Petersburg -The Breakthrough

[eBrowne]

The American Battlefields Trust is buying the 417 acre Pamplin Park property. When added to previous preserved properties this will create over an 800 acre area that will encompass both the Union and Confederate lines.

American Battlefield Trust & Pamplin Park Announce Campaign to Preserve Breakthrough Battlefield

The American Battlefield Trust is working to protect 857 acres at Pamplin Historical Park, including 417 unprotected acres where Union forces shattered...

www.battlefields.org

 

[cheesydn]

Petersburg, Virginia is conserving history in the Civil War Era. The Petersburg-Richmond Campaign was a siege that lasted from June 9th, 1864, to March 25, 1865. This campaign was the final lockdown on ending the war. Grant vs Lee, head-to-head.

 

[Jamieva]

 

[Jamieva]

They got it!

A Milestone Preservation Victory at the Petersburg Breakthrough

Last year, the American Battlefield Trust embarked on one of the largest preservation projects in our nearly 40-year history. More than 400 acres at Pamplin...

www.battlefields.org

 

[Lampasas Bill]

Bravo!

 

[gary]

Important acquisition. Too bad Pamplin didn't make it. Attendance was sparse when I visited over a decade ago.

 

[J C J Barefoot]

I visited in 2010 and it was solid and very well attended aith good exhibits and speakers. Went back in 2017 and it was weakened but still worth a visit. Returned in 2024 and it was a lost cause-no pun intended. There were five cars in the visitor center parking lot.

 

[7thWisconsin]

That's great news! I'm sorry Pamplin didn't make it too. That was a beautiful museum with state of the art display technology. It really swung for the fence. Big museums like that, though, need big tour groups (like paid tours and school groups). If they don't materialize there's just no way to generate income.

 

[Jamieva]

I think Covid was the straw that broke the camels back. They relied heavily on school groups and for 2 years the kids were not going on field trips so that's a lot of revenue gone. My daughter's class went there when she was in 4th grade so that would have been somewhere around 2012 or 13 and there were school kids everywhere that day.

The museum is top notch.

 

[7thWisconsin]

I actually wrote to them many years ago asking if I could get a copy of that "how to pack a knapsack" software to use in school demonstrations. Unfortunately, it was a 3rd-party product that they didn't have a license to distribute. I did have several long and pleasant conversations with staff, though.

 

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

I think Covid was the straw that broke the camels back.

Agreed.

Pamplin has a lot of hands-on, interactive elements. In the 2010s that was lauded as first-rate exhibit design the kind of thing most museums wished they could do. In 2020, this became a liability.

And when they couldn't afford to fully open regularly or have the living history then the adults started saying "Why bother?"