year,
as no off-street parking currently exists at the site. This would increase acquisition, development,
and operational costs of the site.
Mr. Chairman, that concludes my
statement. I would be pleased to answer
any questions you or other members of the Subcommittee may have.