Sep. 20--CAMP ALLEGHENY, W.Va. -- From an alpine meadow west of Allegheny Mountain, Richard Laska gazed at a pristine landscape that has changed very little since the day Confederate soldiers defended the ridge from an onslaught by Union troops.

"If wilderness is sacred, and if American history is sacred, then there's no doubt this place is doubly sacred," Laska said.

So when ground was broken last month for a row of 400-foot-tall wind turbines along the ridge that overlooks Camp Allegheny Battlefield, it didn't just dismay Laska and other nearby property owners who have been fighting the project for years.

It also prompted a state agency to raise new questions about the wind farm's effect on a historic Civil War battlefield.

Plans call for the project -- the first of its kind in Virginia -- to convert the winds that sweep across Highland County into enough electricity to power up to 15,000 homes.

A spokesman for the developers called them "trailblazers" in the movement to bring alternative energy sources to Virginia. Opponents say the trail being blazed will destroy the county's natural beauty with 19 steel turbines towering 400 feet above the ridgeline.

Highland New Wind Development recently began to build roads and clear land in preparation for the towers, which are expected to go up next year. The work comes after the developers survived more than five years of contentious public hearings, lawsuits and scrutiny by state regulators.

But the battle continues, this time over the site of a real battlefield.

In a complaint filed with the State Corporation Commission, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources is arguing that the wind farm project will be detrimental to Camp Allegheny, and that the developers have refused to take those concerns into account.

A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday in Richmond.

After listening to testimony and arguments, an SCC hearing examiner will be asked to determine whether Highland New Wind has violated an order approving the project.

SCC approval of the wind farm in 2007 was contingent on the developers working with the Department of Historic Resources to evaluate its effect on nearby historic sites.

Highland New Wind says the viewshed issues raised by the state have already been addressed by the Highland County Board of Supervisors, which granted it a conditional use permit in 2005.

Opponents hope that the battlefield issue will delay, and maybe even derail, the project.

With a decision from the SCC not expected for weeks, the winds of dissent will continue to swirl in Highland County.

Questions of proximity

Winter had taken hold of Allegheny Mountain when, in December 1861, Confederate forces occupied the summit to protect the nearby Staunton-Parkersburg Pike.

The stronghold was attacked by Union forces on Dec. 13. Fighting continued throughout the day before the Northern troops were eventually forced to retreat.

Of the nearly 300 soldiers killed, 146 were Confederates. Some were buried in gravesites that remain at the site, which is just across the Highland County line in West Virginia.

At more than 4,000 feet above sea level, Camp Allegheny was the highest military encampment of the Civil War and remains one of the least disturbed battlefields of the era, according to documents on file with the SCC.

A wind farm within eyesight "will likely have a negative impact" on the battlefield, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Department of Historic Resources director Kathleen Kilpatrick wrote in a letter to the SCC.

In a response, lawyers for Highland New Wind wrote that the department has "consistently and stubbornly demanded a comprehensive view- shed analysis."

No such analysis is required, the developers maintain, and they have no plans to conduct one.