620,000 trees to honor Civil War dead
In spring the tree hums with hues of deep apricot.
Heart-shaped growth covers summer limbs with speckled lime green, only to have it return to rich golden tones for fall.
The Rising Sun Redbud.
A tree of significance.
A noble choice to represent a fallen soldier.
In the weeks to come, more than a thousand such trees will complete the journey from Tennessee and take root along the 180-mile stretch of scenic byway that begins at Thomas Jefferson's homestead in Charlottesville, Va., and travels north to Gettysburg, Pa.
It is the route along which so many young men traveled and died during the Civil War. And as the nation continues to mark the 150th anniversary of the war, it is the sight of Living Legacy Project, which aims to plant one tree for each of the more than 620,000 soldiers who died.
Those men come to mind this weekend while Tennessee residents begin marking the anniversaries of the battles of Franklin and Nashville, fought in November and December 1864.
The trees up north are another reminder of the war's legacy. The Rising Sun Redbud — a distinct sapling discovered by Tennessee couple Ray and Cindy Jackson — will connect our heritage to others' as it becomes part of the palate of brilliant foliage planted to preserve the memory. It is an honor to which the Jacksons, who run a nursery in Belvidere, Tenn., assign special meaning.
"It is the perfect, perfect memorial," Cindy Jackson said.
The seeds of such a project began in 2005 at the formation of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership, a four-state collaboration that examined how to commemorate the region that holds the largest concentration of Civil War battlefields in the country.
The area didn't need another statue or monument, says Cate Magennis Wyatt, former Secretary of Commerce and Trade for Virginia and president of the partnership. It needed an amazing new way to interact with and memorialize the years between 1861 and 1865, which claimed more lives than any war Americans have fought since.
The answer was the byway.
"It holds more American history and heritage than any other swath of land in the country," Wyatt said.
It holds the spirits of unheralded men and untold stories of their lives.
And soon it will hold hundreds and thousands of trees that represent them.
On a bright fall days a few weeks back, a truck pulled up to the Jacksons' nursery and prepared to haul hundreds of Rising Sun Redbud saplings to their new northern home.
Hitched behind Ray Jackson's orange tractor came load after load of the young growth, their yellow leaves sparse but still sparkling in the sun.
The redbuds are special to the Jacksons. The couple started their nursery in 1987, raising mostly dogwoods and pear trees. In 2007 a freeze killed nearly everything they had. They lost $3 million in inventory.
But one unique variety — one they had never before seen — survived. They watched it and realized they had uncovered a new type of eastern redbud. They named it Rising Sun.
And now it holds a place in memorializing history.
In all the Jacksons have contributed 1,135 trees. They have given many at wholesale price, far below what they could have received if they sold them elsewhere. Others they have donated.
They are the only local nursery to have contributed to the project.
"It's just a tremendous example of giving," said Peter Hart, a Virginian arborist who specifically sought out the Rising Sun Redbud as part of the Living Legacy Project.
"This has been by far the most exciting project I have ever been involved with. I really don't have words to express it properly."
Perhaps with brilliant outstretched boughs to make a statement about our past that words cannot.
In the coming months, the redbuds will weather the winter in their new northern home. They will be placed in various locations along both sides of the Mason-Dixon line, each assigned the name of a soldier lost in the war.
Before the tree leafs out in spring, abundant pea-like flowers of lavender-rose will open all along the trunk and branches.
The blooms will bring beauty to the 180-mile landscaped allee.
And one day in the not-too-distant future, the Jacksons may visit, seeing the name of one of their own kin — a great-great grandfather who fought in the war — put on one of their trees.
Redbud. Red. The color of courage.
A tree of significance.
Reach Jessica Bliss at 615-259-8253 and on Twitter @jlbliss.
Friday
• Tennessee's 2014 Civil War Sesquicentennial Signature Event, titled "The Last Campaign in Tennessee," starts Friday in Franklin and surrounding historic sites.
• The event will feature educational symposiums, book signings, a Sesquicentennial Civil War exhibit offering rare and unique artifacts from the Battle of Franklin, musical presentations and living history demonstrations.
• More info: http://www.tnvacation.com/civil-war/event/4978/2014-tennessee-civil-war-sesquicentennial-signature-event-the-last-campaign-in-tennessee/
The battles of Franklin and Nashville
• On Nov. 30, 1864, the Confederate Army of Tennessee with 30,000 men — many from Middle Tennessee — assaulted fortified Union positions in Franklin. The battle was costly loss for the South, with more than 6,000 casualties. Six Confederate generals died in the battle.
• Despite those heavy losses, Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood led his army north toward Nashville. On the morning of Dec. 15, Union Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas' army attacked. The battle extended into Dec. 16, and Union forces forced Hood and his army to retreat.
• For the next 10 days, Union forces pursued Hood's battered Army of Tennessee and the general eventually resigned.
• The Battle of Nashville marked the last large-scale fighting of the Civil War in the western theater.
Coming up
Saturday: Tennessee doesn't just preserve Civil War artifacts — state historians find new ones. The state's Looking Back project has gathered more than 4,000 never-before-seen wartime artifacts.
Sunday: Many Tennesseans have untold stories about their Civil War past. The historic record is actually growing, with new details emerging about their ancestors and the lives they lived.
Dec. 14: Tennessean photographer Larry McCormack blends photos of modern Nashville with what life was like 150 years ago. Much has changed, but the Nashville's history remains embedded into the fabric of Music City.