[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 118 (Friday, August 3, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1407]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 RECOGNIZING ED WENZEL AND HIS HONOR FROM THE NATIONAL CIVIL WAR TRUST

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                        HON. GERALD E. CONNOLLY

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, August 2, 2012

  Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize Ed Wenzel 
for his passion, effort, and success in preserving our nation's 
historic Civil War battlegrounds. Mr. Wenzel recently received an honor 
from the national Civil War Trust on behalf of his preservation efforts 
for a Civil War battlefield site in Chantilly, Virginia. The Ox Hill 
Battlefield Park was dedicated in 2008 thanks in large part to the 
tireless efforts of Mr. Wenzel.
   Mr. Wenzel spent 22 years working to preserve the grounds on which 
the Battle of Chantilly--referred to as the Battle of Ox Hill by the 
Confederacy--occurred on September 1, 1862. It was during this battle 
that the Union army lost commanders Major General Philip Kearny and 
Major General Isaac I. Stevens, but it ultimately succeeded in slowing 
General Stonewall Jackson and the Confederacy's advancements and ended 
the Second Manassas campaign. In 1915, monuments were built in 
commemoration of both Major Generals Kearny and Stevens on the site.
   During my tenure on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, I was 
proud to work with Mr. Wenzel and members of the Civil War Roundtable 
to raise awareness of the County's Civil War heritage, to erect new 
historic markers, and create a new five-acre public park highlighting 
the monuments and the battle significance in the history of our County 
and our Country.
   Additionally, Mr. Wenzel played a major role in the Save the 
Battlefield Coalition, which successfully opposed construction of a 
shopping mall at Manassas battlegrounds in 1988, and he was a founding 
board member of the Association for the Preservation of Civil War 
Sites.
   Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Ed Wenzel 
for his most recent accolade and in thanking him for his tireless 
pursuits to protect such important aspects of our Nation's rich 
history.

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