War meets peace: Monastery sits on site of Civil War battle

Published: 2006-06-14

BERRYVILLE, Va. (CNS) -- Amid time devoted to prayer and manual labor on the hillside farmland of Holy Cross Abbey in Berryville, Trappist Brother James Sommers made some interesting discoveries with a common metal detector. The Trappist brother found dozens of artifacts from an 1864 Civil War battle. Today, these artifacts -- metal buckles, uniform buttons and mortar shells -- are on display in a glass-enclosed case in an 18th-century hunting lodge at the monastery that is open to the public. Indian arrowheads found on the property are also on display. The Civil War battle took place on the site, then named Cool Spring Plantation, July 18, 1864. The battle left 142 men dead, 601 wounded and 71 missing. The bodies of those who were killed are buried in the city of Winchester, about 20 miles west of the abbey. According to Trappist Father Robert Barnes, the monastery's abbot, the battle was not planned, but was one where the Confederate and Union troops "ran into each other."

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