Brig. Gen. Patricia R. Wallace takes command

By Jeremy Lazarus

Brig. Gen. Patricia R. Wallace just became the first female leader of the Army Reserve’s 80th Training Command, one of the largest educational operations in the Army.

A decorated officer whose medals include the Bronze Star, Gen. Wallace took charge Saturday following a ceremony at the Defense General Supply Center in which she relieved Brig. Gen. Steven D. Hayden.

She leads a force of more than 6,000 Army Reserve soldiers and 270 civilians who provide 1,700 training courses a year for 85 units in 37 states, Puerto Rico and Germany. The command deploys instructors in 150 subjects.

Gen. Wallace brings more than 32 years of service to her new role, including previous service as the 80th’s chief of internal review and as operations officer for the 97th Training Brigade, an element of the 80th.

She began her military career in 1990 with two years of enlisted service.

After active service, she joined the Reserve Officer Training Corps while at the University of Indiana-Bloomington where she earned her bachelor’s in criminal justice and a master’s in public administration.

Among her myriad assignments, she also has led the

U.S. Army Reserve’s Pacific Command and served as the executive officer and public affairs officer for the 1st Infantry Division in Kuwait.

She also has taken numerous courses involving the military, including studies at the Army War College.

The command Gen. Wallace now heads is based on Strathmore Road in the county, and is the latest iteration of a unit that traces its roots to World War I when it was the 80th Division.

Nicknamed the “Blue Ridge Division” because the initial troops came from mountain areas of Virginia, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, the division fought during World War II and in other conflicts, including Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The division was reconstituted in 2008 as a training command.

Among other duties, it provides military education to noncommissioned officers at Fort Dix, Fort McCoy and Academy Camp Parks, according to the division’s website.

Among other elements, the 80th includes the 94th Training Division based at Fort Lee; the 100th Training Division based at Fort Knox, Ky.; and the 102nd Training Division based at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.

Conservancy buys New Market segment where Black troops attacked Confederates

By Jeremy Lazarus

Another 49-acre parcel of a Civil War battlefield in Eastern Henrico County in which Black troops played a major role is now protected from development.

The Capital Region Land Conservancy announced that it has purchased a new section of the New Market Heights battlefield with state and federal grants that seek to protect significant military sites from the war.

According to the conservancy, property located just east of Interstate 295 and south of New Market Road or Virginia Route 5, in- cludes an 800-foot segment of earthworks that were part of the Confederate defense line that came under attack from elements of the U.S. Colored Troops.

The earthworks are located about a third of a mile west of the point at which the Colored Troops charged and broke through the Confederate lines despite having one of three men killed or wounded.

Fourteen Black soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor for their valor during the battle, the largest number awarded to Black soldiers during the Civil War.

“Saving this hallowed ground is important to the descendants of U.S.C.T. members who fought at New Market Heights,” said Damon Radcliffe, whose great-great-grandfather, Sgt. Major Edward Ratcliff, was among the Medal of Honor recipients.

“Being able to visit and walk the land where my ancestor and thousands of Black men fought for their freedom is a powerful experience,” Mr. Radcliffe said.

“This portion of New Market Heights Battlefield is part of a remarkable historic landscape,” said L. Preston Bryant Jr., board president of the conservancy, in announcing the purchase.

The conservancy bought the property from the heirs of Frederic Albert Dabney and his daughter, Florence Dabney Haskins, who had owned and occupied it since 1937.

In the wake of the purchase, the conservancy, Henrico County and the American Battlefield Trust now own more than 300 acres of the New Market Heights battlefield, or 15 percent of the 2,000 acres that the National Park Service has identified as being part of this fight.

The conservancy also has been involved in protecting hundreds of acres of nearby land that was part of several other battles that occurred in this section of the county in 1864.