Re-enactment of Lincoln’s Grand Review to take place in Bailey’s Crossroads in November 2011

Big plans are underway to stage a re-enactment commemorating the 150th anniversary (the sesquicentennial) of President Lincoln’s Grand Review of the Army of the Potomac on Nov. 12, 2011, in Bailey’s Crossroads.

The parade will include a large contingent of active personnel from the U.S. Armed Forces and Virginia National Guard. The troops will gather on the grounds of the NOVA campus in Alexandria and will march up Dawes Street, turn left onto Leesburg Pike, and end up on Carlin Springs Road near Culmore Shopping Center. Other sesquicentennial activities planned by the Lincoln at the Crossroads Alliance include the following:

• A bronze statue of President Lincoln at the Grand Review, to be created by sculptor Ron Tunison, will be installed on land donated by Target near Skyline Drive and George Mason Drive.

• The alliance is commissioning six painting, including one depicting the Grand Review of 1861, and will publish them in a portfolio with text about Northern Virginia’s role in the Civil War.

• An art exhibit will be held Nov. 9-12, 2011, and a concert is being planned for Nov. 11, 2011, with one of the armed forces bands.

• A grand ball for re-enactors will be held the evening before the Grand Review re-enactment, and a tea will be held Nov. 19, 2011 to commemorate the writing of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Both events will take place at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel.

• NOVA will host lectures on Nov. 10-11, 2011, at its Alexandria Campus on the founding of Bailey’s Cross Roads; the Grand Review of 1861; the History of the Barnum and Bailey Circus and “the great Northern Virginia elephant hunt” of 1906; and, Bailey’s Crossroads today.

• Historical markers will be placed along Route 7 and Columbia Pike to denote activities directly connected to the Grand Review and other Civil War events. This project would be completed by 2015, the 15th anniversary of the end of the Civil War.

Schacknies says President Obama will be invited to the re-enactment, as well as ambassadors from all the countries whose residents played a role in the Civil War. It’s not about taking sides or re-fighting the Civil War. She says it’s about bringing the community together, educating young people and recent arrivals to this country about an event of “tremendous historical importance,” reviving tourism, and focusing an international spotlight on Northern Virginia.

She founded the alliance in memory of her late husband, Siegbert Schacknies, a retired architect, urban planner, and economist, who originally came up with the idea of staging the re-enactment. After he died suddenly in 2006, Maria Schacknies, a former college professor involved with international development, vowed to carry out his vision. He was an “incredible inspiration,” she says.

The Lincoln at the Crossroads Alliance has been endorsed by the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission, Northern Virginia Association for History, Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia, and the Fairfax County History Commission.