On
January 22, 2013, the National Park Service Director, Jonathan B. Jarvis,
announced that an award of $1.8 million in grants was being provided to
purchase 310.79 acres of land over six different Civil War battlefields. This
is extremely good news for Civil War fans, especially with recent trends that
have been occurring.
Since 2010, the US has been losing
land from battlegrounds at a rate of 12 hectares per day. This may be shocking
to many readers, but this rapid loss of land is due to urban and suburban
sprawl. The largest amount of this land has been taken up by developers for
large corporations. Many Civil War preservation groups cannot keep up with
these corporations, because they are not-for-profit and often do not have
nearly enough money to purchase land.
However, finally Civil War
enthusiasts have the chance to save a little bit of history. The money is being
granted by the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program,
also known as ABPP, which will give the money to a myriad of different local
community programs for land and maintenance. The historic sites that will
benefit include: Mansfield, Appomattox, Cedar Mountain, Chancellorsville,
Sailor’s Creek, and Buckland Mills.
In Race and Reunion, Blight
discusses that the predominant theme among the dedication of the Civil War was
that of selective “forgetting” and mutual reconciliation. With the
disappearance of battlefields today, if appeared as if Blight’s words rang true
in the modern era. However, with this purchase, the understanding of the Civil
War regains a second chance. The American people are not entirely moving beyond
the war, replacing the hallowed ground with suburbia and shopping malls. They
are still seeking to understand the past, and perhaps revise what was missed
the first, second, and third time these battles were studied. Clearly, the land
grants are good news to all of those that enjoy history.
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