News: (Carolina Morning News) Voices of Carolina: Joining forces for Civil War battlefields

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<center>Voices of Carolina: Joining forces for Civil War battlefields</center>
By Kim A. O'Connell - Carolina Morning News



In May 1863, in a tangled thicket halfway between Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Va., the future of the United States hung in the balance.

There, in a brutal and costly battle near a mansion called Chancellorsville, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee staged what some have called his greatest victory in the Civil War. Yet victory came with a heavy price; Lee lost his most trusted general, Stonewall Jackson. Because the South was never again able to sustain the advantage, the Union remained intact, ending slavery and strengthening the nation.

Today, a new battle is taking place in this significant landscape, which has been named one of the most endangered battlefields by the Civil War Preservation Trust.

The National Park Service protects only 1,844 acres of the 21,874-acre Chancellorsville battlefield, leaving the vast majority of the historic land vulnerable to development. The most immediate danger comes from the Dogwood Development Group's proposal to build an approximately 2,000-unit residential subdivision and 1.2 million square feet of commercial space on historic land near the national park.

In response, the Coalition to Save Chancellorsville Battlefield is urging county officials to reject the zoning changes that would allow the development to proceed.

Noble as this effort is, history has shown that permanent protection for Civil War battlefields is best achieved through a conservation easement on the property or through land acquisition by public or private entities.

Thankfully, the Bush administration may make it easier for public and private organizations to work together to acquire such important places. On Dec. 17, the president signed into law the Civil War Battlefield Preservation Act of 2002.

The bill authorizes $50 million -- $10 million a year for five years -- for the protection of historic Civil War battlefields outside the Park Service's jurisdiction. The preservation act officially authorizes a matching grant program funded by Congress in fiscal years 1999 and 2002.

Since its creation, the program has helped to protect and enhance nearly 8,000 acres of historic battlefield land in 12 states. In the past year alone, the program has helped save historic property at Prairie Grove, Ark.; Antietam, Md.; and Harpers Ferry, W.Va.

Grants are competitively awarded by the Park Service's American Battlefield Protection Program. By requiring matching funds, the program gets both the public and private sector actively involved in saving battlefield land.

When awarding matching grants, the ABPP gives priority to those battlefields identified as being in dire need of protection by the congressionally authorized Civil War Sites Advisory Commission. Located throughout the Southeast, these sites represent some of the nation's last remaining opportunities to preserve significant historic and natural landscapes.

Battlefields with important yet unprotected sections include Cold Harbor and New Market Heights in Virginia; Bentonville, N.C.; Secessionville, S.C.; Chickamauga, Ga.; and Murfreesboro, Tenn.

Partnerships already have successfully protected key battlefields. In 2000, for example, 51 acres of the Cross Keys battlefield, a critical part of Jackson's 1862 Shenandoah Valley Campaign in Virginia, was up for auction and open to development. The Civil War Preservation Trust and the Conservation Fund partnered to purchase the property along with a private buyer. The buyer agreed to place a conservation easement on the property, forever protecting it from development.

"We can make a difference if we act quickly, through strong and active partnerships and by investing public and private funds in comprehensive battlefield preservation," said Lawrence Selzer, president of the Conservation Fund.

In 2002, an extraordinary conservation partnership rescued more than 600 acres of the historic Rocky Face Ridge battlefield in Georgia from development. The battlefield is the site of one of the first salvos in Union Gen. William T. Sherman's 1864 Atlanta campaign.

Public and private partners included the Conservation Fund, Whitfield County and the city of Dalton, the local chamber of commerce, the Georgia Community Greenspace Program, the National Park Service, the Community Foundation of Northwest Georgia, the Turner Foundation and the Gilder Foundation.

It may be ironic, but protecting the vestiges of our most divisive conflict depends on the most creative partnerships, often between organizations that might otherwise compete for resources, funding and members.

Citizens have a role as well, either by influencing their community groups to join battlefield coalitions, or by creating a new partnering organization. One of the members of the Chancellorsville coalition, for example, is the Concerned Citizens of Spotsylvania, a local group formed in 1996 to protect the area's rural character.

It remains to be seen if such partnerships will win the fight to protect Chancellorsville and other threatened battlefields. If they do not, these essential stretches of land will be lost, buried under pavement and the weight of our disregard.