Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 22, 1990 TAG: 9007240352
SECTION: NATL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Lujan said Friday the federal government cannot afford to buy all the historic sites, but will develop a national strategy and enlist state and private help to save the battlefields for future generations.
These sites "are essential in conveying to citizens of every age how our ancestors fought for our closest held ideals," said Lujan in unveiling his "American Battlefield Protection Plan."
Under this plan, 25 "priority" Civil War battlefields would initially be either purchased for preservation, protected by zoning or other means, or otherwise commemorated for their historic importance. Lujan said the project would expand later to include other Civil War sites as well as battlefields from other wars fought in the United States.
Lujan plans to seek $15 million in federal "seed money," but said the project has to encompass more than just buying land and turning it into public parks.
"Some of the battlefields would be purchased," he explained. "But some of them can be commemorated simply by easements" curtailing development or even by plaques put on private property.
"We don't have enough money just to go off and buy all these sites," he said in an interview on the NBC-TV "Today" Show.
Lujan formally announced his plan Saturday at the Manassas National Battlefield Park in Virginia on the 129th observance of the first Battle of Bull Run. The sprawling park's pastures, woodlands and split rail fences are little changed since the 1860s, when Union troops suffered two bloody defeats there and Confederate Gen. Thomas J. Jackson earned his nickname of "Stonewall."
More recently, the area was the scene of a battle between developers and preservationists that focused national attention on the problem of endangered Civil War battlefields. That 1988 skirmish ended with Congress expanding the park's boundaries to stop a shopping mall from being built on adjacent, historically significant land. However, purchase of the disputed property cost the federal government about $100 million.
Such "last-minute efforts to protect endangered sites sometimes result in inefficient and inappropriate expenditures of public and private funds and energies," Lujan noted.
The new federal program will encourage private help such as the recent gift of 100,000 acres from the Richard King Mellon Foundation, said Lujan. The Mellon land included the Cornfield in Maryland, where part of the Battle of Antietam was fought on Sept. 17, 1862. More than 23,000 Union and Confederate soldiers were killed or wounded in this bloodiest single day of the Civil War.
The Cornfield is typical of rural battle sites that stayed relatively unchanged since Civil War days until the present invasion of the suburbs. Without a protection plan, Lujan said, the places where so many Americans died in blue or gray uniforms will become parking lots and shopping malls.
"Incompatible adjacent development" is a threat to many battlefields, said Lujan. The new plan aims "to bring order to the struggle" between preservationists and "unprecedented development pressures."
The Interior Department plan has four parts:
Protect "imminently threatened properties" through zoning, historic district designation, easements or acquisition. Federal, state, regional and local public officials and private conservation organizations would join in the efforts.
Use "limited federal funds" to promote interest in preservation and facilitate land purchases by private groups and other public agencies.
Develop a national strategy to protect other historically significant sites that are not presently endangered but that could be eventually.
Spread information on public and private efforts to protect endangered battlefields.
Here are the sites to be designated "priority parks" under the American Battlefield Protection Plan:
Brandy Station, Virginia.
Glendale, Virginia.
New Market Heights, Virginia.
Richmond National Battlefield Park, Virginia.
Shenandoah Valley, Virginia.
The Wilderness, Virginia.
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, West Virginia.
Blakeley, Alabama.
Fort Morgan, Alabama.
Prairie Grove Battlefield Park, Arkansas.
Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, Georgia.
Resaca, Georgia
Mill Springs, Kentucky.
Perryville Battlefield, Kentucky.
Port Hudson, Louisiana.
Antietam National Battlefield, Maryland.
Monacacy National Battlefield, Maryland.
Corinth, Mississippi.
Corinth Siege, Mississippi.
Byram's Ford Historic District, Missouri.
Glorieta Pass Battlefield, New Mexico.
Fort Fisher, North Carolina.
Gettysburg National Military Park, Pennsylvania.
Franklin Battlefield, Tennessee.
Stones River National Battlefield, Tennessee.
by CNB