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Date/Time
Date(s) - 04/08/2021
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

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Please click HERE to register for this event.

Rediscovering Upton’s Hill History

The recent effort to preserve the Febrey-Lothrop estate has renewed interest in the local Civil War history of Upton’s Hill. Straddling the border between Arlington and Falls Church, Upton’s

Hill takes its name from Charles H. Upton, a newspaper editor, who settled in Virginia in 1836. From the late fall of 1861 to the end of the war in 1865, over 50 Union regiments are known to have camped on Upton’s Hill.  This includes over 35,000 soldiers from all over the North, including New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts.  For a while during the Civil War, Upton’s Hill was the extreme front line of the Army of the Potomac.

Upton’s Hill was an important logistic center for the Union Army.  The site included three forts, five camps, a commissary depot with brick ovens for baking bread, medical facilities, and a photographic studio. During the first year of the war Upton’s Hill was well-known to newspaper readers in both the North and South.  News correspondents, illustrators, and photographers frequently visited Upton’s Hill to document the military’s presence there.  Historic references to Upton’s Hill can also be found in books, diaries, and letters written by the soldiers who lived there. Today, local historians are discovering new and interesting stories about Upton’s Hill and the Civil War.  These stories and the people associated with them are a compelling reminder of why Arlington County needs to preserve its heritage for future generations.

Our Speaker

Peter Vaselopulos is a 40-year resident of Arlington County in Virginia.  He recently retired from the federal government as Deputy Chief Information Officer at the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM).   While serving 35 years at USAGM he worked as a broadcast journalist, international television producer, and new media and information technology specialist.  Prior to working at USAGM Peter was a videographer for Cable News Network.

Mr. Vaselopulos is a Board Member for the Alliance to Preserve the Civil War Defenses of Washington DC, and Vice President of the 3rd US Infantry Reenactors.  He was a member of Arlington County’s Civil War Sesquicentennial Committee. He is a graduate of George Washington University and American University, with masters’ degrees in Managing Information Systems and International Communications.  Mr. Vaselopulos is working on a master’s certificate in Digital Humanities from George Mason University.  He is also working on a public history project called “Mapping the Civil War in Arlington.”  The project’s goal is to generate a greater awareness of Arlington’s military history during the Civil War.

Attendees will need to register by Wednesday, April 7 by clicking here: https://forms.gle/SQ5STFikuxZUrHQn6 and providing their email address.  On the morning of the event (April 8) attendees will receive an email with zoom access information. This procedure is for your security.

This event is part of a series of free monthly public events provided by the Arlington Historical Society. Since the pandemic curtailed live events, AHS has been providing them free to the public via Zoom.