4/18/23

A Winchester man pled has admitted to attempting to bomb a Civil War reenactment four-and-a-half years ago.

U-S attorney Chris Kavanaugh said in a release that 63-year-old Gerald Leonard Drake pled guilty yesterday in U-S District Court in Harrisonburg to possessing an unregistered explosive device, as well as stalking.

The charges resulted from an October 2017 incident at Cedar Creek Battlefield in Middletown. Kavanaugh explained during a November press conference that Drake placed a self-made pipe bomb inside a tent during a Civil War re-enactment.

Drake also admitted to sending threatening letters to members of the Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation and news agencies between September 2017 and December 2018.

Drake faces 10 years in federal prison when he is sentenced.