Former Civil War reenactor charged with threatening a 2017 Gettysburg event

• Ed Arke
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(Harrisonburg, Va.) – A Virginia man has been indicted on charges he planted a pipe bomb at a Virginia Civil War battlefield and threatened to disrupt additional events.  63-year-old Gerald Leonard Drake of Winchester, Virginia is accused of mailing threatening letters, stalking, and planting a pipe bomb at the Cedar Creek Battlefield in Middletown, Virginia during a Civil War reenactment event in 2017.

The bomb did not detonate but resulted in cancellation of the event after its discovery.

The indictment, unsealed Thursday, charges Drake with fifteen criminal offenses.  Drake entered a not guilty plea Friday.

Drake belonged to a reenactment unit that participated in the annual reenactment at Cedar Creek Battlefield until he was removed from his unit in 2014.  In later years, Drake volunteered with the Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation, which hosts an annual reenactment.

In addition to the incident at Cedar Creek, Drake is also accused of threatening a Civil War event in Gettysburg.  In November of 2017, a letter was received by The Gettysburg Times.  The letter and envelope, both with Antifa motifs, warned if the Gettysburg Remembrance Day Parade allowed confederate flags or confederate men and women to be in the parade, “we will disrupt the whole weekend.”

The Gettysburg parade in 2017 occurred without incident despite the threats.

Om 2018, one year after Drake allegedly planted the pipe bomb at Cedar Creek Battlefield, he sent letters to the the-President of the Cedar Creek Foundation and the The Winchester Star, a local newspaper in Winchester, Virginia.  In that letter, Drake warned organizers to “cancel this event or you will regret it!” and discussed ways a “suspicious package” could be smuggled into the event.

On July 3, 2018, the annual Cedar Creek Battlefield reenactment was cancelled due to security concerns.  In addition, the president of the foundation resigned due to tensions caused by Drake’s threats.

Public defender Don Pender, who was appointed to represent Drake at Friday’s arraignment in Charlottesville, did not immediately return an email seeking comment.