From Backcountry to Breadbasket to Battlefield -- and BeyondPlan your visit to Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park and a wealth of other attractions, well-known and undiscovered, using our Middletown day trip planning tool.
Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park preserves and interprets key historical sites and events related to the American Civil War and the rich cultural heritage of the Shenandoah Valley. This includes the Battle of Cedar Creek, a decisive October 19, 1864 Union victory, and Belle Grove, the antebellum plantation manor house of Isaac Hite, Jr. (brother-in-law of President James Madison).
A Partnership Park
Cedar Creek and Belle Grove NHP is a "partnership park," in which the National Park Service works with several Key Partners to create and manage the park and its resources. These Key Partners are all non-profit or governmental organizations and include:
•The National Trust for Historic Preservation
•Belle Grove, Inc.
•Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation
•Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation
•Shenandoah County, Virginia
Cedar Creek and Belle Grove NHP is also a park-in-development, created by Congress in 2002. Although there are over 3,700 acres within the park's authorized boundary, over half of this is still privately owned. Therefore, much of the battlefield is not accessible to the public. Nearly all of the remaining land (approximately 1,400 acres) and buildings are preserved and administered by the Key Partners.
Source
Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park reviews
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Holy Cow. Every October 19 or so, in remembrance of the battle of Cedar Creek, there's a re-enactment. It was pivotal. We just saw it, OMG. Incredible. It could easily be a two day event. Good hotels.... more
Holy Cow. Every October 19 or so, in remembrance of the battle of Cedar Creek, there's a re-enactment. It was pivotal. We just saw it, OMG. Incredible. It could easily be a two day event. Good hotels.... more »
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The visitor center had good, friendly personnel and an excellent presentation that explained a complex widespread battle. The driving tour is easy to follow. Development of the site is ongoing. It is.... more
The visitor center had good, friendly personnel and an excellent presentation that explained a complex widespread battle. The driving tour is easy to follow. Development of the site is ongoing. It is.... more »
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This plantation is very well kept. I can smell the cows as I got closer to the mansion and there weren't that many cows. This property is very spacious with an amazing view. I love the countryside. I have my 2 little ones with me, and dogs are not allowed in the visitors center or the mansion. I'm okay with that since I came to walk the grounds. There is little shade except for under a tree or from a building.
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Welcome to historic Belle Grove Plantation, the home of Major Isaac Hite and his wife Nelly Madison Hite, sister 33 of President James Madison. Con- structed of native limestone and built between 1794 and 1797, Belle Grove was the social and cultural center of a thriving grain plantation that eventually comprised more than 7,500 acres of land and a workforce of 103 African-American slaves. Architecturally influenced by Thomas Jefferson, the Manor House features several Jeffersonian innovations including a cross-axial (T-shaped) one-story dwelling over a raised basement. The design of the Manor House also employs both Germanic and English building traditions. Belle Grove still maintains its architectural integrity after more than two hundred years, including its original southern pine floorboards and carved woodwork, and solid oak support structure. Isaac, Nelly, and their two children lived at Belle Grove until Nellys death in 1802. Isaac later married Ann Tunstall Maury, with whom he had ten children. The home of the Hite Family until 1860, Belle Grove was at the epicenter of the 1864 Civil War Battle of Cedar Creek. Swirling around the Manor House, the battle left bullet holes that are still visible in the front porch columns. Today, Belle Grove Plantation is an historic site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and is operated by the nonprofit foundation Belle Grove, Inc. Belle Grove and National Trust Memberships, which include a variety of special bene- fits, are available at the Admissions Desk or in the Museum Shop.
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